Shine Your Light and Howl Loudly
I wonder if other writers get as frustrated as I do when watching what’s going on in our country and indeed, the world? These things are so obvious to me…how our rights are being eroded, how nothing is done for our vets, our poor, our homeless, how half the world is starving to death….are these things invisible to everyone else? Not to mention every advanced country in the world has health care for its citizens….except us. I just get so furious at all this stuff I could scream! Well, I guess I do howl a lot. I was born red-faced and yowling and never gave it up. I want to march in the streets. I want to storm the White House lawn. I want to make the politicians fear the voter once again. I want those fat cats up on Capitol Hill to be reminded in a very vivid way that THEY are the employees…and WE are the employer. I want them scrambling and bowing and scraping. And I want to take every lobbyist up there and throw ‘em on a bonfire. Oh, don’t get me started…. Just keep a light in the window and howl loudly, friends!
It’s a cynical view, but I have often looked at a map of America and seen Rome written all over it, and indeed the advanced technology of our and other superpower nations leaves us all holding our breath. I have noticed, over the years that people have drawn inward and concern themselves with only their own circles, very rarely getting involved in a broader protest. Not surprising, after we’ve all seen just how ineffective we are in implementing change. The forces and influence of the powerful have neutered our individual capabilities.
But let’s not shave our heads just yet; there is still hope for the world. As the poet said, “hope springs eternal in the human breast”. No matter how dire my situation, I have always awakened in the morning with a smile that I made another day and with expectation in my heart that somehow, somewhere, something good was going to happen to save us all. And I think that as long as we individually make an effort each day to do some small something to further that cause, our chances of making progress are at least decent.
–Jo VonBargen 2008
I would say that some artist are the new Noah’s Ark. Amidst a gross and mundane bottom line of economic survival. We have let our better angels fly away. It is up to aware ones like you to catch them, to make their cast away secrets public once again.
I have been shocked at how essentially trivial many aspects of this survival game have been let to become. Just get the money and you win. The seductions claim your prise and leave one more discarded essential thrown onto a collective but disavowed heap kept out of view. Yet that myopia of perception never stops closing in with its inundating torrents.
Too many of our fellow travelers seem surprised to dig out of the unknown abyss they were in, to wonder what the hell has been going on. It has always been up to us. We have too quickly let our responsibilities be claimed by government, then are shocked to find they become in it just for themselves as well. Drowning in a lack of oversight.
Well, it is time to ring the bell. The hills are waiting to reflect, the ears to hear the call.
benafia
July 13, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hey I am voting for the old guy and hope he finds eternal bliss on succeeding and turns everything over to My love from Alaska. Hey she owns guns, hunts moose and can throw rocks at Russia. What more do i need for a leader.
ken r
ken r
October 12, 2008 at 12:12 pm