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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Thursday, September 15, 2005 On the road I haven't disappeared or quit blogging, just had a really brutal work schedule this the last week, all the way from Cumberland Gap to Virginia Beach, and north to Fredericksburg, a record number of miles in a week. It's not over yet, but the work has at least been reduced to a manageable quantity.Overheard in a small gas station/convenience store in southwest Virginia:Cashier: Isn't this awful, what we're hearing about New Orleans?Customer: Don't worry, President Bush will take care of it. Too bad we can't elect him for a third term.[At this point I was doing a mental raising of eyes to heaven and biting my tongue.]Cashier: Just like he took care of us around here, right? You know what the problem is? We're just not close enough to Washington to be his friends. If we was friends of his, he'd take real good care of us.Customer: Heh hehAnd in a large department store in Richmond, I commented on the sign on the cash register promising that the store would accept FEMA debit cards in payment for purchases. "Have you actually seen any of them?" I asked. The cashier shook her head."I heard that none of them ever got given out," she said. That was what I had heard too, but I didn't know for sure."All I know," I said, "was that not very many of them were made up. Not anywhere near as many as the number of people who needed them."She snorted. "Sounds about right. About like everything else that happened down there."I said with a sigh, "We don't seem to have much reputation for getting things done effectively any more.""I don't think it's we who are the problem," she said emphatically, and I agreed and went away with my purchases, thinking that this was the first time a total stranger had made that kind of remark to me. It seems a measure of how bitter many people are about their circumstances, not just the situation on the Gulf coast but everything.There is an old Ira Sankey hymn called "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land." The refrain goes:Jesus is a rock in a weary landA weary land, a weary land,Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land,A shelter in the time of storm.The "time of storm" in the hymn is metaphoric, of course, though eerily relevant now. But it is the phrase "a weary land" that caught my attention when I saw the hymn title on a lighted church sign late one night.This has become a weary land. Weary of war, weary of contants threats of terrorism, weary of job cuts and layoffs, deeply physically weary, for many people, of the unremitting effort of just making a buck—keeping the lights on and putting food in front of the kids. Middle class folk tend to equate "poor" with "welfare," ignoring the fact that most of our poor make just enough money that they don't qualify for public assistance. Or they are elderly widows living in a house long paid-for, who can't get help until they sell the home they may have lived in their entire adult lives and use up that money.Weary people don't fight back until they have become desperate. And desperate people do terrible things in their efforts to bring about change. I haven't seen desperation yet in the people I meet. But it wouldn't take much. Another major hike in the price of gas. More of the steady upward climb in the price of food. Another natural disaster in a politically blue area (most people are not aware that the only Louisiana parishes included in the original federal disaster declaration were the ones that voted Republican in the last election). Five years of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, layoffs and outsourcing of jobs, rampant cronyism in government and the constant use of scare tactics have transformed us from a reasonably optimistic nation—knowing that problems existed but feeling as though we had the ability and the will to deal with them—into people who make remarks like the two cashiers I quoted above.In the Christian scriptures, Egypt is often seen as a "type" of the world. Pharoah burdened the Jewish people with his demands, and God is said to have brought down a terrible series of plagues and misfortunes as a result. Except for the death of the first-born sons, the Jews must have suffered in Egypt right along with everyone else until Pharaoh let them leave. Five years of oppressive government have burdened the people of this country, and like the Jews in Egypt, we are paying the price of our rulers' sins. Unlike the Jews, we have no one to stand up to Pharaoh and lead us out of the weary land. posted by Liz @ 5:38 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
I haven't disappeared or quit blogging, just had a really brutal work schedule this the last week, all the way from Cumberland Gap to Virginia Beach, and north to Fredericksburg, a record number of miles in a week. It's not over yet, but the work has at least been reduced to a manageable quantity.Overheard in a small gas station/convenience store in southwest Virginia:Cashier: Isn't this awful, what we're hearing about New Orleans?Customer: Don't worry, President Bush will take care of it. Too bad we can't elect him for a third term.[At this point I was doing a mental raising of eyes to heaven and biting my tongue.]Cashier: Just like he took care of us around here, right? You know what the problem is? We're just not close enough to Washington to be his friends. If we was friends of his, he'd take real good care of us.Customer: Heh hehAnd in a large department store in Richmond, I commented on the sign on the cash register promising that the store would accept FEMA debit cards in payment for purchases. "Have you actually seen any of them?" I asked. The cashier shook her head."I heard that none of them ever got given out," she said. That was what I had heard too, but I didn't know for sure."All I know," I said, "was that not very many of them were made up. Not anywhere near as many as the number of people who needed them."She snorted. "Sounds about right. About like everything else that happened down there."I said with a sigh, "We don't seem to have much reputation for getting things done effectively any more.""I don't think it's we who are the problem," she said emphatically, and I agreed and went away with my purchases, thinking that this was the first time a total stranger had made that kind of remark to me. It seems a measure of how bitter many people are about their circumstances, not just the situation on the Gulf coast but everything.There is an old Ira Sankey hymn called "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land." The refrain goes:Jesus is a rock in a weary landA weary land, a weary land,Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land,A shelter in the time of storm.The "time of storm" in the hymn is metaphoric, of course, though eerily relevant now. But it is the phrase "a weary land" that caught my attention when I saw the hymn title on a lighted church sign late one night.This has become a weary land. Weary of war, weary of contants threats of terrorism, weary of job cuts and layoffs, deeply physically weary, for many people, of the unremitting effort of just making a buck—keeping the lights on and putting food in front of the kids. Middle class folk tend to equate "poor" with "welfare," ignoring the fact that most of our poor make just enough money that they don't qualify for public assistance. Or they are elderly widows living in a house long paid-for, who can't get help until they sell the home they may have lived in their entire adult lives and use up that money.Weary people don't fight back until they have become desperate. And desperate people do terrible things in their efforts to bring about change. I haven't seen desperation yet in the people I meet. But it wouldn't take much. Another major hike in the price of gas. More of the steady upward climb in the price of food. Another natural disaster in a politically blue area (most people are not aware that the only Louisiana parishes included in the original federal disaster declaration were the ones that voted Republican in the last election). Five years of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, layoffs and outsourcing of jobs, rampant cronyism in government and the constant use of scare tactics have transformed us from a reasonably optimistic nation—knowing that problems existed but feeling as though we had the ability and the will to deal with them—into people who make remarks like the two cashiers I quoted above.In the Christian scriptures, Egypt is often seen as a "type" of the world. Pharoah burdened the Jewish people with his demands, and God is said to have brought down a terrible series of plagues and misfortunes as a result. Except for the death of the first-born sons, the Jews must have suffered in Egypt right along with everyone else until Pharaoh let them leave. Five years of oppressive government have burdened the people of this country, and like the Jews in Egypt, we are paying the price of our rulers' sins. Unlike the Jews, we have no one to stand up to Pharaoh and lead us out of the weary land.
Cashier: Isn't this awful, what we're hearing about New Orleans?Customer: Don't worry, President Bush will take care of it. Too bad we can't elect him for a third term.[At this point I was doing a mental raising of eyes to heaven and biting my tongue.]Cashier: Just like he took care of us around here, right? You know what the problem is? We're just not close enough to Washington to be his friends. If we was friends of his, he'd take real good care of us.Customer: Heh heh
Jesus is a rock in a weary landA weary land, a weary land,Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land,A shelter in the time of storm.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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