making the same mistakes over and over

it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when you are away from news for even just a few days. i wasn't offline for more than that and without the constant awareness of what is really happening in the world- it was easy to pop my music in the car as i made 2 or 3 roundtrips daily the 10 miles one way back and forth between homes. i could sing along and listen to the birds in my yard and say to myself- 'it's going to be ok' and go about my way. but the iraq and afghanistan occupations didn't go away; the food and water crises around the globe haven't magically disappeared; the world's fisheries haven't suddenly rebounded and the honeybees haven't miraculously come back. it has been unseasonably hot and humid here in new york and other bloggers have reported unseasonably cool weather and wet where they are- and it isn't supposed to be.

and americans still look to a broken system to fix things.

i posted over at sirens a speech given by chris hedges recently where he talks about the corporate oligarchy that really runs the world. let's not be naive and think it's just america who has these folks in charge. who do you think was really behind nafta and the wto and any other globalization push? so, we push and shove each other in an effort to get our candidate elected in the hopes that this time- this one time- a person will step up and make the right choice. we talk about 'the lesser of two evils' and indeed, my buddy dez gave a speech at the libertarian convention recently on just that subject. we don't learn. and i am just as guilty as anyone else. perhaps there is just something inside of all of us that makes us want to think the best.

i have my voter registration change form coming in the mail as i type this. if i vote, this will most likely be my last election because i see no point. chris hedges talks about the shell that america is. oh, we still wave the flag and wear our lapel pins- but it rings hollow. singing the national anthem causes many of us to choke as our elected officials pay lip service to the men and women in uniform and subsequently abuse them and throw them away. i am glad that michelle obama can be proud of america- because i can't. we tear each other down in the name of religion and ideology and politics- both left and right- and claim that the other side is wrong. that's called civil war- and while the body count isn't as high as the last one we fought- the battles are being waged in towns and cities across america. militarized police and armed forces taze people for the slightest provocation and keep hundreds from their homes in flood zones by the point of a gun. and they see nothing wrong with pointing a gun at a fellow american. on american soil.

i am ensaddened. ensaddened by what america has become and by the relationships lost because of what we have become. the time has come to stop trying to change hearts and minds. the time has long gone for that. our planet and our country is out of time. what does it matter what we feel?