Perpetual Notion

Our nation, the United States of America, is as a whole Republican. To look at the country alone, and to see the climate of political varieties within, one would not come to this conclusion. Instead, to see this one must look at our country and its place in the world.

We want democracy for everyone, but will not cede our power to anyone. Democracy reigns supreme, unless the United States is present. In which case, the United is President of the World, and democracy is Vice-President.

Domestically, we must retain control of our own homestead, just as we must globally retain our homeland. The government is not welcome in our home to document our guns, nor is any foreign government welcome on our soil to oversee our nuclear capability. The liberals and intellectuals in Los Angeles/New York can not tell us what is right for our families, just as the foreigners in France/Venezuela can not instruct us how to run a country.

And the list goes on. For the environment, we make no significant commitments. Economically, we would never do anything that could cripple our market. Aid to nations in poverty is sparse. We are after all, capitalists, and they, are competition.

Whatever we may feel that our identity is domestically… we are by our own standards, conservative abroad. I do not align with a national identity such as this, but what can be done? There needs to be a paradigm shift. In a world so globalized, it is unhealthy to retain an elite nationalist self image. There is a greater community beyond our borders that we as a nation have yet to recognize. But until that day, this is a red state.

Once more it is election season, and political spirits are awoken. With them come ghosts of campaigns passed. As George W. Bush rides his last year of office, it is easy to think and question what might have been. The 2000 election was an exciting and close contest. Even today there is discussion over the legitimacy of the final result.

I shall dispense with Bush quickly, as he is not today’s subject. His two terms have taken a greater toll than expected by most everyone. The United States was attacked, we are at war, Environmental policy is weakening, the dollar is doing poorly, and our international image is suffering. Noted issues merely scratch the surface of our present political situation.

So, what might have been? It has been a common understanding that these last seven years could have been better. Much better. I will qualify by noting that this is a common understanding within my circles, and my circles do not involve NRA meetings or megachurches. These years could have been better under the leadership of Al Gore.

The nation and Al had a chance to align in the year 2000. They did not. The nation and the world are now worse off for not realizing this merger. Certain issues will be matters of opinion, but the disapproval ratings of our current administration can attest great lengths that Al Gore could have been a better option.

The aftermath of the 2000 election has bred a loser, and it is not Al Gore. The end of his political career breathed new life into Al. What was stale, starched, and stagnant is now a conscious pulse. Since the millennium Al Gore has reinvented himself. He has given his energy a direct focus, to an end that he has been quite productive and effective. His two books, a movie showcasing his efforts, and a Nobel Peace Prize have shown that he not only relevant but also hip. Such exploits stand tall in a field that is known for fading away, as ex-politicians are not big in the public eye.

The 2000 election was a victory for himself, because that is who Al got to spend some much needed time with. He is a better man now for having lost then. Websites have popped up to draft Al Gore to run in the 2008 election. For whatever reason he has opted not to fuse his new found popularity with politics. Not political office anyway. The man has found himself, and we are lost.

I am not saying that propaganda is bad. It is just a tool as any other similar thing. It can and will be used. Therefore it is important that people recognize its usage, or else they will find that they themselves are what is used. I do not despise propaganda. I despise the inability of some to see its application. It can be delivered as simply as a pretty face and soft voice to match.

It need not come from above, but can rise among the youth and sing all the credibility that a grass roots effort can offer. Such is the case, that everyone is susceptible to being drugged, and everyone is equally capable of handing out prescription. One candidate stands above all others in this realm. And while the polls may not always show it, the public embraces him in a manner that makes the competition salivate.

The campaign of Barack Obama is formed upon an image far more those of others running. This is not say that his merits are superficial. It is likely that Obama has substance. But who will see it when we are so filled with the wonderment of his coolness. A strong and successful image goes a long way and can be a great asset. It can also be a handicap. Pleased with the immediate impression, voters may feel less a need to dig deeper into what makes up the candidate.

A person faces no greater scrutiny than by running for the office of president. But then… what really would they have to hide if the public is not even looking. The current state of things bolsters my confidence that I could in fact build up a campaign around a cardboard cutout. Granted I would need to add a few celebrity endorsements and a sound byte or two.

Our system of democracy allows for us to be skeptics. The three branches of government are even arranged so as to be actively skeptical of one another. We do no justice to ourselves, our neighbors, our country by electing the most handsome grin. Let us ask of our candidates all the substance that they have to offer, and when there is no more, we can ask “why not more?” For we will only get as much as we ask, so why not ask everything?

