Take me back to New Orleans

There is part of me keeping a wary eye on the hurricane situation with the same kind of trepidation the rest of the country is feeling, and while I am of course happy to see that public figures are falling all over themselves to make sure that NOLA's being looked after, it only revives the sting of Katrina and the sheer indifference of the whole debacle. Part of me also wonders why we are fighting nature so hard to keep a city that is clearly MEANT to be underwater; I don't say that to be flip, either, but if it were me, I'd have high-tailed it out of there permanently after the last time. What is it about human nature that makes us think we can take on forces much larger than ourselves and win? I'm of the mind that sooner or later this planet will get sick of us all and decide to clean house like it did with the dinosaurs.

CNN keeps me pasted to the sofa in the hope that the idiots who are being interviewed who are "gonna ride it out" like good gulf-coasters are "supposed" to do get what's coming to them. It absolutely infuriates me when people who have means and choices to get out of the way CHOOSE not to and then take up public resources for those without choices. These are the same assholes who will need others to risk their lives to save their stupid asses instead of attending to the poor and elderly and sick. Ugh. Human stupidity and selfishness never ceases to amaze the fuck out of me.

And then there's John Mc-Fucking-Cain and his paltry poo-pooing his own convention in light of what might happen with the hurricane. I know I've said quite often lately that I'm going to eschew political rants in this space, but it's starting to feel way too important not to. It seems so perfectly obvious to me that McCain is a crackpot. He's too old, too out of touch, and his VP pick is a downright insulting appeal to "Hilary voters." As if the women who would have voted for Hilary could possibly support this lifetime NRA member, beauty queen, soccer mom who hates abortion (and subsequently choice across the board as far as I'm concerned).

And YET...

The country is clearly falling for it. After Obama's speech the other night - the history making, moving, compelling, intelligent, and frankly fucking LOGICAL speech - the polls still show them neck and neck for th White House. I stand amazed at how this is even possible. I stand amazed at how many lower and middle class women and minority groups are Republican in this day and age. How can people openly support a political party who does not represent nor care about their interests? Perhaps my choice of profession as a member of academia insulates me from typical American society, but still. How can people afford to walk blindly on without ever thinking about the world in which they live?

I'm not so naive as to think that the majority of Americans aren't stupid sheep, but as an educator it's my job to hope that more of them will unplug their fucking iPods and snap their cell phones shut long enough to pay attention to something that actually affects them. I can't figure out how anyone with an IQ over 100 and an income less than a million a year can even BE A REPUBLICAN. I don't even mean that insultingly, either. I'm genuinely mystified by this phenomenon.

If you're still reading this, for heaven's sake, use your brain. Register and vote. Stop being the butt of jokes around the world. Unplug and take ten seconds of your life and think about your future in this country. Ask yourself if abortion and same-sex marriage are really the issues to base a presidency upon, or if having health insurance, owning a home, and being able to get to work and feed your kids might be some slightly higher priorities. I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of this kind of petty bullshit when oil companies and the Bush family get to enjoy fat tax breaks, graduate from Yale with a C average, and I will never repay my student loans and got A's out of the fucking womb. Think about that next time you pay 20% more at the grocery store and didn't get a raise this year.