They Love Their Dump

Blame it on this winter that refuses to go away.   My blog topics have all been serious for weeks on end.   How we get rid of our trash may also be a weighty issue, but some folks in Montville apparently find regular trips to the town landfill to be an enjoyable experience.   Those comments came from residents who spoke out against a proposal by town council member Dana McFee to have town-wide trash pickup.   Now, residents either pay a private contractor or take the trash to the dump themselves.   Some say this destination has become a social gathering place where their kids even like to come along.   They like it!    I do admit a feeling of accomplishment when I cart away big things that do nothing but clutter up my home, but a weekly jaunt to the town landfill just to get rid of everyday trash can get old very quickly.   Maybe one man's trash can be another man's treasure, but I see little evidence of that.   I've also always felt the dump was a place to jettison junk and not a prime spot for a scavenger hunt.     For one thing, I find little intriguing in most tag sales or in that old pogo stick or golf bag left at the curb, let alone picking over what others leave behind in a landfill.   No one will ever call me a hoarder, and whenever I exhibit my penchant for holding on to all things electronic I recall an episode of TV's Hoarders and find the process of letting go easier.   

Bush's Vietnam

On this ten year anniversary of the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, we are at a loss to find any solid benefit from our long presence there.    We were never welcomed as liberators.  Iraqi oil never paid for our invasion.  Democracy has not taken hold.   Basic services still fail to function.   Corruption is rampant.   Violence between Sunnis and Shiites continues.  The Bush administration took the sympathy and support of the international community after 9/11 and squandered it.   We distracted ourselves from focusing on the Afghan War and bringing justice to the real 9/11 terrorists: Al Qaeda and their protectors the Taliban.   Saddam Hussein was not behind 9/11; nor did he possess weapons of mass destruction.    Iran is stronger and emboldened.     Iraq cost a trillion dollars, give or take, and close to 4,000 American lives with many more wounded.   The Iraqi toll is much higher.   What did it get America or the cause of world peace?    While I doubt this war was just an honest mistake, I don't think prosecuting Bush, Cheney and company  as "war criminals" is a way to fix it.   The most reprehensible part is when war supporters paint this as a positive outcome.   If this was Iraq's "liberation", where's the freedom?   

A Groundbreaking Choice

Pope Francis I

There is a new leader for the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, and the choice is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a cardinal from Argentina and the first non-European Pope since the 8th century.   Taking the name Francis I serves as a powerful symbol of his connection with the impoverished from many of the world's developing nations where disparity between the incomes of rich and poor is staggering.   While this economic gap is also growing here in the USA, Catholics here and in other developed Western countries tend to focus on social issues ranging from abortion, priest celibacy, the role of women in the church, beliefs about homosexuality and the shockwaves from child molestation scandals.   This new Pope, the first from the New World, is likely to share social views of his Old World counterparts.    That may seem very out of step with more progressive Western ideologies, but Francis I represents a potential sea change for Catholics in places like Latin America and Africa where the church is growing rapidly as it declines in the USA and Europe.   After Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978, his conservative church doctrine did not get in the way of the real social change he inspired as his Polish countrymen and others behind the Iron Curtain hastened the fall of the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes.    While I may wish the new Pope could be more liberal on social issues, I think he brings a renewed sense of hope to the hundreds of millions who suffer in poverty while the few prosper.

Latin America's Robin Hood?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died this week at 58 after a long battle with cancer.   I listened last night to the BBC interviewing people in Argentina and you would have thought he was a hero for standing up for the downtrodden against the world's one remaining superpower.   Many remember his personal attack at the United Nations on President George W. Bush, calling him "the devil."   Such belligerent talk is not worthy of what the UN should be all about.   Add his cozy relationships with some of the world's most repressive dictatorships like Cuba, Iran and Syria along with his efforts to quash internal dissent and Americans may well wonder why anybody would give this crackpot any credibility.  There are many across the globe including some left leaning Americans who actually liked Chavez just because of their intense dislike of the Bush-Cheney administration.    I'm not the only one who did a double take when Joe Kennedy, Jr. appeared in commercials thanking "Citgo, the people of Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez" for heating oil assistance to America's needy.   Kennedy may have a point on how Chavez tried to spread the wealth around while the gap between the haves and have nots grows wider than ever, but the Chavez hero worship is sadly misplaced.   It does show the impact of flawed U.S. foreign policy exemplified by the Iraq invasion and occupation.   Many were so put off by perceived U.S. arrogance abroad that they were willing to look the other way as Chavez did anything he could to antagonize us and our de facto ally Colombia.    The U.S. has new challenges in this post Cold War world.    Authoritarian regimes count on making the United States into Satan.    Yes, there are times for strong military action, but first we have to do whatever we can to prevent them from making their case to those on the fence.