"It Can't Happen Here!"

So on Friday, I walked out of the office building I'm working in, and there is a group of people - a very large group of people, standing in front of the building, listening to an angry speech being made by a woman standing in front of a truck that had been outfitted with loudspeakers.

Now, this is New York City, things like this, while not especially commonplace, do happen often enough so that it's not that big a deal. I have seen political speeches, union protests and the like, fairly often here. I stopped for a minute to listen to what was going on -- I couldn't see any signs saying what organization was responsible for this display, or even see the woman who was actually speaking though the crowd that had gathered, so I stood back a bit and listened... The general gist of the angry diatribe was something along the lines of "God has turned his back on the United States because of our wicked secular ways." I looked around me, and then noticed a spectator standing not that far away from me was carrying a life-size cross.

OK, you may think "No big deal." and true, I've seen these kinds of displays before, but only in New Orleans during Mardi Gras or the Southern Decadence parties. At those events, angry religious folk are a fairly common sight, as they object to the drunken and horny revelers who are enjoying the party -- but it's a symbiotic relationship, the sects are there in reaction to the partiers -- they preach because they feel there is something specific they need to preach against.

This was just a typical day in NYC, (albeit near Easter) and there were no drunken, horny revelers parading through midtown. And it's also New York City -- because of the incredible diversity of cultures and people here, New Yorkers are in general fairly tolerant "live and let live" type people. Sure, there are bigots here like anyplace, (Archie Bunker DID live in Queens) but in a way it's more difficult to maintain prejudices here, because the nature of the beast means you're bound to have to deal with many different kinds of people in the course of a normal day, and it becomes hardere to hate groups of people when your friends and co-workers belong to them.

Because of this prevailing attitude, people who stand on the street and preach any typeof exclusionary gospel, (be they religious, white/black supremacist, etc.) are usually greeted with scorn. Intolerance, is usually not well tolerated here. This is one of the reasons, frankly, that I love New York City. Watching this crowd, and then seeing their tight-lipped Cotton Mather faces, nodding in agreement with this tripe became especially frightening to me.

The mood of the gathering was such that I was reminded of the scene in the movie CABARET where Michael York trashes a Nazi propaganda booth, and then gets beat up for his trouble. No, I'm not saying that it's at that point yet, but I realized things could easily move in that direction. This was suddenly a new, frightening possibility in my life. I am well aware of the conservative religious movement in this country, and am frightened by it, but I always slightly comforted by the thought that it was "out there" in America somewhere, far away from me. It may sound elitist, (and I admit that it is) but I have always considered Manhattan to be "a small island off of the coast of America" - part of the larger USA by law, but not by temperment.

Following this Cabaret train of thought got very frightening to me very quickly. I'm not some lunatic who sees conspiracies everywhere and I've always thought that people who used Nazi analogies frankly needed to calm down... but suddenly, the nightmare scenario all worked -- I could see us as a populace who sure, sees bad things happening, and doesn't really like them, but remains confident that repressive ideology is way too restrictive to ever take hold in a free society. To think otherwise would be insane -- After all, "it could never happen here." And that, friends, is exactly what the Germans thought...

Are the brown shirts coming? Well, I certainly hope not, but for the first time in my life, I can see it as possible, and it scares the Hell out of me.

President Bartlet

NBC's "The West Wing" -- God, it makes me feel like a poor kid staring into a toy shop window. President Bartlet and his staff, while far from perfect, actually try to uphold the principals they believe in, and respect the power they have been given. There may be anger and strife occasionally, and the characters often clash on specific issues, but cynicism is something you rarely find there. It's like the America I dreamed of living in exists there on the other side of the glass tube.

I compare it with the America I actually live in. It seems to me that the goal of this administration is to get away with whatever they can. There is so much psychic energy devoted to "spin" and denial. All they seem to do in the "real" West Wing is try and tell us that what we're seeing in front of our eyes really isn't true, or to tell us only the half of the story they want us to hear. Like the plan to try and put caps on medical lawsuit awards -- they tell us that good doctors can't practice good medicine because of fear of debilitating lawsuits. They say that insurance costs are too high for these poor doctors. Well, in the first place, I can't imagine any Doctor actually refusing to do a procedure necessary to save someone's life -- it's happening every second in Emergency Rooms all over America. To BECOME a Doctor requires taking an oath that you will do whatever you can. As far as insurance costs, it seems like plenty of Doctors still have enough left over to buy their BMW's -- I'm not seeing a lot of news reports about Doctors forced to go on Public Assistance. On the other hand, (and this is the part you won't see discussed on television) when a Doctor DOES screw up, a formerly healthy person can lose their sight, their hearing, an arm or even become dependent on machines to stay alive -- and that's for the rest of their lives, kids. Often now unable to work, and therefore unable to afford the medical insurance they now require, they find themselves in the scariest of Catch 22's. Is it fair that they will now only be able to get $50,000 or so? Seems a cheap price for someone's life...

But no -- instead we must focus on helping the doctors and protecting the pharmaceutical companies that charge obscene prices for drugs people need. "But the research is so expensive!" the companies cry. Fine. There are plenty of drugs out there that you can charge big bucks for -- Viagra for example. Although it may impact the "quality of life" no one dies because they can't get their Viagra. I have no problem with you charging an arm and a leg for that, but of course that'll never happen -- Viagra is the drug of choice for old, rich, white guys and that's sacred. But the drugs that people need to live -- diabetics, asthmatics, people with heart disease or AIDS -- how can you justify charging someone without insurance well over $100 a month per drug? How can you make sick or elderly people have to choose between being able to eat and being able to afford their medications? I know -- keeping sick people poor and hungry helps to keep them silent as well. But really -- how do you sleep at night? Yes, I agree that there are definite issues with health care in this country that require our immediate attention -- unfortunately, they aren't the issues that the real West Wing cares about -- more important to that crowd is ensuring that Plastic Surgeons will still be able to afford their Lexus Payments.

President Bartlett, we need you!