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Stuck In Traffic
"Independent Comment on Current Events and Cultural Phenomena"�
Issue #9 - December 1995
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Ancient Ritual
There are still some of us who remember the ancient ritual, but not
many. We performed this ritual every fall, while the trees and plants
were dying, while animals retreated to their dens, while birds flew
away, while the sun grew colder and colder. We celebrated not just
death, but all of nature's dark, mysterious forces. We celebrated the
super natural, the ethereal, and the undead. We paid tribute to them
so they would be placated for another year.
The ritual was not just a reminder that there are dark forces roaming
the world, but that there are dark forces roaming within ourselves.
Forces that can't be harnessed, can't be tamed, can't entirely be
understood.
No matter how spiritual, no matter how clean, no matter how civilized
we become, we are inextricably tied to nature, pagans by fate, and
therefore subject to nature's beautiful maelstrom. Our ritual
acknowledged and celebrated this.
Many people called this ritual "Halloween."
Not me. Not anymore.
Our forays in to the darkness on Halloween night have been smothered by
reflective tape and shopping mall sales events. Our roars and screams
have been replaced by "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You." Our plunder
has been inspected and sanitized for our protection. Our Haunted
Houses have been turned into charity events. Witches have been
enslaved as door ornaments. Ghost stories have been perverted into
morality plays. Newscasters tell parents how to "Take the Goblin out
of Halloween."
This does not bode well. The ancient ritual that once bore the name
Halloween bears no resemblance to the event people today call
Halloween. I'll have no part of it. To refer to both that time
honored ancient ritual and today's subjugation of it as Halloween is a
crime against nature. And I predict she will exact her revenge
someday. I fear for civilization.
Last year I resolved to not participate in Halloween the next year and
I more or less kept my word. No costume. No candy on the doorstep. I
made a point of not being home for Trick or Treaters. I just couldn't
bear to hear one more kid tell me "Thank you" on Halloween night. By
chance, I spent Halloween with friends. And although we did attend a
costume contest at a local movie house, we did not participate. Why
design a costume if you are going to admit up front that it's a
costume?
And although I couldn't bear the thought of participating in the false
Halloween, I also couldn't help feeling an emptiness for not at least
having tried to do Halloween right. As I drove home that night,
shortly after midnight, the streets in my town were empty. Not a
single ghost to be seen. Not a single monster lurking in the shadows.
What shadows? There were streetlights everywhere. As I drove through
my neighborhood, there wasn't a single sign of mischief. No one was
roaming about. There wasn't even a single smashed pumpkin in the
street.
But something out there knew. Something out there knew that I had the
right Halloween spirit. When I pulled into my driveway, there, on the
darkened front porch, sat a black cat, very still. I wouldn't have
even noticed it except that it's yellow eyes flashed back the
reflection of my car's headlights. And as I pulled in to the driveway.
It did not move. It just sat there, perfectly composed, watching me.
I looked it over as I got out of my car and headed inside, but I did
not approach the black cat. I did not try to pet it. That was my
tribute to Halloween.
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My Encounter With The Nation of Islam
Watching Minister Farrakhan's speech in D.C. reminded me of a brief
encounter I had with the Nation of Islam.
A couple of years ago, I attended COMDEX, which is this huge trade show
for the computer industry, in Atlanta. On the last day of the show,
Farrakhan (or at least someone from high up in his organization) was
holding a rally across the street from the convention center site. As
I was leaving the show there was a flurry of activity around the
building where the speech was being held. So I sat on a near by bench
and watched. At that time I didn't really know much about the Nation
of Islam and Farrakhan. To tell the truth, about all I knew about them
was that they always dressed up when they got together and wore
bow-ties as sort of a trademark trait. I had heard rumors that
Farrakhan had made derogatory remarks about Jews and saw everything in
terms of racial conflict. But the Nation of Islam had just never
broken through my consciousness enough for me to pay any attention to
it. In fact at the time I couldn't even think of Farrakhan's name.
I gathered that the speech was currently going on inside and that when
it was over, the speaker would be coming out. There was this group of
about 60 men dressed up in Nation of Islam style apparently there to
serve as a sort of honor guard for him as he left. Everyone was
dressed up, very stern, and of course wearing the trade mark bow-tie.
The thing that impressed me the most about these men was how organized,
and serious they were. This was obviously a big deal to them.
So the big moment came and the speaker did eventually come out. But
from where I was sitting I couldn't see who the dignitary was. In any
event, it went off without a hitch. There was a brief ceremony of
sorts where the dignitary acknowledged the honor guard. Some words
were exchanged, and then he was off in a big car of some sort. Whoever
the organizer was then dismissed the men and they began to break up and
leave.
