Taking A Side

So.

This is a hell of a thing, isn’t it?

I mean… what now?

Who am I supposed to hate this time? Which wrong group is absolutely wrong and needs to pay dearly for their astounding wrongness?

Do I choose the marginalized, those of us who have less and suffer more and feel (rightly or not) unsupported and unloved by those of us who have more?

Do I go with people who have chosen a path of service and protection over their own well-being, and are only trying to do the best with the world they’ve been given?

What support picture do I put on my Facebook page? Blue lines? Rainbows? #blm ? What meme pictures do I share? What hot takes must I post?

I don’t fucking know.

I don’t. Jeez, I can barely keep my head straight, when I think of what’s happened the last month. My heart aches so much and I feel so scared for me and my family, and every other family in this country that some days it’s all I can do to smile at the lady behind the register at the gas station. The world feels like it’s spinning out of control, and we’re teetering on the brink of certain oblivion, and you want me to pick a goddamn side?

Fuck you.

Fuck you, for deciding that one side matters more than the other. Fuck you, for deciding that anger and closed-mindedness is the solution to this mess we’ve put ourselves into, for somehow deciding that your hurt is valid and their hurt is not, for ignoring the cost of this squabble for the nebulous end game you've been told exists. Fuck you for having the temerity to imply that the problem would fix itself if the other side would just _____. I'm happy to tell you now that whatever you think your side has going for it, your side is part of the goddamn problem. 

No. I won’t do it. I won’t give you the goddamn satisfaction of picking a side. If I pick your side you feel smug and righteous in your absolute correctness and lean back in your chair and say, “See? I knew I was right!” If I pick the other side you’ll still feel smug and righteous in your absolute correctness and say, “See? I knew he was wrong.” I refuse to justify your selfish need for validation in a position that you probably secretly doubt. I deny your claims that you want to come to the table but the other side doesn't and it's all on them. They're not trying. They don't care. They're entitled. They're selfish. You know what? Only selfish people blame others.

I’m not picking a side. I’m done picking sides. Call me wishy-washy if you want. I'm not the one adding to the powder keg, I'm the one trying to figure something out (if only in my own mind and heart). Stand upon Mt. Pious and speak down to me about “stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”. You can take your opinion on your side and shove it straight up north, and I’m not talking about Canada. I’m not the one who has fallen for something. You are.

I’m sick of your bullshit, your closed-minded heel-digging and your insistence that what you think (which, incidentally is only what you think because some group of people told you to think it) is the only way to think. But more than that, I’m sick of your other bullshit (it comes in SO MANY flavors). That bullshit takes the form of your wide-eyed hands-up insistence that you want to work with the other side and find a solution. Because as soon as you’re surrounded by more of your Yes Men you let your real thoughts come out, that the real problem lies in the other side and that they have nothing of value to bring to the table of solution. It’s bullshit and you know it. I know it too.

You want to know my thoughts about Orlando? Baton Rouge? St. Paul? Dallas? My thoughts have shifted like sand in the wind with every new development. Every death has left me re-evaluating my position, struggling to contain my emotion and think clearly so I can even begin to look for a solution. You are the same, perhaps, but if you are you won’t admit it. I don’t know what to think now any more than I did in 2012 when somebody gunned down some children at an elementary school, or when two kids gunned down their classmates in Colorado in 1999. I know what I feel (frightened, powerless) but that doesn’t help here.

For the record that’s what you feel too. Oh, you can cover it up with more cosmopolitan emotions like “outrage” or dress it up with snark and wit, but deep down we all know we’re just afraid. Each event leaves us, grown men and women, feeling like children lost in a supermarket in a blackout. We don’t know who to turn to or how to find them if we did. We feel weak, imperfect, and then some magical fairy in the media comes along to tell us we should actually be angry. They tell us this because when we are angry, we watch the news more and they make more money in ad revenue, but we latch on to it like driftwood in a storm.

