Subject: Election Opinion and Poetry (guru).
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 140235 -0600
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
--------------------------------------------------
........From EMF-L......
Hi everybody:
I am forwarding some titillating poetry by prominent poets about the
recent presidential election in the U.S. Beyond that -- at the bottom --
please allow some time to think about the guru's commentary on this
election.......guru.....
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Election Poetry
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 08:02:30 -0800 (PST)
From: brendan beavers
To: "Roy Beavers"
Here's a little electoral poetry for your edification:
For starters, history buff Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Listen, my children, don't dare ignore,
The midnight actions of Bush and Gore
In early November, the year ought-ought,
Hard to believe the mess they wrought.
Two billion bucks of campaign bounty
All came down to Palm Beach County.
What result could have been horrider
Than the situation we found in Florider?
(Florider?, Oh well)
Edgar Allen Poe is his usual gloomy self:
Once upon a campaign dreary, one which left us
weak and weary
O'er many a quaint and curious promise of
political lore
While we nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a yapping,
As of some votes overlapping, energy-zapping to
the core
'Tis a mess here," we all muttered, as the network
anchors stuttered, Stuttered over Bush and Gore
Could there be another election with such a case
of misdirection,
One with such a weak selection, yet fraught with
tension to the core?
Quoth the ravers, "Nevermore."
Joyce Kilmer's a media analyst:
I thought that I would never see
The networks all so up a tree.
Walt Whitman is lyrical, as always:
O' Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip's not
done
The ship has weather'd every rack, but nobody
knows who's won.
Alfred Noyes rhythmically rumbles:
And still of an autumn night they say, with the
White House on the line,
When the campaign's a ghostly galleon and both
candidates cry, 'Tis mine!"
When the road is a ribbon of ballots, all within
easy reach,
A highwayman comes riding, Riding, Riding,
A highwayman comes riding, and punches two holes in
each.
Dr. Seuss takes a look at election officials:
I cannot count them in a box
I cannot count them with a fox
I cannot count them by computer
I will not with a Roto-Rooter
I cannot count them card-by-card
I will not 'cause it's way too hard
I cannot count them on
my fingers
I will not while suspicion lingers.
I'll leave the country in a jam -
I can't count ballots, Sam-I-Am.
=====
Source: Cyberspace......
__________________________________________________
"This will long be remembered as an election decided by a
conservative Supreme Court in favor of a conservative president."
... New York Times
Some thoughts from the guru......
The New York Times is right ... but there is so much more that needs to
be said about the recent presidential election in the U.S.
It was not a moment in U.S. history where we can take any pride in "the
way the system worked." Nevertheless, I predict that many will make just
such a claim.
We have become a nation of "pollyannas." When the truth is ugly and
discomforting, we redefine it. George Orwell would be proud.....
What really happened in Florida is that the vaunted 'American democracy' --
the world's "model" and instructor in the democratic process -- failed to
elect its president in conformity with its most fundamental assumption and
doctrine: That the will of the PEOPLE will prevail.
Not only is it likely that the "uncounted" votes in Florida -- those which
were the basis of the Gore protest prompting the final action by the Supreme
Court -- will some day confirm that Gore-Lieberman should have won.
It is also likely that there are more scandals about the "banana republic"
election activities that took place in Florida, yet to be publicly aired,
that I hereby alert my readers may further expose Florida's oligarchic
system of governance "of" the rich and powerful, "by" the rich and powerful,
and "for" the rich and powerful.
Who are the "rich and powerful?"
They are the same oligarchy of the same "super" rich and global
corporations that, by and large, also govern in a very similar way in
Washington, D.C.
They write the laws that are important to them -- whether it be the tax
laws or the trade laws, like NAFTA and the support for the WTO, or the laws
which control the public's environmental and health destiny ... in terms of
the public exposures to health risks, like EMF or the cell phones.
(And they not only write such laws -- they CONTROL the bureaucracy,
including the **science**, which regulates such public health risks.)
