Reflections from the left

So GWB is president once again... My prediction that the rich white male from Yale would win was correct. The choice of presidential candidates more than anything highlights the inequities of power within America. Both candidates are silver spooners and they even were frat brothers in one of the most prestigious fraternities at Yale. To paraphrase Gandhi, "They differ in degree, not in kind."
A lot of left wing friends have been calling and emailing me completely unhappy. I however actually think that this election will be good for my generation. We have been riding the coattails of the 1960s and believing that things were better and that we didn't have to do anything for civil society. This election was a wakeup call and a test. What the left does now is very important. Things are not good and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in America. There is still racism. There is still classism. There is still sexism and gender discrimination. If we do not continue to fight for and maintain our rights, they will be taken away from us. My generation has been more preoccupied with entertainment news and kitsch than politics. We are a self-indulgent lot.
I worried that if Kerry got elected the populace would fall back to sleep. Now that Bush is back, hopefully people will organize. Hopefully my generation will show the resolve and firmness that was showed by the 60s generation. America can do better.

The debates and the two party system

So I've been watching the presidential and vice presidential debate and getting royally pissed off. From what it appears there are only two candidates that are running. The lack of alternative voices is maddening to me. The republicrats run the show and they both talk within their narrow parameters. As a green party member, I get ticked off that the greens don't have access to the debates. If there is ever to be change in America it has to come from alternative voices and from the margin. Change will not come from those in power who have a stake in maintaining the status quo.

Poll: 81% of NYers Support Protests

NEW YORK - Seventy-one percent of the city's registered voters think protesters should be allowed to demonstrate in Central Park during the Republican National Convention, and 11 percent plan to go to a demonstration themselves, according to a poll released Thursday.
Most New Yorkers, 81 percent, approve of lawful demonstrations during the convention, and 68 percent approve of nonviolent civil disobedience, the Quinnipiac University Poll found. Nearly all disapprove of violent protests, according to the poll.

"The city is rolling out the red carpet for the Republican delegates, but most New Yorkers would roll out the green carpet of Central Park for the anti-Republican demonstrators," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

"Lawful demonstrations - even nonviolent civil disobedience - are a time-honored tradition and still widely supported," he said. "But 19 out of 20 New Yorkers draw the line at violence."

Two-thirds think the convention and the protests surrounding it will cause major disruptions, but just 10 percent plan to leave during the event, the poll said. Half said they were worried about the convention being held in the city, and 31 percent said they thought a major terrorist attack during the convention is "very likely" or "somewhat likely," the poll found.

New Yorkers were split on whether the convention will be good for the city, with 30 percent saying it would be, 33 percent saying it would not be, and 33 percent saying it won't make a difference, according to the Quinnipiac University Poll.

As for President Bush, the star of the event, 70 percent said they disapproved of the job he is doing, compared with 25 percent who approved, the poll said.
The poll surveyed 822 New York City registered voters between Aug. 20 and Aug. 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

I usually don't like poll information and I question its ability to actually be representative of the peoples views. But this one happens to suit my particular argument and views so call me a hypocrite.

GOP Protesters Refused Use of Central Park

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A federal judge ruled Monday that two protest groups cannot use New York City's Central Park as a site for a demonstration days before the Republican National Convention.

"This court cannot blind itself to the daunting security concerns facing this city during the Republican National Convention," said U.S. District Court Judge William H. Pauley III.
Pauley said there were serious questions about whether Central Park's Great Lawn can safely accommodate the 75,000 people expected to attend a rally sponsored by the anti-war ANSWER coalition and the National Council of Arab Americans.
The written ruling followed arguments Friday before Pauley in which the city maintained it was treating all protesters equally and fairly in denying permits to use the Great Lawn.
Gail Donoghue, special assistant to the city's corporation counsel, had argued that the lawn would be ruined if 75,000 people gathered there for a rally on Saturday.
The two groups had asked Pauley to order the city to issue a permit, saying tens of thousands of people gather on the lawn for musical concerts each year.
United for Peace and Justice also has asked the city for a permit for 250,000 people to rally on the Great Lawn on Sunday. That group filed a lawsuit last week in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeking to force the city to let it use the park.

It's good to see that people got their priorities straight. A valid public protest in a PUBLIC park, but don't mess up the lawn. We can't have people walking on grass, it represents a security concern. Turn the terrorist mood ring up to orange!

This is from a green party press release

Green organizers recalled a major nuclear disarmament demonstration in 1982, which drew a million participants. Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis warned that protesters would "ruin the park" and denied the permit. Mayor Ed Koch ordered Davis to open Central Park, saying "They'll be safe there." The result was only a couple of arrests for misdemeanors; the day after the event, Davis said that Central Park was neater than his son's bedroom at home. The director of the 1982 rally was Leslie Cagan, chief organizer of the August 29 UFPJ march.

Gap Between Rich and Poor Widening in Troubled Economy

WASHINGTON — Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks, and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose paychecks buy less.
New government data also show that Bush's tax cuts have shifted the overall tax burden to the middle class from the wealthiest Americans.
The growing disparity is even more pronounced in this recovering economy. Wages are stagnant, and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas and food have soared.
The wealthiest 20 percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to the Census Bureau. Their share jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while everyone else's fell. For the bottom fifth, the share dropped from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent.


Growing inequity in society... but really a plutocracy is waaayyy better than democracy. As long as the ultra-rich are getting theirs, then everything will be ok

Wean Yourself

This is one of my favorite poems.


Wean Yourself

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what I have to say.
From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,
move to an infant drinking milk,
to a child on solid food,
to a searcher after wisdom,
to a hunter of more invisible game.

Think of how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.
At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.
"You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed
Listen to the answer.

There is no "other world,"
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating."

- Jelaluddin Rumi