William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut, January 23, 2008
I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
– George Carlin
Change, right?
That’s been the big buzzword since the middle of December or thereabouts. While the last days of 2007 bled away one by one, and as the pre-Iowa political bedlam became loud beyond endurance, “change” was the word on the lips of every candidate. One could not swing a dead cat by the tail in Ames or Des Moines without swatting campaign literature pledging “change to come,” but only if they got the votes.
Giuliani described himself as an “agent of change.” Clinton talked about needing experience in order to be able to bring change. Obama fairly waxed rhapsodic on the topic, setting the pre-caucus benchmark late in November by using the word four times in one sentence. Romney vowed to bring change to Washington, DC. Even McCain and The Artist Formerly Known As Thompson were grudgingly forced to work the word into their speeches after a while. It was everywhere, and any credulous folks in the crowd must have gotten to a point, after hearing it so often from so many candidates, where it felt safe to assume “change” was really coming no matter who wins come November.
“Change.” Let’s talk about that word, and what it involves. Certainly, making change in America’s domestic and foreign policy priorities is a necessary activity. Consider …
Iraq – A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a school, wounding 22 teachers and students who were arriving for the beginning of the academic day. Another suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral in the oil refinery city of Biaji, killing 15 and wounding ten others. The bodies of six family members who had been kidnapped the day before were found shot execution-style in Diyala province. Seven other bodies were found in different Baghdad districts. A bomb went off in Baghdad and wounded a policeman. Gunmen in Baghdad attacked and wounded three other policemen in Baghdad. A roadside bomb detonated on the Diyala Bridge killed an employee of the Transport Ministry and wounded six others. Two US soldiers were killed in Kirkuk, bringing the total number of American soldiers killed in Iraq to 3,931, with 27 of those deaths coming in the month of January to date.
Not much has changed in Austin! Nearly 40 years after Gary Shaw played football for the University of Texas, authoring one best selling book about his experiences and nearly a decade after his demise, the promising writer evidently still strikes many a burnt orange nerve.
Who would have thought that only 13 lines of poetry would be practically banned in ‘Longhorn Land’?
“Fragments and Sorrows of Gary Shaw”
http://www.ilovepoetry.com/viewpoem.asp?id=94401
Comment by tsumbra — January 24, 2008 @ 4:50 pm