Monday, January 19, 2009

History is a funny thing..

Okay two things, first freaky dream moment, I woke up at five in the morning, coming out of a dream in which my little brother and my mom were rushing to get out of the house early. They were taking part in some kind of community event (sponsored by a radio station)that was all about waking up and getting out of the house by 6 in the morning. The freaky thing is it woke me up at 5 in the morning, but my mom and little brother are on the east coast so they are an hour ahead...."dum dum duummm"

Okay second thing since i was early for work I was listening to NPR talk about the pre-inaugural concert that they had at the Lincoln Memorial last night Sunday, Jan. 18th. No big whoop, I mean sure they are spending over 100 million dollars of tax payers dollars just to swear a man in so he can tell us that we have no money with a charming smile but whatever, we'll print more. The funny thing is, and forgive me for this total nerd moment is that they closed the concert with this rousing song, "This Land is Our Land", Now this little song was written by the late great Woody Guthrie, who is also from my adopted state of Oklahoma. However this is hardly a song of unity and I suspect a great many Indians are grinding their teeth this morning. They HATE that song. It's so like the biggest slap in the face to them and I've seen grown men reduced to frothing rage trying to explain it. It's like the English talking about Bonny old England stretching from Wales to Westray, Scotland. Or Russia talking about stretching from the Kamchatka peninsula to Poland. Hilarious stuff and when viewed thru the lens of history a literal mine field of conquests and Manifest Destiny... whoops not allowed to use that phrase anymore... :) Unity gotta love it. Somehow I suspect the Indian delegation is hitting the fire water a little early this morning as they see the chances of any change dry up, lost in nuance and nationalism. To me it's all kind of hilarious, but I laugh at all the wrong moments.

Context: am history buff, irony is the true humor, and I grew up learning multiple sides to every story.

Update I am not alone in this! my boss heard about this and had me laughing so hard I was almost crying, singing, "this land is your land, this land in my land...but mostly it's my land, now get the hell off"

2ND UPDATE The inaugural cost is now sitting at 170 million, my bad. However the possibility of private donation is of course growing...to put this in prospective, Bush's last one cost 45 million and Clinton's cost 33 million.



8 comments:

- said...

wow. in Canada, i'm pretty sure the new prime minister shakes hands with the governor general, and its a done deal. they have the choice to sing or not sing the Canadian version of "This Land is Our Land" which is free. total cost? about 50 cents for the gas required to drive from the prime minister's house across the street and down the long driveway of the governor general. i guess there's hiring a driver too. even if they got a new towncar it would cost what? maybe 100K? lol

Tim said...

and there's a reason your political goons have balanced their budget and we wouldn't dream of it.
I'm actually disturbed a bit by the spectacle of the whole event, like he's suppose to save us from our own stupidity, when in truth he's just a 47 year old man with a thin resume and a nice smile. But you just have to hope that the same people who got him elected realize that somewhere down the line.

Still we have some awesome military equipment and have invented a way to make money a form of emotion...beat that Canada!

- said...

you can be assured that Canada beats it daily.

Tim said...

oh course we also had the good sense to take the land further from the arctic circle...

Ryan said...

yeah the cost is crazy just think how many houses could be saved with that money.

Tim said...

@Ryan, you have no idea how bad things are in California, but that would still be about 250,000 homes written down and refinanced.

- said...

i love winter, thanks :)

Tim said...

My bf says the same thing, personaly I love the snow just not the cold. People don't wear shorts enough!