Greetings Mr. Bageant -
Man, do I admire you. You had the honesty to move back to your old home town and make a life there, despite the deep differences that many of the locals have with you. And you turn out one great column after another that helps me see through this blizzard of bullshit that is being flung by the neocon gangsters in D.C. Your latest column about NPR and PBS was spot on. I more or less gave up on PBS many years ago (how many times can you stand Dr. Wayne Dyer during pledge drives!!) and finally stopped watching when they got rid of Bill Moyers for being "biased". I have also said "adios" to NPR.
I will listen every once in a while but I rely now on the local Pacifica station KPFA, the local Air America station KQKE, and alternative outlets that I find. I also love the real community FM stations such as KWMR in West Marin that have wonderful local programs along with special features and no commericals. They also audio-stream, so no matter where I may move in the future (probably Maine or Vermont) I can listen to them. As to TV I recently watched a local "news" show and was appalled by the fluff. They started out this news program with a segment on the weather and then came back for another weather segment at the end. In between was lots of health features, sports, and coverage of an overturned truck that was on fire on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Thing is, I am near San Francisco. I learned nothing about the local government or what is happening to the schools, etc, etc.
This is distraction. I am old enough to remember a wonderful hour long news program on the PBS station KQED back in the 60s and 70s. It was called "News Room" and they meant it. Excellent comprehensive reporting, commentary, a roundtable, and even a fine political cartoon at the end. That show is long gone and I have seen the same thing happen to NPR. It is disgraceful to see them being "underwritten" by the likes of Wal-Mart, ADM and Lockheed Martin. I also heard that years ago NPR was toying with the idea of renting one of the sides of their corporate headquarters building in D.C. for general advertising. Of course, the excuse was "We will raise additional revenues to insure that we can continue to bring you QUALITY programming." What an obvious slippery slope.
I agree with you and Mark Crispin Miller (who was allowed to air his views on Air America and KPFA) that the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen and that we are living in denial about it. I see little reason to believe that it will not happen again this year and in 2008. That helps to explain the amazing arrogance of these criminals when they admit to usurping the Constitution and committing their atrocities in so many ways. They know how deeply the fix is in and they are running with it.
By the way, you said in another column that you think of leaving the country on a regular basis. So do I. I wonder who my Roman equivalent might have been in the Second Century AD who agonized over the excesses of Commodus and his ilk and wondered what happened to the republic. I somethines resign myself to the possibility that we are in an historical process that cannot be reversed. Spengler said that the last stage of a civilization is imperialism. We have the most egregious imperialists in power that I have ever seen in the U.S. He called the result a "petrified culture" which is what you have decribed as well.
I am disgusted by the way in which this country that I was taught to believe in as the guiding light for the world has degenrated into what we see now. You mentioned eight years of Bush. That is a hideous thing to contemplate because he will acheive just about everything that his right-wing handlers put him in power to instigate. A decimated middle class, a raped natural environment, a bankrupt treasury and the foundations for a one-party kleptocracy into the forseeable future. It is frustrating and ironic to me that the very social movements that could save this country are taking place in South America and not here. Chile is just the latest in a line of countries who are listening to their citizens and turning left. More power to them.
Lastly, I would like to recommend a piece about the mental illness of Bush and the country written by the Jungian psychoanalyst Paul Levy. You can get to it by going to Google and typing in his name along with Bush. He describes a disease called "malignant egophrenia" and it left me chilled and afraid. If you haven't read this I recommend it.
I wish you and yours all good things there in Winchester and I would like to end this by saying how cool it was of you to answer that African-American man who wrote about his mixed marriage and invite them to your home. I can see how people in Winchester would be a lot more concerned about just getting by in the Age of Bush than in whether two people of different "races" were married. I will continue to look forward to your excellent observations.
Best regards,
Bruce
Marin County, California
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Bruce,
I am so humbled by the elegance and honesty of your letter that I do not know what to say.
Day after day I am told by editors and media management in general that people like you do not exist, and that if they do their numbers are minuscule. Yet I see the counter numbers on the websites that run unto the millions and remain convinced we are a very significant portion of the population that goes unacknowledged because the media corporations cannot find a product to sell us because we can smell shit when it is offered to us, regardless of the liberal packaging.
I can remember "back when" and so can you. And frankly, this old dog is
about ready for some good old fashioned 1960s style looting and burning.
First thing I'm gonna steal is a case of vitamins and a copy of the
Jeff Airplanes' "Got a Revolution."
After that, I'll take a good nap.
Solidarity,
Joe
