Yellow-Bellied Bottom Feeders

      I wish I had something useful or even compassionate to say about the U.S. Government being shut down this week by a handful of entitled, rich, white, mostly male Republicans because they don't like a law that was enacted in 2009. The Supreme Court okayed it, but these guys don't like it. I think they should be stripped of salaries, health benefits, and consulting retainers, thrown in jail for contempt of the American people, and never allowed to run for public office again. This is not necessarily the opinion of KVMR, its board, staff, volunteers, underwriters, sponsors, or listeners, but I sure hope it's the opinion of some of you.

      What are we going to do, sweet people? Stage another peace march up the main street of our little mountain town? Call our deeply indifferent Republican Congressperson? Stand silently for hours on the freeway overpass wearing black? It doesn't seem to me that these actions have been effective.

      Is it time to walk to Washington from California? Light ourselves on fire like Tibetan monks? I'm not trying to be melodramatic, I'm trying to figure out how to boot this fringe element from power and get our country — flawed as it is, heaven knows — back into the business of supporting its citizenry rather than caving to a handful of racist, sexist, greedy, overgrown frat boys. I swear, if I had any idea what to do I would do it.

      If Utah Phillips, our National-Treasure, home-town anarchist, were still alive he'd be out on the street somewhere, voting with his body, as he famously used to say. But which street, and where? Protesting at home just doesn't seem to make a dent in anyone's opinion. The same local activists join in and the same local Tea Partiers laugh as they drive by. It's business as usual.

      But where else should we go? Is it time for middle-aged poets to Occupy Washington, D.C.? Just supposing we could borrow money for the airfare and teach our classes from laptops in front of the Capitol Building so our rent still got paid. This is the rub. In order to protest we have to step out of our daily lives, and that can cause a lot of damage. The same kind of damage many government workers are experiencing this week. No paycheck. On-going projects and experiments ruined. And worse: just as an example, 200 juvenile cancer patients are missing treatments from the NIH at risk of their lives.

      Anne Lamott says Congress is like the boozy uncle at Thanksgiving who just threw a full gravy boat across the room. We need to ignore him and take care of Great-Aunt Hilda who is thoroughly traumatized. Maybe it is a good time to drop extra blankets at your local homeless shelter. It's always a good time to do that for their sake. Maybe right now it's good for our sake, too. To counter the ignorance and mean spirits of those elected officials with generosity and open-heartedness “on the ground.”