Thursday, January 30, 2003

The State of Things
All these political addresses, so little time.

Last night started off well enough. Lola came over, we ordered in Bluestone pizza, and we indulged in our newest obsession - the chock full of cheese phenomonon that is American Idol. I am not proud that I enjoy it so much but I won't deny it either. And then of course that ended, the way television programmes do, and it was time for the Shrub's State of the Union address.

Such an amazing piece of spectacle. I was appalled on so many levels. While I was impressed that we are now supporting ways of addressing the AIDS crisis in Africa, and would be happy to see my tax dollars go towards such an endeavor, I demand efficiency from my tax dollars. And throwing money at treatment without mention of preventative education and prophylactic measures is cost-inefficient at best and in my view flagrantly immoral at worst. $1.3 billions dollars, and the word "condom" isn't mentioned? Bush strikes again, which is hardly suprising as he mentioned minutes later his intention to strike out late term abortion. Slippery slope, my friends, slippery slope.

Then of course, before I even get to expound on the forthcoming war in Iraq, there was the downright chilling mention that while a number of el-Queda suspects had been arrested, etc, there was then mention that "other things had happened to them. In short, they are no longer a threat to American security." (I am paraphrasing, but remembering as best I can.) I nearly spit my food out. This statement, all but declaring that we had engaged in killing and possibly torture of individuals, whether here and abroad, without due process to me goes against every value America claims to uphold. It was an appalling statement, and was rewarded by a standing ovation. I fear for the state of the nation, I really do.

War in Iraq appears to be based entirely on "intelligence sources" - none of which indicate that people are being tortured, invasions are imminent, nothing of the sort. Rather, things are as they have been for the last ten years. Sure, the economy is bad, and one of the reasons it is tanking is that we're heading off to war and all that uncertainty is driving the market down. So precisely who is benefitting from all this?

Tonight, of course, was the emergency gubernatorial address from our new Governor, Mitt Romney. As predicted, belt tightening galore. Town funding being cut 2 and a half percent, but nothing was ever referred to as a percentage. Everything was "cents on the dollar," so for example this cut would be just "two and a half cents on the dollar." I'm sure this is just calculated to make people feel better about it, but that isn't going to work. Amazingly, many social services do not seem to have been cut, but equally amazingly the MDC was. People already fired, and the agency is to be entirely phased out and merged with the State Parks Commission. I don't know enough about the MDC to know whether or not I agree with this, but I do know enough about it to know that politically this is a big deal. There have been efforts to ditch the MDC out a number of times, and each time it has been blocked by the legislature. But this time, given the statements by the head of the legislature immediately following Romney's address, it looks like Romney's got a free hand, and the MDC is as good as gone. Frankly, I'm shocked. Jawohl mein fuhrer, I now live in a consitutionally suspended dictatorship.

The social services cuts that Romney has proposed are highly appalling. Many of them revolve around health care. For starters, state employees now have to pay a bigger percentage of their health insurance costs. Now granted, I think there is excess staffing in the state house and many agencies, but quite frankly these people do not earn market rate for their jobs. They do serve the state, and for this they aren't paid much. In addition to that, many free health care programs are to be "trimmed." ALl this against the backdrop of Shrub's travelling to Michigan to promote his health care plan. Health care plan? Can you say "death miasma plan?" Some of the best hospitals in the world are right here in the Boston area, and meanwhile the poorest and neediest will not be treated. This echoes a book I am currently reading entitled "Gracefully Insane" which is a biography of McClean Hospital, one of the oldest and most prestigious mental hospitals in the United States. The book is well written, and quite compelling despite its subject matter. At the portion of my current reading, there is great detai about how it was a hospital built by the rich, for the rich and the poor went elsewhere. At least then the poor had somewhere else to go. Where shall we go now?

Long live the resistance!
Love
Anne

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