And so you’re standing up on Mt. Pious, looking down on all the poor plebs who don’t think like you do, encased in your armor of anger that also does a fair job of hiding those love handles of fear. And you look down upon me. The Undecided. The Uncertain. The Considering. You deign to gaze upon me and ask me which side I’m on.

I say again- FUCK. YOU.

Do not presume to tell me that the other side is wrong. Do not presume to tell me your side is the only right side. Definitely do not add qualifiers to your position like “If they’d only work with us”. Do not embarrass yourself so. You are better than that and so am I, and your actions are only hurting the possibility of resolution. You are so caught up in being right that nothing is changing. Lives are being lost while you point fingers. Nobody was pointing fingers during these events. People were crying, shaking so hard they could barely manage words. People were breathing their last breaths. People were helping others to safety. Nobody was pointing fingers then. So why are you now?

There is only right side: the one that values all life at all costs. The correct side is the one that looks at everything that has happened and says, “Holy shit, human beings are DYING. This has to stop.” The only side worth taking is the one that errs on the side of compassion and understanding. Not compassion*, not understanding**, but real and true compassion and understanding.

One death is all it should have taken. One of our own kind passing violently from this realm against their will is all that should be necessary for all of us to stop short and re-evaluate every position. These are our fellow brethren. They share this mudball in space with us, and they are all we have to make it work (many of you will point out that we also have God, but I’m pretty certain he’s already weighed in on the matter). The untimely death of ONE is all the impetus we should ever need to STOP and rethink things, no matter what our position at the time is. The first response shouldn’t be “I’m definitely right!” It should be “Maybe I’m wrong.”

But that’s not what happens. Instead of looking to our leaders and asking demanding they come to the table and figure this shit out we all pick sides and face off. It’s the worst game of Red Rover ever, and all while we argue amongst ourselves MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING.

I’ve got nothing else. I’m out of breath, and I’m out of energy. I have a job to work, a house to maintain and a family to love. They get first priority. And really, that’s where it starts anyway. Love your family, love them madly and deeply and honorably, and they will take that into the world with them. With all luck they will love their families madly and deeply and honorably, and hopefully a few strangers too.

You have any idea how quick this shit would be solved if we all did that, had that done to us?

Enjoy your side. I can tell you right now I’m not on it.

*Because it will show you I’m right and you’re wrong.

**As long as you understand that I’m right and you’re wrong.

Howard Stern and The Death of Big Oil

Last weekend, half of the nation of Germany ran on solar power.  Half of the country. And they’re not even that sunny.

Suck it, Spain!

How did they do it? Read the article, but not now. You’re reading me now, and I’m jealous like that. But since it’s pertinent to my rant, I’ll sum it up: it had to do with subsidies and public support and stuff. Basically, they had their shit together, and they broke a world record for it.

I read the article to my wife. Her response was, “Wow. We’re… not… going… to be the most powerful country in the world for much longer.”

I think that’s a pretty valid argument. Just going off that article it does seem like the United States is being outpaced by Germany pretty quickly, at least in the unlimited energy department. Does it matter if the US is the most powerful country? Not really. Lots of countries thrive outside of the international spotlight.

Just ask these guys.

But the United States has taken great pains to establish itself as the leader of the free world in just about every way possible, except for blonde models.

Above: Sweden's #2 export, after meat balls.

We were at the forefront of modern democracy, the Industrial Revolution, and the Information Age. The Wright Brothers invented manned flight in the US. Benjamin Franklin harnessed electricity in the US. Al Gore invented the Internet here.

Pleasepleaseplease believe me this time...

Americans thrive on being the best, winning the most and coming in first every time. But the United States is ranked 20^th on the Education Index. Our children aren’t keeping pace educationally with the rest of the world, but we can’t seem to get a good system in place because our partisan politicians can’t agree on one.

Our Current Account Balance is the lowest in the world. Or the highest negative number, if you want to look at it that way. It’s this number: $ -599,900,000,000.00. That number means the United States’ credit is in the shitter. Right now, Sri Lanka could buy a better car than us. But nothing’s changing because our Congress can’t seem to find a way to stop spending money, or agree on how to cut costs. The wealthiest of Americans can spend a billion dollars for an election, but not on the country itself.

