Returning from a Two Day Break: Political Frustration

I'm sorry I haven't written for the past two days, they have been full of waking up very early, running very slowly, studying the Bible very carefully, filling in spaces on spreadsheets very tediously and sleeping very lightly.

The world of politics has, like it alway does, kept on turning... Scooter Libby...30 months...obstruction of justice... 'bout time. A Presidential pardon would, Ambassador Wilson, whose wife lost her job because of an editorial he wrote, constitute the heighth of unethical conduct, if Bush had any of the values he claimed to have he should recuse himself from the case because he is Libby's superior, that is basic ethics. I tend to agree with Ambassador Wilson and I am not sure why other people are making Scooter out to be such a hero. He broke the law and his superiors, who have put the county's security, economy and reputation under great strain, are not paying the price because Libby is taking the hit. 2.5 years in a REAL prison would do this guy great, he would get to see the part of America that he, or any of his friends have never seen before: the side they screw over.

Speaking of prison, I turned on the radio to KBOO community radio and was about to put in a CD when I started listening to what sounded like a lecture from a woman with a slightly southern drawl who spoke with great conviction and paused on phrases like "civic death" in a way that is similar to Cornel West. Within about 10 seconds (no lie) I said "I think this is Angela Davis," 20 seconds of commentary on institutionalized racism later and I say "this has to be Angela Davis. Sure enough it was, and I was proud for having recognized her ideas so quickly.

I have only seen her speak once, but she delivers these types of speeches with great humor, alclarity and of course witness. She is witness to a severely institutionalized and regulated upbringing in the American South in which the only contact with whites that she had was painstakingly marked by protocol via social and state actors. I just can't get over the fact that there were parts of the street where she was forced to walk and how she was pulled over because her black friend was light skinned and mistaken for being white. What is even more startling about the story is their answer to the officer "Don't worry, she is black, she just looks white," "Ok. Go on." Another unbelievable example of second class citizenship is when she failed her literacy test when she registered to vote in Birmingham. This of course was after she had recieved her undergraduate degree, and I'm not sure if it was after she had studied abroad in France under Theodor Adorno, one of the greatest philosophers of the last century. Her message that racism does not currently exist in law, but in fact is spot on and for those who need substantiation, go check a thread on letsrun.com about Barack Obama and read what many of the posters like BigTex and LynchyLynch have to say. It is a wonder that these posts aren't deleted when the moderators frequently delete other non racially charged posts. Disgusting.

I like what Davis said about the corrupting influences of various societal institutions because this is what I love to study. I love she says that the conception of our freedom is predicated on the oppression and imprisonment of others. Our freedom, at least in the minds of many Americans, is contingent upon "their" imprisonment. It is an Agambian internal/external relationship The center of our society is found imprinted on the psyche of those whose lives are most rigorously governed by a societal institution: prisoners...and maybe some public school students. One can take this to mean that this system has clearly failed and should be done away with (Davis) or that perhaps we can improve the system and make these failures into successes (perhaps Dewey.) I certainly cannot imagine a world without institutions like the church, or the academy or even the prison. Maybe I need to think harder.

Speaking of thinking harder I need to go give my thoughts on the ethical implications of some selections from the Old Testament, or the O.T. if you are savvy like that.