Death of the Seattle SuperSonics

“When your pushed, killing is as easy as breathing.” -John Rambo

Uber capitalist Clay Bennett sure knows about that. In under two years he organized the Death of the Seattle SuperSonics. Sure, with the support of the NBA (which is key), but mostly it was his muscular vision to bring pro ball to Oklahoma City come Hell or high water. He was undaunted by the Save Our Sonics movement or Seattle’s so called Scorched Earth Policy and in the end he intimidated Seattle. Swiftly defeating an inexperienced group of guerrilla fighters much like Shock and Awe during the invasion of Iraq. There are many similarities between Bennett and Dick Cheney. Sheer power. The will to go through with each man’s personal obsession no matter how unpopular it was and how many people it winds up hurting.

July 2, 2008: This is a dark day for Seattle. The Sonics are gone. No more history. No more basketball. No more fun. Sure you can put a price on food and farmers markets but what about fun? Fun needs a lobbyist. Who cares about basketball? We have bigger things to worry about like schools and gas prices and recycling. That may be true but I prefer to think of it this way: I was made for dreams and looking up to god-like figures. Price tags and monetary value cannot be put on sports heroes and little kids dreams and all the good that pro ball brings to youth culture and the community in general.

Front page of the P-I: “Starbucks plan to close 600 stores” and that is fitting because the CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz sold the team to some goddamn outsider group that had a whatever-gets-you-through-the-night policy to bring an NBA team to OKC. History will be rewritten. Does anyone remember where the Utah Jazz were originally from? Probably not. Bennett said he will have our banners redone and rehung in OKC. This is a sort of ethnic cleansing American style. Bennett's press conference in OKC looked premeditated with the NBA logo hugged up against the letters OKC as if it had been planned two years ago and Bennett's’ tie was matching the color scheme...and I couldn’t help but thinking the boys of Seattle will grow up to watch the Storm and have sex changes and play below the rim.

July 3, 2008: Thunder rumbling and rain has been pounding the city since the terrible news came down last night. P-I’s front page headline “Hoopless in Seattle.” There is no joy in mudville today. Where is the Glove this morning and how does he feel? And what is the Reign Man Shawn Kemp thinking? On the radio earlier this week Kemp said “back in the day no one expected a new arena if they were losing.” That is logical and now things are turned around and weird. Why the fuck does Stern want the NBA in the 60 biggest city in the country and not in the 13th? Is this his 50 state strategy? It is a bad one. Makes no sense. That would be like if Barack Obama decided to abandon Seattle and Washington (his biggest financial support from all 50 states) and move all his resources and attention to West Virginia. Why go where no one cares about you or at least understands you?

I found this piece published by Reuters citing OKC as the 5th worst hell on earth. It brought me a kind of morbid happiness if only for a few seconds.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Had a bad vacation? It probably could have been a lot worse, with men's portal AskMen.com coming up with a list of the top 10 hells on earth to prove how much more dire it could have been.

This list was compiled by AskMen and is not endorsed by Reuters:

5.Oklahoma City, United States

Type of hell: Natural disasters

Located in the direct path of "Tornado Alley," the worst time to visit would be from March to August. Tather is pretty much expected. The severe weather season makes Dorothy's Kansas look positively calm, with Oklahoma City being the city worst affected by tornadoes in the United States.

July 8, 2008: I have slept straight through the last two days minus a few meals here and there and tonight finally Val and I went down the street to the Attic for some Coors Light. I am guessing that I am depressed. My head has been pounding for the last three days and I am feeling sorry for myself. Woe is me. I was mad at myself for feeling a bit aimless and down, but then I thought “old sport don’t beat yourself up during the grieving process.” A lot has happened since the team moved to OKC. A day is not enough. I mean “it” happened two days before Independence Day so I could only really soak it in for one day and then had to gear up for a day of drinking and blowing stuff up.

On the 4th my good friend Seamus took out the windshield of a car across the street with some illegal fireworks but that was the good news: a couple inches higher and he could have blown up the family’s house across the street. An errant bomb shooting into your living room is something families in Baghdad have come to be prepared for but not Seattle. The next morning Seamus said “that could have been a horrible thing that would have scarred the whole party” Yep I said, like one time at a house party when the back deck full of people collapsed. We were in the kitchen and all of a sudden it was like the titanic was going down and people were clawing at the side of the house, hand rails and anything they could get their hands around trying to hang on. Blaine and I started throwing pots and pans out the window. We figured if the ship was going down we should probably lighten the load.

