Posts Tagged ‘Memorial Day’

When I was a very young woman, I worked at a big discount store. The last week in April the loading dock was always stacked with massive boxes full of white cardboard cartons. And I would spend hours going up and down a ladder to stack those open boxes for displays going up the wall atop the highest shelf in my department. Boxes of plastic flower arrangements.

The first year, I looked blankly at my supervisor until she said “Decoration Day.” Ah, the old name, for decorating the graves. That small town in Kansas had no war memorial. Only a cemetery suddenly a-blossom in sprays of plastic that would soon fade in the blistering summer sun.

And all through the month of May, I’d lift down those boxes of pink, yellow, white and impossibly blue roses, daisies, dahlias and lilies. I’d put them in the arms of little old women or occasionally younger women. Viet Nam was not over. Sometimes there were tears in those older eyes. Today, there are tears in mine.

Decoration Day. No plastic here, but royal shades of iris that will dye any stones they fall upon. Like bloodstains deified, an estate Roman emperors once aspired to ages ago. Who is so enshrined in YOUR heart today? Is there a Gold Star emblazoned upon your soul?

Tomorrow I will pick flowers to put on the center stone of the Labyrinth.  But no visitors will come, no notice inviting them will grace the local paper.  Nor will I read names of the dead there as I do in the late fall.  Better weather for standing with a list, in May; proof I am not the brightest bulb in the package that I do it in October or November instead.

Yesterday, running errands, we stopped to put money in the jar outside the grocery store and took paper poppies in return.  Poppies, red like those that cover the famous fields in Flanders, evoking memories of a war pretty much forgotten by the young.  World War I was a war of trenches, mud, rain, and artillery barrages that buried men alive.  It was the war that they hoped would end all wars.  No such luck.

The names of 148,000 veterans are being read by volunteers this weekend—and it will take ten days to get through that list.  Having stood outdoors with a list of over 5400 names to read, I know what time it takes and what toll on the heart.  Nineteen year olds who will never hold their children; fifty year olds whose grandchildren won’t know them; women whose children have heard their last bedtime story from mom—it all tears holes in the heart.

My monument to the cost of the recent wars will be adorned with flowers and a paper red poppy tomorrow.  And today, I will walk through the beauty of early summer in the Nor’west, thinking of eyes that cannot see it and holding each image in trust for them.  Oh, that we would be wiser and more careful of lives that stand in harm’s way at the order of others!

No, I have nothing enlightened or lyrical to say.  This day breaks my heart and shuts my mouth.

Because if America could really look at how she got to where she is; she might be able to slow the burials of American soldiers to be memorialized in their turn!

At a terrific blog (http://stationcharon.blogspot.com/ ) another writer is being highlighted today. The essay by Dmitri Orlov is so thought provoking, and so well written that it should be gift wrapped and stuffed in mailboxes around the nation. Especially the 535 mail boxes of the House and Senate. Even if I am not in total agreement with all of his analysis, I think large portions of what he says really speaks to where we are going; I have said the same myself with less to work on. Note the blogroll and get a cup of coffee and go read: Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century

A Tiny Teaser: “But these are all details; the point I really want to make is that proposing resource wars, even as a worst-case scenario, is still a form of denial. The implicit assumption is this: if all else fails, we will go to war; we will win; the oil will flow again, and we will be back to business as usual in no time. Again, I would suggest against waiting around for the success of a global police action to redirect the lion’s share of the dwindling world oil supplies toward the United States.”

My last post started some good conversations elsewhere, and gave my brain more grist for its constantly moving millstones.

The idea behind flying or training, of course, is the carpool idea—lots of people on one vehicle.  And yes, this IS a good idea.  For long journeys in speed, or commuting to work.  It is not necessarily a good idea for a holiday weekend’s trip.  And there are “outside” reasons and “inside” reasons.

I already discussed the obvious outside reasons, but here are a few more:

(1) Who wants to spend two to four hours of the weekend in air terminal lines?  That time equates to anything from 200 to 300 miles down the road!

(2) Trains and planes don’t even GO the places I tend to go (if I am going anyplace) on holiday weekends.  There is no train or plane to Kalaloch or Ruby Beach.  There is no train or plane to Multnoma Falls in Oregon; I could fly to Portland and then, VOILA—need to rent a CAR.  Stupid waste of time and money.

(3) Most of the airlines that go places I go (again, when and if I go) are small jets like the MD-80.  They don’t seat huge numbers of folks.  The do use a lot of fuel.  I really wonder, if you divided up the gallons per mile per passenger; is it REALLY better than what I get in my Corolla, or on the motorcycle?  I don’t know, but I bet a case could be made!

(4) I won’t fly because I don’t like TSA–but one reason is the lack of my own choice of food and beverages.  One used to be able to pack a lunch and take beverages and now cannot do so.  Not only do I object to inferior quality and high priced airport/airplane food that is acceptable to the TSA, but an awful lot of it is a medical risk to me because of allergies.  And no, I do not consider it an option to need to get a doctor’s note to travel with my own provisions, dammit.

Now, the deeper levels of reasons:

(1) The trains DO stink.  They’re also dangerous : derailments are more and more common on our aging railroad infrastructure.  But in case anyone is going to call me an elitist because I don’t want to ride trains that largely smell like latrines, let me get right to it.  Yes, I AM an elitist if that is the qualifier.  This is where the INNER reasons come in; the hypocritical ones the American environmentalists and others do not want to talk about.

