Much to say tonight. I did my usual thing today, hanging out for an hour or so displaying my sign ("Hey, Hey, USA, How many soldiers died today?") at the dolphin fountain in the midst of the Labor Day tourist traffic. I figure if we can ruin our soldiers' days, day after day, I can wreck a few vacationers' moments. But today, as two days ago during the weekly peace march in SB, I noted fewer high-fives, fewer favorable horn-honks and peace-signs being directed my way.
Probably we've become complacent. Out of sight, out of mind. And since we in the US have so rarely had a war within our borders, much less our sight, our attention span is quite short. Besides, there's the tennis, the upcoming TV season and, of course, the National Football League.
I'm beginning to feel very negative about this country. I've always felt a bit out of the mainstream, but lately there's an alienation inside me, a sense of profound disquiet, about the land of my birth and upbringing. Who are these people who are "leading" us? Do they wake up each morning, trying to ground themselves in sense and goodness and fine principles? I think not. I believe they are the same Budweiser-tugging, SUV-driving, unconscious mob that we see everywhere in this nation nowadays.
I feel like one of the Roman Senators who watched the end of that empire. I feel it, deep inside, that we (the present nation, the present world) are nearing the end of our existence. And I can't say I'm sorry, because the next species will be finer. Gotta be.