Archive for category Darfur

If you watch enough TV, ingest too many newspapers, and read a lot of blogs, my own and this one included, you get the impression the world is driving a flaming red Hummer in the fast lane to Hell. That may be true- but it depends on what Hell you’re talking about: the actual ones in Iraq, Darfur, and areas ravaged by climate change and environmental disaster, or the figurative, Dantesque inferno that most people think of when you mention the “H” word. If you’re talking about the actual ones, we’re already there, folks. As for the figurative Hell- well, it’s fun to dream.

All the rose-colored Ray-Bans in the world cannot hide the fact that we are wallowing in self-inflicted misery and our leaders have no clue what to do except how to make it worse. But the literary, Satanic, fire-and-brimstone Hell, which is the most powerful marketing device and brand ever invented, is a goal that many fundamentalists-Christians, Muslims, the lot- have embraced since staging the first human sacrifice and realizing “hey, I kind of enjoy this!” Here then is my Thanksgiving message:

As long as religious and ideological fanatics- the George Bushes, Pat Robertsons, and Ahmadinejads control things, the human vision of life on Earth will be Hell. They created and maintain it to make the rest of us suffer while they work for retirement to that big condo complex in the sky. By not living in the real world but in their utopian dreamscapes, religious fanatics and radical ideologues have turned Earth into a holding cell confining and torturing the guilty- themselves- as well as the good guys: the people who really care about the planet and are fighting to save it.

Think global warming, nuclear war or disease will kill us? Wrong. We’re looking at the killers right now: your representatives in Washington and your state capitol. The leaders of your churches, corporations and media. They blame Satan and “evil” for all our trouble: two things no one has ever been able to prove exist except as human excuses for screwing up. Why do they do that? Sure, to divert us from the real culprits. But perhaps it’s just the courteous acknowledgement of worthy adversaries. After all, it takes one to know one.

Today, I give thanks that there’s still something left for our toxic atmosphere and America’s war machine to burn. The only way Earth survives the Hell religious fanatics and the military-industrial criminal culture have made here is by the sane of the world working quickly and quietly to preserve what home we’ve got left, vigorously fighting the cynical, wealthy, powerful and determined forces of fundamentalism and economic dominion, winning and saving our only habitat. And actually, both sides win: Earth lives and our enemies are driven out- straight to Heaven.

The holidays are the perfect time to start these freaks on the Road to Salvation. Happy Thanksgiving!