The Crux of Cars

As a 17 year old boy, cars are a wonderous and beautiful thing.


As a political activist and free-thinking human being, they are the bane of the earth.

First a bit of background: Cars emerged in a time of growth throughout the world. They filled a niche wonderfully, allowing people to transport themselves and their goods rapidly and efficiently. And they ran on gasoline!

Since those days, cars have continued to be the most useful way to transport people and things, especially in America.

But now we've reached a moment in which cars are beginning to be more of a burden than a boon.

Cars have singlehandedly tied us inexorably to the Middle East and the oil industry. They have singlehandedly inspired the greatest piece of legislation to be passed in the United States: The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.

Pollution, a violently important and often ignored issue, is on the rise partially because of the use of cars.


Obesity in Americans is at an all-time high. The fact that we drive consistently doesn't help. We're not getting any exercise!

And, finally, city congestion has begun to reach critical mass because the population growth coupled with the growing number of cars per person has led to almost inoperable levels at times.

So I've detailed the reasons why cars are an outdated concept, one that actually threatens the country.

Now, I need to make one other thing clear: Cars are wonderful. The four majestic wheels roll sexily along the street as the stereo pumps. The seats allow one to look from a reclining position at those people not driving. And the big, shiny, windows allow you to nod non-chalantly to anyone who looks, because, "yeahh, I'm drivin' this car".

Okay. So I'm a teenager. I have a brand spankin' new Driver's License burning a hole in my pocket, and the need for speed. I love driving, and I love being in the car.

All Americans are in love with cars, and I think that is what makes it so difficult to support alternative modes of transportation, such as public transportation, bikes or even, god forbid, walking.

But I stand here a changed man. I've written it down, and now I know, CARS ARE BAD.

I'm not buying into the hype. I'm not allowing myself to become restricted to a car. When there's a more efficient alternative, I'm taking it.


I think we, as a nation, need to make that same decision. (And perhaps subsidize some new alternatives to driving.)

Go and see if that bike is still working. Dust it off, pump it up, and go enjoy the fresh air.

p.s. mom and dad: I know you weren't going to buy me a car so don't pretend that you were.

The Republican Red Herring...

A few weeks ago, when I found out Karl Rove was resigning, I said to my friends "it's like rats off a sinking ship."

Now Gonzales.

Let me make this abundantly clear. I stand by each part of that metaphor. I think these men are rats, and I think this administration is a sinking ship.

Our founding fathers displayed an amazing amount of foresight when designing this government, but if there's one thing that this administration has taught me, it's that the Founding Fathers never really believed a man would be elected president who either didn't care about American well-being, or could even possibly work against it for financial or political gain.

Well, fast-forward 231 years and you'll see, we were duped. We bought the innocent looking Texan with the cute speech impediment, and got the spoiled, corrupt, oilman sans one conscience.

And at first, the system didn't right itself. There is no check or
balance strong enough to right all of George Walker Bush's
wrongs, but that doesn't mean he will get away scott-free.

No, in fact, everyone is beginning to see just how deep this goes.
Just how far we're going to have to climb to make amends. We've spent
the past 8 years burrowing into Iraq, training ourselves to cower in
fear of anything relating to "evildoers", and campaigning for the
"biggest asshole of a country" award at the United Nations.

So let's whip out our pocket consitutions, warm up the guilt guns and
go find Gonzales, right?

NO NO NO! WE MUSN'T CARE ABOUT GONZALES ANYMORE!

The Bush Administration is tricking us again! They WANT us to hunt Gonzales down with a political pitchfork and exact democratic (party) justice on him, but we've got bigger fish to fry.

George Bush is stalling, he's distracting us, because he knows that when '08 comes, and we start to realize that electing a better President won't mean making everything better immediately, we're gonna want some sort of accountability.

In his perfect world, he'll be locking up the White House with Cheney in January of 2009, and then go on to be a rich oil-man / ex-president.

But if we catch him now, while there's still time, we can start turning this country around. We can start righting all the wrongs this administration has committed.

But it requires PASSION. It requires COJONES. We need to take risks and make decisions. Democrats believe in following the rules and thinking everything out, which is fine, except when they're pitted against the Republicans. Which is always.

SO COME ON! TAKE ACTION! Because, in my humble opinion, I think we're going to regret it if we don't.

The Cold War 2.0

The BBC recently reported that Russia is starting up a series of military flights that haven't been around since the collapse of the Soviet Union they're calling these flights "Cold War patrols".

The Cold War is a textbook concept to me.

