It's not personal

 

I'm at a peculiar age, having retired a few years ago. My descendents have reached their full proportion, so I don't have marriages, births or deaths to write about. In fact, aside from a brother-in-law's stroke, my father's deafness, and my on-going, increasingly threatening medical problems, there's not much happening. There's nothing personal going on: one day comes after the other. At least, there is another day.

I have been concerned about public affairs since I was a teenager. I got hooked on politics when I read a bunch of "utopia" books, starting with More's Utopia, when I was 16. It occurred to me that most of our problems could be fixed, if we were rational and set aside our emotional proclivities (such as greed). I have believed that ever since.

For those who think this Blog is just an unrelieved charnel house of cursing and negativity: You are Right! In more ways than one. But, in your favor, I really do have moments when the thousands of American lives being wasted in Iraq seems a small matter. Sometimes I feel like saying to hell with the damn poor - like homeless George (that's his real name) who hangs out and begs in front of the local grocery store. He's probably totally crazy, and is so far down the totem pole and out of it that he doesn't even have a shopping cart. The other beggars - I think some are scammers - have the usual cardboard signs, shopping carts and other stuff we've come to associate with being out of luck and homeless. I am particularly turned off by the scammers, if that's what they are, who are back at their station day after day for a whole season. In our area, they even work as teams and rotate among the shopping centers. You get to know them after a while. So, why not? To hell with them; let 'em roast in our 105^o sun.

Then there's the ne'er do well old ladies and minorities I see all the time at Kaiser. I'm not one of them - anyone can see that. I am old, but not a ne'er do well. I've had an unfortunate stretch of bad luck which is killing me a little at a time. You should feel sorry for me, and help me. Now, that's real personal.

Now, let's see - who else can I nail today? How about lawyers and politicians? What's really wrong with them is they don't appreciate Beethoven, Schubert, Stravinsky and Verdi. (I love Beethoven, my #1 man.) Instead, most of the political types I've known listen to really sleazy popular music. They all go to church and pretend to be like the rest of us, which everyone knows they are not. For some reason, males in those professions have an irresistible attraction to all the females around them. I think it has something to do with (self-defined) Alpha-Maleness. The females fall for it, each thinking she will be the lucky one to be elevated to (what?). Of course, it rarely happens. Washington's K Street, Wall Street and lots of other Financial District Streets are filled with hustlers and gold-diggers. They deserve each other.

By the way, none of this is political. Democrats, Republicans and even Independents are like that. Jimmy Stewart is dead, and Mr. Smith doesn't go to Washington anymore - not even the Mr. Smith from Oregon.

I could get nastier. But, why bother? We all know it just doesn't matter. The whoremongers, scammers, and all the other Babbits of our day will always be with us. Nothing can be done about it. They just ruin my life a little bit every day, day after day.

But, that's not personal, is it?