They wrote the **infamous** 1996 TELECOM ACT, and they write the laws that
prevent America's participation in the international regime which seeks to
reduce the consequences of global warming.
They are the same super rich and corporate entities who had GIVEN George W.
Bush a campaign chest of $70 million even BEFORE the first vote had been
cast in any primary!!! It was not Al Gore, John McCain, or even Ralph Nader,
who first complained about money that was "buying" the Republican nomination.
-- It was Elizabeth Dole!
The fact is: Americans are not permitted to choose between candidates they
freely select -- they are "permitted" to choose between candidates that
have been PRE-SELECTED FOR THEM by an oligarchy of corporations and the
super rich that effectively works both sides of the political street, both
of the major political parties.
It is as true today of the Democrats as the Republicans. Al Gore was not
"nominated" by the people -- any more than was George W. Bush. He was
(like Bush) "anointed" by a party structure that is the creation of the
oligarchy and designed to permit no meaningful outside challenge by any
who wish to challenge the "system."
That was what we saw demonstrated in the John McCain candidacy..... And,
to a lesser degree, in the Bill Bradley candidacy. Both of those two
candidates were "frozen out" by the overwhelming disadvantages of having
too little $$$$$$ in combination with "no party anointment" (meaning
endorsement by the oligarchy). Both of which were bestowed upon Bush
and Gore EVEN BEFORE THE CONTEST HAD BEGUN.... So far as the people's
role was concerned -- they were not even "players" in the game....!!!
The final round, played out in the Supreme Court, then, was merely a
process of "refereeing" between the two "teams" of the ruling oligarchy....
In Missouri, or Texas, or New York the people may have thought that their
votes counted -- but they did not...... The disenfranchisement of the
American voters in this election was not confined to Florida. That is
merely where it became visible....!!!
By tradition, the two (political party) "teams" are often called "the
right" and the "left". But as a practical matter, they no longer
represent much by way of a genuine "choice" to the voting public.
Both teams now concern themselves more with perpetuating a status quo
in which they rely much more on **gaining the favor of the oligarchy**
than the voting public.
Still, the "public" game -- the election -- must be played every four years
(or every two) to determine which team will occupy the seats of power in
the White House, the Congress, the courts, the bureaucracy.
It is played much like a football game -- for the entertainment of the
public. And the public is not normally aware of the extent of its
disenfranchisement from any genuine role in the process (game) --
particularly in "good times" such as America is enjoying today.
The goal of the game, of course, is actually to determine who will win the
"prize" -- the "spoils" of office. The jobs!! (Has anybody "out there"
ever heard of The Plum Book? If you have, then you know whereof I speak.)
More than that, of course, the spoils include the CONTROL over
$$billion$$ -- and therein lies the explanation for the determination on
the part of the oligarchy to ensure that no "outsider" might cause them to
lose control of the process.
The events this year caused many more of "the public" to realize the extent
of their disenfranchisement than in the past.....
In Florida (and much of the 'old south' from Virginia to Texas) the
oligarchy -- whether in Republican or Democrat clothing -- has long operated
within a system which "works" to disenfranchise the poor and the blacks
because they might disrupt the equanimity of a superficially opulent and too comfortable
society.
The poor and the blacks have long known about their disenfranchisement.
**Most "other" Americans have not.**
To me, that is the grand lesson, perhaps the hope, of this election
experience.
It is time for EACH American to take stock of his/her own real (**genuine**)
DISENFRANCHISEMENT ... in a system that perpetuates control of the machinery
of government in the hands of a few ... who are operating "the system" for
their own personal benefit ... or for the benefit of their benefactor$$$$$.
(Who do you think put Justice Scalia in the Supreme Court, anyway......???
Answer: It was the same people who wrote the 1996 TELECOM act.)
Cheerio......
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle
than to curse the darkness..
WEBSITE: http://emfguru.com
People are more important than profit$$
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com