I was born in 1989. The Soviet Union offically collapsed in 1991.

I have never experienced utter fear of annihilation.

I've never watched brinksmanship in action.

But I have seen War Games.

So as I begin to see news headlines like the BBC's, I get worried. Cheesy 50's era films about hiding under tables and being suspicious of everyone comes to mind. I get nervous. I get antsy. Then I remember, in a brilliant moment of clarity, that one vital part of all this is missing.

Domino theory, the red scare, invasion of the body snatchers, whatever you want to call it, it isn't there anymore. There is no remaining specter of communism. There is no reason to fear.

Then, in an even greater moment of clarity, I realize, oh shit, there is.

Terror.

I fear terror. It's almost poetic in it's cyclicality. So this is when the chain reaction kind of happens, everything makes perfect sense, and I sink into a deep, deep, deep hole of sadness.

We're in an era of terror. Our civil liberties are being ignored to combat the invisible threat, to fight those who cannot be found, but we must do our part and be faithful too.

It's like the Cold War 2.0

So I ask that we take a moment and call this what it really is. It's the Perpetual War. There was no war in Afghanistan. There is no war in Iraq. They are merely campaigns in a far greater war. One that has no definitive end. One that has no victory. Slowly but surely our great nation can devolve into a police state. And every step of the way, the neo-cons and fundamentalists will ask us in that accusatory tone, "do you love our country or not??"

We stand at a vital moment in American History. In World History. Do we do what America has done so well, and hold ourselves accountable for our actions? Or is it finally the moment in which the rock solid façade of our constitution begins to crack?

Make the decision, people. And know that every time you don't, or every time you put it off, it counts as another point for those who are corrupting our country.

They're banking on our ignorance.

And it's working.

Gasoline on the Fire...

(This post was officially written for the Huffington Post on July 28th, 2007)

--

Hello,

So I don't mean to sound complainy, or come off sounding like some pinko-hippie, but can we take a moment, drop all the terror crap, and step back?

okay.

cool.

So we've got this kinda unstable region, the Middle East. Some crazy stuff has gone on there, mainly because since like the beginning of time Western nations have been imposing philosophies, governments, and weapons on these poor people who can't seem to get a word in edgewise.

If you take another step back you can begin to understand where these anti-Western governments like Iran's come from. They're pissed that we're so up in their faces about everything.

If I were living there, the notion of overcaffinated, godless, white people invading my homeland to "bring democracy" would freak me out too... but whatever, we're America, so we always know what we're doing. (Except in Hawaii [1893], Cuba [1961], and Vietnam [1963], and Iran [1979], to name a few)

So we've got this hotbed of angry people, one which we stirred up most recently with this second gulf war of ours.

Unfortunately, just as Malcolm X refused to blatantly accept the white American point of view, some don't completely agree with D.C.'s idea of an Iraqi democracy. And they might be right.

For convenience's sake, let's call these people "insurgents" or, perhaps, "evildoers". They usually can be identified by their AK-47's.

Wait, wait, AK-47's? Those are Russian guns, aren't they? Yes, I believe they are. I believe they were the pride and joy of the Soviet Union, the gun that symbolized all that was great about that winter of 1917.

So why do these evildoers have these weapons? OK, I'll stop being coy. This is why they have those weapons:

In the 1980's the Russians had their own little Vietnam in Afghanistan. They armed the locals themselves and we, being a nation of intelligent, freeloading, individuals, armed the other side. In fact, the man we armed, who you may have heard of, ended up making us regret that whole "giving away guns" thing.

His name was Osama Bin Laden.

We've handed out weapons before, on more than one occasion, to neutralize other weapons.

You don't put out a fire by dousing it in gasoline.

Which brings me to the point of this tirade,

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2137051,00.html

Glance at the above, then come back.

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

Great to have you back, let's chat about that little article you just read.

Iran is scary, I'm totally with you there. I'm not into the "arming people who want to nuke the crap out of us" thing either, seriously.

But this is so, so, so, so, the wrong way to be going about this.

Pumping ammunition into unstable nations is doing nothing short of raising the stakes in a game with no rules.

We need to rethink this action immediately, and, as long as we're listening to me, we need to sit down with Iran in an international forum and really really talk.

We're a world of free-thinking human beings. There is no red menace, there are no "body snatchers" there is no "invisible hand", we all have the choice to detonate weapons or disarm them. If the Iranians can't be argued with, and wish to annihilate our society, actions must be taken, but not a moment before.

Pre-emptive strikes may leave us the absolute winners, but at what cost?