Sobering

Today's Washington Post has an article about how the US came to have a $14 trillion debt a mere 10 years after balancing the budget with surpluses projected as far as the eye can see. The major culprits: the CheneyBush tax cuts and wars fought with borrowed money. Combine that information with Jacob Weisburg's observation that this nation is in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression with absolutely no economic leverage and any sensible observer can only fear for this nation's future.

If that is not bad enough, I just spent three days at the Veterans For Peace Convention where it was absolutely clear to me that very little of the just and sustainable society that I have worked to achieve over the past four decades has come to pass or is likely to occur during my lifetime. Perhaps the most telling moment was seeing a photograph of an anti-war protester carrying a sign that read, "I can't believe that after 40 years I am still protesting this shit". All this is a very sobering reminder that I am clearly part in the minority and had best prepare myself to remain in that minority.

So that's the reality as I enter my "golden years" which are more likely to be pyrite years. About the only thing I think I know for certain is that I can either keep fighting or despair. I've lived too long for the latter so I guess I'll just have to keep fighting no matter how unlikely I am to see the society I've always envisioned.

My consolation is that I will be able to say I did not give up. Maybe it will come to something.