2.23.99
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Bob puts on another CD, and sings loudly:
It's Savage Garden again. I finally broke down and bought the CD, and have become hopelessly addicted. Such a handsome young man, such attractive lyrics.
I've moved back to the soundtrack from Pulp Fiction, though. It's really a great flick, I think. My friend Mike said, "It has no good guys, just varying degrees of badness." RR hated it though. It is super graphic and perhaps a little too much so. I thought the violence was justified, but he disagrees.
Death and violence are such an integral part of life for so many, I think it is important for those of us who do not have to become accustomed to it's bitter sting to occasionally see it, to experience it in a cathartic way.
That's also why Saving Private Ryan is destined to become one of the most important films of our time. The ugliness of war is driven through the chest of everyone who sees it. Those who were expecting a John Wayne sanitized version of WWII walked out in the first 10 minutes, having barfed in their popcorn.
The rest just sat back in virtual agony.
My point is this: There are some that live in squalour. Some of us are just too lazy to clean off the tops of our desks, and categorize that as such, but there is a whole different element that lives the street life, pounding out a living in a non-air conditioned place, perhaps at minimum wage and below the poverty level. People who live in public housing. Those who collect welfare, food stamps, social security, and are dependent on the kindness of strangers for survival.
When I work at our downtown center, I stumble through the darkness at 5:30am to make my way across the tangles of bodies huddling on benches. People sleeping in cars, and the like. I have to shake my head when I look at them. Many of them are victims of our crappy economy, which the status quo Dems have said is on the upswing.
It really fucking pisses me off. I've reached my tolerance level today. I can't stand to see people suffering at the risk of an arrogant politician's ego.
Before the last election in November, our incumbent gov, Ben Cayetano, just stopped paying people, and funneled the $$$ back into the state General Fund. It created a swing in the way our economy looks, all of the big bucks that are generated by enterprises like the Airport, and rent for sceded lands that is due to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. I'd have a surplus, too if I didn't pay my bills.
In classic "Perot" style, with lots of pie charts and lines going up, up, up, Ben told us how he single-handedly turned the place around without having to deviate from business as usual. Now, we pay the cost of his arrogance. The state government was ranked 49 out of 50 in effectiveness recently, (Alabama, I think was 50) and I think our unemployment rate is still hovering in the double digits. We've lost about 1/4 of our police force to Seattle and Portland, lured away by a higher standard of living and lower cost of living. 34% of those polled believe that there are gross inaccuracies in the last election, and less than 45% have confidence in the system used.
At the risk of sounding stereotypical, am I living in Honolulu or Chicago? It's really unbelievable at times. "Vote early and vote often."
Back to where I was earlier, I know that I can't pin all of the current economic strife that this place is enduring on the current regime. There were certainly street people before Mr. Cayetano took office, and there will be long after his time. My complaint is with his head being buried so far down in the sand as to think that status quo is actually pretty good.
Let's go down to Fort Street mall and ask the guy on the park bench his opinion, shall we?
"I don't need to try and explain; just hold on tight. And if it happens again, I might move so slightly to the arms the lips the face of the human cannonball that I need to, I want to. Come stand a little bit closer, breathe in and get a little bit higher. You'll never know what hit you when I get to you.
"Ooh, I want you, I don't know if I need you. But, oh I would die to find out...."
It's Savage Garden again. I finally broke down and bought the CD, and have become hopelessly addicted. Such a handsome young man, such attractive lyrics.
I've moved back to the soundtrack from Pulp Fiction, though. It's really a great flick, I think. My friend Mike said, "It has no good guys, just varying degrees of badness." RR hated it though. It is super graphic and perhaps a little too much so. I thought the violence was justified, but he disagrees.
"Whose motorcycle is this?"
"It's a chopper, baby."
"Whose chopper is this?"
"Zed's."
"Who's Zed?"
"Zed's dead, baby...Zed's dead."
Death and violence are such an integral part of life for so many, I think it is important for those of us who do not have to become accustomed to it's bitter sting to occasionally see it, to experience it in a cathartic way.
That's also why Saving Private Ryan is destined to become one of the most important films of our time. The ugliness of war is driven through the chest of everyone who sees it. Those who were expecting a John Wayne sanitized version of WWII walked out in the first 10 minutes, having barfed in their popcorn.
The rest just sat back in virtual agony.
My point is this: There are some that live in squalour. Some of us are just too lazy to clean off the tops of our desks, and categorize that as such, but there is a whole different element that lives the street life, pounding out a living in a non-air conditioned place, perhaps at minimum wage and below the poverty level. People who live in public housing. Those who collect welfare, food stamps, social security, and are dependent on the kindness of strangers for survival.
When I work at our downtown center, I stumble through the darkness at 5:30am to make my way across the tangles of bodies huddling on benches. People sleeping in cars, and the like. I have to shake my head when I look at them. Many of them are victims of our crappy economy, which the status quo Dems have said is on the upswing.
It really fucking pisses me off. I've reached my tolerance level today. I can't stand to see people suffering at the risk of an arrogant politician's ego.
Before the last election in November, our incumbent gov, Ben Cayetano, just stopped paying people, and funneled the $$$ back into the state General Fund. It created a swing in the way our economy looks, all of the big bucks that are generated by enterprises like the Airport, and rent for sceded lands that is due to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. I'd have a surplus, too if I didn't pay my bills.
In classic "Perot" style, with lots of pie charts and lines going up, up, up, Ben told us how he single-handedly turned the place around without having to deviate from business as usual. Now, we pay the cost of his arrogance. The state government was ranked 49 out of 50 in effectiveness recently, (Alabama, I think was 50) and I think our unemployment rate is still hovering in the double digits. We've lost about 1/4 of our police force to Seattle and Portland, lured away by a higher standard of living and lower cost of living. 34% of those polled believe that there are gross inaccuracies in the last election, and less than 45% have confidence in the system used.
At the risk of sounding stereotypical, am I living in Honolulu or Chicago? It's really unbelievable at times. "Vote early and vote often."
Back to where I was earlier, I know that I can't pin all of the current economic strife that this place is enduring on the current regime. There were certainly street people before Mr. Cayetano took office, and there will be long after his time. My complaint is with his head being buried so far down in the sand as to think that status quo is actually pretty good.
Let's go down to Fort Street mall and ask the guy on the park bench his opinion, shall we?
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