The Bird I ate for Breakfast

The first thought I had was that the roof was caving in. I sat up in bed my eyes were wide and my heart was racing. Panicked eyes raced around the quiet room. It was morning and the sun shown through the large picture window beside my bed. My apartment was neat and well kept. Nothing was out of place. In fact it all looked quite lovely reflecting the light of the northeastern sun. Looking to the window I saw and equally pleasant scene. White dew held the grass in its place. It was autumn in Alaska and the Birch and Poplar trees were bright yellow. The tundra in the higher elevations was a deep red. A carpet of burgundy that made the whole of the mountains look as though they were on fire.
My heart settled down after a minute but I was still convinced that something had awoken me besides a dream. I thought I remembered noise. Something like a loud explosion, a sharp cymbal that nearly made me leap from my bed. The mystery was that beyond the chirping birds I had no evidence of any such noise. I got up and looked under the bed. I left the bedroom and examined my kitchen slash living room. A sink full of dishes sat in my sink. Bachelor I was and doing dishes was never high on my priority list. My general rule became that if the cupboard was bare, it was time to do the dishes. I scanned the counter for any displaced plates or glasses. Not a one seemed to be moved. If this mystery noise came from the kitchen it was not from fallen dishware.
I looked across the room. My living room area consisted of a couch, a table and a chair. Like Thoreau’s cabin in the woods I had one seat for sitting another for company and society, should they come over, would have to stand. Nothing was out of place here either, so I put on my slippers and took my search outside. The old man that I rented from had enclosed the under part of the deck of his house to make my apartment. The ceiling was low and the walls drafty but the rent was cheap and the view was spectacular. I came to Alaska to live on the edge of the last frontier. The spot that I found to call home was perched in the clouds and at the edge of my dreams.
Alaska is a very active place for earthquakes. I had felt several before and began to wonder if what had woke me up was the house itself bending under the moving earth. I walked around the side of my apartment inspecting the structure of the walls. I had seen grocery store windows bend like sheets of plastic under the strain of an earthquake. I had also felt an earthquake toss my belongings and myself as if I lived in an unbalanced washing machine. I looked for cracks in the glass or signs of damage. The apartment walls were filled with large windows. These didn’t help at all to keep the warmth inside when it was cold but the openness fed the fantasy that I was camping every day of the week.
I breathed the thin cool air into my lungs. It was crisp and a little painful to hold in my chest. It smelled of dying leaves, wet grass and blue sky. The air wrapped around my limbs and made my hair stand at attention but the sun warmed my face. It was the perfect fall morning. The air was chilled but the sun was warm and reassuring. Winter was coming but no one could feel that sun on their face and believe that it would last forever. I looked at the corner posts of the house. I examined the frames of the windows all were as they should be. The morning mystery seemed to be unsolvable. Perhaps I had dreamed after all even if my heart told me otherwise. I was about to give up. I looked though the window at my bed. What could have attacked me with such violent fury in that space without leaving a single clue to its identity? At a loss I looked to the flower box at the bottom of the window. There I found my answer.
A Ptarmigan is an artic game bird. Locals call them mountain chickens. Speckled brown and white they are common and only a little smaller than the average domestic chicken. The other striking feature of the Ptarmigan is the fact that they are as dumb as a box of rocks. Local hunters have told me that you can find them in groups, sometimes feeding together. If you shot one in the group the others will look on unimpressed. There’s no flying away or taking off in panic. The birds calmly seem to accept that there is now more food for the rest of them. A hunter can take an entire patch of birds home in this way. One after another until that last Ptarmigan surly must raise an eyebrow to question what is happening. Then it too is dispatched.
In the flower box in the center of my window lay a Ptarmigan. Its neck was broke and it’s body warm. I picked it up and it’s heat felt good on my now chilled fingers. It was suddenly clear to me what had happened. The bird had flown, slamming itself into my window. The impact had killed it and nearly killed me of fright. The noise from the impact must have been unmistakable. I marveled that the glass held and didn’t shower me with shards as I lay in my bed.
The bird’s death was now a part of my life. To waste such a sacrifice would be to shut out the lesson this bird was trying to teach me. I knew what I had to do. I went beck to my kitchen and turned on the small gas stove. With hunting knife and white glass bowl in hand I headed down the mountainside away from the house. Once I found a spot suitably away from the house I dressed the bird. Removing its head and organs I then skinned it’s body taking the feathers with it. When I was done it was little more than a pound and no longer a bird. It was food ready for consumption.
After a quick rinse I popped it into the oven. 30 minutes later I was sitting by the window eating my breakfast. I stared out at the trees, blue sky, grass and clouds. The world was beautiful and perfect that morning. More perfect than any other I had remembered. It was something I might have missed if it hadn’t been for this Ptarmigan that decided that I had been asleep for too long.