My initial reaction was that this was overkill. I'm accustomed to
seeing this level of pomp and circumstance only at government events
and other big institutions like Universities, etc. And then it dawned
on me, that was the point. It's sort of a chicken and egg thing. On
the one hand, big institutions create with them a mythology and
protocol. But in other ways, the pomp and circumstance _creates_ the
institution. It's an _opportunity_ for people to take the institution
seriously. It's just that it seems so rare these days for people to be
that formal for anything not related to the state.
So the show was over and I headed for the subway to go back to my
hotel. As it turned out, I shared a subway car with several of the
honor guard and a whole bunch of people who had attended the speech. I
was the only white person in the subway car.
Did I feel scared? Did I feel uncomfortable. No. Well yes, sort of.
Not because I was the only white person in the subway car, but because
I was so _underdressed_ compared to everyone else. If you've ever been
to one of these trade shows, you know that they are _huge_. You spend
a lot of time walking down aisle after aisle of exhibits, milling
around in crowds, getting hot and tired and thirsty. So dressing for
comfort is a must. I was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, lugging
around shopping bags full of brochures and free stuff I'd scammed at
COMDEX. Everyone else in the subway car was dressed in their Sunday
best.
But aside from the way people were dressed, the fascinating thing about
my subway ride was just how _civil_ everyone was to each other. Now,
even though all these people had been attending the same speech, they
really didn't know each other. It was about like church. You may know
a few of the people you were with, but most people are vague
acquaintances at best. People were chatting softly to each other.
Helping each other on and off the car, waiting patiently for their
turn, etc.
There were two men sitting next to me. One dressed up in Nation of
Islam style and the other in his Sunday suit. The fellow in his Sunday
suit struck up some sort of conversation with me about COMDEX, what it
was etc. And we chatted about it for a while. I could tell the guy in
the bow-tie was listening, but he didn't say anything. Eventually the
small talk ran its course like small talk is apt to do and I felt some
sort of obligation to return the interest that had been shown to me.
But, frankly, I couldn't really think of anything to say. I simply did
not know enough about the Nation of Islam to make any sort of comment
or intelligent remark. I wanted to comment on the fact that everyone
was dressed up on a weekday. But, in a rare spark of diplomatic
sensibility that never comes to me except at the most crucial times, I
didn't. I sensed from the crowd in the subway car that everyone wanted
to maintain the sense that dressing up on a weekday was not the least
bit unusual and that being on one's best behavior was a normal,
everyday thing. So I wasn't going to dispel the good feelings.
Finally, I decided to had to bluster my way through this somehow. It
wasn't a matter of fear in any way, but an overwhelming desire not to
be rude. I asked the fellow I had been chatting with if he was with
the Nation of Islam, and he said yes. And oh boy, all of a sudden I
felt eyes on me from all over the place. People were still talking
amongst themselves, but I could feel the eyes. If I had known then
what I know now about the Nation of Islam, I would have understood why
everyone was all of a sudden interested in what I had to say. But at
the time, I didn't have a clue. All I knew was that it was some sort
of black empowerment organization. So next I said, "It looks like you
had a great turn out" in a positive tone of voice and he said yes it
was a great speech. And the fellow on the other side of me dressed in
his Nation of Islam outfit was still listening in, paying attention.
So I said to him, "Were you in the honor guard?" The term "honor
guard" seemed to take him by surprise but I thought it was an
appropriately generic term for what I had observed. In any event, he
said yes, and didn't mention what he thought the correct term was. I
asked him how he got to be on it and he said that they were selected
from members of the local organizations. So I said, "Congratulations!"
in an upbeat and hopefully sincere tone of voice.
Well, that broke the tension on the subway car and I sensed mass
relaxation. I didn't know why people had tensed up in the first place
and I didn't really know why everything was all right now. But it was.
I got the impression that the honor guard was sort of a civic
leadership thing, a community leader type. Not having a clue about
what to say of the Nation of Islam, I decided to play on the sense of
community I was picking up. So I changed the subject and asked his
advice as to which was the best stop for me to get off of to get to my
hotel. And I wasn't just making this up, I was a little confused
because the subway maps are never drawn to scale. And he told me and
we talked about the places to eat nearby etc. etc until I got to my
stop. I didn't say "Goodbye" or "Nice talking to you" or anything else
when I got to my stop. I just said, "OK, thanks." and left. I got
the feeling that anything else would have been too much.
It's amazing how enjoyable a subway ride can be when everyone acts
civilized and minds their manners.
So I find it a shame that Minister Farrakhan is such a racist. So many
of the things he says are good. He talks about self-respect in very
real and concrete terms. He talks about self-responsibility and
chastises people for whining about their lot in life. He talks about
taking an active role in your community. The man oozes with Family
Values, though his views of gender roles, I think, would strike most
people as a few decades out of date. But in so many ways he is
positive, motivating, and inspirational. Based on my experience on
that one brief subway ride, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind
that Farrakhan has had a tremendously positive effect on the lives of
many black people.