I just read a New York Times article that spoke to me in a way that very few do. It was an Op-Ed written by Richard Rubin titled Over There – and Gone Forever.

The editorial introduced me to a man named Frank Buckles. Frank lied about his age in order to join the Army and fight in World War I. He served his time and made it home to the states. Now, with 106 years beneath his belt, Frank is the only surviving American veteran of World War I. The United States sent 2 million soldiers to France, Frank is all that remains.

Maybe it has something to do with my Bachelor’s Degree in History, and perhaps it is just general humanity, but I have always felt a strong connection to the living past. I have felt it a loss that John Lennon died the year before I was born. Not that I ever would have met him or seen a concert, but the fact that we could never walk the Earth at the same time, I had missed something.

Two and a half decades into my life, I have come this far still sharing a world with the veterans of the First World War. To what extent I have benefited from this, probably not much. I have not made the effort to go out there, meet these people, and hear their stories. Honestly, until this moment I had not realized the immediacy of the situation. What I have enjoyed is the sense of closeness that their existence has granted me.

We can always remember the stories through conduits such as history books. Yet text has such a disconnect. I could be reading about World War I or about Ancient Greece, and the experience would be much the same. Now having a living breathing veteran, a first hand ambassador to the event, that has power. The individual, as is the case with Frank Buckles, may not even live nearby. But for the pure fact that they are living, adds a reality to what would otherwise be just history.

The author tackles reality by addressing that this will likely be the last Veteran’s Day to recognize a living soldier of the war. There are more wars and there are more soldiers, but if history can ever be alive then it is about to die. And the cycle continues, history being created, lived, and recalled.

It is as though I am standing beside death, and once more realizing mortality. As I write, World War I still has a heartbeat. Its memory still holds a level of tangibility, and is within reach. Soon the pulse will cease and it will thus become abstract. We will then gather to talk about the event that has passed, but none of us will have known it. Strangers assembled to eulogize the strange.

I see this moment almost gone, and I am made to think of what we do have. My grandpa, among many others, served in World War II. He still has stories to tell, and I have yet to give a good listen. And that is not to say that history is noteworthy only through war, it is just one more, of many examples. I cannot combat the progression of time and its details, though I do feel it. And I do intend to acknowledge its passing presence. The great grandfather of wars lies on his deathbed, but the family tree of history goes on. …And I see that I must stay in touch with the family, for it is mine.

I recently received an email from moveon.org wanting me to sign a petition supporting a bill that would place pricing limitations on the oil companies. Yes, I do hate the oil companies. I do agree that they are exploiting us with their rising prices. The oil companies are probably even better represented in Washington than we are. I do not enjoy the mass of profit flowing to Big Oil, they do not deserve that money. And yet we do not deserve the low costs that we have been paying for our gasoline. The $3.39 at the pump is not an accurate account of the real expense. Fossil fuels are in limited supply and we act as though they are infinite, a crop that will continue to yield. No, they will run out. We have probably even peaked already. Then there is the damage that we do, both in acquiring and using the fuel. Maybe the Earth does warm and cool in cycles, but we are certainly helping to warm it now.

Where is the sense of big picture? Gasoline is not overpriced, it is under priced and the money is going to the wrong places. Gas prices need to rise and not to anyone’s benefit, but for everyone’s benefit. The high costs of fuel must be channeled to research and development of more sustainable energy resources. There are all these advertisements for life insurance and retirement plans, so we know that people can think into the future. So why can we not do this for our collective future?

Higher fuel cost will also be of great value as a deterrent to driving personal automobiles. This is where I will do a rare thing, and that is praise the free market. Technology in fuel efficiency is getting better, fuel has peaked and is thus becoming more difficult to obtain, people are becoming more conscious of their driving habits and fuel consumption. The oil companies are watching all of this happen and wondering about their future. The end of Big Oil has become a reasonable idea. They, being business savvy, have decided to make a valiant last effort at pulling in as much cash as is possible before they are obsolete or run out of town. Likely both.

The oil companies have raised their prices. The masses are paying the price, for now. The news will continue to grow more dire for Big Oil, the prices will go up, less and less people will pay, and eventually this current system will phase out. This is the free market economy working its way out. I am not opposed to the efforts by the Senate and moveon.org, trying to curb oil profits. But the unbalanced profits are just a part of the problem, and not even a significant part at that. As much as I despise to see them reap the exploitative profits, I love to see them dig their grave. And Big Oil is doing just that.