Early Returns

So, now that I’m writing columns again, people are beginning to ask pointed questions, such as, “What the hell is Whatcom Watch?”

To which I respond, “It’s a monthly newspaper that seeks to raise social and political awareness in general, and addresses local environmental issues in particular.”

To which people respond, “Oh, it’s a hippie paper.”

To which I respond (somewhat proudly), “Well, yeah, I guess so!”

Why proudly? Because hippies stood on the front lines of the peace movement during the Vietnam War while mainstream America was content to send its sons and daughters to die at the behest of the Military-Industrial Complex. Because hippies were among the first to coin the phrase “ecology” and to recognize that there is indeed an environment worth protecting. Because hippies recognized that human consciousness not only desires but also requires expansion and growth.

Who among the current crop of backward-hatted, baggy-panted, non-voting, know-nothing skateboarders, snowboarders, and body-pierced bored-of-lifers dares lay claim to anything near the hippie generation’s level of insight, innovation, and inspiration?

So is Whatcom Watch a hippie paper? I only hope we can live up to that billing.

If the Republicans have not attacked Iraq by the time you read this, yours truly will be utterly flummoxed, dumbfounded, dazed and confused. Which, truth be told, is not far from my everyday state of mind.

Nonetheless, speaking of dazed and confused, I caught Donald Rumsfeld on TV the other day claiming (and, get this, with a straight face!) that an attack on Iraq would have nothing to do with oil or personal enmity directed by George Dubya toward Saddam Hussein. Which raises two questions:

1. What, apart from being Dubya’s lapdog and sock puppet, does Dumsfeld actually do in the Bush Administration? And,

2. Is it too late to nominate Dumsfeld for Best Supporting Actor in an International Charade (Comedy or Tragedy)?

Because, make no mistake about it, Bush lusts after Iraq for only two reasons:

1. To control the flow of oil in the Middle East, and

2. To settle a blood feud between the Bush family and that of Saddam Hussein.

Now, let’s be perfectly clear about a couple of things (holy cow, more twos!):

1. Is Saddam a bad guy? Absolutely.

2. Does he deserve to be removed from power?

Deserve? No, he demands it. But if America were to rush troops, tanks and planes to every country ruled by a horrific despot, we’d have forces deployed in, what, 69 percent of the countries of the world.

And what about Afghanistan? Remember Afghanistan? Suppose we took all those billions of dollars we’re spending on rattling our saber against Iraq and spent only a portion of it on schools, hospitals, factories, and other infrastructure to make Afghanistan into a shining example of the power of international cooperation over terror? Instead, we threaten new violence and create a new generation of terrorists.

So it goes.

And what’s up with our dependence upon oil? Oh sure, the Republicans like to add the qualifier “foreign” oil, but oil is oil. I’m willing to go out on a limb and speculate that American oil and its by-products pollute the atmosphere and landfills about the same as Iraqi or Saudi or Venezuelan oil.

Are jobs the issue? American jobs? Then why haven’t the oil companies retrained their workers and retooled their facilities to accommodate the increasing need and desire for non-fossil-fuel based energy alternatives? Lots of jobs in research and development, production and distribution to be had in those fields, don’t you think?

But guess who’s walking hand in grimy hand with the oil industry? Why, look—it’s the Bush family! Not to mention the Cheney family. Not to mention countless other politicians, Democrat and Republican, who suckle from the teat of Big Oil.

Time for them to get weaned.

Time for us to vote Green.

This reporter used to own a business. If that business hadn’t changed with the times (from typewriter to word processor to computer; from phone to fax to Internet; from throw-away to recyclable to earth-friendly), it would have withered and died on the vine. Small business has learned that lesson out of necessity. But gigantic international corporations with their vast spheres of influence have not. Why not? Because, like petulant children laying claim to their own soiled sandbox, they don’t have to. They’re making too much money.

They don’t want to.

But we, as voters, as shareholders, as consumers, as conscientious citizens, can teach the international corporate despoilers that lesson. If we refuse to support such anachronistic trolls as Big Oil, they will stumble and fall.

They will fall.

Let us hope and pray that Mother Earth may rise again from the soot and ashes of their greed. §