You never know how your going to feel until the horrible thing happens. Some said,”you knew it was going to happen” referring to the loss of the Sonics but that did not mean much to me. I saw a picture of Russell Westbrook our... oops that was a slip they are no longer our team...Westbrook was wearing a blue tank top with white letters that said Oklahoma City. Jesus that will be tough for the rest of my life every time I see an Oklahoma City jersey it will be like the tightening of the screws in my back every single time a reminder of the loss. It will represent failure for a city and a community. I grew up playing basketball and the Sonics were a big reason I bounced a ball everywhere I went as a youth. And no more Kevin Calabro the best voice for the game I have ever heard. These are scars that will not fade any time soon. We will see what it is like to live with them. The voice of the Sonics Kevin Calabro is staying put in Bellevue and he will become the new voice of our MLS team Sounders FC, but he said something on Softy’s radio show that stuck with me “We are staying here in Seattle because of the attitude of the people and the laid back lifestyle, a live and let live mentality.” So we will see where that leads us.

I took the picture at the SOS rally in front of the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle.

Sherwin Williams Paint vs. The Obey Giant

This is how Shepard Fairey was brought to my attention: a guy noticed the Andre the Giant Obey shirt I had on. The guy said: "I haven't seen those out here much. They are all over the east. The Andre the Giant posters started popping up in South Carolina."  I asked: "Who is the artist?"  The guy thought it was a homeless man who died and never got credit. I googled Obey later that day. Fairey.

The pictures were an excuse to delve into the problem with Fairey. The "cover the earth" knock off has not been reported anywhere even with the recent scrutiny surrounding the AP suing Fairey over his Obama Poster. The Obama Poster was as commercial as it gets, it was the freaking official symbol of the candidate who became president.  How much more corporate, how much more established can it get?   He has been a corporate for so long now and what does that mean maybe corporate means successful. I had a feeling about the Obama Poster, it reminded me of an Warhol-like iconic image, and coincidentally -- an AP writer called the print Warhol-ish. Andy Warhol said, "art is whatever you can get away with." I wondered is Fairey got away with stealing the Obey logo from the homeless man.

I don't quite know what Fairey does, or what I think of it. There is this sense that he doesn't know what he is trying to say.  I would dare to say that most of us -- truthfully -- don't really know what we are trying to say and by the time we have said "it" -- our minds have changed anyways and so we must work on communicating the current thought.  But that may not be the main issue.  Ken Johnson did a great piece in the NYT about Fairey's work and what it meant. 

In the interest of full exposure -- I like the Andre the Giant Obey insignia. It has a mysterious haunting feeling -- that may have more to do with Andre the Giant -- the man than the image. The Obama Poster is the same way -- we have latched onto it because of what we see in Obama himself. We took part ownership. Back when people wanted Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" lyrics translated -- Eddie Vedder did not explain what they meant. He said fans interpreted the lyrics for themselves -- lending more meaning than he could have given. He said they were part owners of the song. Part ownership makes something become iconic. Gives the creator the ability to go further and see the next step or level of the work: how it was received and in turn grows larger and larger with each re-interpretation or re-telling of the the work.

I am not really in the mood to trash a whole body of work. I think its important to point out that the Obama Poster has become -- something more, than Fairey could have planned for and a lot of that had to do with the mood of the country the rise of Obama, that he has come to stand for many different things to many different people. The AP picture and the way Fairey manipulated it into a sort of patriotic portrait. All these ingredients made way for part ownership by the masses to be the inevitable outcome. What do you feel when you look at it? It represents the colors in our country. The poster has been in many of the houses I have painted for. The so called street artist entered into the suburban stay at home white women's living room. For whatever reason -- the print conjures up the mix of hope, pride and belief we have in Obama. That is a lot. Think of all the art and pictures and comics the President has been the subject of, but for some reason this "one" print represents that feeling we have been walking around with for the last two years. Just because you draw a pic of Obama does not mean whey we look at it a hopeful full feeling will come over us. 

Fairey has a history of no transparency. Fairey slaps his Obey Giant logo on the watcher from Citizen Kane or the MC5's logo and calls it a new print. Unless you happen to know the original -- you think its an original by Fairey.

