Midwest Monday News 12.12.05
Posted by Steven Bellah on 12.12.2005
Retail still sucks.
This is a quickie news report, due to the asshole holiday shoppers who infiltrated the Target where I work and left it trashed. Apparently (and I wasn't told this until I started, of course), when you work a closing shift at Target, you can't leave until the entire store is neat and tidy. Yep, that's right, we spent 2 hours straightening cans of tuna, bags of chips, and clothes on hangers. But, I got paid for it, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
Anyhoo, there were two high profile deaths on Saturday......
Richard Pryor was a great comedian. He was everything Sarah Silverman wants to be. In recent years, when it became obvious his health was declining, the tributes poured in. I think he was even honored as one of the "Kennedy Center Honors" at one point. He was truly ahead of his time, and while I think some people go too far at times, I hope there will be more like him who push the envelope in an effort to be FUNNY, and not CONTROVERISAL.
Eugene McCarthy also passed away Saturday, and I would be lying if I said I was an expert on him. But I've heard and read about him before, and like Richard Pryor, I truly hope someone shows up with balls as big as he had and really gives Bush and the Republican Party a run for their money. Which leads me too.........
Growing Donkey Nuggets?
From Yahoo:
"To hear Democrats tell it, an anxious and isolated public craves a sense of national community and would galvanize behind a leader who asks people to sacrifice for the greater good. John Edwards says he's that leader.
Wait a minute, so does Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. Ditto for Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
Edwards, Vilsack and Warner, all likely presidential candidates in 2008, are toying with the same lofty community-and-purpose message. And that says as much about the sour mood of the country as it does about the state of the Democratic Party.
"There is a hunger in America, a hunger for a sense of national community, a hunger for something big and important and inspirational that they all can be involved in," Edwards, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, told delegates at a weekend convention of Florida Democrats.
"Americans don't want to believe that they are out there on an island all alone," the former North Carolina senator said.
This is not a new theme. As first lady, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York wrote, "It Takes a Village," a book arguing that a community is an important part of a child's development. Her husband, President Clinton, tried to create a sense of national purpose when he asked Americans to help "build a bridge to the 21st century."
The difference now is that six of every 10 people tell pollsters that the country is headed on the wrong track. Democrats believe they can put Republicans on the defensive by articulating the public's sense of malaise and offering hope to erase it.
Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean has commissioned confidential polling and analysis that suggest candidates in 2006 and 2008 should frame their policies — and attacks on Republicans — around the context of community.
It seems to be the emerging message from a party that has been bereft of one.
"What's happening in this country is we're losing our sense of common purpose," Vilsack told Florida Democrats. "We're losing a sense of community."
The second-term Iowa governor said two-thirds of parents do not think their children will fare better in life than they did and that 40 percent of children do not believe in the national dream.
He ascribed that pessimism to job and pension insecurity in a global economy, increasing health costs, and the rise of terrorism — an unsettling mix that has created "general anxiety" in America. Vilsack said Democrats should remind voters that Republicans failed to ease those concerns while they held power.
"When we work together, when rely on one another, when we care about one another we remove the fear of sharing," Vilsack said. "I believe the current administration and its polices is eroding the sense of community. This country's two great things — the self-reliant individual supported by community — is what made the American dream ... possible."
Vilsack, expressing a view shared by both Warner and Edwards, said his party can win the values debate if they make community-building a Democratic virtue.
"If we do that, we will have success in elections and we will be able to government effectively," he said. "We need to use the sense of community to say to Americans that Democrats will keep them safe" and protect their interests in a fast-changing global economy.
The three Democrats also shared the view that Bush missed an opportunity after the Sept. 11 attacks to rally the nation behind a cause such as weaning the country from foreign oil or, if Edwards had his way, fighting poverty.
"My biggest concern isn't what (Bush) has done. It's what he hasn't done — that he has never called on that spirit to make America great," Warner said.
Vilsack (adopted into a troubled family), Edwards (raised in a middle-class mill town), and Warner (the first college graduate in his family) said their modest upbringings were successful because a community of people helped their parents lift them up — teachers, coaches and neighbors.
"None of us got here on ourselves," Edwards said. "What we do together matters. What we do as a national community matters."
