Author: duckshots

Lapsed lawyer. Reader. Photographer. Jewish. Strongly attached to loving, caring, wife-Sharon. Working at remaining relevant. Hoping that my body and mind outlive my dreams. Maybe something I blog will make some sense.

Iraq War Result Not Decided

 

4,500 dead if you only count Americans or people fighting on behalf of the Armed Forces? How many Iraq people? How many Vermonters who died in an uneven proportion? Enemies increased from both the ones who hated the US and the ones who didn’t yet know they did. Living there didn’t get much better; neither did living here. Sectarian violence no one counted as a civil war ripped communities apart. Robert Moses did the same thing. Killed some of the bad guys too, and more innocents than anyone wanted to admit to. Yeh? Economy dead here, but no passion for the people who played by the rules or played by ones which should have been. Lost the higher road in the world. No more common sense here or real community. Everyone smiles because they don’t want to share the truth, unless they don;t know it. No taxes to pay for a war; a rate reduction that didn’t trickle down; excessive greed and theivery which went unpunished. If I paid for it, the war and the rest of the ills of society, I should have been given the opportunity to voter for it, yes? No. Democracy as we were taught be dead. A trillion $ for no reason, except to protect the gas in the Emirates and Saudi land and to supply the bombs, food and the bandages. Remember Coppola’s gem? who built the bridges and the airfields? Who worked for companies that benefitted the war who served in the executive. How many just injured, mentally or physically are we going to pay for? All I hope, but not until someone tells them why they have been left in their present conditions. No jobs for the vets. No money to send them to college. And if the money were found, it would come with some sort of hooks, preventing the people from getting jobs. If the reason to depose Sadaam Hussein was because he was a tyrant, a denier of freedom and a committer of genocide, and that reason was acceptable, then go after all the others, assuming that here in America we treat everyone fairly and equitably, too.

Steve Charges His Chair

 

Multitasking. Begging and recharging.

Steve says he has been homeless for three months. He lived with his brother who died. Just hard to imagine that a man with one leg, who is losing his second to diabetes, doesn’t have a place to live. He blames it on a social policy that provides housing for people from Eastern Europe who fled to avoid ethnic cleansing. Not an uncommon complaint in Burlington and not one supported by any facts. I suggested there wasn’t enough aid for all who needed it.

 

Miro Walks Church Street

 

Weather slightly bitter, as am I for being shut out of the caucus this weekend for reasons I cannot even imagine, but who cares about either of these problems. I will continue to live here, hoping the place lives up to its promises.

Miro walked alone up Church Street. He seemed upbeat about the election and upbeat about serving at a time when the job would be more difficult than if someone forced from office by term limits had succeeded in his task and all he had to do was color in the spaces. Why anyone would want to be a hall monitor in this zoo, escapes me. He thinks he can do the job, okay, but for what reason?

Charming, personable, knowledgeable and seemingly experienced in the ways of small city government, can he, if elected, move the city ahead, leaving the 1950’s where it is mired and make it a place more attractive to a growing upper lower and middle class than a nomadic college crowd? More crime. More poor. More vacancies. Not so chic shops. Lots of coffee shops and semi-fast food, but not a lot of cuisine. Does he support art? How about help for the hopeless and hapless. Is he a puppet of the authorities he has served or a visionary? He says he is a hands on problem solver; if nominated, he gets a chance to run for a  thankless job.

Good luck dude. Thanks for the portrait.

Enlightened Tax Policy

 


Jobs my ass. Eliminate cigarettes to promote healthy living and sell lotto tickets out of machines. We already pump our own gas. The poor and less educated are the biggest consumers of these items whose sale through sin taxes support our spending. Next, no more minimum wage jobs at Cumberland or 7/11. It leaves the rich to tax who are expected to use their wealth to produce jobs through the trickle down effect. Right.