November's Importance

Most polls show grim prospects for the Republican Party this November. Failed policies and a failure of ethics and moral leadership have left the American public weary of the current leadership. Collectively we are ready for a change. Democrats are excited about their chances to do well in the coming elections. There is energy and a skip in their step that has not been seen in quite some time. The magic of the Carl Rove, school of election success, has lost its shine. Republican voters are feeling used and unheard by those that they have sent to Washington. Once Carl Rove dreamed of a permanent Republican majority. Now those dreams are all but gone. The current political climate is a building to a perfect storm that holds dark clouds for the current Republican leadership.
If the Republicans loose seats and power in congress it will be the first substantive political set back for the party in many years. Perhaps the leadership of the party will look again at the core traditions and ideals that made the party great. Less government intrusion and waste was once a core ideal of the GOP. Now it seems to be no more than a talking point to those that have relied on conservative voters for positions of power. I am certain that conservative voters will return to the party when the party returns to the conservative voter. Even if they loose this November the Republican Party will be grand once again.
For Democrats this election cycle is far more important. Every expectation is that they will do well in the coming election. The continued viability of the party demands that things go well this time around. If Democrats can’t win now, when can they? The party is in the driver’s seat but also behind the eight ball. Taking back the Senate and or the House will only confirm what everyone has been saying. A loss now by Democrats would doom the party to a position of an ineffectual, minority opposition party for years to come. Chances of a Democrat winning the White House in 2008 would diminish 10 fold if the party can’t even win a handful of key local races. If Republican voters are disillusioned with their election winning representatives how will Democratic voters feel about their parties inability to win. A loss in November for Republicans will be a bump in the political road that they will recover from. A loss by Democrats could turn into a chasm that they may never recover.
Put in this context the coming election has huge importance for both parties. If you believe that the best thing for the county is unobstructed Republican rule now is the time to make that dream happen. Rally the conservative base around your flawed representatives and secure Republican power for another generation. By delivering such a stunning defeat in the face of such a negative tide of failed policy and scandal this vote could end the political aspirations of Democrats to the point where a third party would have to immerge to fill the power void.
The message to Democrats of course is not to believe the hype of polls before the votes are counted. This is an excellent opportunity for the Democratic Party to show what they can do to solve the difficult problems we face as a nation. If they win back the Congress it will be up to them to offer imperfect solutions to complicated problems. The mistakes and missteps will now made by Democrats instead of Republicans. Can they do better than the current leadership? We will only know if they win. If you are a Democrat and really want your party to have a chance to take the burden of power, then you have to get out there and do your part. The future of your party depends, now more than ever, on your vote.
The higher the expectation the more pressure is put on those to fulfill what is expected. The greater the victory when expectations are overcome. Every election is important, as is every vote. This election cycle is no exception, but the stakes might even be higher that most of us realize.

