Broken Glass

I'd love to be in the "GLASS IS HALF FULL" group, which prompted the uncharacteristic optimism of my last post on voting. The "GLASS IS HALF EMPTY" group is negative and wishy-washy, implying that with a little push from below (or above), the liquid in the glass might rise slightly (or that the glass will shrink, giving the appearance of fullness).

But today I feel that THE GLASS IS BROKEN. No Democratic majority in the house or senate can fix what has been broken in the last six years. Broken glass is broken glass. It cuts, it shreds, it maims and murders. It can't even be swept away with any certainty. And, if walked on, it will only break further.

Didn't the authors of our constitution have solutions (within the rule of law) to remedy a broken executive, a broken judiciary, a broken congress? And why are we just sitting on our hands, waiting for November 7 to hope and pray for the glue or bonding agent which might put the glass back together? Hey folks, it ain't gonna happen. Broken is broken.

When the entire system is corrupted by large sums of currency, large infusions of power, and some crazy form of religious zeal intent on controlling our bodies, our thoughts, our diets, our money and our children, we need to look to the constitution for the remedy. And failing that, can we screw the rule of law, the constitution, and the power structure and just revolt? Isn't that what the founding fathers really had in mind? "The revolution (may) not be televised" but there's nothing saying it can't be sent out over the internet, at least not yet (as long as we still have some measure of net neutrality).

I may not live long enough to see redress (impeachment is way too good for the shrub called Bush, the evil Cheney and all the other players who appear to be the illegitimate love children of Barbara Bush and the Pillsbury Dough Boy), but I'd like to see the beginnings of an outrage, an outrage that builds across middle America over our wars of aggression, the decimation of our political and judicial system, the death of our civil rights, the loss of human dignity, and our blindness to how the dots are connected from the White House to Congress to K Street to Tel Aviv, to Gaza, to Baghdad, to Tehran, to South Lebanon, to New Orleans, to Blackwater and Halliburton and KBR, to the loss of independent media, to the stripping of our language as an exercise in Orwellian semantics, to Guantanamo and Baghram and Diego Garcia, to Belenistan and Kazakhistan ... just fill in the blanks.

The Red Queen (with grey hair flying) rises painfully and, between hits of oxygen from the durable medical equipment throughout her house, shouts hoarsely, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

To quote the Red Queen:

"Freedom is on the march..." George W. Bush
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..." Janis Joplin

Vote!!!

Vote! Please, please, please vote!

Vote your conscience, vote your wallet, vote your heart. Vote for what will matter to you most in the coming years: your social security, your personal safety, the lives of those your love. Vote for the Gold Star Mothers so that there will be no more Gold Star Mothers. Vote against violence, aggression, hatred and bigotry. Vote for what you believe in, what will serve you and your community.

Vote for health care, clean air and water, nutritious food, better education, good resources, your grandchildren (born and yet to be born) who are too young to get to the polls and vote on their own.

No excuses, no lesser of two evils, no party line. If weather is a problem, vote absentee, but vote. Don't vote what your minister or husband or lover or boss advises. Look at the issues on your own. Really listen to the attack ads on television and figure out who is doing the attacking and why. Look at the faces of those asking to be reelected and ask if you would want them in your home for dinner or coffee. Would your trust them to baby sit? To fix your car? To balance your checkbook?

Listen to what the candidates say in your town hall, on your television, on the Sunday Morning talk shows. Does any candidate who answers a direct question with "I don't recall..." deserve to have that job? When appearing on TV to answer questions, is any politician who says "I haven't read/seen/heard the article/report/book" really doing his or her job? Would you hire them?

Look at the faces of those asking to be sent to Washington and ask if you think they're smart enough, honest enough, independent enough to work for you over the coming years. You are the boss. This is your country. Washington is supposed to be doing your bidding, not the bidding of the corporations and Wall Street and K Street. Not even Main Street. The folks who get elected in two weeks are supposed to be working for those who live on your street, USA.

Voting is not a luxury. It's not even a privilege, at this point. It's an obligation you have to the future -- yourself, your children, your grandchildren and their grandchildren.