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People Are Dying
I sit here, able to turn on my A/C and my computer, and pet my cats, and meanwhile some people in this world are displaced due to war -- Iraq, anyone? -- or due to flooding or earthquakes or unfair laws in their own countries.
People are dying, and I have an iPod. I have PC games. I have access to almost one hundred cable TV channels.
I have a life. I live it. I recycle my beer cans, my V-8 cans, my Vitamin Water bottles. I go to work. Don't always love it but I love the fact that I have a job and make money, and am able to contribute my money to causes I deem worthwhile.
Meantime, people are dying.
Every. Single. Fucking day.
Makes my life seem not so significant, don't it.
Makes my anger over whatever makes me angry today seem rather silly, don't it.
Makes my anger over whether Hillary should've won or FISA won and shouldn't have seem rather silly, don't it.
Life goes on.
I want life to go on with a Democratic President in our White House. Anything else, after all, could make life going on obsolete.
I mean, really.
Comments (32)
Not to diminish your argument, because the Iraq war is wrong on every level. But how many people die from lack of or poor health care every, single, fucking, day? How many from malnutrition or handgun rage or drunk driving or just exhausted truckers or alcohol and drug abusers who cannot get into rehab? How many from the Hundreds of thousands of mentally ill on our streets without adequate treatment? These posts pop up when the heat is on one of the candidates but they don't really distract from the issue, they underline it. Everything our "leaders" do is important, especially taking stands on principle, which ripple out. The world's problems will never all be solved but many can be one piece at a time.
June 22, 2008 6:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
LisB - I'm so with you. I saw the flooding and felt guilty when I crawled into my bed - many of my friends and colleagues in Iowa are staying in shelters, on friends couches, in college dorms because their homes are either full of water or uninhabitable. I can't imagine what they're going to have to deal with now, and I'm stressing about how I forgot to get toilet paper and will have to make a trip to the store at midnight.
That's why I lost it on that puma post - I feel bad about that, but at the same time there are so many real causes to put effort into: the war, Darfur, flooding, the red cross is out of money, FISA, you name it - and they're organizing and planning and fundraising...because they're mad at their party?!? That's it? It amounts to little more than a hissy fit by grown ups.
I don't blame people who get mad about FISA - as Don Key pointed out, it's not life threatening but it points to our societal infrastructure and I think it's important to care about those things.
But people ARE dying, and it's important to care about something worthwhile and try to put effort into something worthwhile (besides a "highjacked" political party - who cares?). Just feeling the enormity of it is a great start. Next step is small (recycle a beer can, post a blog) but it's a next step and it's significant. I guess if we make a point to always take a next step, we can make small but important changes to the world.
You've got a big heart, LisB.
June 22, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
I suppose FISA could be life threatening. Who knows how many people will be placed under surveillance as a result of the alterations to the legal procedures? How many of those people might be apprehended? Tortured?
This is a depressing time in our politics right now. I'm going to expand in a blog.
June 22, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a lovely blog - here's the link for those who want to check it out.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/06/a-tough-time-for-politics.php
June 22, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's why I lost it on that puma post
----------------------------------------------------
I don't care what rationalization you have for spamming posts and impeding other's ability to dialog. It was still wrong and you're a shit for doing it.
June 22, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, which is why he said he felt bad about it.
I think you've made your point. Don't spoil it.,
June 22, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, he feels bad. But this stupid spamming doesn't stop. MassDem felt bad too. A whole hell of a lot it did for Domga's thread that he felt bad afterwards. A whole hell of a lot of good feeling bad will do for the next person they decide to spam.
I've been here over 2 years. I didn't post for about a year and a half because the quality of the posters here was so good, posting the things I thought or arguing the issues so much better than I could. I've watched the decline these last 6 months of what was once the most interesting readers section on the web.
I never thought I'd see the lowest form of bullying from the gamer culture take over here. The influx of gamer jackasses who decided to put aside WOW and play "Politics" has driven many of the best posters away.