How about energy? We consume more oil than any other country.

FIRST!!

It’s no secret that there’s a finite amount of oil on the planet, and the United States uses more oil than the next four countries after it combined, and has to import over half of its oil from elsewhere.

While a marginally sunny country like Germany can power half its populace on solar power for a weekend our country, which is 3900% more sunny than Germany, offers $71 billion more in subsidies to oil than solar power. There are initiatives across the country to harness wind and sun energy, but our lawmakers seem content not to press for more subsidies to encourage these endeavors.

Now, before my goofy over-patriotic readers chime in with your “If yew don’t like awr country yew cayn get owt!”, let me qualify all of this by saying that I love being an American. For all our flaws, I would still rather have been born and raised here than anywhere else. I fought proudly in the US Armed Forces for 8 years.

But we have got to get our shit together. We have become embroiled in partisan-line bickering, even on the local level. We spend more time goofing around with our technological distractions than involving ourselves in the fate of our nation, and when we do involve ourselves it’s usually on a detached headline-only level. Because we aren’t involved, our representatives get elected by only 40% of the population, a good portion of that 40% wrapped up in closed-minded partisanship. So our elected officials are closed-minded partisans because that’s who elected them. So nothing gets done because our lawmakers are arguing along party lines.

But we can't only blame the politicians. We, as the American people, are not interested enough in being the best anymore. We are content with our gadgets and our mostly-low-cost food supply. Sure the bills are higher than they used to be, but we're still getting by. We have become content with "good enough". So while America treads water, whistling at the clouds, every other first-world country is passing us by in one area or another.

Is it only a matter of time before somebody takes us over and makes kuchen the national dessert? Likely not, because one of the few other areas in which the United States is #1 is military power. Any sucka fools tryin to jack our country in for a world ‘o hurt, son!

But if we are outpaced in every other area consistently for a long period of time, military might won’t matter.The US will likely go broke and we’ll just be bought by another country and turned into a theme park.

I, for one, will welcome our new overlords.

We don’t need to be the best, kids. But my friend nailed it when he said we need to be better.

This isn’t going to change anyone’s mind. I’m not nearly put-together enough to do something like that. But maybe you’ll click a link and read something and maybe it will get you thinking.

At least, until America’s Got Talent comes on.

I LOVE that show! So much TALENT!

Thanks for reading, kids.

Kicking Ass & Chewing Bubblegum

Today is Memorial Day. While I have not posted a blog in over a year, my observations leading up to this day have compelled me to dust off this bad boy and spout about things I am only marginally qualified to spout about. Let's rock.

Does anyone remember Brian Wood?

Probably not.  He was a video game designer from British Columbia. To my knowledge, he’d never spent a day in a wasteland (unless you count the local Costco). The closest he ever came to being a soldier was working on Company of Heroes, a PC strategy game.  Nobody would have called him a hero, until September 3, 2010. That was the day he swerved his vehicle to the side to take the brunt of an oncoming vehicle that had suddenly veered into his lane.

He did this to save the lives of his wife and unborn child. His sacrifice allowed two people to live where no one should have.

Totally worth it.

What about Liviu Librescu, the Romanian-born PhD who taught both in Israel and the United States? He grew up in Nazi-controlled Ploiesti. Remarkably intelligent in the field of experimental aircraft,

Actually it IS rocket science.

Liviu never set foot on a battlefield. Still, surely somebody has spared a thought for him today.

This guy. This is the guy.

I know who has: The Virginia Tech students whose lives he saved on April 16, 2007. That was the day he took four bullets from a mentally-unstable student while holding a classroom door closed. He did this so said students could escape out a window.

"Your death-bullets bore me."

You guys remember Clara Almazo? That old battle axe from Staten Island?

No?

Correction: Middle-aged battle axe.

Now? No? Well, I suppose that unless you’re from New York, you probably didn’t hear about Clara way back in April. That was when she made local headlines by throwing her grandson out of the way of an out-of-control vehicle, piloted by a drunk driver with an out-of-control goatee.

