Angry voters? I've got one for you...

People keep talking about how the mid-term elections went Republican (and Tea-Party) because the voters are angry about the loss of jobs, the economy, and the wars.

Yeah? Well, I'm angry too.

I'm angry because people think it's a good statement to draw a Hitler mustache on a picture of the President of the United States. I'm angry because Americans think it's patriotic to vandalize their President.

I'm angry because people point the finger at Barack Obama, and blame him for the economy, blame him for the war, blame him for our troubles. But you know what? GEORGE W. BUSH tanked the economy. BUSH signed us up for these wars. BUSH started the economic stimulus and left Obama with a pile of bailouts. BUSH kept everyone in the dark and crippled us with fear. And now that the light has shined on BUSH'S catastrophe, we blame it on the man who WE elected to fix it.

I'm angry because people seem to think that eight years of destruction can be eliminated with two years of reconstruction.

I'm angry because it's okay to toss civility in political debate out the window now.

I'm angry because the Tea Party exists: a group of people who named their agenda after the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a protest against the unjust taxes that England had imposed on the colonies. It was a protest of people against their unjust government.

And I'm angry because somehow Americans have forgotten that WE THE PEOPLE are the government. So if we hate the government, we're hating ourselves.

I'm angry because if Barack Obama were white, the voters would see him differently and treat him differently, and nobody's willing to admit that people are reacting negatively to his race, but that race is a factor in how people approve of his work overall.

I'm angry that the politicians that make up the Tea Party have created a sensationalist campaign using language like "killing jobs" and "big government takeover" to perpetuate the fear of the uneducated masses. Using this fearmongering, they further their own privatization agendas, and ensure that their stakeholders and investors will continue to have economic success. This leads to the destabilization and destruction of the country's infrastructure. And the voters lap it up like kittens and vote for the demise of the very services they use.

I'm angry because the Tea Party and the Republicans seem hell-bent on destroying essential public services.

I'm angry because if they win, it means the end of Social Security, Medicare, library systems, mass transit, road maintenance, law enforcement, public education, and emergency responders. BECAUSE ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE PAID FOR WITH--wait for it--TAXES.

I'm angry because people don't think for themselves, they think what they're told to think, and the prettier the package, the shinier and more dazzling the concept, the more likely it is people will jump on board.

I'm angry because it's okay for the Palins to call people faggots, and it's somehow also okay to be an unwed teenage mother and still promote heartland home-grown Focus-on-the-Family values.

I'm angry because people in this country still don't have equal civil rights and somehow that's not a problem for the majority of voters.

I'm angry that people can't marry each other if they're two consenting adults in love.

I'm angry that people don't have universal access to the health care they need.

I'm angry that American Indian tribes still live in third-world squalor on reservations, have rocketing cases of diabetes, suicide, depression, and alcoholism; they're disgustingly under-served as a group and that doesn't seem to be a problem for voters either.

I'm angry that our jobs are all exported overseas by greedy corporations who don't care about their communities, their CEOs just want to be in the top 5% of the earning bracket.

I'm angry that our Constitution is unrecognizable, that it looks like someone took an Xacto knife to it.

I'm angry that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (ah yes, remember? When BUSH II was king-I-mean President?) destroyed Habeas Corpus and now, we Americans no longer have a fair right to trial if one of us is suddenly declared an "enemy combatant".

I'm angry that because of the conservative Supreme Court Justices and the cowardly liberal Justices, corporations like McDonald's and Chase Bank now have the same "constitutional" rights as an individual American.

I'm angry because corporations are allowed to perpetuate their abusive money-making practices with no checks or balances, with no regulation, they can run wild and screw around with people's human rights, and no one will stop them, because they're perfectly within their legal "rights" to do it. (Ahem - Target? Wal-Mart? Need I go on?)

I'm angry because our food system (which is lorded over by corporations) is corrupt and unsafe and there is NO WAY out of it. There is NO WAY to acquire affordable, healthy food anymore without it being processed, engineered and genetically altered to hell. Here comes the mutant e-coli shitstorm, everyone, gird your loins.

I'm angry because our corrupt food system could be held responsible for the macabre state of an American's health. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer...why does America have such higher rates of these diseases than other countries? Because our food is shit. Literally.

I'm angry because it's okay to "raise" chickens in tiny shit cages and alter their genes so they're too fat to walk, so they lie in excrement for their entire lives without ever seeing the sun, and then - most of the time - we painlessly slice off their heads and soak their corpses in chemicals. And then we unabashedly feed them to the public. And "big government" is so crippled with its own lost-cause debates, nothing can possibly get done to change this picture.