Dangers of Power

Congress is a place of power and influence far beyond the laws they write and money they appropriate. It is an institution of our government that has grown in prestige and complexity over the long history of our country. Whenever an institution becomes this entrenched in tradition and the virtues of the status quo it looses the ability to police itself. Members of the club become little more than functionaries protecting the institution as a whole rather than acting as moral individuals. The longer a person lives inside such a structured world the harder it is to act out of ones own conscience and do the work originally assigned to you.
The Mark Foley scandal is representative of this problem of power acting to maintain power, rather than serve the public need. Foley has been in the House of Representatives for 12 years. In that time he worked for tightening laws against the very abuses he now all but admits to. How many times was he congratulated for offering solutions while in his private life he was part of the problem? What turns anyone into this kind of predator is very hard to say. All we know for certain is that these broken people exist and trusting stereotypes to see them can cause us to be blind.
Many people were blinded by Rep. Foley’s public image. How many good people worked close with him every day without ever suspecting. I’m sure he’s a good liar. He wouldn’t be in politics otherwise. There was a list of people that did have the information to look beyond Foley’s lies. They include (not surprisingly) his chief of staff Kirk Fordham, Foley’s colleague Tom Reynolds, and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. As time goes on and the investigation continues it is likely that more people will be exposed that knew of Foley’s indiscretions. A secret of this magnitude takes a lot of help from people in positions of power to keep hidden. Should we really be surprised that the system acted out self-preservation? These individuals acted to protect the institution of the Congress and the integrity of the Republican Party over the well being of several young boys.
It is striking the similarities between this scandal and the far reaching scandal faced by the Catholic Church. A small number of priests committed terrible crimes but when it came time for disclosure it was the institution that took charge. The protection of power by those able to cover up the truth became more important than the needs of any individual. When we see the same failures in different types of institutions it begs the question: What is wrong with those systems? What is the problem with an institution that allows people with a sickness of behavior, like Foley, hide behind men of power like Hastert?
12 years is a long time to be in the halls of power. This is how long Foley retained his seat until resigning last week. 20 years is how long Dennis Hastert has been serving in the institution of the U.S. Congress. How long does it take for a person to become beholden to the power they weld? For each person it is different depending on his or her nature. If power corrupts then shouldn’t we do every thing in our power to limit individuals exposure to such power? There is something we can do to help our specific representative from being corrupted by the system they serve. Send them home before they get too comfortable in Washington. Legislated term limits shouldn’t be necessary if we, as voters, are doing our part. Everyone that serves in government starts with visions of service. Most politicians, when left without oversight, end up serving themselves and the institution that gives them power. Could you or I restrain ourselves from such temptations? It is up to us to save our representatives from themselves. The best way to keep our politician from being corrupted is by sending them back home. Limit their stay inside the halls of power that taints the heart and spoils the dreams of youth.
We live under a system of government that is powered by “We the People”. When government fails we then must take some of the responsibility. It is time we paid more attention to our roll in government. If not for ourselves or the future, do it for the politician. Help save them from the seductions of power by sending them home before they do something we all will regret.

Advertising Fails

“I would wash his mouth out with soap.” Have you heard this anywhere lately? You probably have if you turned your television on at anytime during the day or night in the past two weeks. I saw this ad run three times in a row recently while watching the local news. Most campaign attack ads are terribly annoying. They tell us nothing we can trust and assume we are all emotional idiots. Its hard to tell one ad from the other. The only real distinction is at the end where we see the picture of the candidates approving of the message.
The end of Heath Shuler's ads are particularly odd. We see his face glowing from a fill flash as if exalted. He’s looking heroic and visionary with his eyes to the horizon. How very American he must be, just look at how his face glows. I almost forget that he has no real experience in government or public service but who cares.
As for Charles Taylor he takes a different approach in ending his commercials. He sits in his blue business suit with the American flag and capitol building behind him. How long has he been sitting there? You can see the 8 terms of influence and connections he has made in his worn out posture and rumpled cloths. He looks like the great uncle we never see because he’s working all the time. I’m almost made to forget his ties to Jack Abramoff and his political maneuverings that helped make him the largest land owner in North Carolina, but who cares, just look at how professional that photo is.
With the exception of those endings the details of the ads just blur together. They both use black backgrounds with red and white text to make key points. When talking about their opponent they use the ugliest photographs they can find and then stamp something nasty over their forehead. After seeing these ads 800 times or more it all becomes a din of political noise that we all wish would go way. Each commercial puts November seventh a little further off into the distance. “I’m Charles Taylor/ Heath Shuler and I approved this message.” Did you really? Do you really want to take credit for driving the people of North Carolina crazy with these grating and repetitive ads?
Years ago there was an ad campaign for a brand of coffee. The spokes person would drink brand A and say “This coffee is bitter.” Then they would drink from brand B and say “but this coffee is good.” The message the consumer received was that coffee in general tasted bitter and coffee sales declined across the board. The lesson is that negative ads, no matter what they are selling, only convey negativity.
This brings me back to the retired woman with the soap ready for Heath Shuler. Not only is this constantly repeated scolding voice like nails on a chalk board it is completely inaccurate in it’s claim. According to her the Shuler ads say that Taylor voted to “cut social security.” It is this supposed lie that is soap worthy. The problem is that the Shuler ad claims that Taylor voted to raid the Social Security trust fund, not cut the program. That old woman at the picnic table has suddenly become the poster child for everything that is wrong with political commercials. She talks to us like we’re idiots, giving us misleading information and then tries to appeal to our gut emotions to get us to the polls. Who ever approved that message needs to get out of the advertising game because it’s only souring us all on the product they’re selling.

