Paul says I'm like Elvis. In the early stages, he qualifies. I guess I'm just too fabulous for reality. What can I say? The ups and the downs, the rebounds, what have you. I'm learning to be a very optimistic person. Not about the world in general, or America, or people in general, just about me. I am learning to enjoy life as it comes. To make choices (or not) and to not dwell on could-have-beens or should-have-beens. I've found that goals are an unhealthy construct most of the time. They make you struggle for eventual happiness while ignoring what can be found in each moment. So I don't believe in the whole sacrifice today for the future bullcrap. In fact I think it's hardcore business propaganda to pump us as hard as possible during our most productive years. How else do you convince all of us to work so damn hard? It's the end goal, the financial security, eventual prestige, what have you that pushes us to produce. So I don't buy it. I look at my poor father, who worked for a damn long time, had a great retirement plan and so forth. He lost most of his retirement in the whole Enron fiasco (his company has nothing to do with them, but that's where the money was invested), and now is out of work and pretty much at the same financial security level as me. What the hell did prodigiously working for years and years get him? So, I scorn the future, and care about today. But I am learning to be happy, which is the important part of this rant. Most of us are unhappy because we're not where we "want to be" but I want to be happy because I am, right here right now. There is no other place I'd rather be-heeee! Jesus Jones thank you for those words of inspiration.

A quote by James Madison made at the debates before the drafting of our constitution:

In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority [italics mine]. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body.

So if anyone still believes in the common fallacy that the crafters of our constitution really believed in any form of equality, please reconsider. They knew exactly what they were doing, basically making sure that the wealthy landowners (ie: the opulent minority) would stay wealthy and become wealthier through direct control over the political and economic processes of our country and its people (ie: the sniveling majority).

from:
Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1787 ("Yates's Minutes"), Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2nd edition, 1836

At risk of having everyone hate me again, I present an opposing view on the draft.

Currently our army (enlisted men, excluding officers) consists overwhelmingly of poor people. It is a last resort for too many kids with few prospects (see some of my other journals about prisons and soldiers [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=62[/inlink] & [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=64[/inlink]). The reason for this is that we have what is called a "professional army" composed of paid soldiers whose main occupation is war (call it "defense" or "peacekeeping" if you like). What we used to have was a "volunteer army," meaning that our citizens were our army when needed (hence our 2nd amendment rights to carry arms: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.). The draft is an extension on this volunteer army system.

There are many differences between the two types of armies. Economically speaking, a huge standing army (ie: our current system) must be constantly paid, fed, housed, etc. With a draft in place, you would of course keep a much smaller army, and only pay a larger force when necessary. I think a part of the reason for our skyrocketing defense budgets since Vietnam has a lot to do with maintaining a gigantic army constantly. Politically, it is much harder to justify war if you don't have professional soldiers. If the kids going to war aren't just from the farms and the ghettos, but from right next door-suburbia, you better have good reasons. How much more antiwar sentiment can you garner if everyone has to worry about themselves or their loved ones being drafted? I especially like that there are very tough requirements for waivers in the new bill which would hopefully prevent stooges like our current leader from ditching his duty. Another point I always think of is if it ever got down to the army being used for civil purposes (as was very close in Miami this summer at the FTAA protests) I would much rather see a draftee who still remembered being a civilian than a hardened professional killer.

Basically the way it works now is hugely expensive, allows America to have a gigantic army that can be repositioned as easily as the pieces on a Risk board, disproportionately utilizes lower class labor, breeds sociopathic killers, must not be strenuously justified, and allows slackers like Dubya off the hook. So while I personally have no desire to be drafted, I don't know that the idea should be so off-handedly dismissed. I just think of the next war that Dubya thinks up, in Lybia or Iran or wherever, and imagine the draft cards going around, and the hundreds of thousands who then could stand up in solidarity, saying we will not fight for your greedy wars. The 82nd Airborn is never going to do that.

Slithering tires bring friends to the goal
Squelching through slime
Racing through time
Fast as you can but watch out for the fall
White wonder abounds
Breath panting in rounds
To the river of course though hidden beneath
Coruscating ice floe
Wary feet tread slow
Across and over rushing depths below
Round the next bend
Like pure heavensend
Glistening water frozen while falling
Boys take it in
Both sight and sin
Winter relaxes and they enjoy the melt

She was invading my thoughts this morning as I lie semiconscious after sleep. I rode the Autobus and remembered what it was like to travel through a downtown that had no cars. Of course we abused the system half the time, which made it more dangerous. Danger is not always a bad thing though. One time I kotzte on the bus, I don't think the Führer noticed though. One time I ran away from my friends for no apparent reason and then returned home later to lock myself in the bathroom where I was found lying at the bottom of the shower. I used to wander a lot. About the town and surrounding countryside. Our town was small, you needed only to go a halfmile in the right direction to be away. I found a glen. It became my private getaway spot. I made a hollow in the ground which I could disguise by pulling the long grass over. I made an Indian. He was natural. Except for his weapon. He had a rock for a brain, but was imbued with my lifeforce. He was precognizant. Or maybe connected with another faraway life force. He reacted once or twice. He remains in Deutschland (so far as I know). I wonder if he's still connected or if it fades with time. I hope he's not too dusty. Those were free and carefree (and I must admit workfree) days. Leisure up the kazoo. I used to run and bike. I had a ridiculous headpiece for earphones. Everyone laughed at me (mostly to themselves). It was fun being foreign. Exotic even. Maybe not quite that far. Until I opened my mouth you couldn't really tell. There was a See. You went there, schwimmen, sonne-baden. The whole time nackt wie ein Baby. I must stop, the reminiscing is too much for me. Makes me miss what's faraway right now. Spring will help. It always does.