I'm angry because the oil and coal companies have a chokehold on our land and they can rape the national forests and national parks all they want, and they can kill all the electric cars they want, and they can stymie environmental progress, because they are allowed to monopolize our energy, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO CHECKS OR BALANCES. No regulation = abuse.

I'm angry because our prison system is being privatized, which again means no regulation, which again means wanton abuse. Then these prisoners get out and are allowed to roam our communities. And do we offer them mental health care, to reform them and possibly ensure that they won't repeat an offense? NO, because we don't want to pay taxes, we don't want to offer people health care, we couldn't give a rat's ass about people's physical and mental health, we just want a tax refund so we can go buy a flat-screen TV.



As you can see, I'm angry about a lot of things (I've got more, but I'm running out of steam). And I don't sit around and do nothing about it. I write. I speak out. I vote. I give my money and my time. I try to make the world better, one person at a time. And I pray. I pray for the enlightenment of my fellow human beings. I pray for tolerance, love and peace. And I try to be the change. Oh yeah, and I avoid eating chickens.

Illegal Immigration

My friend posted this comment on Facebook: "I'd like to remind everyone that unless your heritage is Native American, you too are an illegal immigrant to a country."

My initial reaction to this was, wait a minute, I'm not illegal, I was born here, and my family went through Ellis Island, filled out their paperwork, they're totally leg--

Wait another minute. She's right.

Here was my response: "The treaties that were signed by members of the United States Army and leaders of American Indian nations were reneged, The United States did not honor their legally binding contracts and therefore, all land upon which people migrated that was relinquished as a result of these treaties is illegally acquired land. It was stolen. Period. Therefore, immigrants who live on stolen land are living on that land in direct opposition to the terms of the treaties. They are illegal immigrants, just not in modern terms. (I am an illegal immigrant as well, and I have not forgotten.)"

This led me to wonder if we as "Americans" shouldn't have a more humble view of our immigration laws. I mean, if you think about it, this new horde of "American" marauders comes in, kills off all the indigenous people, rapes the land, and then has the audacity to chastise people for coming in and using its resources and living in its cities?

Not to get Christian here, but the Gospel of Matthew has something to say about this, the thing about the waiting to tell your brother about the speck in his eye until you've figured out how to dislodge the splintery log that's in your own.

Hey America, you want Immigration Reform? How about let's start by reforming our policies (or the lack thereof) towards indigenous people, how about let's go back and try to fix the deplorable way we've handled every Indian treaty we ever signed?

Before we continue expounding on the ways we need to "deal" with our immigration "problem," let's, for the first time, REALLY deal with our "Indian Problem," once and for all. Let's do a real bit of penance here. Let's cordon off Devil's Tower and the Black Hills and all the other sacred sites and stop drilling in them and climbing on them and otherwise defacing holy ground. Let's pour some government money into restoring Indian territory and ensuring that people who live on reservations have access to the best resources, the best health care, the best psychiatric care, the best education. Let's preserve Native languages and give the bodies of the dead that are languishing in natural history museums back to the descendants and give those peoples' deaths some dignity.

Let's make sure that indigenous people aren't forced to live in third world squalor on Pine Ridge while we look the other way. Let's help these people fund their nations on some other source of income than casinos. Let's promise to put to death our stereotypes, let's bury those despicable sports mascots like the Redskins and the Braves, let's find a way to eliminate the plagues of alcoholism, drug abuse, and diabetes.

I don't think any of us illegal immigrants (squatters on foreign land) have a word to say about people of other nations crossing our borders and using our resources, because you know what? They aren't really ours and they never were. I think we have over two hundred years of illegal activity on our own behalf to resolve before we can start examining the speck in the other's eye, the Mexican border.

Ring Around the Rosie: Ashes

There is something so pagan about Ash Wednesday. You let another person smear dirt all over your face (well, in my case, my nose was looking pretty smudgy by the end of it). I'm always mystified by Catholic behavior but as I walked back to my pew and looked at my fellow parishioners staring straight ahead with big fat smudges on their foreheads I wondered what could be going on in their heads.

I think I know what we're supposed to think. We're supposed to be penitent, to feel badly about all the bad things we've done and to be very, very sorry. Guilt, forgiveness. And maybe there's some sadness and regret thrown in there too. Father told us to rend our hearts and cast off the things in our lives that separate us from God. Like TV or video games. Yes, and we should probably give up lusting after people, alcohol consumption, and cussing like sailors. Because those things separate us from God.

So that's easy, right? Feel sorry for yourself (Heaven knows I'm exceptionally skilled at that practice), worry about how you've committed all these sins, and doubt that you'll ever be forgiven for being such a wretched human being. And then you're done. Of course you should try to do better, but who has time for that? I'm so busy feeling bad, I can't waste my time concentrating on doing better, because I know I can't possibly live up to what's expected of me.