I find it equally shameful that the press tends to focus on only the
racist side of The Nation of Islam. Yes, Minister Farrakhan's remarks
need to be exposed to the light of public scrutiny and judged for what
they are. I'm not suggesting that the press should overlook his
tendencies. Far from it! But the press could also show some of the
positive effect he has had on blacks as well, but they haven't. They
will talk about it a little every now and then, but only in the vaguest
of terms. And that's a pity for two reasons. First, because the story
of how some blacks have turned their lives around by following
Farrakhan's role model is such a positive story. But second, and more
importantly, the _real_ story in Farrakhan's Nation of Islam is the
paradox between the values he encourages people to practice and the
motivations, i.e., his racism, that he uses to motivate blacks to adopt
those values.
Hopefully the men who attended Farrakhan's rally will be able to sort
the good part of his message from the bad. I'm optimistic that they
will.
====================
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the
proportion." -- Francis Bacon
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Another of Life's Little Mysteries
If heat rises, why do refrigerators always have the coldest part on top
or on the side?
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Some Thoughts On Christmas
Like a lot of people, I get really tired of Christmas. I would enjoy
the Christmas season a lot more if it were a lot shorter and a lot
simpler. I get tired of the build up to The Big Day. I'm sick of
hearing Christmas Carols turned into sales jingles.
But I'm equally tired of hearing people complain about how bad
Christmas is. I don't appreciate their smug holier than thou attitude
when the pooh-pooh the commercialization of Christmas. I believe that
most people really do have the right Christmas spirit deep in their
hearts and the fact they get caught up in the Christmas Buying Frenzy
doesn't change the fact that they are doing it for others.
Let's face it. Most of us feel like we aren't kind enough to our
fellow man often enough. Not that we don't mean to. But the urgent
things in our lives tend to obfuscate the important things in our
lives. It's an affliction of the modern life we lead. Christmas is
like a naturally occurring antidote to this modern malady. It comes
around once a year and demands attention from us. It gives us an
opportunity to spend time on important things like show our loved ones
how much they mean to us and spending some time and energy helping
others in need. Some people do this in a very commercial and material
way and others don't.
So to the people who are really into the Christmas Season, I say,
"Great! Go for it! Do it up big!" To the people who don't care for
"the commercialization of Christmas" I say, "Fair enough. You aren't
required to participate." But I don't believe there is any correlation
between one's devotion to the spirit of Christmas and how much or how
little they participate in the commercial trappings of the season.
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The Shutdown
The fun side of the shutdown was the media coverage because it gave
lots of people the opportunity to make fools of themselves. My
favorite gaffe, was the post office spokesman reassuring people that
social security checks would be delivered on time because the post
office is "independent" of the government and not affected by the
furloughs. Excuse me? When the government pumps hundreds of millions
of dollars a year (I don't think their into the billions yet) in to the
post office system and they _still_ lose money and when the government
prevents other companies from competing with the post office by
preventing them from putting things in a mailbox, then I have to
conclude that the Post Office is totally dependent on the government
for their very existence.
Another favorite faux pas heard during the government shutdown was that
government retirement pensions were being used to give the government
enough cash to pay its debts during the shutdown. I'm not an expert in
government accounting but it is my understanding that the government
retirement pensions are already being used to "offset" the debt and
make it look smaller. So the government effectively used the
retirement pensions twice. While it is apparent that the Treasury
Department did this in order to make the shutdown look more severe and
thus generate pressure on the Congress to settle the budget matter, I
think the public will remember this incident as an example of how the
government will do anything in he name of expediency no matter how
wrong. How are all these government employees going to feel knowing
that the government, in a matter of hours, could zap their retirement
pensions for whatever purpose it wants? If I were a government
employee, I would be terribly concerned about the security of my
retirement.
On the first day of the government shutdown, all the major networks had
this as the big story for the day, of course. One of them, I forget
which, showed the "debt clock" on TV that day. The debt clock is this
big sign in some major city, New York I think, that continually flashes
what the current national debt is. It's this huge number and the
number increases so fast you can't read many of the digits. But when
the government shutdown, it literally could not borrow any money and to
reflect this, the debt clock was stopped. So during those couple of
days that the government shutdown, the national debt was not
increasing. The amusing thing about all this was that the new
broadcaster was trying to make this sound awful. They were showing the
debt clock on TV and the newscaster was speaking in borderline
hysterical tones about how the government could not borrow any more
money and therefore the clock was shutdown. Frankly, I thought it was
something worth dancing in the streets for! I'd call this a positive
side effect of the shutdown!
At first, there were some glib comments from the media about furloughed
workers getting "unplanned holidays" but they quickly changed their
tune to "forced holidays" and talked about how federal workers were not
getting paid. And there were at least some federal workers in our area
that volunteered their time off to do community service for various
organizations in the area. Of course this got lots of media coverage.
