So here I am, reading an article about the fact that 33% of Congress' work in the last year has been entirely frivolous (apparently, Congress was created to name post offices after people) and I look over on the sidebar at the 10 most popular stories and see As Many As 200 Women, Babies Gang Raped in the Congo.
What the fuck is wrong with us? Really, what is wrong with Americans that we are more about naming post offices and opposing community centers than about the real suffering of women and children? We can't figure out what to do about tens of millions of unemployed Americans (well, the Slacktivist can figure out easily enough), but at least we've got a Jack Kemp post office somewhere. That issue's taken care of and now we can sleep well tonight.
That's it, I'm starting a write in campaign for the Slacktivist for President 2012. At least he gives a fuck and he has a plan.
If we're going to write Fred in for 2012, he'll need a running mate. Traditionally, running mates are picked for a mix of the state that they can deliver and the amount of attack they can provide - therefore, I propose we go with Illinois native, South Carolina resident Ed from Gin and Tacos, because he also knows what he's talking about, and can verbally castrate anyone who doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm down with that.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the name of our new party?
Third party people never win.
ReplyDeleteExactly how is the number of congressional bills passed (note, that's number PASSED, not time spent - these were all rubber stamp bills, that's why there's so many of them) an indicator of the priorities and attentions of the American people?
ReplyDeleteYou know damn well the bulk of American attention is centered around that Bieber kid and who exactly is and isn't a "real American" Anymore.
...*clears throat*...
Seriously though, as for the shit in the Congo and Rwanda, it's another pendulum swing: the Hutu raped and slaughtered the Tsoti wholesale a decade ago, so now, in the ultimate expression of progress, the Tsotsi are doing the exact same shit to the Hutu now. As horrible as this is, it's also something the American people can't fix. We can't make people half a world away stop hating each other, and it's not like we can limit their means of killing each other because they're already using machetes and other improvised weapons. We also can't issue any political or economic sanctions because the US has no direct political or economic interaction with Rwanda, the Congo, or most of the rest of Africa.
There are a lot of things that America should feel guilty for because we either caused it and/or we can do something about it, this case is neither.
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ReplyDeleteBig A is right--we couldn't solve the Congo's problems even if we wanted to.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the time Congress spends on commemorations and post office re-naming: The pressure to do that comes from constituents, the same people who vote and who contribute to election campaigns. It's maddening, but it's one of the flaws built into democratic systems.
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ReplyDeleteI think this is tribalism rearing its ugly head yet again. The post offices are in America, so they care about them immensely. The women in the Congo are not in America, so they couldn't be bothered.
ReplyDeleteIt disgusts me immensely that I have no idea how to stop that awful stuff.
EDIT: Read before posting. Really stupid typos.