Once again, voters prayed in the temple of democracy, our ritual to form a more perfect union without resolution or end. Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! We have our succession and our epanalepsis; but the land will not be purged of heretics, dragons, or sphinxes until we’ve cleansed our communities of political trash.America, America,
Man sheds his waste on thee
And hides the pines with billboard signs,
From sea to oily sea!
(George Carlin)
Those campaign signs that screamed for attention and stirred our passions … bullet ridden, stolen, vandalized … now lie abandoned, ignored, forgotten. Some will be harvested by campaign officials or saved as keepsakes. Most towns and cities will require their removal within a specified deadline, and the bulk of this junk will end up recycled or dumped into landfills.
Your crafty 8pus has another idea. One of our Swash Zone readers asked recently:
Is it me or are there a lot of people in the blogosphere suffering from election ... let down? (see comment at 7:27 PM, November 08, 2008)After twenty months of anxiety-inducing, fear-mongering, insurrection-inciting, nail-biting suspense, maybe what we really need is a form of ritualized closure, some celebration or ceremonial event to mark the end of an election cycle.
On November 8, 2008, the Saturday night after the election, our community gathered up all yard signage and held a cookout with music followed by a bonfire. Those thousands of iniquitous yard signs that pitted neighbor against neighbor went one-by-one into the eternal fire … never to be seen again.
Lets start a national trend. What better way to assuage partisan bad blood, close ranks, and restore communal civility than to hold a post-election bonfire in every town and village from coast to coast. Rituals can heal the wounded soul. Falò delle vanità. Spread the word!
One more thought before 8pus returns to his undersea locker: In four years time, if our elected officials fail us yet again, and another scourge blights our fair land, I suggest we throw those politicians on top of the pyre and burn them as witches.
I like the idea of the bonfire for the signs after and election, but obviously you are suggesting a strike back at humans for all the times that your brethren and cistern were eaten.
ReplyDeleteHumans are barely past the witch burning phase, as someone whose looks are mistaken for one of human's demons I hope they don't take up that suggestion.
Let's hope that they are intelligent enough to do to their failed leaders what Vulcans do. We simply send them to the desert to meditate and atone for their errors. They never return to public life, get book contracts or go on the lecture circuit. They are used as an example of what NOT to do. It is a very logical method and of course the humans would do well to emulate it, but I don't expect them to reach that point in their evolution for another 100 years or so. Maybe they will do something in between like some advanced nations do and hold trials for their crimes.
We'll see.
Oh beautiful for specious lies
ReplyDeleteAnd fake bin Laden tapes
For yellow-cake uranium
and evidence that's baked.
America, America
There's oil there don't you see?
Though it's a sham,
I'll bomb Saddam
So there'll be more for me!
-Rick Stanley-
This response from Greener Miami tonight:
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I don't really think it's appropriate to suggest the burning of the signs.
8pus will be away at a camouflage conference for a few days. See you when I return (but you won't see me).
I think burning all those signs post election day is a great idea and it should become a national event!
ReplyDeleteWe are in a drought in my neck of the woods so burning is severely restricted and I live in a rural area so the logistics could be troublesome, but a town or county sponsored event might work.
In the country of my ancestors, when someone comes to visit, logs are piled in a certain pattern (Nas Taborak) and set on fire which burns high enough to be seen from quite a ways. All the far flung neighbors see it and know there's a party going on - so out comes food and drink and a good time is had by all - unless you are young and foolish and drink too much....
For anyone who has followed this comment thread, let me point out that plastics are toxic when burned and should be separated for recycling. Similarly, holding a bonfire under drought conditions is reckless and unthinkable. But to make a blanket statement like this …
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I don't really think it's appropriate to suggest the burning of the signs.
… is more than dumb. This comment came to me via e-mail from the webmeisters at Greener Miami.
There is a difference between real conservationists who work hard throughout the year to advance environmental causes versus self-styled, eco-police who don’t know what the hell they are talking about.
What I neglected to mention in this post is that our community bonfire was sponsored by the Turtle Patrol, an environmental group whose mission is the protection and preservation of threatened and endangered sea turtles.
Every summer just before sunrise, scores of volunteers comb our beaches in search of turtle nests. We record overnight emergences, mark each nest with stakes and flags, and forward our survey information to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. We rescue stranded turtles, “washback” hatchlings, and any injured birds we find on the beach for rehabilitation and later release.
An end-of-season banquet and bonfire is our way saying “thank you” to those volunteers. We also invite the community. Why? Because community outreach is an essential part of our environmental education message. Inasmuch as this is also an election year, we cleaned our community of political trash and held an even bigger bonfire than last time.
Would you rather join real environmentalists in a banquet and bonfire, or would rather have your knuckles rapped by armchair eco-police who never get their fingernails dirty?
Yes, 8pus is pissed tonight.
8pus - as I stated in my previous post, I think it's a great idea and can surely be organized in a safe, earth-friendly way. What can't be burned can be recycled or given to the boy scouts or some other group for re-use.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest benefit is not so much the disposal of political debris as the opportunity for communities to come together and celebrate the end of a democratic process and heal any rifts that might have developed during the sometimes volatile, passionate campaigns.
I think the biggest benefit is not so much the disposal of political debris as the opportunity for communities to come together ...
ReplyDeleteThat is what I thought too ... but not according to the armchair eco-police.
BTW, about bragging rights, err, I mean blogging rights, would you like to be a regular here?
Oh dear, now that does present an interesting dilemma. As you may have noticed :) I do have a lot to say at times. I have been avoiding starting a blog because I don't want the responsibility of having to keep up with it, but, guest blogging - that could be an interesting experiment. I have absolutely no knowledge of how to post to a blog, etc so you would have to walk me through the process, but what the heck, we could try it and see how it works out. Email me at rockync@earthlink.net
ReplyDeleteand we'll give it a go!