The Winter Solstice, 2007, C. E.
Greetings to all of you!
This epistle has a past, a present and a future. So do we!
The Past:
2007 was a pretty good year. I helped some Amaryllis bulbs to grow. I watched some of my other bulbs grow into flowers, despite some serious predation by malignant squirrels. I planted a garden and raised some beans and tomatoes. My squash plants were a failure, victims of inadequate sunlight and probably raccoons. My ongoing program to bring back songbirds to my yard was successful. The Fall was weird. Leaves did not fall. A sudden freeze left me with leaves on the ground frozen and gutters filled with frozen leaves. Not a good omen!
In politics, I helped get a resolution passed at Longmeadow’s Town Meeting in the Spring denouncing Bush’s war in Iraq. We have been doing a weekly vigil to draw attention to the war and to keep the anti-war message in front of the voting public. Public opinion has shifted away from support of the war, but Congress is not willing to cut the funds for it. This disregard for public opinion is going to cost a number of politicians their seats in Congress.
We also had a successful override campaign in Longmeadow that increased support for the schools and town wide services. I was happy to play a role in that effort. We won by 6 votes!
I am going to vote for Barack Obama in the primary. I do not want Hillary Clinton to be anywhere near the White House. Bill Clinton showed us what ego centered politics is all about. Do we really need four more years of cynical pragmatism? Triangulation? I don’t think so.
This past year has shown some ominous signs of economic distress. The dollar is very weak. Our national debt is extremely high and our trade deficit is still out of control. The amount of personal debt that most families are carrying (credit cards) is very high. Throw in the home mortgage problem and you have the makings of an economic catastrophe. Our mainstream media are doing a very “good” job keeping these facts away from the voting public.
Whoever the Democratic nominee will be this coming year will probably win, because the Republicans have no following anymore. Bush is spending most of his time just trying to hang on until 2009 without impeachment.
In Massachusetts, I am disappointed that Deval Patrick has endorsed casino gambling as a strategy for increasing state revenues. I think that gambling hurts working families and only benefits casino owners. John F. Kerry will be up for re-election in 2008. So far, he has no significant opposition. I do not feel that he has done enough to advance the progressive cause. He is, like Hillary, a conservative in a liberal state. Who needs him?
The Present:
The biggest project of my ever-changing present is the work that I did for HAW. Historians Against the War. Check out these two web sites.
I plan to present these lessons at a number of conventions and meetings in 2009.
http://www.historiansagainstwa…
http://www.historiansagainstwa…
Political change is slow, but it does happen. It requires daily work and energy.
The Future:
I think that 2008 will be a crucial election year. A new political and economic order will be established. I say this because I think the current political and economic order is about to collapse. Finance, Insurance and Real Estate are all in serious trouble. When their bubbles break, the rest of the economy will slide downhill. Iraq is not going to get any better and the war is costing too much. This is not just my moral calculus. Wall Street does not see much of a return on the Iraq venture. It will pull the plug soon.
I think people are slowly beginning to realize that George Bush is a fraud and that he really is a moron. He might have helped the rich, but he really shafted the poor. His foreign policy is a disaster and his domestic policy is about to follow suit. How many people have been killed as the result of this man’s policies?
So what do we do?
I recommend reading of newspapers and news magazines. Continue eating good (organic) food, reading quality books, drinking fine wine, physical exercise and not watching television. Vote in the Democratic Primary for Obama. Keep paying attention to politics. The world will go on. It does require our careful attention. Speak truth to power!
Don’t forget that we are now closer to Spring than we were in September!
Happy New Year!
P.S.
Kurt Vonnegut died this year! I admired him!
Read his books. He was a humane writer!
Noam Chomsky is still doing good work. Read him!
Howard Zinn is still firing way. Read him!
Films: Sicko, Who Killed the Electric Car, No Country for Old Men (violent).