Defeating Bush is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
And, If you don't vote in November, I won't be your Friend

In the month since I last last updated this blog, I've spent substantial lengths of time sticking Chinese flashcards to various surfaces in my Shanghai apartment. Usually I just stick nouns ("cup" where the cups go) or verbs ("flush" where I go--). And, uh, I've also been making a man...on my wardrobe door...out of Chinese body part...names. And last week I flew into a mini crisis where the only thing I could paste on the wall was: "war is a force that gives us meaning."

Actually, what I wrote was, "war's force gives us meaning," because I didn't know which Chinese form of "a" to use because every kind of Chinese noun has a different measure word, no particles. My Chinese friends said that, even if I had chosen to line up the syntax in exactly the same way, this still would have sounded funny. What? Lack of meaning in ones life? Only someone from Generation Y could make such a statement and no one in China much fits that.

They suggested I say "war is a force that enlightens" instead.

I didn't want to say that because that's not the point. I only wanted to say that having something to fight against gives ones life a little more oomph, something which my average adopted countryhan doesn't give voice to. That is because in China, change and oomph and meaning are laid down like road signs. (But we won't go into how my "main principles" differ from those that literally keep the dust flying at construction sites around every corner, lest this blog meet the same fate as my other project. Blcoked.

I took this quote from the a book of the same title, a book I haven't read, but which I've heard good things about. You can find an essay by the same author and of the same title and theme here. The author does one of the best jobs of explaining the Anglo response to 9/11--that irrational throw rocks at the hornet's nest when it was obvious to most everyone that only a few bees--not the whole colony--were out to stink you.

That callous, fascist response was on full display in the first presidential debates, when the short one, little bush, demander-and-thief, said we'd "stay on the offensive".

Eek!

(Thank you China Central Television for interrupting stories about China's 55th National Day to bring us live coverage of the debates. And thank you PBS cameramen for breaking the rules and focusing the camera on the opponents while the other was talking. You allowed us to see Bush's looks of confusion, befuddlement, and slight rage while he waited to address the camera again. Kerry, on the other hand, took careful notes).

I don't want to vote for Kerry. I voted Green last time and I vote Green whenever I can because Greens are the only party willing to really commit to researching sustainable energy, which is more important to me than stupid ideologues with guns and bombs. The Democrats and Republicans seem almost equally willing to deplete the world's oil reserves before we research our way out of the world's oil dependence.

Like I said, I don't want to vote Kerry, but I am prepared to do so. My figuring goes like this: if given the choice between wiping his ass with sand paper or wiping his ass with the US constitution, Kerry would probably choose the more painful option. Bush would only think about his ass.

At least I thought I was ready to vote Kerry.

Before I left Thailand for Bangladesh four months ago, I requested an absentee ballot for the November election. Not knowing where I'd be, I had the ballot mailed to my mother. My mother mailed the ballot to me in Shanghai.

For the longest time, I thought the ballot had gotten lost in the mail, until I inquired at the post office, where they told me I had gone to the wrong branch. I hailed a taxi, prepared for a ten minute ride. A minute later I arrived at the big post office branch, got my package and walked home.

At my desk, clothes pin on my nose, I openned the ballot to vote for John...

Dingle? Proposition what the...?

Eek! Big eek!

T'was no presidential ballot, but a city ballot and primary ticket thingy!

So, hours before national day holiday festivities were to begin, I rushed to the library, printed off another absentee ballot request, ran to the post office, and expressed the envelope to the States. I just hope that my ballot request reaches the Ann Arbor City Clerk's desk in plenty of time for me to cast my vote.

I suggest that you too make an extra effort to get to the polls this November. Do it...as we hear every Memorial day...for the people who died to give you that right. Give your life meaning by thinking about the wars people fought.

Vote to preserve the shatters of the Republic.

Vote to stave off fascism.

Vote for the rest of the world.

Vote so more people don't have to die for the unfeeling, religio-corporatist, banana-republic-style yahoos' power and oil (really read this article) games.

Vote and give your life meaning.

And if you still have a problem with Kerry, ask yourself this: what would happen if you really got someone you wanted in the White House?

Where would we find the meaning in that?




~~your narrator is a mild-mannered guqin player who doesn't want any trouble.