The Aerie
There's just been too much of it lately.
It's not just Wellstone. I'm not enough of a partisan to say I'm going
to miss Wellstone's politics per se, and I never knew the man at all
(I did see his wife last year at a small business function). While I
certainly regret losing a very necessary liberal voice in the Senate,
he disappointed me with his retreats on DOMA and on his two-year
pledge.
Still, those could have been forgiven. Politics involves, among other
things, picking your battles. If DOMA was a lost cause maybe he got
something valuable for turning his back on justice. And the two year
pledge, well, that's gotta pale before the concept of Republicans led
by the Bush Cabal holding all three branches of government. Shudder
Executive, judicial (they appointed him after all), and legislative
all in one ugly bundle. I can't imagine anyone allowing that to happen
when they had the power to stop it. Frankly it surprises me that some
Republicans don't fear it.
But days before Wellstone's plane crashed, my former colleague Jim
passed away. Thirty-eight years old, and he apparently died of a brain
aneurism while sitting at the dining room table, playing cards with
his three-year-old daughter.
And about the same time as Jim's death, there were those two walking
bags of waste murdering people in Virginia for laughs.
And before that there was 9/11.
And before that was Mark's wife, who was in her thirties when an
allergic reaction simply swept her away.
And before that was Dr. J, who taught me my trade and died of brain
cancer just after getting his Ph. D. in his mid-forties.
And meanwhile, Arafat is still alive. And Hussein. And Qaddafi. And
any number of powerful people in this country who I won't say that I
regret are still around because I don't need a visit from the Secret
Service asking if I mean them harm (I don't).
And there's the father of a girl I knew long ago, who used to rape
her. Alive.
And my classmate, who raped my friend, his cousin. All still alive.
All these powerful, evil, crummy people, alive. And the Wellstones,
and Jim, and Dr. J, and all the other good people, cut off in their
prime of life. It's a grim picture. The cliche that "only the good die
young" playing itself out in ugly, brutal reality.
It's at this point where I'm supposed to point out the ways in which
all these good people touched our lives. The justice that somehow
awaits the bad. And the valuable lessons that they taughts that we can
all learn and cherish as we move on with life. Take it all as read,
I'm not up for it.
All I know is that this it's been a bad couple of years for justice
and good living, and I'm certainly looking forward to the pendulum
swinging back the other way. Any time now. Any time...
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Posted by Albatross at October 26, 2002 12:00 AM