And I'm glad they did. It's good to see people doing some good for the
community for a change.
The real net effect of the shutdown was actually very minor. I believe
it was mostly political wrangling between the Congress and the
President. It made for great TV for a couple of days but that was all.
However, as the country's financial crisis gets more and more urgent, I
can foresee a day when there is a government shutdown every year while
the budget is hammered out. And as the crisis grows and grows, the
political stakes in the budget battle will get higher and higher. The
more heated the battle of over the budget becomes, the longer these
government shutdowns are likely to be. And the government shutdowns
might start being long enough to cause actual problems. So while the
recent shutdown was not very important in terms of actual effects on
the nation. It is perhaps an omen of things to come. The recent
government shutdown doesn't just show that the government is broke; it
shows that the government is broken.
=========================
The Bosnia "Peace" Treaty
These modern times sure are complicated and confusing. Why is it that
during the war in Bosnia we could not, would not send in troops, but
now that there is a "peace treaty" signed, we can send in 20,000-40,000
American troops, and tens of thousands of troops from other NATO
countries in to Bosnia to "keep the peace"? It's absurd.
If the warring factions in Bosnia were really interested in peace, they
would have settled their differences way back in 1992 when they
negotiated their last treaty. But as the world can see from their
actions since then, the various factions in Bosnia are more interested
in blowing each others' brains out than in peaceful coexistence. And
if the peace treaty had any hope of being successful I don't think it
would take thousands and thousands of military personnel from around
the globe to "keep the peace." I can see the validity of a peace
treaty that calls for a small number of neutral observers from other
nations to come in and observe each side to see that they are abiding
by the terms of the treaty. But the scale of our military commitment
to Bosnia is nothing short of a military invasion. If it takes this
many thousands of troops to make sure that the treaty is enforced, then
I have to conclude that the treaty is meaningless and the two sides are
intent on continuing their war.
I'm afraid this does not bode well for our American and NATO "peace
keepers." Rather than acting like impartial international observer
checking on treaty compliance, they will be acting like a third person
trying to break up a fight between two other people. I am scared that
it won't be long until the American and NATO troops are viewed as much
as the enemy as they are viewed as peace keepers.
It seems quite obvious to me that Bill Clinton has been intent on
making the war in Bosnia an example of his foreign policy leadership.
Watching the news from the Ohio peace negotiations, it was clear to me
that the Clinton administration simply would not take "no" for an
answer. There was absolutely going to be a treaty signed no matter
what so that Bill Clinton could score some points on the campaign
trail. And he got a treaty, though even the national media has to
admit that it's a "fragile peace" at best. But it is a treaty
nonetheless and Bill can cite this as proof of his leadership for the
`96 campaign trail, at least until American soldiers start getting
killed over there. I'm sure Bill hopes that doesn't start until after
the elections.
So now Bill has two military invasions to his credit. First there was
the Haiti invasion. And interestingly enough, no one in the Clinton
administration talks about what's going on in Haiti these days. I
wonder why not? How peaceful is the peace down there? Now there is
the Bosnia invasion to "keep the peace." And one might credit Bill
with the Somalia invasion because, while he wasn't the one who
initiated it, he was the one who managed it. In any case, I believe we
have ample evidence of Bill Clinton's style of leadership as Commander
In Chief to make a judgement for the `96 elections.
But what about the opposition? Where have the Republicans been? Are
they for sending troops to Bosnia or not? It's been very difficult to
get straight answers from any of them. Even Bob Dole has been
uncharacteristically wishy-washy on the issue. Some days it seems he
supports it and some days it seems he's against it. Most Republicans
however seem to try to avoid taking any stand at all on the worthiness
of sending 20,000 military troops to Bosnia. This is inexcusable.
When the nation is faced with a military operation of this magnitude,
when this many lives are at stake, I believe it is a moral _imperative_
for our representatives to voice a clear opinion on the issue, either
for or against, so that there can be a national debate. But the
Republicans have not done so. Instead, they make half-hearted
complaints that Congress has been bypassed by the President and that
the President is not supposed to send troops off to a military
operation without getting Congress' approval. Which is true enough,
but it shows the depth of their hypocrisy. They certainly didn't
complain when a Republican President was sending troops all around the
world without getting the approval of the Democratically led Congress.
If the Republicans had any backbone at all, they would be taking a
stand on the issue. And if they decide that they are opposed to the
military invasion of Bosnia, they could be exerting a lot of pressure
on the President to pull out. All this whining about Congress being
bypassed by the President is just a distraction to avoid having to take
sides on the issue.
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About Stuck In Traffic
Stuck In Traffic is a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to independently
evaluating current events and cultural phenomena.
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