(2)You see, public transport in America is seen as something to make money upon, and not just a living for everyone involved, no, someone needs to get rich.  Stockholders have more sway over airlines than the paying passengers.  So, corners are cut on trains and planes to keep the profit margin within the range desired by people who are not spending much time riding.

(3)In Europe, conversely, public transport is a means to get people efficiently and comfortably from place to place; it is to SERVE the populace and make a living for the workers—not to enrich stockholders.  I think airlines and trainlines should all be nationalized and funded by taxpayers FOR taxpayers.  If you want to “green” America’s travel habits, holiday weekend or not, you need to make it safe, affordable and not stigmatized by FILTH.  The dirtiest subway train I ever saw in Germany, and the filthiest bus in France were still FAR cleaner than the cleanest train I have been on in America.

(4) Why are the trains and buses here dirty?  And even the planes are getting very shabby and dingy looking, I must say.   Because they don’t spend money on poor people, thats why.  And yes, the perception in America is that poor people ride the buses cause they can’t afford cars; and poor people go by train cause they can’t afford to fly.  Not that trains are terribly cheaper–the price is as high in most of the train trips I considered within the last two years.  And the accommodations are worse, although you might have better access to food and water at stations.

So there it is, I can’t get “there” from “here” on my choice of destinations, the prices stink, the trains stink, the food and beverages are inferior and expensive.  TSA acts like goons, and the perception is “You are our cattle, shut up and sit down.”  Gee, yeah, Kermit said “It’s not easy being green” but he had no idea it meant martyring yourself for a bunch of rich guys who fly charter and never look at a train or bus!

So, when those perceptions change, and those priorities, yeah, I will train.  For now, if I can’t drive, I actually take the bus.  I like the buses, though for the record, Mexican owned buses are cleaner than Greyhound.  The drivers take more pride, it seems.  People on the bus talk more, it is a better trip even with back-wrenching seats and stops and starts that keep one from sleeping.

So, I will be climbing onto the motorcycle an hour hence for a ride to the Post Office, and then out in the temporary sunshine for a few hours before beginning a weekend’s yard work.  America DOES need to be green;  but green in a way that does not aid the serfification efforts of corporate American!  There should not be a class of financially broken, demoralized, but environmentally conscious workers at the bottom of the American pyramid, and a REAL elite class that could give less than a hoot about the environment because wealth insulates them from the dangers of the degraded environment.

Go green, but insist on the real deal.  The environment doesn’t need martyrs, it is not a religion.  It needs the ordinary masses active, insistent and making conscious choices and holding ALL classes accountable.  And maybe, just maybe, with enough of that class action—we won’t need more wars for oil!

Ok, sometimes I don’t get past the headline, everyone who knows me is accustomed to me storming away from the computer screen, ranting; or throwing down a paper, ranting. Usually, however, it is only news that does this to me. But, the stupid, it burns…even in “environmental tip” articles now, apparently.  And yes, there is the chance the article got better after #1; but you know, it IS Friday and there is the chance it didn’t get smarter—I am pegging the “fed up with dumbshits” meter already!

The headline was “Ten Ways to Green Your Road trip” and I only got as far as number one. Number one was that because gas is hitting over $4 a gallon, you should plan to make your “road trip” by train or plane instead of in the car on this holiday weekend.

Dipshits.

(1) Trains and planes still use fuel. Lots of it, and some of it dirtier than gas.

(2) Did you ever try to get reservations on EITHER a train or plane on this short notice, much less on a busy holiday weekend?

(3) Let me say this slowly…roooad trrrrip. ROAD. There is a humongous difference—my son and I DROVE on ROADS to Mexico last December. We stopped in a collection of wonderful places that neither trains nor planes would have allowed. We could eat when hungry and not over-priced, stale CRAP, either. Part of the point of a road trip is the ROAD and all along the way.

(4)Our highest gas price then was $4.50 a gallon, our lowest was $2.88. Gas for the trip to the very border of Mexico south of Yuma cost about $400 round trip—you could not get ONE train or plane ticket for the same distance for that price, much less two. Even with gas higher, flying or training will be unlikely to save you money. Gas use does not go up too much whether there is one person in the car or five—-not true for ticket prices on trains and planes.

(5) Airlines now charge for baggage, American began this with a fee of $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second. So add that pile of stuff in the trunk up in those terms. The “green” being touted in the article MUST be talking about money!

Why do so many environmentalists assume it is something better when you don’t burn the fossil fuel yourself? It is better to say “Oh, look the plane is fueling up.”…really? This is like touting Japan’s wonderful reforestation projects, began back in the 1600s—-without noticing that their forests are beautifully untouched because they are STRIPPING Australia and parts of Canada and the United States of every stick of old growth they can purchase.

There is only ONE back yard, you dimwitted environmental article writers….its name is EARTH.  Deferring a family’s use of fuel to the airlines is not greener and costs four, five, six times as much.  If you want to be green this holiday weekend….STAY HOME. Plant a garden. Get rid of the grass. Build a swing set for the kids and throw out the video games.  Stop buying water in plastic freaking bottles.  Consider eating less meat from feedlots.  Get real.  Oh, and here is a thought….MEMORIALIZE  someone, visit a local grave yard, plant flowers there, give a damn.