For What It's Worth

Many years ago, back in 1967, people got right riled up about injustice. I was in the middle of the riled-up pack.

One night that schizophrenic summer I went to a concert in San Francisco. Don't remember if it was the Cow Palace or Filmore West, but it was a big venue. The lead group was just beginning to get a little airplay. Something called Buffalo Springfield.

Their set was okay, until they started a song written by one of its members. Stephen Stills wrote an angry anthem, "For What It's Worth." The crowd went silent, and then demanded the group sing it again. They did.

I kept thinking about one line in that old song: "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong." Stills could have written it today, but for one thing. Where are the thousand people in the streets?

Our country teeters on the eve of destruction (with all due respect to Barry McGuire) and no one seems to care. Why aren't my protest peers out there, contacting their elected representatives, demanding compromise? Maybe they are, but Tweeting and sending emails lacks the newsworthiness of a visual of thousands of people demanding common sense. Anyone know where we went?

Must run and Tweet again. It's just so not satisfying...

Fowl Weather Warning

Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen. There's fowl weather ahead.

On the one hand, we have a herd of ostriches. These are our elected officials who do not believe in global warming, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, compromising for the good of the country, or raising the debt ceiling. These same officials are at the center of the "Party of No." A minority with enough clout to change or block legislation. So far, it's hard to understand what this block of Republicans doesn't get about the debt ceiling. Even when the well-respected Paul Ryan explained the problem in terms of one syllable, several talking but empty heads denied there was a problem.

Next, we have the Chicken Littles, who run around crying that the sky is going to fall on August 2 if we don't raise the debt ceiling. These same Chicken Littles demand a cut in spending, which most sentient human beings would agree is needed. They deny any need to increase revenues, saying that tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs. I may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but I know that tax cuts for the rich create wealth for the rich. These CEOs line their pockets with tax cuts. It's their companies that should create jobs, but the companies are sitting on trillions. Why? Because there is no demand for the goods or services they provide. No demand, no increased supply.

Next are the magpies, who screech and hog the cameras, spouting their well-rehearsed sound bites. Maybe if people like Eric Cantor say the same thing over and over, we will suddenly become smart it enough to get it. They want what they want and they want it now. Not flipping likely. And no, Eric, you can't have a cookie before dinner.

Think about flocks of song birds. They compete for the same food at a deck bird feeder. They fly together and keep the flock stable. They look after each other. They sing at dawn in joy of a new day.

We need more song birds in Washington than we do magpies. We need compromise. We need common sense. We need the Gang of Six to bring their ideas to a vote at least. We need our leaders to lead all of us, not just a small subset of the total population.

Even buzzards have a use. They clean up carrion. I looked out the window this morning and saw about ten buzzards lazily circling across the cove, waiting for something to die. I hope it wasn't the United States.