I’m one of those guys who always turns off the lights people
leave on around the house and at the office. When I die, I want a tombstone
with an arm, carved out of the marble block, reaching up from the ground. The
index finger is on a light switch, turned off. Fanatic to the grave.
Fanatics, from time to time, get to rant. I’ve been
earnestly trying to not rant in this space, but sometimes the pressure is just *too
great*…
Can someone explain the logic that floodplain development
boosters apply to calls for a floodplain development moratorium? They say the
photo of downtown Petaluma flooding a hundred years ago, before there was upstream
development, proves upstream development isn’t a cause of flooding. Okay… and a
picture of a fat man from 1939, before there was junk food, proves a junk food
diet can’t make you fat. Or how about this one: the claim that we should wait
until we have the official hydrology report before we jump to the conclusion
that floodplain development should be restricted. Uh huh, and I’ll just keep taking
these new diet pills while I wait for the FDA safety report.
And may I ask editorial cartoonists to employ a little more
honesty, a little less cliché? What set me off was a cartoon suggesting that
Lynn Woolsey gave war protestor Cindy Sheehan a pass to the State of the Union
because Woolsey calculated it would improve her popularity with her voters. One
could legitimately question the wisdom of Woolsey’s call for an immediate
withdrawal of American soldiers from Iraq, but it strikes me as ignorant if not
malicious to claim Woolsey’s opposition to the war is simply a bending to the
wind of public opinion. Woolsey has a long record of opposition to US wars, and
since April 2004, she has given over 100 speeches on the House floor calling
for an end to the Iraq war. So why wouldn’t Lynn grant permission for Sheehan to
see her President address the nation? This is the President who, under false
pretenses, sent Sheehan’s son to his death; Sheehan is the woman who
re-energized the American anti-war effort.
Ms. Sheehan and Woolsey witnessed first hand their President
choking out the words “America is addicted to oil”, as if, comedian Jon Stewart
points out, Bush was the first to make this astonishing discovery. Not long
after, in another revelation of his administration’s incompetence and/or
dishonesty, the President visits the National Renewable Energy Lab. The Colorado
facility had just re-hired 32 employees, laid off due to budget cuts, in time
for the President’s visit. After this addiction speech, I can’t wait to hear
W’s rationale for the Republican’s next go at the Artic National Wildlife
Refuge. “This’ll be the last fix, ah swear”, as he hauls his grandmother’s
heirloom wedding ring into the hock shop.
Now that all that’s off my chest, let me put a challenge to
Lynn Woolsey and her challenger Joe Nation. Lynn is committed to ending this
war and advancing alternatives to war. Joe’s campaign is emphasizing global
warming. I suggest they take a cue from columnist Thomas Friedman (recently
cited in this column), who advocates increasing the gasoline tax to fix the
pump price at $3.50 to $4 per gallon (see http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/04/05/friedman/index.html).
Friedman convincingly argues that reducing petroleum demand with a gas tax is
the best thing we could do to address the interrelated crises of climate
disruption and petrolist-state-sponsored war and
terrorism, not to mention revitalizing our manufacturing economy with green auto
production. Why, he asks, aren’t the Democrats seizing this issue (choosing
instead to run against Republican corruption)? And I ask, if Democrats from one
of the greenest Congressional districts in the country can’t take the lead on the
gasoline “Patriot Tax”, what hope do we have?
So, Lynn and Joe, please don’t disappoint me. Get out there
and make the voters of the Sixth District proud. I’ll be right there behind you
(right after I turn out the light.)
[Pullquote recommendation: And I
ask, if Democrats from one of the greenest Congressional districts in the
country can’t take the lead on the gasoline “Patriot Tax”, what hope do we
have?]