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Nutshell Kingdom: One of These Days
2005
Mark my words, New Orleans will, once again, change the direction and culture of this nation. It is the anti - 9-11. Environmental groups will find themselves listened to, African-Americans will find themselves mobilized in an organized way, people will start considering their actual safety (I shudder at the nightmare of a DC evacuation). People here are more than mad, they are scared. They were scared before, but things are different now. My hope is the young people who saw this unfold. They will have a different, more active opinion on the role of government, much different than the twenty- and thirty-somethings that grew up in unbelievable peace and prosperity. Bush's big mistake was convincing people to believe in the role of the federal government as a protector and savior without actually using the resources. As sad as this event is (10,000 may be dead, 500,000 homeless, the complete destruction and eventual transformation of one of the most wonderful cities in the world), I do think it is a watershed (pardon the pun) moment for the progressive, liberal-populist movement.
Don't get me wrong. Bush is still in office and will continue to wield tremendous power. This change is going to be subtle. People's values will slowly change. You will notice it at colleges before you notice it at the ballot box. People will leave the coasts and move inland again. Why? Safety maybe, or just a general feeling of unease. The red state/ blue state dichotomy will start to blur. Well, we shall see at least. I do know that hurricane season just started a couple of days ago and we would be naive to think that this is the last of the scary storms.
Mostly though, I think this situation presents one of the flaws in democracy in general. These leaders, these choices (the war, our choice of how we define homeland security, the inadequacy of the levees) were made long ago by a representative government that was voted in by the people and of the people. We made these choices as a citizenry. We like our paychecks unburdened by taxes and we like our lives unfettered by high gas prices and we choose not to take rising global temperatures as seriously as they should be considered. Ok, ok, I hear you: I didn't vote that way either. But that really isn't the point. The point is that our countrymen did and that these people made valid choices at the time. Why give up a giant portion of your check to the government after a lifetime of government misappropriations and abuse and incompetence by both parties? Why indeed.
Now is the time to answer that. Obviously, I don't endorse getting rid of representative government. However, an extra-constitutional system created by and for the protection of incumbent Senators and Representatives has done none of us any good. Jefferson imagined a government filled by a constant flux of constant, peaceful mini-revolutions. Change (the hallmark of true progressive politics - thus, the word "progress") will do us all some good. Now is the time to assess our expectations of government on all levels and act/vote accordingly.
On Friday, I was approached on corner of 18th and L St. by a girl with gorgeous Hershey bar-brown eyes who told me all about her commune out in the mountains of West Virginia and how they all had to get away from the craziness and just farm and cook and create, all the livelong day. It sounded nice; crazy, but nice. How many less skeptical people are going to hear that particular siren's call? I swear, pretty girl, one more misfiring synapse or one major evacuation could put me in your free lovin' arms forever; milking goats and washing lentils and reading poems by the bonfire. One of these days.
