some anniversary thoughts

now playing: aunt pat, "satellite"


i really wasn't planning on throwing my hat into the 9/11 retrospective ring, but what with all the news headlines of the past few days, i thought i'd bring up a couple of things...

first of all, iraq continues its downward spiral - news reports point out 59 dead in a series of attacks over the weekend, for one thing. and in case you didn't hear, the casualty statistics point to a worsening situation. and regardless of what you might be hearing elsewhere, the soldiers on the ground aren't telling a very pleasant story.

and what of that bin laden guy? anyone remember him?

meanwhile in afghanistan (another name that might jog your memory if you've been following this little escapade), things have largely returned to lawlessness - car bombing incidents are becoming commonplace again, one of them last month and one the month before. and the resurgence of the taliban has been reported for almost a year now. now, if you're a heroin addict, the resurgence might be good news - because while the taliban had all but brought opium production to a halt, the post-taliban era has seen production go right through the roof.

maybe dubya can state unequivocally that america is safer...but everything we've touched since he came to power has turned to shit.

i wonder how i'd feel, as a family member of someone who died on 9/11, having observed what i've seen in the time since. i know how i feel already...i don't know if i have the capacity for the anger and rage that would accompany having that kind of elevated personal stake in what's happened in the past three years.


in the past month, i've taken some pretty deliberate steps toward becoming an active democratic campaigner, in terms of going to meetings and training and the like - and the message is pretty plain: this election will be won or lost on the ground. the subtext of this is to say that we have to take our message to people on a one-on-one basis and shake people loose from their apathy, and try to reason with those who have taken the message of the power in party to heart and actually believe their propoganda.

now, this is easy to conceptualize, and sounds good on paper, but i'm having a hard time with this.

why?

because i'm not sure i want to know where certain people stand. i've witnessed the respect that i've had for certain people absolutely wither when i've found out where they stand politically. i know how that sounds, and i struggle with it myself, but it's true. especially when we're talking about someone whos' an acquaintance - someone i don't know well enough to have formed a real bond with. they don't stand a snowballs' chance in hell. they're automatically off my list.

seriously, i'm finding myself evaluating people entirely based upon their political stances. obviously this isn't true across the board...i do have misguided friends that i've known for a long time who have positive attributes that outweigh their sad-assed political positions, but that's been because i've known them long enough that time has allowed this to happen. nik is a great example. the last time we talked about this, he told me that he's all but made up his mind that he's probably going to vote libertarian in this election, simply because he doesn't feel at ease voting for either of the major-party candidates. i'd question the logic of this with anyone else, but where niks' concerned, i know that he's come to this decision after giving this some serious thought, and that it reflects his true position and not some knee-jerk reaction to his rebellious streak.

so i can accept nik's position without any compromise of our friendship. it's the people who constantly invoke the "flip-flop" thing as if they've spent hours researching kerry's record, but yet can't provide you with a single example other than the oft-touted "87 billion dollar vote". yet when you hit them with the avalanche of bush flip-flops that have occured over the last three plus years, they're completely unmoved...as if you made the whole thing up.

these are people to whom facts mean nothing.

so, like i said...maybe knowing where people stand on this stuff isn't necessarily a good thing, for me.