Told you.

She took the brunt of the hit, finally coming to rest 150 feet from where she was hit. She died hours later. Her grandson walked away with scrapes and bruises.

Above: The rare resting battle axe.

I could go on, but I’m tired and jet-lagged. Still, there are more. Many more. These are just a few remarkable, heart-wrenching, inspiring stories I found in just under an hour. Brian, Liviu and Clara are heroes.I am not dishonoring those service members who have died in service by saying this. As a veteran I think I speak for all veterans when I say we appreciate the thoughts today. I think I can reasonably vouch for the Schild, Cuka, Kokesh and Wagner families when I say the thoughts are treasured, and will be forever. Theirs was heroism, well and true. I am not saying you should not honor them or be grateful for what they gave. I know I do.

But I think Memorial Day is about more than soldiers or sailors or airmen or Marines. Memorial Day is about sacrifice. Today is the day we honor all those who have passed, especially those who sacrificed for others without thought of their own livelihood. To sacrifice is human. To sacrifice everything is heroic. And not all heroes wear combat boots. Some wear gaming headsets, or Kippahs, or orthopedic shoes. Let’s not forget their sacrifice. Let's not forget that more people are willing to make that sacrifice than we think. 

Happy Memorial Day, kids.

Freedom and Vigilance

I wrote the following almost 10 years ago to the hour, after the events of September 11, 2001 had (for the most part) unfolded. The blog didn't exist then, so I simply emailed everyone I knew with it (which I am sure my friends were thrilled about). It was quickly (and effortlessly) eclipsed by other writers with much better thesauruses on their Pentium II desktops.

Looking back at what was ostensibly my first ever blog, I have to admit that some of the things I said still ring true. The venom of terrorism does still run in the blood of Americans. You can see it in anti-Muslim protests and strict pat-downs at airports. The attacks ten years ago cut us deep.

But we did also recover. We have healed (as much as we ever could), and we have grown. The pride that swelled in Americans on September 12 has not dissipated. Every Welcome Home parade, every American flag, every yellow ribbon stands as testament to what was fostered that day.

Still, I think about the non-partisan gathering of our Congress and Senate that day and have to express my disappointment that such displays are relegated to pomp and circumstance rather than ones of true national progress.

Read it for what it was- the emotional, confused ramblings of a 23-year-old assistant manager of a grocery store (soon to be fired). But take it for what it was meant to be- a declaration that freedom is not, nor will it ever be, free.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Jefferson once said that "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Never has a statement rung true in such a deep way. I'm writing this because this tragic event that has befallen us for some reason touches me deeper than any other I've seen or read about. I feel the need to speak on it. I apologize to those who didn't want this.

It frightens me to the core to think that our way of life is so easily shattered, even here in the Midwest. What frightens me more is the honest feeling that whoever did this isn't done. I spent the entire day replaying in my head the videos I saw this morning. It seemed unreal, unbelievable. I found myself wishing that it hadn't happened. I had no family or friends in either New York or Washington, but I feel deeply for those who did.

As I drove home from work tonight, I listened to a man on Larry King Live describe watching people jump from the highest levels of the World Trade Center and I couldn't stop shivering. Over and over, I see the footage of that second plane cutting through the WTC like a hot knife through so much butter and say to myself, "This has to be from some action movie." But it isn't. And that is what frightens me most: that this is indeed real.

I am forced to question just what it means to live in this country. I've never done that before. To be honest, I have taken it for granted. I have taken for granted every single liberty my ancestors fought and died for. I didn't even vote in the last election. I took something precious and rare and put it on a shelf to collect dust because thinking about it took more than I wanted to give. I regret that almost as much as I regret not being able to help beyond giving a pint of O-negative. The price of freedom IS eternal vigilance and we as a nation have lapsed. Not a lot, but enough to be bitten by a snake whose venom won't be extracted from this nation' veins easily or willingly. We have lapsed simply by forgetting what this nation means to us, to our allies, to our enemies. By us I don't just mean you or me. I mean us as the American people. I remember now. I know I'm not the only one.