Wow, I had no idea I was writing this, I went into it, thinking Fairey was wrong to steal, but now -- I just think he is tacky and not creative. I don't get the feeling that he is wrestling with how to say something in order to adequately make a piece that challenges common perceptions. He never gave credit to the original piece.  Put a a foot note at the bottom of each print.  Something like: the original logo is Sherwin Williams paint supply.  I tweaked it by inserting the Obey logo where a map of the world originally was.  It wouldn't take much, like when a writer quotes someone else's words, but credits the author.

He fell into the same lazy old guy looking back and believing the legend drinking the cool aid of his brilliant First Work.  Hunter S.Thompson did that too.  How many times can one use Fear and Loathing for a title, how many times can a guy stamp Andre the Giant on a print and feel edgy and cool?  You jumped the shark once you had a logo you couldn't let go of and you became a product a brand -- for some reason in our culture the brand has become the most important thing -- Once Hunter said it sucks when the author becomes bigger than the writing.  

North By Northwest

Dave and I were discussing the Sonics move last night and we wondered,when the Sonics do eventually move to OK City, will they take all the retired jersey's and Championship banners with them and raise them to the rafters in the Ford Center? We also wondered if Clay Bennett would be nice enough to offer true Sonic "diehards" a weekend discounted package to be able to fly to Oklahoma City and get some great seats for the night they retire Gary Payton's jersey and celebrate his great career as a Sonic...

American professional sports are a complete joke. I could care less about the NBA or the Sonics and I consider the NBA, as a whole, to be comparable to that of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The people of this city should focus their energy on boycotting Starbucks and running Howard Schultz out of town than wasting their time and resources on Clay Bennett and a situation that is hopeless. It's not as depressing if you've already accepted the fact that it's over, like I have, but how about the Storm signing Sheryl Swoopes? I smell another WNBA Championship on the horizon!!! Go STORM Baby!!!

PS- Shouldn't Seattle's greatest fan (that guy who holds up the Sea-Fence" sign at Seahawk games), shouldn't he be doing something like handcuffing himself to the bumper of the team bus or to the landing gear of the team plane? I mean, you are Seattle's biggest fan so go out there and do something about this. The city is relying on you and your passion...I haven't heard a peep from that guy. What a joke...
- Cod the Fish on the fate of the Seattle SuperSonics.

My phone keeps ringing but I will not answer anytime soon. I have bigger fish to fry. I sit here in Seattle with a keyboard in my lap perched on a pearl white yoga ball. Here in the Northwest we are under a dark cloud. This may not be much of a big deal for the rest of the country. Sadly Seattle is relegated to weird looks from much of America. We are thought of as almost Alaska to so many. It is a deeply disturbing and hurtful thing for us natives. We are a proud people and know we are right and true. We have supported Obama like no other territory in the Empire and done the same for Ron Paul. Recently 40% of registered Republicans in these parts have been projected to support Paul in November even though his name will not be on the ballot. But never mind that. This is not a political story.

This is about basketball and 41 years of support for the Seattle Supersonics and now they are on the way to Oklahoma City. A foreigner bought the team from the king of a coffee empire named Howard Schulz who sold the team because the city would not give him a new arena. It was a childish and spiteful move by Schulz and he has paid for his stupid decision. These days his beloved coffee brand Starbucks is slipping down the Dow Jones and I know many people who routinely slap Starbucks cups from a person’s hand if seen on the street with it. It is no longer fashionable to drink the stuff.

Schulz is suing Bennet to get the rights to the team back. He is trying to save face because he knows his image is suffering and will forever be blamed for the reason we lost the team. In Seattle we have a shoddy history with sports. The Mariners have always sucked. And now in 2008 the Year of the Rat, the Mariners have the worst record in Major League Baseball. As a kid growing up the Seahawks were awful and now they are finally good, but for me it has been a hard thing to get used to. They are not a proud franchise in my mind and most people I know are more excited for the first year of Major League Soccer with the Sounders FC. Owner Drew Carey has done everything right following in the tradition of European teams with a board of members that can vote in or vote out the manager of the team and voting on the name for the team. All very classy and elegant decisions.