At this point my knees kind of hurt from the kneeler thingie on the pew so I lean back and chill a little bit. I used to be really good at this feeling sorry thing. Well, better than I am. I used to fixate and obsess over things I'd said and done, and man it's lucky nobody gave me a leather strap, 'cause I'd make such a fantastic flagellant.

But I can't do it anymore. I lose steam nowadays, I don't get very far in my wallowing. It's all Eckhart Tolle's fault, too.

Here is what I am "giving up" for Lent. I am giving up drama. I am giving up my ego. And you won't find me flogging through the daffodils because all that sorrow, all that repentance is a really great way for me to feed my ego and play out my melodrama (meanwhile, God's wondering when I'll get over myself).

The ashes remind me to not take anything too seriously, because none of it is really important. Feeling bad and fasting and giving up chocolate is oh so dramatic, and way too serious for me. I think it kind of begs the question. You want to fast? Try letting go of your inhibitions, try not taking things personally, try rendering those things which you hold most dear (your work, your self-image) irrelevant. Now there's a fast.

I think that's what Jesus wanted out of the idea that you should pray in secret. He wanted us to discipline our minds and separate from the ego, from the drama.

Can Art Survive Technology? Or, I Miss Seeing Your Face

Like many artists, I would like to understand why John Q. Public isn't interested in, say, purchasing a painting of mine for $800, even if it's for a good cause. I would like to understand why people think I shouldn't have to be paid for singing. I would like to understand why people don't read books anymore, why books and literature aren't appealing.

Why buy a painting when you can rip it off the internet for free, and look at it any time you want? If you have good enough technology, you could just print out the painting at home and hang it on your wall, who cares if the actual paint isn't visible? Who even uses real paint for art these days? Isn't Photoshop enough?

Everything is so easily accessible: music, film, theatre, writing...all of the institutes that supported communities of artists are dying: museums, galleries, newspapers and real-life publishing, concert halls and opera houses, movie theaters and playhouses...so how can an artist make a profit off of their art, when there is no audience, no group of people willing to pay money for it?

Maybe I'll find an answer to this question, but I don't see one right now. People have to make a conscious decision to support the arts, people have to abandon their laziness and make the extra effort to leave the privacy of their homes to see that movie, or hear that performance. It seems that is a lot to ask of the generation wearing iPhone-shaped blinders, who cannot experience anything if it doesn't manifest as a digital image at their fingertips.

Yes, I can admit to using youtube and google to look at art, to watch a movie clip or read a poem. But I am left feeling empty, as if I had no real connection to the art, and it stirs a desire for further interaction. If I see a painting by Frida Kahlo online, I resolve to someday see that painting in real life, to cough up the dinero to squint at the brushstrokes and experience something that I will remember for a long time. I can tell, though, that a lot of people out there are satisfied by simply googling whatever art they fancy and shooting a quick glance at it while their feature film downloads.

To say nothing of the profound expense of human interaction. How are we to relate to one another, to empathise and have compassion, when there is no need for the human touch, the face-to-face experience? How can we call ourselves a community when we rarely commune, when we are content to pile into our giant destructive SUVs and spend our days zooming from cozy garage to cozy garage, plying the children into gaping silent apathy as they stare at the DVD players in the backseat? How are we to enjoy good conversations when every restaurant's wall is covered in television screens (St. Clare, pray for us) and we have every opportunity to abandon our loved ones for the siren song of constant image stimulation? To me, technology is like caffeine or cigarettes, a common drug that keeps us feeling calm and satiated, lest we forget the impending emphysema, heart attack, or lung cancer that looms with each little sin committed. So we indulge in the instant gratification that our internet can provide, again and again, for free, and we take it and all the work that is poured into it daily for granted.

A society loses its identity without arts and culture. And likewise, an economy suffers when the institutions of arts and culture aren't supported by active, engaged, thinking individuals. Can you imagine visiting New York without seeing a Broadway show? Or driving through a Hollywood with no movie stars, with no acting talent to admire? Yet that is what we sacrifice, every time we download a movie for free, or youtube a scene from Wicked. And while Broadway and Hollywood may be safe due to their size, age, and enduring appeal, Denver's arts district may not be so lucky.

Are we going to take ownership of our humanity, our communities, our fellow human beings, or are we going to stay behind the screen, for convenience's sake? I can tell you that it's not very convenient for me to spend months creating art only for it to receive a passing glance, and not a cent for my efforts. When I create art I do it to enrich my community, but I cannot do that without economic support. None of us can. We have to eat, and live, and food, unfortunately, is not something that we can download for free...yet.