That aside, I know we'll bounce back from this. The United States has a distinct reputation of persevering simply out of spite at times, and this, I believe is one of them. Along with visions of 767's flying through skyscrapers, I have two more pictures in my head from September 11, 2001. One is of the entire Senate and House of Representatives gathering on the steps of the Capitol to sing "God Bless America"; for an instant partisan politics were forgotten and all that existed was a group of men and women dedicated to something larger than them.

The other vision came when I was driving home tonight. As I listened to the man describe seeing people jump to their deaths to escape the fire, I looked out my car window and saw on top of the half-finished USD DakotaDome roof an American flag waving in the fading light, almost a middle finger raised to whoever high jacked those planes.

We will definitely recover from this. We as a nation are too outraged to do otherwise. I look forward to justice. What happened today was horrifying and vile. But I think it also showed all of us what it means to be an American. You can go to any number of countries today and find democracy. But there's only one America. Like Bill Murray said in Stripes, we are here because we were kicked out of every other damn country in the world. But this... this is our home. We have made it ours. We will clear away the debris, rebuild our towers and Pentagons, and even put up some monuments. 

But we will also become stronger for our ordeal. This thing touches me deeply for some reason, but I take comfort knowing that whoever did this failed in their objective. I take comfort in knowing that we will survive.

I'm going to bed, now. I am going to sleep and think about anything but today. Then, tomorrow I am going to go about my business as usual. But in the back of my mind will from this day forth always be the imaginary voice of Thomas Jefferson, reminding me about freedom and vigilance.

I don't think I could forget if I wanted to.

I vs. you vs. us: The Epic Battle

I went to see a comic recently. Not this kind of comic:

This kind of comic:

The headliner was funny, but the warm-up guy sucked for the most part. He had moments of humor where you could tell he was a funny guy. But he was fidgety and unrehearsed, clearly not at-ease with his set. But he did pull out something that wasn’t so much funny as it was thought-provoking.

He said that humans were, as a rule, self-centered beings. As an argument he used basic English language. “I” is capitalized always, but not “you” or “us” or “them”. While his logic may or may not have been sound, he had a point. Websites like Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook (and their freakish popularity) prove that we are a very self-centered people. But this comedian was saying that the culture of self-centeredness has been present since the beginning of the English language and is still evident through its use.

He posited an interesting premise, so I did some research. It gave me a nosebleed. But I persevered for you, my loyal readership. However, all of the words I mentioned above are difficult to discuss because they’re so pervasive in our world. They are THE nouns. They are the words of existence and the words of self-awareness. To examine these words is literally to examine yourself and those around you.

Mmm… existentialism…

Let’s dig in.

“I” is the word of the individual, as seen from the first-person perspective. When referring to oneself, one always uses the word I.

Unless you're this guy.

I originated (and only now am I realizing that the grammar engine in Word ’07 is going to blow a fuse on this blog) in 12^th Century England as an abbreviation to an earlier word that may or may not have been “Pie".

The Rock likes this blog.

“I” didn’t start being capitalized till the mid-13^th Century, mostly to avoid confusion when reading manuscripts. Also it had something to do with the letter/word’s similarity to the number 1. You can decipher some of the more heady stuff at Etymology Online. I hope you like abbreviations.

So the emphasis on the word “I” is mostly a practical one. I’m a fan of that (my girlfriend is rolling her eyes right now). But does that mean the lack of emphasis on other words is simply because emphasis isn’t needed? The answer is yes.

“You” is the word of the individual, as seen from the second-person perspective. When addressing an individual other than oneself, one uses the word you.

Or, one points.

You originated around the same time as “I”, an amalgam of both “ye” and the French version, “vous”. Check out the link for more abbreviations. You’ll notice the lack of capitalization in both the English and the French versions of the word. The case is the same in Japanese, where they have a number of words for “you”, based on status and respect, mostly. None of those words are capitalized there either.