It was a sad day when Commissioner David Stern decided it was a better to make Seattle the premier WNBA city with the Storm Juggernaut and get rid of the Sonics the most hallowed franchise in Seattle sports history. The Sonics have always been good except for a few recent years where they have been treated like the Cleveland Indians in the movie Major League where they purposely built the worst possible team they could so it was easier to move them. And in real life the Cleveland Browns situation may be the closest resemblance to what we face. Same thing in Seattle. So now our fate is the WNBA hall of fame which will be built here soon. We can all look forward to that as the WNBA hall of fame takes over Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project.

I took the picture of the GP poster inside the Key @ the last Sonics game I ever went to.

Fox in MSNBC's clothing

"The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

-From former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan's new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

After Jesse “The Body” Ventura finished as Gov. of Minnesota in 2003 he signed on to be an MSNBC analyst. It was not widely known probably because he was not on the air much. Sunday April 13, 2008 I watched him talk about it on Fox News with Geraldo Rivera. He spilled the beans about MSNBC’s censorship.

Ventura said MSNBC almost never used him and finally let him go, “Why?” Rivera asked. “I was against the War” Ventura replied. The network was confused because, as Ventura put it, “I am a former Navy Seal, so they thought I would be for the War.” Let this be a lesson to all of us.

Many articles were written about MSNBC “coming out” as the left leaning version of Fox News in 2007, but I am not sure that ever happened. MSNBC has tried to brand themselves as the antidote to Fox News. Mostly on the back of Countdown With Keith Olbermann and his “special comment” segments bashing the Bush Administration. Friday May 16, 2008 Air America radio host Thom Hartman referred to Olbermann as “the voice in the wilderness.” He meant that Olbermann is the only liberal voice with his own show on all of cable news.

Can MSNBC claim to be the liberal station in 2007 when they were beating the drums of war in 2003? Hell no. Here are a couple reasons why: their over use of Pat Buchanan. He has been more conservative and racist than anyone on Fox News for so long that maybe it is no longer shocking and just a comfortable routine. I remember watching Hardball host Chris Matthews gushing after the 2004 vice presidential debate, “Cheney is such a heavyweight” he said.

Once a friend said, “Fox is conservative, MSNBC is liberal and CNN is right down the middle, right?” Although that opinion may be from a “low information voter” or someone who is not a news junkie, I think generally that is how the public views the three big cable news channels.

The three cable news stations want and need the War for ratings. I watched a lot CNN’s Gulf War coverage in 1991 because it was the only English language channel I could get while living in Presov, Slovakia. CNN was not a player until that war. After thinking about the last sentence it makes sense that none of the networks would allow many dissenting voices towards the War if any.

That is why I started out with what Ventura said. His words were straight up, easy to understand and further proof that much of the main stream media was in cahoots with the Bush Administration to make sure the War happened. The media may be as big a player as any in keeping up with our aggressively violent culture.

I am not sure if it has been subliminal support of these violent foreign policies by broadcasters and reporters or something more sinister and blatant. I tend to lean towards the latter because my experience in the broadcast media is that lifers are not ideologically driven to their jobs but instead “do formats.” Tony Snow used to work for Fox News and is now with CNN. Bill Hemmer used to be with CNN and now is with Fox News. The list goes on. It is just a job to many of these guys and that is why they can jump to stations geared towards different demographic audiences.

What I am trying to say is that the media cheer led us into war and we should know that and be aware of that. It may be just as bad an act as pushing the button to drop the bombs. Rationalizing the killing of mass amounts of civilians on the airwaves is a terrible thing to do and if you shrug it off five years later and say you “changed your mind on the War,” well that is even worse because you did not take other lives seriously.

No D in Denver

“Allen Iverson is the modern day Cassius Clay.” - Id the Squid

In 2008 the Year of the Rat, the wild west saw the Denver Nuggets swept in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers. Everyone knew it would be a dicey proposition. Denver plays no defense and Carmello Anthony has a history of tuning out. He has a low threshold for failure and when things aren’t easy things become painful. That is something that creeps up on talented people sometimes; if the win is tough giving up is an easy thing to fall into. This is called defeatism.

To my dismay my beloved Iverson, a very hard worker, walked off the court a few times this year to leave the team with minutes left in the game. I hate that because it means my quote from the top of the page must be defended instead of just accepted as the gospel. If you saw the first episode of Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith then you know why I compared Iverson with Ali; he is strong and true like a sports version of Reverend Wright, proud and unapologetic for telling it like it is. It sucks that Iverson quits sometimes, but I would say he only does to make a statement when the win is truly out of reach, like leaving the battlefield to fight the war another day. Plus I blame all the Nuggets and Sonics woes on George Karl and it serves him right for defecting to Denver after suffering the Sonics worst moment in franchise history when Robert Pack looked like Tony Parker and Dikembe Mutumbo cried clutching the ball at center court.