Edwards, Vilsack, Warner and Hillary Clinton are among the dozen or so Democrats actively exploring presidential bids.
To avoid showing any preference, the Florida Democrats reserved their keynote address for a Democrat who has not signaled his intention to seek the presidency, freshman Sen. Barack Obama.
The eloquent Illinois lawmaker stitched together a narrative of two century's of American life — the previous 100 years and the ones to come.
Spellbound delegates heard him criticize GOP plans to give people more control over their retirement plans, their choice of schools and their health care savings.
Equating the GOP agenda for Social Security, public school vouchers and Medicare with "social Darwinsim," Obama said the key to the nation's success is striking a balance between individual and collective responsibility.
"It has to do with individuals," he said, "but it also has to do with community."
------Well, well, well. It seems someone has a new talking point! Say it with me---"COMMUNITY!"
But really, it's great to hear that 6 of 10 people think the country isn't on the right track. But that means nothing unless you get those 6 people to vote on Election Day. The Democrats are framing an agenda, which is good--but they also seem to be assuming that the majority of America is on their side, which is bad.
Now, I'm not saying most Americans are Republican, I just don't think you should be talking like 60% of the country hates President Bush when 11% of those people didn't go out and vote on November 2, 2004. So, what did we get? A re-elected (or elected, depending on if the first "victory" in 2000 counts) president claiming a mandate when he got 51 or 52 percent of the vote.
Rally your base. If you give them good reason, they will vote. Don't make them swing over to Ralph "No Chance in Hell" Nader's side. And I think the only way that can happen is by NOT having Hillary run in 2008. You see, Democrats LOVE Bill Clinton. But they have always had it out for Hillary. Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton does not equal Bill Clinton. They are two different people. Very different.
But, as the mid term elections approach, expect to see and hear more stories just like this one.
Feedback
This fine young American decided to write me about my comments on suicide last week:
"WELL WELL WELL
I GUESS WE HAVE A PSYCHOLOGIST ON OUR HANDS WHO THINKS THAT HE CAN SOLVE OUR VAST SUICIDE PROBLEMS WITH ONE SINGLE ARTICLE. NEED I REMIND YOU THAT YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT WHO DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. HOW ABOUT IF YOUR BROTHER OR YOUR FATHER OR YOUR MOTHER OR SISTER COMMITED SUICIDE. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL THEN. BUT WAIT LET ME THINK..OH YEAH JUST LIKE YOU SAID EVERYTHING WILL GET BETTER OVER TIME.WELL TO THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING IN HELL THE SECONDS FELL LIKE HOURS, THE HOURS FEEL LIKE WEEKS..THE WEEKS FEEL LIKE MONTHS AND SO ON AND SO ON..AND WHY DON'T YOU TRY FEELING LIKE NO ONE IN THE WORLD WOULD GIVE A FUCK IF YOU DIED.
I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE AND ROT IN HELL YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT
AND WHEN YOU DO I WILL GLADLY PISS ON YOUR GRAVE YOU HEARTLESS MOTHERFUCKER
------Thank you for your feedback. It will only help make my weekly column THAT much better.
But seriously, I usually wouldn't even bother with someone like this, but I was a little ticked at the fist comment--that I think I have solved the suicide problem in America. I have never said that.
Like the war on terror, suicide cannot ever be 100% overcome. Yes, I said it---we CANNOT win the war on terror. What are we supposed to do? Kill every Arab or suspicious person just to be sure? You can't stop someone from blowing himself or herself up, and you cannot stop someone from sticking a gun to their own head, either.
I have had numerous friends that have killed themselves, as I mentioned last week. It didn't feel too good to hear the news. So yes, I was saddened, and yes, I would be devastated if a loved one took their own life. But it also made me very angry that they would cheat me, and themselves, out of so many memories.
I think if we spend more time caring about each other, then suicide wouldn't feel like the only way out for some people. Josh, the MySpace suicide kid obviously had many people who cared about him. It's a shame he didn't seem to know it.
If we can remind each other how important they are to us, and to others, then we won't have people sitting at home feeling depressed. But unfortunately we have people like the friend who wrote the positive message above. You want to piss on my grave? You hope that I die and rot in hell? Wow, what a caring, genuine person you are. No wonder there is so much hate in the world.
STAY CURRENT