The world has been horrfying me. Utterly terrifying. School shootings, Bush waving America’s military around like he’s a scared kid caught breaking into a house with a gun. The world’s been disgusting me. The press’ fascination with the families of murdered children, the scandals in Congress. When the Republicans stop and think, they’ll realize they’ve had the chance to be the “bigger party”, trying to give a gay representative a chance, and they’ll realize they’ve gotten exactly what they’ve always wanted – “proof” that homosexuals can’t be trusted around children.
I’m grateful for the (hopefully not just) short-term damage to their credibility, but how much does Foley reinforce the negative stereotypes that help their long-term causes?
There have been some poles recently asking if you had to choose, would you rather have a representative that votes for you accurately, or have one that always acted morally. I can barely understand this question. The idea that we can’t expect BOTH out of the people we place in office is utterly horrifying. Listening to the left wingers who are calling out with righteous indignation for absolutely random Republicans to resign because of this… listening to the right wing stating “well, he was practically 18, and nothing was THAT dirty” and most recently that the whole thing might be just a misunderstood prank. American politics is odious. I’m probably being too specific – I’m sure it’s probably the same in most countries… but I sit horrified listening to what’s going on in our nation’s government.
Last night, I was sitting and eating dinner with Heather’s family before running over to play the Pour House. They were doing a story on a local kid who’d been “disappeared” two years ago and has just been discovered, being transferred to a military prison in preparation for shipment to Guatanimo Bay, which I’m sure I can’t spell. He’d had no contact with friends, family, lawyer, whatever, since the day he’d vanished – and the idea that the United States is doing this is genuinely terrifying. Other stories about how the bounties the US is putting on terror suspects means that a number of other countries are just randomly picking people up and turning them over to our military to collect a couple of thousand dollars per head, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot out there that’s very well thought out.
I guess, from that point of view, the press is doing exactly what it should be doing. In all it’s negativity and muck-raking, it’s shining light on the darker dealings of our world and keeping us thoroughly aware of what it’s up to. The government, in turn, very slowly acts surprised and either hides better like a discovered toad or stops and looks innocent… also like a startled toad, but the smarter kind.
The press is doing it’s job, but has no sense of propriety. I’ve been horrified by the evident glee with which the press is displaying photographs, videos and soundbytes of the Amish funerals from last week. I guess they’re just so excited to have something new, and the Amish count as photogenic and exotic. Generally denied access, the press seems to be having a field day, Loving the excuse to invade their insular Lives.
Ha. For all that I hear there were dozens of state troopers along the funeral route to protect the Amish families’ privacy, I’ve seen a LOT of film from the past couple of days. I guess it bothers me all the more because I’ve stayed with an Amish family before, and I KNOW they’re not happy about being gleefuly exploited for paper sales.
Erf. In other news, ASCAP has finally noticed the College Perk and is attempting to squeeze in with their little extortion racket. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that, but John Cook, the host of the College Perk open mic, is mulling the concept an “all original” open mic, banning not just “Stairway to Heaven”, “American Pie” and other such hated tunes, but banning all covers a la the now-defunct Cup.
I don’t know how that will effect the rest of the music at Perk, but I have hopes that Chris will just declare the Perk a no-ASCAP zone and deny not only their songs but also their artists any time there. I worry that Chris isn’t used to letting anyone else effect him in any way, and might not back down, which could lead to a pretty nasty legal battle. The fact that his first act is to post the ASCAP representative’s contact information on a bulletin board at Perk is pretty typically Chris. We’ll see how THAT goes down.
