9.12.2007

the Line in the Sand

got fear?

unless you've been living under a worn copy of the Constitution or inside the West Wing you no doubt are aware of a national seismic shift, the distant scent of sulfur in the air. from the grim prospect of a 'broken arrow' to the eerily-quiet (yet consistent) war drum dance towards iran, it's clear the U.S. is on the eve of some game-changing event, something overly-dramatic yet tightly-controlled a la that one sunny tuesday in 2001.

of course we all have our theories as to what, if anything will happen over these next few weeks. but money doth make the mare go, and for those die-hard bottom-liners out there, you can simply follow the unusual volume of put and call options in the stock market lately. now compare that to similar activity in the weeks prior to 9/11. it's called arithmetic. do it.

and for extra credit, for those eager to graduate on to higher learning (if indeed they dont suspend classes) try to understand the summer's events in the context of the Kristallnacht, or 'Night of Broken Glass' in pre-war Nazi Germany. imagine if you can a whole nation of merchants and citizens, their lives busted out like a mob bar burnt to the ground for insurance money. Jewish homes were ransacked, along with thousands of stores being destroyed by civilians and Stormtroopers alike - it was the Rodney King riots in reverse, as if Darryl Gates himself came down and firebombed the fuck outta Inglewood.

So now here comes this criminal Administration - for that is what they have already been tried as in the international arena - essentially leaking this the most recent mishap in what has been (at the absolute minimum) a tragic string of gross negligence in the last 6 years, and in doing so using our 4th Branch to once again put Americans on notice: now the threat is not only over there, it's not just in our big cities, it's here on our own military bases, it's inside our schools and universities, at our places of business, anywhere anyone might wish to live out the daily routine of their lives. The message is, has been and will continue to be: DO AS YOURE TOLD OR YOU COULD BE KILLED.

look maybe there were 10 million jews and maybe there were only a tenth that many killed in the Holocaust; in truth, a much smaller fraction than that number is too bleak to even think about, and the 2,974 killed in the mass murders of sept. 11 2001 pales in comparison. but the underlying principle at work here is a climate of fear cultivated with a sophistication not seen since the days of the pogrom. and now this White House stands with its seven heads lurched forward, talons clenched, ready to devour Mesopotamia and liberate it with Wolfo-wisdom.

'so what?' I can almost hear the echoed replies of a Nintendo latch-key generation. 'we cant do anything to change it so why wallow in it?'

because you are here and now. because it is your lifetime. because whether you like it or not, or even whether you believe it now or not, these events are shaping the course of the rest of your time on this planet. its as though our very soul is up for grabs. as an american - hell as a living breathing organism - there can be no higher calling.

and we can sit here and read and write blog after blog, entry after entry, enough words to fill a zillion search engines - but if all we garner from this world wide web is a little more information, and we just sit back and allow our way of life to disintegrate in front of our very eyes, what's to stop the trains from indeed running on time?