Conspiracy of Theories

Can a small group of people be disciplined and organized enough to make fictions into truth and make history blind to events as they occurred? Conspiracy theorists need the answer to this question to be yes. From the perspective of those of us unable to shape the destiny of world events it would seem reasonable that the answer could be yes. High levels of power and influence are always working without our knowledge and understanding. To imagine that these forces have more control over the events of the world than the rest of us is not unreasonable.
Not only is it plausible that you don’t know how much influence government and industry have over your life, it’s down right likely. Could you tell me how much of your money local representatives have spent lately? Can you tell me what new marketing strategies are being used against your kids to influence what they value and desire? For most of us the answer to these questions is a resounding, no. These are secrets hid in the open. Congressional actions, matters of public record are kept secret by our lack of interest. Corporate maneuvering and marketing become invisible to eyes that have grown to desire shiny packages for low, low prices.
It’s understandable that deeper conspiracies are so quickly recognized as truth by so many. These stories feed our fantasies of how we believe the world works. It fills the gaps of chance and chaos with someone out there, for good or evil, in control of the outcome. We console ourselves by believing that we know the hidden truth. By believing in many of these stories we find comfort in the idea that we are inside the loop. We know what really happened to JFK. We know why he was killed and by whom. How much more reassuring it is to believe that his death was part of some organized plan rather than the random act of some nut on the top floor of a library. The randomness of history can be terrifying.
To believe that someone is manipulating history is more tolerable than the idea that everyone is reacting to history only as it happens. So many of these stories put the evil or selfish in charge. With insecurity comes fear. By being secure with knowing who the enemy is we diminish our own fear. We feel better believing that dark forces are steering events rather than random ones. How else can we find focus for our rage if the hidden machine does not exist. How else can we know what side we are on without believing in the forces of lies and deception.
There have been plenty of conspiracies forced into the light. Watergate, Iran-Contra, Big Tobacco, Monica Lewinsky and WMD claims, all existed in the shadows for a time. Even bigger projects like the Normandy invasion during WWII and the Manhattan Project where well organized secrets known to large numbers of people and still were effectively hidden from view. Some use these examples to bolster the credibility of unsubstantiated narratives. If the government could hide the creation of a nuclear bomb surely they could orchestrate a fake moon landing. Most of us don’t make judgments about what we believe is true by critical analyses. We have an interest to believe one thing or another and will gather just enough data to be secure in our view. What value is speculation into the unknown without taking the time to evaluate the facts of the world that we are given? For many of us filling in the gaps of our knowledge is more important that knowing the truth.
Exposed conspiracies of the past have shown secret keepers and detail controllers very bad at doing either. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments were exposed despite impossible odds. Iran-Contra fell apart at the height of the cold war when secret spy operations were common place. Even a conspiracy between one man and one woman, closed in a private room together could not be hidden forever or for long. The truth is that the complications and chaos that is prevalent in our lives runs to the highest levels of power. They, like us, struggle every day to manage what they can and hope it will all work out in the end.
There is no controlling every detail of this large and complicated world. I’m sorry if this causes anxiety for some. If we all work a little harder to identify what problems we can solve perhaps we can worry a little less about the things out of everyone’s control. We can take control of the future by rejecting simple unsubstantiated conspiracies meant to occupy us while real secrets are being kept right there in front of us.