I didn't make my point until I posted my point. If you think my post spoils it so be it.
June 22, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's totally fair - I, like plenty of others, have been ignoring the nutjobs this whole time. Other than an occasional snark (that sadly was never as funny on a post as it was in my head), I've tried to let stuff go.
I lost my temper on the PUMA thread for a few reasons:
1) it was late and I was "burbonized" - not an excuse, but definitely a factor.
2) before I responded I clicked on the poster's profile and saw nothing beyond that one-sentence bumper sticker of a "thread." That person came in with no intention of initiating discourse - he/she/it was trying to be antagonistic, and I lost my temper and spammed the thread in response. Immature, yes, but so is creating an account just to be an anonymous jerk.
3) The poems I picked were deliberate and meant to be ironical. Again, given my inability to get humor to translate to a webboard, it wasn't funny or ironical. My bad.
4) I don't know...I guess, like LisB here, I've been thinking about what rough shape the world is in and seeing someone be a complete jerk over "her party" just seemed so absurd and ridiculous that it merited a ridiculous response. I spent a chunk of last week sandbagging and helping friends move their stuff ahead of the flooding, and after seeing people fight to not lose everything - and lose it anyway - whining about political shit just seemed dumb. So I responded with an equally dumb answer. I'm not proud of it, but really I don't think you know me or my motives well enough to sit there and lecture me. Get over it. You don't like it, practice what you preach and ignore it.
June 22, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hear your frustration, oceankat. I didn't mean to be harsh. It's just that it seems to me that topic has been covered.
This poster apologized for their behavior. I think that should be enough. I certainly have no standing to criticize you. So, let me apologize for that.
June 22, 2008 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Name calling really is the best way to make the community better. Thanks for your shining example of how to behave.
June 22, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lis, people were dying before our Constitution. A lot less died BECAUSE of that document. It behooves all of us to preserve it for that reason if no other.
It should not be compromised for political expediency, no matter what.
"Trusting" Obama is immaterial. There will be others after him. Do you trust them?
I don't.
June 22, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. I actually do trust Obama to run out intelligence agencies fairly. But rights should be codified, not left to trust.
June 22, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes!
June 22, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lis,
Point taken. However, let us not forget that people are dying in Iraq because of a previous cave-in.
June 22, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I believe the same coward caucus who is selling us out on FISA also just voted to extend the killing in Iraq. They're also the same coward caucus that has gone along with cuts to NIH because why should we have cancer research when we can have war? And those levees that broke in IA and IL, well after the '93 floods they were supposed to be fixed but somehow that old DLC bunch would rather vote for defense spending even when they controlled the White House. Wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of the blue dogs would we asking them to fund a little medical research or fix a few levees. If we hurt their feelings they might not go to the mat with us when we need them. Oh, they don't go to the mat with us when we need them? Hmmm...
The Congress controls the funding and the Democrats control the Congress and the funding of the killing goes on because they have no courage on any issue that matters. From time to time a few of us have a fit about this, and then we get piled on by everyone else who tell us that if we just move to the right and vote with the blue dogs against our civil rights or whatever we have to sell out this time then maybe someday they will vote for one of our bills....someday...meanwhile the dying continues at home and abroad..nothing changes and I do not believe it will...
June 22, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The idea that it's okay to give up the 4th Amendment because we can trust Obama is silly. Obama is not being elected President for Life. We need to trust the system, not the individuals and the only way to trust the system is to limit its power.
June 22, 2008 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still, talk of FISA...
You're missing LisB's point. With all of the truly horrible things going on - lives lost, homes lost, generations of family farmlands under water, an eight second tornado demolishing the lives of four children...four families, HIV- AIDS, starvation and SUFFERING on a global scale. etc., etc., etc., etc., - we wring our jewelry laden hands over FISA et al and sprew our righteous indignation to strangers on keyboards.
