I was away from the news this weekend.
Not, “I was away from the internet,” which I was; no, I lacked all contact with the world outside of a small town in central Illinois that I was visiting.
Work was kind of grueling, so I didn’t have much time to scan the headlines, and I had a headache anyway, so I kind of wanted to avoid anything that would stress me out.
I’ve read the news now, and what do I find:
-An immigration bill in Congress that’s shoring up divisions between those who want to reward and those who want to penalize illegal immigrants. What happens doesn’t matter: it’s all a dog-and-pony show and the end result is whatever will be most valuable to the corporate owners of legislators on both sides of the aisle.
-Iraq continues hellishly.
-All that lies between Bush and accountability for the NSA wiretapping scandal is a bloated, timid Congress.
Nothing changes. People come, people go.
It’s hard not to wonder sometimes why I bother. What good does caring do, what good does it do to want things to be better when the only people with power are useless idealogues at best and zealots at worst.
Why not just drink the kool-aid adn agree that things are great in the Middle East, them uppity women need to get over their abortion fetish, we were all created 6000 years ago by a omnipotent God who loves us all very much, and the government has nothing in mind but our best interests and economic freedom?
This picture is of one of the most exceptionally cute kittens I have ever seen. It is cheering. The cuteness of kittens is a sort of empirical constant, transcending politics or morality. They are pure innocence and pure delight.
Besides that, I met a 9 month old named Brendan this weekend. His parents are my age – 24. They live in a house with five rooms that costs $300 a month in rent. His dad works a full time job and part time at a grocery store, his mom stays at home to take care of him. They are all white, and they live in a poor but not impoverished community two hours from Chicago and 45 minutes from the Quad Cities. Brendan will never go hungry, even if he never lives a life of pure ease and idleness.
He is one of the most perfect and amazing human beings I have ever met, and in a very real way I was humbled by him. I felt honored when he smiled at me with his 9 month old, barely toothy mouth.
I bother because of Brendan and a round, fluffy, sleeping kitten.
It’s a start.