Watching the second game of the first round between the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks “Ron Paul is sick” I said. Cod chuckled to himself and looked at me, “Ron Paul?” Yeah Ron Paul had like 33 points and 15 assists last game and he is even better tonight. He is a Libertarian from Texas, I said. I know the difference between Ron Paul and Chris Paul, but I purposely like to root for Ron Paul when I watch the Hornets. Maybe it is because there are “Ron Paul for President” signs with a blue background and whites letters and a red underline with one white star posted at every freeway on ramp in western Washington. A few months back I would routinely drive by Microsoft employees holding up a Ron Paul Revolution banner on the Montlake Bridge, University Bridge and on the 45th street I-5 overpass. For some reason a lot of Redmond tech yahoos supported Ron Paul. For good reason he is the only Republican candidate that talked like a normal human being about the Iraq War and American foreign policy in general and he is logical when it comes to the economy.

Back to my main point about rooting for Ron Paul in a Hornets uniform, actually it is Chris Paul whom I root for now. He is fun to watch and there is something comforting about an NBA team having success in New Orleans. It has been 20 years since the Jazz moved to Utah. I have never understood why Utah did not change the name to something that has to do with Utah or the Mormons or white people. Is Jazz even allowed in Salt Lake City? It seems like a mean joke that these freaks kept the name. The team is as white as a KKK hood. But anyway, some are predicting a meeting of the New New Orleans team and the Old New Orleans team in the playoffs, and as good as Ron Paul, oops I mean Chris Paul looks against Jason Kidd and Dallas, historically if you look at the numbers and the game tape, he struggles and gets dominated by Derron Williams, the Utah Jazz point guard.

I don’t know what this means, but I root for the New Orleans Hornets, the city , the coach Byron Scott and the Brothers Chris and Ron Paul.

Today, as I turned on sports talk radio 950 AM, Sir Mix A Lot was on the radio with Groz and Gas talking about the NBA playoffs. Mix A Lot said things are so different culturally now, not race matters but just in general, now everyone one is the same and there is no difference and exciting rivalries. He said the old Celtics were ugly physically like welders or laborers or blue collar heroes, with a flashy tinsletown rival. Now, there is nothing like that in the NBA. Everyone has braids and tattoos and it is all about celebrities and...stuff. I agree to a certain degree, but honestly it was just nice to hear an unexpected visit to Groz with Gas by a Seattle legend. Unplanned radio is always best. What Mix A Lot was articulating was profound. He put it all in perspective; Multiculturalism is not about being black or brown, but it is about difference and that is something we are suffering from. Too many people in the U.S. are scared to be themselves.

Ok for now.

The black thing haunts Barack

"I'm not sure America is ready to have a black president.
I think they might kill him." - 50 Cent on Obama as President.

That is something many wonder about but no one wants to talk about it openly. It was brought up once when Ted Kennedy was on The Early Show. It was eluded to, not overtly but still, the issue was poked at. Kennedy was asked if he was worried about Obama’s safety because he is a “JFK-like-figure.” It was a crude question, but how do you approach the subject? Michelle Obama has said she worries for her husband’s safety and he was reported to have the biggest secret service detail out of all the candidates. Or maybe he was the only candidate with any at all. Colin Powell’s wife had the same fear when Colin’s name was being floated as a possible candidate to run in 2000.

50 Cent is a successful businessman, has said he liked W. within the last two years, does not have a conscious message in his music, but still sees a problem with a black president. His instincts get right down to the nut of the whole thing. Will this man with the crazy name, almost like Osama but instead Obama, make it or get gunned down like usual? The anniversary of MLK’s assassination was just a little bit ago, have things changed enough in 40 years? It is hard to know, but we are thinking about it. We worry for Obama’s safety and root for him. We want to believe. We can taste it. We are ready for it. Let’s do this.

