I’m reading through all of the top news stories right now, and I’m depressed. I don’t just mean regular “oh I’m feeling blah”, I’m seriously depressed about the state of things in the world. I know I’m not alone, I know I’m just some guy who writes on the internet for you, and I know I’m in no position to change many of the things I’m reading.
Ready to get low? Here we go. First is the NASA scientist who was told by the NASA public affairs team a few weeks ago – a team “staffed by political appointees from the Bush administration” – that he was not to speak to the media regarding the rapid melting of the Greenland ice cap and the effect it will have on sustainable sources of energy. We’re not talking a little bit of melting here, we’re talking about ice caps melting at rates dramatic enough to cause serious alarm to everyone. We didn’t listen, did we, when we were asked to find renewable sources of energy that did not burn carbon? Well, as of right now, it may be too late and it is too early to detect just how horrible of an impact this has on our planet and the life each of us enjoys on it.
Then there’s the half-empty city of New Orleans preparing to celebrate Mardi Gras — and an annual parade was cancelled because they could not get insurance.
Our Vice-President has bad aim, our President has all but destroyed our reputation in the world while we sat around and took it, we’re still at war and don’t know when we will be out, and there are no clear frontrunners for the 2008 Presidential race who can fix all the shit these men and their ilk have done to us.
What will it take to fight a pandemic that could kill as many as 142 million people? What will it take to stop the insane antics of Iran without creating more upset throughout the Muslim world? What will it take to put income and jobs back in the United States, to stop taking for granted that we are the greatest country in the world and behaving with anything resembling a graciousness that comes with the title?
Then there is my own city. Is the best thing we can do with the Pyramid to turn it into the world’s largest Bass Pro Shop? Will anyone be able to book an event in this city without being passed up by the FedEx Forum first? Is everyone so self-involved that they can’t come out to support local music anymore, or is it that everyone is just so fucking broke all the time?
Then I asked myself if I will ever be able to go an entire year without having to turn to friends for help paying my bills, to government assistance or charity to simply survive? Will I ever be able to afford health insurance? Dental insurance?
I need a glimmer of hope to come shining through all these thoughts about the world I’m living in right now. I’m encumbered with the thoughts of my own humanity, and I’m struggling with my place in all of it. But I’m trying. As the warm weather of the day turns into sleet, thunderstorms, and freezing cold, I’m perplexed and vexed about so many things. I am so small here, in the quiet of my apartment bedroom, tinkering with ways to make the lives of those around me better.
I have no answers, but I am filled with questions and respect for how tiny I must be. Bode Miller, frequently crapped on by people for his Bohemian lifestyle, said something in the wake of his disqualification in the Olympics that just rang true with me, though I don’t think it applies to me. “Fame is like a poison. I don’t care for it. I used to have a better life when I was nobody.”
But I’m going to keep it together. You do what you have to do, too.