Laws will be enacted and evaluated and judged and changed. Washington and the Democrats and Republicans and the Senate and the House will be there for irritatingly too many tomorrows to incur our wrath. Politicians will be there, too, with eventually different faces and names and we will STILL spew venom and praise in equal measure at our whim.
People are dead and dying every day. Their tomorrows no longer exist. That's it. Done. Many lives that still continue will take years to rebuild, children with memories of horrors and devastation we can thankfully not imagine. Globally. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day.
Yes, I'm pissed at the turn of this thread because she gets it. FISA has ruined the world? Our life as we know it? It has not overturned the Fourth amendment. It has not overturned our Constitution. It is a setback. It has not ended your life. It has not taken your loved one away forever.
June 22, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see what she's saying and what you're saying but... you could say that about any issue. The environment wouldn't matter because people are dying right now. Bankruptcy laws wouldn't matter because people are dying right now. Heck, what do same sex marriage rights or the right to make your own reproductive choices matter when people are dying right now?
The Bill of Rights is more important topic than any war we might or might not be fighting. It's the spine of our social contract. So if we're going to put things in perspective, this FISA controversy belongs right at the top.
June 22, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please check out the most amazing post I've seen for ages - written by an African American grandmother whose civil rights and privacy rights have been invaded in ways and so many times most of us couldn't wrap our minds around it: it's so humbling.
`I got your back, Barack`
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/22/13830/4343/811/540243
June 22, 2008 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
What an amazing post. Puts a lot in perspective. Thanks for sharing.
June 22, 2008 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is beautiful and the passion behind it is apparent.
But it's immaterial. It argues that because other people have had their rights violated that I should forgive, or set aside, this violation of my rights.
I won't get into an argument about who was more wronged with anyone.
We were wronged by the telecoms and the Bush administration. Obama has compounded that wrong by deciding to let it stand when he could fight to make things right.
So she might have Obama's back. But she's stabbed a lot of other people in the back in the process.
June 22, 2008 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fran,
You're spamming this around on different threads and, while an emotionally-charged essay, doesn't even make sense. At one point, she's saying FISA and the constitution are just toilet paper, the next she's asking who has stood up against Co-intelpro (FISA was the fix to Co-intelpro). Every American is protected by the constitution and it's everyone's duty to defend it. I'm sure Bill Ayers and Elizabeth Dorn could relate some cop horror stories where rights were stepped on but I'm not going to listen to them when it comes to holding Obama responsible for his political actions.
June 22, 2008 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I never said that relevant issues are not important. I said they pale in comparison to the bigger picture.
The Bill Of Rights is ours to protect and defend. The Patriot Act did more to flush it than FISA ever will. Yet how many of us thought of that in the days after September 11, 2001? Knee jerk reaction. Kill 'em all. Rah, Rah Bush.
June 22, 2008 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh... most of us here opposed the Patriot Act from the very start. We were sold out by politicians from our own party who told us we had to compromise. It happens over and over again. I hoped Obama would be better than that.
June 22, 2008 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
In here? Fat lot of good a blog is going to do. As a group of citizens, expecting our representatives to "do our bidding", what did we do? We agreed with them. We were scared. We were at a loss. We didn't know WHAT to do so we trusted our President. And I will say that immediately after September 11, 2001 George Bush did a good job making us "feel better". Think back. And be truthful.
June 22, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many people died on 9/11. The country was in shock and a fog over it for years. We were kept terrorized by regular alarms of imminent attacks where people would die (completely invented, of course). And what did that fretting over those who died bring us? The invasion and occupation of Iraq.
That “preventive” war is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions. It did not matter that the war was “illegal” because people had died on 9/11. It still does not matter that our government has claimed tyrannical powers because we are at war (though war was never declared; who would we declare it against?). We are at war permanently. Why? Because people died on 9/11.
But we should ignore what our government is doing because people are dying in tornadoes and other disasters? Arguing over whether Obama wears a flag pin is a lame waste of time whether people are dying or not. Trying to stop the incremental dismantling of the constitution is never a waste of time. This is a red herring to soften the outraged criticism of a candidate being excoriated as he should be for enabling this bill.
