And if your fantasy characters have never screamed at you, you must be a more focused writer than me, mine tend to knock me awake in the middle of the night and bid me to get out of my cocoon of warmth in order to tend to their stories. Honestly they are contributing to their own neglect by keeping me up at weird hours shivering at my desk, but that is besides the point. I COULD be writing them, they have not much to do with overload, but I'm not.
Much.
Instead I'm blaming overload. And I think it's a solid scape goat. Take for example the article I submitted last week on Bradley Manning. I thought I would do a quick update on what the fuck is going on with his case and quickly found myself down a swivving rabbit hole with no end in sight. There was just SO MUCH to cover. And that's just one story. Never mind that it led to me posting an erroneous picture of him that I had to retract. (Thank you very much couragetochange.org- and I'm not being snide, I mean it. Thank you.) It also brought to my attention numerous organizations that are trying to do good works and working against the tide like couragetochange.org. which if I had time I would love to ask more questions of. Especially given they had their Paypal acct. frozen, then unfrozen all within a 24hour period due to their diligence in getting the word out about abuses and the buckling behavior of Paypal.
Paypal is another place that deserves some investigation. Those online bankers who when they started seemed so Internet friendly but buckle so quickly to government pressures as well as other special interests. Who the hell is Paypal and what are they going to do with everyone's banking info...have you thought about that?
Then there's Wisconsin. I'm intrigued and confused and conflicted about the whole thing. I need to know more. And so do you really. We all do. Edward-Yemil Rosario did a nice little write up this week comparing the situation to bad porn at Subversify you should come by and read it. But lately I have not been impressed with unions. Nobody else I know is either. This stems from the fact that unions in California are doing exactly nothing that I can tell other than collecting undeserved money and giving out slightly discounted tickets to Disneyland. In fact when I asked someone if they wanted to go with me to Sacramento to cover the "let's show allegiance to Wisconsin demonstration" (I made name up, I'm sure there's an official name but I'm feeling lazy) I was told, "Hell no, fuck the unions, they have not answered any of my letters from the past 5 years."
I tried to explain this had nothing to do with unions here, but rather the fact that Wisconsin's governor is an ass. And maybe we should be supporting unions that DO want to do the right thing. Anyway I'm terribly unclear about the union involvement altogether, which in part is why I wanted to go. We'll see. I spent the last two weekends in Sacramento and I'm not sure I want to go down there again this weekend. And no it was nothing as exciting as covering or writing about anything. It was all about service. Community and individual.
Which I think is another hold up.
There is too much to do. Too many people need help just with fecking food. Hell, I carried 500lbs of beans back from the state capitol to feed the hungry. Are these hungry people going to be stopping work to support something in Wisconsin? Should they be? I don't know the answer to that. I really don't. I just feel grateful to not have to worry about where my meals are coming from and have an opportunity to give to others. I can't imagine what it's like to have to chose, do I strike now? Or hang on because my family is hungry.
And all this is just my little corner or the world. The bigger picture is we have growing unrest across the globe which is the harvest of the seeds we have planted. Really, we shouldn't be shocked, but we like a show so we get lots of shots of shocked and crying people. But why aren't we prepared for this?
Which in a way helps me with my dilemma...Maybe instead of marching on the state capitol of California,my time would be better spent at home, heading out to farmer's market with my $50 which is what gas would cost to get down there and making some soup and planning my garden. Because when all these marchers come home, whether they win the fight or not, they're going to need to eat. And someone has to plan for that. Might as well be me.
You certainly seem to be carrying more than your fair share of "the load", so I'm hoping you're eating your spinach and taking your vitamin C. *grin*
ReplyDeleteThe Bradly Manning Load.
This is definitely one load worth shouldering as main stream media seem to have swept him under the rug, forgotten about him and simply moved on.
Would love to read the article, so a link to where it's lurking would be great. I know so little about his plight other than he's been charged with espionage and being kept in the most Medieval conditions, locked away in solitary confinement.
The word "espionage" doesn't sit well with me. I thought spies gave away information in return for money. Bradly was never paid and neither did he ask for money... he did what he did as an act of conscience, not commerce. Perhaps your knowledge of the details will explain this to me.
The Union Overload
I'm a union member and have been since I first joined the workforce. In fact, I've been a member of 2 different unions... both differed from each other like chalk and cheese.
The Wisconsin situation has been rather conveniently turned into a union debate. The usual suspects diverting our attention from the real issue by muddying the waters with emotional charged rhetoric about unions in general.
Whether individual unions are "good" or "bad" isn't the issue here... neither should it be. The question Americans should be asking themselves is NOT whether unions should exist, but whether you should do away with your right to collective bargaining.
Besides, if Big Business has a hardon to get rid of unions... chances are fairly high that they're are doing at least something right. I'd NEVER side with business against the common man/woman regardless how I, personally, felt about individual unions. That's working against my own interests in the long term. Then again, I've seen far too many Americans too easily swayed to work against their own interests in favour of the very people who would exploit them. It's a phenomenon I find fascinating and frightening.
@ Malice here's my Bradley Manning article:
ReplyDeletehttp://subversify.com/2011/02/18/why-bradley-manning-matters/
I agree far too many Americans and really humans in general work against their own interest either unknowingly or deliberately blinded to the ultimate effects of their collusion. Unions, they are tricky here in America, they can be very very good and helpful and also very corrupt. I think the corruptness mostly comes from our own lack of interest in being involved though.