Grass roots and compost

The bus ride this morning WAS a pleasant mood changer in that is was a heartening bit of sunshine that it was as busy as it was. Again, not that I like crowded buses, I'm not a frotteurist, but the possibility that a younger generation might be rejecting the notion that riding in a car is always the best solution.

I recently read, though I can't remember where, that younger people are also less inclined to see cars as status symbols. Of course, both of these things can change as people age, we all get more conservative in some ways as we age. But I'm going to take this as a good sign for the future.

The problem is, most of these same kids didn't vote. I'm not going to rehash Mark Morford's column today because while it does highlight the angry side of my brain today, that side is tired. But the disillusionment of these young voters needs to be addressed. Morford dismisses them all as whiny. Well, maybe true, but they're also young, and so maybe they just don't know any better.

The Tea Party is/was a fake grass roots ('AstroTurf') movement, started the minute a black dude got the White House (or the minute Ron Paul got his feelings hurt by not getting elected POTUS, again, your choice).

What do these kids care about? Where do their self interests lie?

Hopefully, they realize THEY are the 'grandchildren' we are supposed to be worried about in regard to global climate change. They are the ones who will inherit submerged condos and crowded cities of the plains, dust bowls and likely 20+% unemployment in the coming years. They will inherit gravel and dirt roads.

But who am I kidding? It's all happening now. I wouldn't care so much about gravel roads if there was a train network and if locally the State wasn't talking about building I-69 (it costs money- there isn't any). WE are the grand-kids. We are inheriting all these problems. So maybe, aside from the glimmer of hope on the bus this morning, I came to realize that I had more in common with those kids than I previously thought.

Idiocy at an All-Time High

Today was bound to be a real bitch considering the activities of the Right lately, i.e. Teabaggery and associated activities.

But the censorship of the President addressing schoolchildren and exhorting them to stay in school, not give up, and to better themselves and their country by doing so is the final straw.

In particular because this now hits as close to home as health care, but the villains aren't faceless insurance companies, distant representatives and untouchable fascist demagogues on Fox News and radio, but local administrators and elected officials (the school board) who either out of cowardice or venality censored the speech in our schools.

Sometimes a person in position of authority has to take a stand and make the right decision even though it may be unpopular with a segment or even the majority of the population. The right decision here was to air the speech for students and let them hear the message of perseverance and the importance of education.

But here in Monroe County, the best you could get was a passing of the buck, an outright lie, and cowardly censorship which catered to the extremists in the community (although admittedly there are plenty of these extremists and they are plenty loud).

This is a shameful day for America, but it should also serve us all as a wake up call; we can't sit by idly and let the hate-filled, psychotic right dictate school policy.

The school board positions are usually run as apolitical positions but that is nonsense; Sarah Palin got her start on the school board, after all. It actually serves as a stepping stone for people on all sides of the aisle.

We must, as private citizens, in the next election cycle, take the election of school board officials more seriously, get more information out, and prevent the nut-jobs from taking over the schools.

Learning the Hard Way

To do list:



Get a new car. A VW of some kind, you sick fuck.

Build a Gypsy caravan.

March on Washington to demand a Public Option for health care reform.

Get certified as an EMT. Join the Red Cross.

Start a radio blog. Isn't that just an endless stream of verbal bullshit on the Internet? Sounds good.

Remind C___ I won't be there for my volunteer shift on Friday as I will be out of town. Call I____ or S___ about that outdoor gig.

Apply for income based repayment.

File taxes.

Change the order of the last two things.

Pick up prescription.

Drink more water.

Drink less beer.

Work on tiny house.