Bill Clinton knew exactly what he was doing when he brought up Jesse Jackson winning South Carolina twice and still losing the nomination. Bill is not dumb or insensitive to race, but that was his way of swatting down the black community. It was a signal heard loud and clear like “states rights” with Reagan or W.’s whisper campaign about McCain’s black baby in 2000. Or the rumor about Obama with his hand on a Koran during his senate swearing in ceremony in 2002, and the picture with Obama in traditional Ethiopian garb. Those were all lies but also signals to let White America know this one is not to be trusted. Chris Matthews believed the red phone ad the Clinton team put out was a classic ploy to show who will keep the kids safe, be scared of the black man he will not be the one to keep your family safe he lurks in the night.

50 Cent knows the limitations he has seen it too many times, the built up distrust and fear of blacks in the white community runs deep. Obama is half black, his mom is white yet he still is in the black column. A big part of me believes that The Establishment will make sure he is not the nominee. Watch, the Clinton’s will clamp down.

FOX has been attacking Obama and that usually means the rest of the news media is due to do the same. Recently ABC’s George Stephanopoulis used questions suggested to him by Sean Hannity and historically other networks fall in line behind whatever FOX is focused on. Not sure if there is an organized effort to do so or if it is cultural, a top down sort of thing, like proper etiquette, but in the 2000 election, all the networks declared Gore the winner and then FOX said it was W. and the rest flipped the switch.

The black thing looks like it may be the straw that breaks Barack’s back, early on in the 2008 primary I thought we might finally forgo beating a candidate purely because of his blackness, but it does not seem to be so, as the campaign drags on. Recently Bill Clinton accused Obama of throwing the race card at him, ironically Bill pulled out the freaking race card in the first place with his infamous Jesse Jackson South Carolina comments.

It has been hard to watch Obama as he refused to get down and dirty. He has been criticized for it, by me and many others, we think he should have been punching back much harder. Sheesh, I would have grabbed Hillary by her soccer mom mullet and thrown her off the stage ten debates ago, but Obama has been about as cool, calm and collected as a man can be with these charges being thrown his way. Remember John McCain has White Supremacist supporters and even as a Senator from Arizona, he has a history of not celebrating MLK Day.

I took the pictures of the Obama van near KeyArena when Obama visited Seattle during the 2008 Democratic primary.

Vietnam to Iraq: The guilt of not going

“I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you . . . in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”
-W. to some soldiers right around the the five year mark.

Yesterday sitting in traffic I saw a bumper sticker that said “send the Bush twins,” and I thought about the quote at the top of the page. It is worth revisiting W.’s comments. When I read them, I immediately thought of the “Guilt of not Going”, a theory I came up with a while back. The “Guilt of not Going” is about men who did not serve in the Vietnam War but supported the War in Afghanistan and the Invasion of Iraq. Obviously I do not mean the “whole boomer generation” but a good sized chunk.

Two years ago I talked with my cousin Jim, a Vietnam Veteran, who said many of his male friends have expressed regret for not serving in the Vietnam War; for not serving their country. He speculated that the “regret” was triggered by some yearning for an epic life that all boys dream about. War is intertwined in a man’s DNA. So many have gone to battle, we watch movies about it, read about it and grow up playing with toy guns and GI Joes.

We have over 4,000 American deaths, who knows how many Iraqi’s are dead and how many In the Valley of Elah situations have come and gone without a line in a newspaper. How many American soldiers have committed suicide? How many have run away? How many have killed their wives? How many have kept torture videos on their cell phones?

W.’s quote at the top of the page had two words that made me cringe; romantic and envious. What could possibly be “romantic” about running over a child with a truck? It’s peculiar he is “envious” of the troops, he had the chance to “serve” in Vietnam, he fled to Alabama and hid.

I want to know if there really is this undercurrent of guilt for not fighting in one’s youth that fuels this current blood lust. Is that a crackpot theory or is there something to it? Most men I have talked with in their 50’s didn’t want to go to Vietnam and are against the Occupation of Iraq. But some of those same men believe we went into Afghanistan and Iraq with good intentions.

I married the top W. quote with the “Guilt of not Going” theory together even if they don’t connect at first glance. Both the regret of boomer’s and W.’s detachment to the seriousness of war struck me. Even John McCain said “anyone who romanticizes war is a fool and a fraud”. I agree. I am struggling with how to make sense of this occupation and how it has been reluctantly supported by many Americans. There are mind boggling amounts of reason and speculation about “why we are there” and I don’t want to try and tackle them all one by one.


Picture (Reed Wacker): Sign was at the corner of MLK and E. Madison St.