It’s a frustrating world. I’m reading the news, and maybe that’s a mistake. Maybe that’s always a mistake because there’s never much in the way of good news out there. That’s overstated – I know – I’m just truly horrified by some of the stuff today. More bombings in Iraq, the existance of the movie “Turistas”, the aftermath of a WMAL talk show…I listen to a lot of Republican / right wing talk radio. Sometimes just to hear something so dramatically different from my own viewpoint, and sometimes to make me angry so I get through traffic a little more aggressively, and sometimes just to remind myself that a LOT of the world thinks VERY differently from me. I Love conspiracy theories, I Love reading about cupacabras and how 9/11 was orchestrated by everyone from George Bush to aliens and about how the Flat Earth Society actually got everything right.
Friday afternoon, Heather and I wandered Annapolis, MD, killing time before our show at Pesce Grande. The water was a bit high but the light was incredible.
But I’m pretty cynical about anything I haven’t seen myself, and have a hard time condemning people who I haven’t met, and I’m pretty sure that secrets can’t be kept by big groups of people, and that most people aren’t really that bad, just kind of selfish.
I might even argue that the light was perfect – I’d been worried about my recent camera purchase but upon getting the new memory card and getting to see what it can REALLY do – I’m pretty satisfied.
Maybe I’m just projecting…So anywho, a couple of days ago one of the talk radio hosts on the local Washington DC talk radio station said something interesting on his talk radio show – he mentioned that he thought all Muslims should have to have a little crescent tattoo on their arm so they could be identified… his phone lines lit up and he got a lot of very angry people telling him he was advocating something terrifically horrific. What’s horribly terrifying, however, was that a LOT of the calls told him that he had it all exactly right. That beyond that they ought to be rounded up… placed in camps… deported… or worse.
Heather and I wandering Annapolis, MD and attempting to strain nutrients from the sea air.
Apparently he later apologized and said he’d only made that statement to see how people would respond and then went off to berate his listeners for not realizing that this is exactly how Hitler was allowed to slaughter so many. The small-mindedness of the average human, being so sure that the next human isn’t REALLY human… I wasn’t clear if this was inspired by or merely concurrent with a survey of the DC area that claims that about 40% of Americans think anyone of the Muslim faith ought to carry some special identification and that 25% of those polled wouldn’t voluntarily Live next door to a Muslim.
Heather writing out the setlist at Pesce Grande in Annapolis, MD. The first half of the show was very low energy, with the manager coming over time and time again asking us to turn ourselves down. The second half was a whole lot more fun, and we even had some dancers…
We have so many difficulties with isolation in our world – and at first I thought that the internet was really going to help break down those barriers by providing us with a blind connection to new people – but I didn’t think about search engines and filters, and of course now the internet REALLY just allows us to only communicate with other like-minds, and speak only to others who fit our search parameters. Google can help us find pictures of kittens or a recipe for flan or any number of articles and anecdotes to support any opinion we might hold. There’s no little icon next to the search results that says “89% of humans in the world think that this article is racist bullshit”… I won’t even get into my opinion of polling the populace and how I don’t have enough faith in statistics to believe that this poll of a thousand Americans is supposed to be so cleverly selected that it is supposed to clearly reflect the opinions of over 300 million American minds – but just imagine if it does!
Including Jose – a large portion of our audience included some very, very beautiful people and after the show we got to talking and it turned out they all worked at the same salon. Suddenly, as if enlightened by God Himself – it all made sense. In any case, Jose kept dancing past and I finally got up the gumption (and the sense of balance) to go dance wth him for a bit during Deep in the Am. It finally go ttheir attention. Twrr, beautiful people.
I’m not sure if I believe in souls. I’m not sure that I believe in God, or that I believe in heaven, Hell, or even morality – but I think I believe that there’s some sort of effect of negative emotions. You can feel it when someone hates you, and you can feel it when they’re in the room, staring at you and wishing you were dead, loathing the fact that civility is so damned expected in our civil times. Now imagine being hated 7 and a half million people that you’ve never met. Tell me how absurd that is.
They know how to do Christmas in Frederick, MD. Lit beautifully and smelling of winter, the air has crisped and the temperature has plummeted, and I declare the season greeted.
Ugh – and so how are our politicians to react to this knowledge? When I was younger, I think I was pretty disgusted by the fact that the average politician seems to flip or flip his or her opinions based on the latest phone poll of America’s psyche – but more recently I’ve come to think that in a democratic nation, isn’t that exactly what they’re supposed to do? In a democratic republic, as we’re purported to be, I guess the average politician is supposed to look at those polls and examine those numbers, and then add in his/her OWN knowledge and make their decision based on their bigger picture of the surrounding circumstances. They’re supposed to do what we tell them, supposed to respond to our desires. Every flip and flop is a response to our OWN changing will… if that will changes to frequently or we are to fickle, maybe less people need to be involved in the process.
I don’t know… I’m ranting, and not ranting coherently. It’s been a difficult couple of weeks.