Just in case you forgot how strange they are.

And then there’s us. “Us” is the word of the group, as seen from the first-person perspective. When referring to a group in a collective sense, one always uses the word us.

Seriously, why does anyone read this trash?

Us has nothing but abbreviations at Etymology Online. So that was a bust.

There are other words of similar utility out there. “Them”, “him”, “her”, “we”. But unless it is “I” or the words start a sentence, none of the words are capitalized. Is this a result of a world-wide culture of selfishness?

The answer is… about five paragraphs north of here. I already said it was a practical thing. No other language seems to capitalize their version of “I”, so it’s not a culture of selfishness or subjectivity. It’s just practicality. I just kept writing because I already had all the pictures gathered. And if you’re reading this, that means you wanted to see the pictures.

You're welcome.

So now we know that the comedian wasn’t just a bad comedian, he was kind of dumb, too.

Too bad he didn’t have pictures to fill in the empty spaces.

Haha. Hipster Dog is funny.

Hooray For Death.

Everybody remembers 9/11.

It’s almost like a game. You sit down with friends or family on a quiet evening, have a couple of drinks (or not) and sooner or later you start playing “Where Were You On 9/11?” And everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing and who they were with when planes struck the World Trade Center.

Now (thankfully) we can play a new game: “Where Were You When bin Laden Died?”

I was sitting in my living room with my girlfriend. She was playing on her iPad2 ™ and I was digging around on the internet (not porn). We had Celebrity Apprentice on, mostly for background noise since neither of us enjoys the show. When the announcement came on I was ecstatic. I was restless. I kept standing and walking to the kitchen, then coming back to sit down again. I posted on Facebook. I kissed my girlfriend. Then I got back up and went back to the kitchen. I fixed myself a drink (rum and coke). Later I told my girlfriend that I had been tempted to run out into the street and shout the news at the top of my lungs.

This morning I prayed to God. Big Guns and I don’t discuss much the old-fashioned way, but I felt the need to make an exception. I asked him to forgive me for celebrating the death of another human being. I felt like it was worth doing, but to be honest the guilt I feel is pretty minimal. I felt more guilty about not feeling guilty than anything.

Today as the day progressed I was inundated with all sorts of reactions to the death of the World’s Most Wanted Man. Pictures and videos of people celebrating…

people remembering the fallen…

people condemning the celebrations…

and so-forth.

You can Google the confusion. You can feel the confusion. So many people are happy about what happened. So many are sad. So many don’t know what to feel. So here’s what I can tell you kids:

Osama bin Laden was evil.

Look at him. Ugly hateful little bastard, wasn’t he? You can see it in his eyes, that creepy calm resolve that says, “I will kill you and anyone else who stands in my way.” Gives me the willies.

“Never underestimate the power of a man with a cause.” This man was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Not just Americans or Christians. He killed plenty of Muslims too. People can debate what he believed, but one thing we all know to a certainty is that he had no compunctions about killing people. He wasn’t misguided. He wasn’t ill-informed. He knew what he was doing, and he reveled in it. If al Qaeda (his terrorist organization) did an operation that resulted in death, bin Laden wasn’t far behind in releasing a video glorifying what he’d done. The man was evil and we all knew it.

But that’s not why Ground Zero was flooded with joyous crowds. People weren’t celebrating the death of a man (even an evil one).

Okay, most people weren’t celebrating the death of a man.

People were celebrating the closure. People were celebrating the end of a reign of terror. Because Osama bin laden left a scar, not just on America but on the world. American, European, Afghani, Christian, Muslim, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters... not a soul felt true peace. The families of the 9/11 victims, the families of fallen soldiers couldn’t really find peace. For military and intelligence, it’s a fulfillment of a promise made and redemption for a day when we couldn’t protect the ones we loved most. People were celebrating the lifting of a weight from the shoulders of billions of free people.

I’m not a counselor. But I can tell you that it’s okay to celebrate May 1, 2011.

Too gratuitous? Ah, what the hell. Go big or go home, right?