Doomsday Scenario

   I've been afraid of many things in my life.  At one point it was spiders, then heights, then girls, then getting hit by a baseball, Gremlins, then I think girls again, drugs, then the SAT's, babies, the "real world" (not the MTV show, but the place at the end of the yellow brick road), Strom Thurmond, SARs, the Real World (the show this time), and finally porto-potties.  What I've never feared is letting the rich keep their money, letting the poor have some more, homosexual coworkers,  neighbors from another country, asking for a little help, or lending a hand myself.  There are some in our country's leadership positions that seem to fear many or all of these "problems" and it's just silly for lack of a better word.

     Let's start with the money.  Now that I've seen Martha Stewart and Wesley Snipes go to jail, I see that even the rich have to pay their bills, regardless of sex, race, or vampire slaying capabilities.  If you can't solve the tax problems by waiting for them all to die and leave it behind or by convincing the rich guys in charge to make the rich pay a little more, then find the answer elsewhere.  Just don't expect that answer be cutting unemployment to those who spent all of their hard earned money making the rich richer.  Let's maybe start with a solution along the lines of "I know it's official business, Senator, but maybe you could pay for your own dinner this time."  I'm sure there's a lot of free steak in Washington going to people that have never known hunger or being to broke for steak (or bread even).  What's the worst that could happen if our leaders led the sacrificing?

    I get why the money is so hard to let go of, but even more importantly, what's the worst that could happen if they decide to let people be people?  I think there is an irrational fear of what going to happen when white isn't the most prevalent skin tone in the US. There is a fear of what might happen if we let foreigners in to our land and give them jobs, and educate them, and let them start holding office and having opinions.  There is a fear of the way the world might just crumble if the two ladies or gentlemen in the apartment next door find peace and comfort and possibly love in each other's company. Would it really matter if they happened to wear a uniform to work?  How scary would it be if everyone just decides that all of this fine and these scenarios go unchecked and spread across the land?  To those of you in power, holding back the wheels of progress:  take a deep breath, open your eyes, and realize that time is already here.  Even in your worst nightmare you still have your money and your power, and isn't that really why you got into the game? 

Who Needs a Legacy When You Can Have a Soundbite?

     Maybe it is because I was much younger and my TV time was limited.  Maybe it is because I had baseball to play and a trip to the other side of the neighbor planned with my buddies on our bikes.  I never knew much about the people on the TV, whether they were actors, athletes, singers, or the President.  It was good to be uninformed about the real lives of people in the spotlight.  More that that, it was good that now and then the cameras were turned off and we didn't have to dissect every action made by a household name.  Now the spotlight is so big, you almost have to seek refuge to stay out of it.  Even though this makes for a more transparent society, I think that it's actually hurting the world of politics. 

    I'm not saying that I want political games to go back to the shadows, where it once was in my mind.  My problem with everyone being on camera is that it's made us all shortsighted.  This is especially true for a world where professional hustlers have to convince us of their worth every 4 years.  Nobody cares to make a "New Deal" or create "the Great Society" because in order to fix what is broken, something else has got to give.  Also, everything that is broken was a fix to someone else's problem.  In order to be someone's hero politically, you almost have to become someone else's bogeyman.  That spotlight is in HD now, and everyone looks like a bogeyman in HD.

    I'd love progress to a time where law-makers can form an opinion, express it, and then receive feedback that didn't include slowly clubbing them to death with their own words for two weeks or until someone says something else.  (It doesn't even have to be something better or worse that what the last guy said.  It just has to feed the hungry spotlight.)  Maybe then they could start concentrating on what's good for the nation in the long term, and not just what's serves their party and image in the short term.