2001-04-20 - 12:18 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust", I think. When I stopped to listen, the song disappeared.

This entry was supposed to be posted last week, but between actually working for a change and somehow finding myself going out a lot and even doing (gasp) sociable things, it never got posted. It's mostly a lot of ranting.

Dammit, shit, fuck.

I think I might be coming down with a cold again. I sure hope not. I'm trying to will it away. I do not have a cold. I am not coming down with a cold. My throat is dry because it was freezing last night and I had no humidifier.

Two blood-pressure spikes today:

This article describes how a doctor/farmer way down in Westmoreland County is fighting an effort by the government to take away his land. The reason the government wants his land is because it is a federal and state law to replace the wetlands destroyed by the forthcoming new Wilson Bridge in Alexandria.

I do not like eminent domain. I don't like it one bit. If you can persuade someone to leave by paying them money for their land, that's one thing. But to take it anyway, without their consent, because some sprawled metropolis 90+ miles away is building a bridge? I don't THINK so.

Second spike was triggered by this article, which reminded me that congressional Republicans have NOTHING better to do than waste tax dollars renaming a Metro stop. Now I like Ronald Reagan just fine, but he did NOT need the airport named after him (he's got an entire huge building downtown, for godsakes) and everybody around here calls the place "National Airport" or just plain "National", which is what the Metro stop is currently called. WHY ARE THEY FUSSING OVER THIS INSTEAD OF CONVINCING ALL OF CONGRESS TO CUT TAXES AND SPENDING?!??!!?

Who was it that said, very recently, that the only reason Republicans were put on earth was to cut taxes?

OK, so have I mentioned this before? I read recently a quote from a woman who apparently sees attempts on the part of George W. Bush to restrict abortion as a violation of her uterus's privacy.

Okay.

I can understand that this woman may believe that a fetus is not a viable human being. I'd imagine people believe this because, let's face it, if you take an embryo out at six weeks and look at it, it doesn't look much like a human. Nevertheless, I disagree vehemently with this idea -- primarily because we were all at that stage at one point, and because someone I once cared deeply about was nearly aborted at their embryo stage -- but if she believes that, fine, whatever. I'm not going to argue about that right now.

The thing that bugs me is that bullshit argument that the pro-life folks are trying to invade your "privacy". That makes about as much sense as so-called "pro-lifers" (try, "stark raving idiots") bombing abortion clinics. If they believe that we need to kill some people to save unborn babies, why don't they just set themselves on fire in the town square to "raise awareness"?

George W. Bush, in this particular instance, is not trying to violate anyone's privacy, uterine or otherwise. He just happens to believe that a fetus is a living human being. It's not about trying to OPPRESS anyone or their UTERUS, it's about his belief that an innocent BABY should not be KILLED. To him there's no difference between killing the baby at six weeks gestation and killing it at six weeks after birth.

I just don't like it when people twist the pro-lifer's view to being something patriarchal or Big Brother-ish when in fact, most sane pro-lifers simply believe that there are two people involved in an abortion, and that unless the mother's life is threatened, it shouldn't be up to her to decide whether the baby lives or dies.

Lots of heavy topics today, huh? I'm continuing here. "Schindler's List" is on TV tonight, and Poindexter is showing me bits of it during commercial breaks and intermissions of his Sharks game.

OK, on a cinematic level, I would love to watch this movie. From what I've heard and the bits I've seen, the movie is nothing short of absolute brilliance. In particular, it is a movie with excellent, subtle character development, not to mention some of my favorite actors.

But I don't think I can sit and watch this movie. I don't know.

The things depicted in the movie are horrifying. I can't distance myself from them. I watch Amon Goethe and am nauseated and it doesn't go away when I stop watching. I see the women undressing for the "showers" and realize what's happening and start to cry. I can't watch.

I don't need to watch. I don't need to be hit in the face with the horrors of it to get the message.

I just think of what I know of all this, and I wonder, how could this happen?

The worst part is how near it still is, and things like it. You see the movie and it seems very old, and how it could never happen today. But that's not true.

When my grandparents were my age -- my grandparents, a living link from me to that time -- this was happening in Europe. When my grandparents were my age, Japanese-Americans were forced to live in camps. When my grandfather was a child, there were very old people still living who were enslaved as children.

It was not that long ago.

And this kind of thing is still happening in the world today. Bosnia, Rwanda ... people everywhere are still senselessly killing each other by the thousands for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.

Human beings are capable of doing such good things. They have such potential. Why, then, do they do this?

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