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Posted
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 @ 2057 PST
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I hope they get their asses bitten.
Few
things are as satisfying as watching the high
and mighty take a fall, especially when they
have been behaving like arrogant pricks. Take
our (in)famous Govenator, for example. Nurses
were present at a speech he was giving in Long
Beach to protest his decision to freeze the
implementation of increased nurse-to-patient
ratios. Schwarzenegger told the audience to
ignore them as the nurses union is "a special
interest" and was quoted as saying they
were only upset because "I kick their butt".
Needless to say, if the nurses weren't upset
before, they certainly were from that point
forward - even those that don't belong to the
union. The California Nurses Association (the
union) has made a point of appearing everywhere
they possibly can to protest and to draw attention
to Arnold's lack of tact....and to those special
interests that Arnold does pay attention to,
like the hospital lobby. This
has even lead to national coverage (you
need a subscription to Time or to pay a fee
to read this link). To quote the San
Francisco Chronicle: "Since then, the
nurses have proved to have the kind of eye for
spectacle that even a Hollywood star like Schwarzenegger
might admire." I sincerely hope that Arnie
will get his butt handed back to him by the
nurses (yes, I'm biased).
Then
there is Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative
Party in Canada, who has lead the battle against
Bill C-38, the piece of legislation which will
allow homosexual couples to marry (in keeping
with the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms). He has
been busy trying to get visible minorities on
his side, in hopes that they are more socially
conservative than the rest of the population,
and so will move their support from the Liberal
party to the Tories. Fortunately, it seems that
those minorities, sensitive to the pluralistic
nature of the country, are not to be swayed
by this tactic. In
a February 18 opinion piece published in the
Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson said: "But
there are early indications that the strategy
is backfiring. Instead, the same-sex issue is
probably going to cost Stephen Harper the election."
Perhaps they see that if conservatives are willing
to quash the status and freedoms of one minority,
they might be willing to do the same to any
minority (remember the fiasco over turbans and
the RCMP uniform?). Meanwhile, the Liberal Party
"has
overwhelmingly endorsed same-sex marriage in
keeping with the minority government's bid to
legalize gay weddings. Similar resolutions,
all pushed by the party's youth wing, were voted
down at three previous conventions."
I'll point out here that the Green
Party has long endorsed this position.
So,
Schwarzenegger and Harper may find themselves
on the wrong side of public opinion, and have
their own words bite them on the ass at their
next election. I bloody hope so.
Posted
Monday, March 7, 2005 @ 1927 PST
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Mysteries and excesses.
The
power and mystery of open water never ceases
to entrance me. This evening I was taking a
walk on the perimeter path around the west and
north side of Treasure Island. The sun was low
and golden in the west, with clouds hovering
low over the Presidio and spilling between peaks
in the Marin Highlands. The water was choppy
and green with a low swell, and the flood tide
just beginning. Only a couple of sailboats remained
on the Bay, and the ferries were dashing back
and forth with the evening commuters. One of
the big Coast Guard cutters that are stationed
at Coast Guard Island in the estuary between
Oakland and Alameda was swinging around Alcatraz.
By the time I got an all the way down to Northpoint
and then back to Westpoint, she was under the
Golden Gate and heading out for the open ocean.
There is something terribly evocative about
a ship putting to sea. It raises images of leaving
the known shore behind you, of exploration and
facing the unknown in a realm that is far, far
larger than yourself. It would seem that we
could not possibly impact something so vast
and so overpowering. Unfortunately, that is
not the case. I spotted a bit of plastic floating
on the water, and was reminded of a segment
of NPR’s
Science Friday that I heard last week. They
were interviewing
biologists who do deep-sea exploration looking
for new species. One of them said that one
of the most surprising finds that she had made
was the variety of human garbage that has been
swept far out to sea and has sunk down to what
were once pristine depths. It is times like
these that I am ashamed of the willful ignorance
and excesses of our civilization.
Speaking
of excesses, at the post office the talk was
all about the
“friendly fire” incident involving
the Italian journalist. The people in line
who were discussing it seemed to have the details
somewhat wrong: they believe that the journalist
had been killed (it was actually an Italian
government agent), and they seemed completely
unaware that despite the opinion of the Italian
people, their government has supported the invasion
and occupation of Iraq and still has troops
stationed there. What does seem to upset the
people involved in the discussion was the notion
that there are people in the world who believe
that the action at the checkpoint was deliberate.
“How could anyone think such a thing of
us?” exclaimed one woman. Unfortunately,
there is precedence that would lead some people
to suspect such a thing of the US, although
I think that it is an unreasonable charge in
this particular case. However, it is also unreasonable
to have secret and unquestioned rules of engagement
for checkpoints that interface with the civilian
population that the military is supposed to
be there to “protect”. What strikes
me as excessive here is the amount of firepower
brought to bear in circumstances where it would
seem most of the time they are dealing with
civilians, not insurgents. If not for this high
profile incident, I think the majority of people
would be unaware of the fact that civilians
routinely get shot and killed by troops who
are ostensibly protecting themselves. No one
is held liable for these incidents, although
some families do receive a paltry sum of money
for their loss at the discretion of the local
commander. The upsetting part is the apparent
lack of value placed on other people’s
lives. Are Westerner’s lives really worth
that much more than anyone else’s? Would
anyone have reported this incident at the checkpoint
if it had been a family of Iraqis instead of
Europeans? I’m uncomfortable with the
probable answers to these questions, just like
I’m uncomfortable with the notion that
the military’s undisclosed philosophy
is that it is better to accidentally kill civilians
(who do not count for much and are not counted
when they are killed) then to risk American
lives. That strikes me as a value judgment that
flies in the face of the concept of liberty
and justice for all.
Posted
Sunday, March 6, 2005 @ 2102 PST
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...and he's back.
Back
in action - more or less. I've put my January
archive to bed, and updated my decorations for
Ostara (also called Eostar), the festival of
the Spring Equinox. Oh, yes - I've also updated
my picture on my homepage (try to guess the
skyline in the background). Several friends
told me that my standard B&W 3x5 portrait
looked like a mug shot.
I've
also received news that Sigma
Theta Tau has accepted one of my poems for
the upcoming second edition of their anthology
of nursing art, The
HeART of Nursing (Note:
this link is to the first edition). The
piece that was accepted is entitled "Escape
Velocity", and was written at the time
of the Columbia disaster, ironically enough.
I will post a copy on this site at the time
of publication, if I can get the appropriate
permission.
In
the meantime, I am reliving my bachelorhood
(and remembering why I put it behind me) here
on my island by the Bay. My coursework continues,
but I get closer to the end every day. I head
back to New Mexico at the end of the month for
Micaela's second birthday (my little Aires chick),
and hopefully every month thereafter, until
I'm done. Wish me luck.
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