As Andy Rooney Might Say…
It finally occurred to me that the TEA people and people like me (a progressive rural liberal) have something in common that may be at the root of their disgruntlement. I do not like the policies and personalities of those people, as far as I know them and would not like to have them as leaders as they vilify some of the most important safety nets and aspects of our security and the progress that has been made (at high cost) to make this country so great. My thinking, in so many ways, goes against the grain of those naysayers; they are just too damned backward, it seems. So before I digress and get angry, I will let you know what the commonality is, though.
I am tired of the rule makers and the rules…..in general.
By that I mean that there are far too many people around who are far too interested in creating enforceable rules and regulations. These rule makers are super tenacious (read vampires and killer octopi) in their need to control the world around them. Because of that tenaciousness they tend to impose themselves and interject themselves into every aspect of our lives. In the guise of doing good they have created, as a cultural storm, so many controls and naysaying that it has become difficult to maneuver around our planet. I include many of the so-called environmentalists who would gladly and did completely kick out the aboriginal residents of all of the major “wilderness” and park areas; not wanting them to, god forbid, touch the land and actually live on it and use it (as they had for tens of millennium; making their first mistakes that they learned from thousands of years ago, I am sure).
Anyway, the less rigid people could actually be in the majority. There are many of us that belong to the “live and let live” category. Maybe we want to build our own home, for instance, and have issues with the codes (important as they are) or engage in a variety of activities that we think should not be overseen to any great degree. Riding around in the back of a pickup truck, for instance, always seemed like one of the pleasures of life. Even the birds and insects have the freedom to construct a place to live and fly around without interference from the “nest police”. The more easy going people just want life to be more “free” and not to have to think about all these controls so much of our valuable time as we are enjoying ourselves and doing our work. It is a matter of degree, I guess.
That is not to say that regulating the bankers and hedgefunders, for instance, is a bad idea; that is a good idea because the potential damage is so great. Those rich computer-fingers are not my idea of “easy going” people; quite the opposite as they wreak havoc on our civilization with their reckless nano second algorithmic viral surreptitious mentalities.
So the obsessive rule people tend to win the day, like many fundamentalists, also, because they are, yes, so obsessive and tenacious in their need to control. They make life miserable for the most of us (with all of their “musts”) as we don’t wish to be locked into a bunch of rules; good as they may be. It just doesn’t feel like we are free or able to move (you know; like the Sundance Kid talking to butch Cassidy when he is trying to show him how well he can shoot and keeps asking, “Can I move?” because he clearly can only shoot well when he is on the fly and diving and putting his full personality into it).
And now one of the people I thought I liked the least shows up this week and writes about the local people taking over the reins of the forests to protect their surrounding lands from catastrophic fires and starting to do grassroots forest tending. I agree with him on this and wish it were someone else sending the message, but it isn’t. Paradox pie. If only the obsessive environmental left could decide to be more in touch with forest management through action not litigation. I admit it; I agree with Steve (see link below) although suspect he would be less careful of the forest in general.
So that puts me, once again, in the Obama camp where he is trying to work “with” the conservatives in order to solve problems. Now I only wish Barry Obama knew how to use a chainsaw and came from a forest products gathering background (but not wielding one like Bush who brought his chainsaw into the kitchen with him). I shook Ralph Naders’s hand once, also, and discovered that he was lily handed (as I suspect Barry is too, as well as most of those rule makers, including Steve Pearce). You cannot have everything and I would rather have Barack than most others…..as long as he doesn’t add too many more rules. I agree with my friend, Jess, who says that there ought to be a law that says, “For every new law or rule that is created, the governing bodies must get rid of two old ones!” Enough Already.
Abe and I went for a walk in the park today and we stopped for a while in a grassy area under the trees where Abe could roam a little (at 14 months old 30 feet is some pretty open range). The baby Abe picked up a stick, as always, but then when I turned next he had gathered lots of sticks and was holding them in bundles under both arms. I knew that we should do something with all his work, I told him we would bring them home to light a fire...though inside I flinched wondering if it is illegal to take twigs home...it is hard to move around freely and to teach children how things work when you are stopped at all sides. We carried the sticks home in the stroller that day, but who knows tomorrow? Thanks to Abe we had a warms fire and he figured out where to pile is excess sticks near the hearth.
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