June 22, 2008 9:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It still does not matter that our government has claimed tyrannical powers because we are at war (though war was never declared; who would we declare it against?). We are at war permanently. Why? Because people died on 9/11." Don Key
My point exactly regarding the Patriot Act. War never declared according to our Constitution, yet our young people die every day. It should matter. It DOES matter.
June 22, 2008 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. I wrote an article for a community college paper in 2002, I believe, when Ashcroft was arguing for renewal of the PA. I’m ashamed and afraid of this whole surveillance state that has been constructed on 9/11 fear. But the real thing, at least to me, that makes stopping this FISA “fix” important is because it is the last real shot at exposing the criminality and stopping the slide into a corporate police state. Of course, that’s the reason it will pass no matter what, too. It is too dangerous to too many powerful people to chance exposure in court. Hopefully, another way will be found. Once the systematic usurpation of powers begins unwinding, the whole thing will fall and only then can things be corrected and balance returned to government.
June 23, 2008 12:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
The "people are dying" theme is a attempt at controlling the conversation and trivializing the elimination of our 4th Amendment rights. Moreover, it's a multipurpose excuse to do nothing, creates false choices and is just plain bad policy.
Most people can be concerned about more than one thing and hold multiple ideas in their heads. In fact, they can even act on both concerns by sending a contribution to Red Cross or Heifer International AND sending an e-mail to Obama asking him to honor his promise to filibuster FISA. They can even do both on the same day.
Moreover, the elimination of 4th Amendment rights may seem trivial to a person who expects never to be targeted by FISA, but I am sure it is not trivial to those whose privacy has been violated. I never in a million years would have anticipated the return of the Star Chamber, but what else were the military tribunals?
I am disappointed that Americans are so lackadaisical about their rights, but it's even more disappointing that people who feel outrage over the GOP trampling of our rights seem perfectly willing to look the other way when our side does it.
No, I am not going to withhold my vote from Obama because of this one issue, but to read the posts from several people today backtracking and deciding they must have been wrong on FISA and it must be no big deal after all... blech. That is the route to authoritarianism, that is the way the GOP were with Bush.
Obama is wrong. Well, I can think he's wrong and vote for him. I don't have to twist my values into a pretzel and convince myself that it's okay or not important that he's wrong on FISA to still vote for him. It's important that people hold that principle firm and pressure him as hard as hell after he is elected to undo the harm this bill's passage will cause.
June 22, 2008 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I am disappointed that Americans are so lackadaisical about their rights, but it's even more disappointing that people who feel outrage over the GOP trampling of our rights seem perfectly willing to look the other way when our side does it." - Oregon Activist
I'm disappointed, too. The Patriot Act basically gives the President the freedom to do whatever he chooses to do. Period. We are screwed and we asked for it. We even said "AMEN"! All because of fear, we willingly gave up our rights.
June 23, 2008 2:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I will say one last time. It has been mentioned by others, but virtually ignored.
The Patriot Act allowed by Congress in a knee-jerk reaction to September 11, 2001 did more damage to our civil rights and our Constitution than FISA ever could. Even if FISA was passed in a version we could all collectively (as if possible) stand up and cheer for, any advances we thought we gained would be buried in the PA small print.
June 22, 2008 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
If a policeman came to you and said we have evidence that shows that your new neighbor might be a serial murderer of children. We want you to let us know if you see anything suspicious over there, just keep an eye out and call us if you see him bring any children to the house. Would you watch him? Would you tell your other neighbors to watch him and protect their children? And if the policeman came back and said well we found the real serial murderer, so nevermind. Would the police be wrong or you? Were you just being a good citizen? My point is, if people want to file lawsuits then file them against Bush and the government. It really might be that the telecoms were doing what they thought was protecting the country from another attack--because the government told them they were.
June 23, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
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