Thursday, August 09, 2007

Chaos!


HOT AS FUCKIN HELL
in the Windy City

The above is a shot of my neighborhood. Like much of the country, we here in Chicago are embroiled in a bloody humid heat wave. This makes for a bitch of a commute. In the morning I stand in the sun, two stories up waiting for the El. I get into a packed car that usually has no A/C. But in the afternoon, after work, I have a better method.

I walk six or seven blocks past my normal stop and get on in the outbound train from the South Loop. This means I will have a seat. Everyone else, as we make our way through downtown Chi-town, must stand. There is no room, and I move for no one, save for pregnant women. Last week some fat woman was bitching to her husband how nobody would get up for her, and she kept nudging me. It was kind of gross.

During my commutes I read, and now I am on Ayn Rand's critically acclaimed
The Fountainhead. For those who are wondering, I have not read Atlas Shrugged but plan to after I am done with the current book. The last great book that I read, about a month ago, was On the Road by Jack Kerouac. A good book inspires one in a way that affects his or her life. Kerouac made thirsty for adventure and mayhem in the great Chicago night. My next book, Ulysses, was terrible. The Fountainhead, my current book, is about a young architect named Howard Roark. Like me, he sticks to his principles and defies common notions! He follows his gut and will not conform to arbitrary standards of the modern capitalist system we live in. And here I am working in a corporate law firm, I thought, everything I never hoped I would be. Thus for that, and other reasons, I gave my two weeks notice. Thank you Ayn Rand.

Most probably won't understand but its one of the best decisions I've made. Back to square one.

In the political realm, the President has decided to push for more corporate tax cuts. If the Democrats are anything like they appear to be, they will balk, fight back, decry the corporate influence over Washington at the behest of working people, then present the President with a slightly reduced tax cut then he had proposed; which is probably what his political advisers predicted before hand anyway and therefore likely asked for more then they wanted, anticipating a politically driven reduction. Thats how the budget process works every year anyway.

Today the Democratic candidates are in Los Angeles at a gay forum/debate. I say good for them. I dont believe any of them are for gay marriage (except Kucinich), which is unfortunate, but it appears that grassroots are growing stronger. I detest most of the candidates, I like Kucinich and kind of like Gravel. But it is clear that something positive is happening.

The great chaos and terrible reign of the Bush administration, for the past seven years, has caused a great stir among the common folk. When people realized the democrats were useless; to stop the war, to protect their rights, to watch out for them; the people started organizing. They organized into anti-war groups, environmental groups, womens' rights groups. Once you organize and realize you have power you start pushing more. The Democrats running for office are now having to face all of this (as the Republicans face... religious zealots and such). And its a good thing. They must compete for the black vote, the hispanic vote, the anti-war vote, the bloody LABOR vote, the Gay and Lesbian vote. Because they know all of these constituencies have organized themselves like hell over the last few years, they do not trust democrats for just being democrats, and they will fight like hell to exercise their influence. This is what democracy looks like.