Sometimes we need to take a step back and take a look the place we are in our lives and in our world. Even if that step is only for a brief pause. This morning gave me one such moment and reason to do so. I was driving down Ocean Blvd on my way to Venice Beach running an errand. When I passed the intersection at Barnard Way, I saw on the corner lawn an empty wheelchair with a large crumpled pile of something dark in front of it and on the ground. As I neared the other side of the intersection, I saw that the dark crumpled something in front of the wheel chair was a human life. A gray haired human life.
Since it was impossible for me to stop right then and there, I made the mental note to check on the situation on my way back. I glanced around quickly and saw pedestrians walking by and cars driving by without anyone stopping or taking any notice. For all I could tell, the human life was lifeless.
I continued on my way to my friends house to pick up the saturday edition of The New York Times. It seems friend and best selling author Noel Riley Fitch (Grand Literary Cafes of Europe, Biography of Julia Child) had the immortal honor of being named as a clue in the crossword puzzle. Something worth seeing and having to send on to her in London. As I parked the car, I could see the sparkling Pacific Ocean waves and feel the fresh ocean breeze on my face. Just to have a moment like that is worth the effort.
Having secured the paper, I got back into the car and started driving back towards Barnard Way. Once I was at the intersection, I could clearly see that the wheelchair was still there. I entered the left turn lane, turned the corner, made a u-turn and parked in the red zone, flashers on. I got out of the car and looked around. There were people driving by and talking on their cell phones, people walking by engaged in their own minds, people on bicycles riding by without a hesitation in their peddle. Everybody going about their busy lives without a notice or glance to any other human around them.
I approached the empty wheelchair and there on the ground in front was an old man curled up in fetal position, his left leg missing at the knee sported a cotton white stump cover. The clothing he wore was dark, dirty and torn. His gray hair had hints of old blond and his sun worn face was rumpled and wrinkled and covered in 4 day old razor stubble. His eyes held shut and his hands tucked in close to his chin and chest, he was curled and unmoving. I looked at him from a distance of 3 feet. I could not tell if he was breathing or not, though his color and pallor indicated that he was not dead. Of this I took relief. I stepped closer and speaking out loud asked “Are you okay? Do you need any help?” I waited for a response. There was none. I asked again, a little louder “Do you need any help? Are you okay?” I watched him closely for any signs of movement. There were none. Then I saw his chest heave. He had just drawn in a deep breath, exhaled and breathed again. He made sleeping breath sounds, as if in a deep, sound sleep.
It appeared as though he was napping, so I retreated. I did not want to wake him as I was certain that whatever dream he was dreaming was far better than the reality he was living. As I stepped back to the illegally parked car, another car pulled up to the stop-the guy looked at me puzzled. I just made a “napping” motion with my hands and head. Seeing that, the driver turned right around the corner and went on about his business.
I got back into the car and took a good look around this tiny slice of beautiful southern California and wondered just how many lost and missing souls are really here, laying around. The people that are discarded by life and fall to the wayside because their usefulness seems to have expired, or life has beaten them up in some form or fashion and they simply cannot find a way to heal.
As I began to drive away, I thought about how many people must’ve driven by that intersection this morning and how many bothered to stop-just to make sure that the already distressed appearing human was not in more distress. And the answer was clear. Nobody. Nobody stopped. Nobody cared.
In the hustle and bustle that is LA, sometimes it is good just to stop and look around. Just to stop and breathe in a moment, to reflect on the good fortune that many of us have in terms of health, education friends, family, good jobs, and a beautiful place to live.
I know this morning I took an extra minute to take stock of myself-for all the illness and tragedy that has been in my life for the past 3 years, for a brief moment I was able to step out of my own turmoil and focus on someone else. In doing that I felt connected to my certain self once again.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Airport Shoes
August 15 2006
I am not sure how the American People as a whole tolerate the submission of their rights to the American Government when it comes to air travel. I only know that for me, a non-sheep, that I cannot tolerate it at all. Going through airport security now is a humiliating experience that I feel every time I travel. I flew in October right after September 11, 2001, and I can honestly say, that today, the experience of air travel is far worse than then. First it started with jackets, belts, metal objects. Then it came to shoes. Take off your shoes. I cannot even begin to tell you how I think of the humiliation of asking an otherwise dignified human being going about their lives, to remove their shoes and demand that they walk in the dirt of countless unknown others.
Take off your tennis shoes, your dress shoes, your combat boots, your handmade leather shoes, your high-heel shoes. Take them off. Just take them off. This all happened after the idiot Ramirez tried to light his shoe lace on fire. A shoe bomb. Cool idea for a movie, bad idea for reality. The concept of placing explosives in your shoes and using a shoe lace as a detonation device is creative. The problem for me of course, is finding an explosive stable enough that you can walk on it and have it not blow your feet off.
I can see Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Steven Segal or even Bruce Willis working frantically against the clock to wrestle that pair of shoes from the feet of the bad guy and pitching them out of the bullet busted window-just in the nick of time. Though, the way those guys work, the bad guy gets tossed with the shoes and a mid-air explosion soon follows that rocks plane but does not destroy. And the bad guy gets what he wanted in the first place, suicide by explosion.
But really, for the hundreds of thousands of people who fly every day, must the government really treat every single citizen as a potential criminal? Yes. Yes they must. Because short of doing that, the tax paying sheep do not physically see their government doing anything active about the "terror threat". This is the one place where they see the government 'doing something'. The sheep say ‘I don’t mind as long as I am safe.’ And I, a non-sheep, must ask, what is safe, really? Safe from what? Getting blown up in the sky? What about maintenance concerns and plain old accidents? How are we protected against that? They ask us not to take certain items in carry-on luggage. But they do not guarantee that the check-in baggage will not be robbed or that it will arrive at the proper destination. There have been countless reports of passengers check-in baggage getting robbed by the very baggage handlers that are suppose to be “secured” employees. They are thieves. As thieves, they also have the corruption of mind to do more sinister acts besides stealing from baggage.
So, I wonder what the government really expects and hopes to avoid in asking its traveling class citizen to remove their shoes?
It seems more psychological than preventative. Another way to maintain the control of the people through emotional fear and panic, then through rational thought and critical thinking.
Keep the people in fear and they will lie down like sheep.
Today, it was flip-flops. Today, they would not even allow a bottom-only covered foot to pass through without x-ray scrutiny. Take off your shoes. You must. It is now the rule. No exceptions. Before, when I would refuse to take off my shoes, they merely took me to the side and took my shoes for me. That I could tolerate. At least then, I could sit down. They had the responsibility to remove my shoes, take them to the x-ray machine, and wand me looking for “nothing.” How do I know they are looking for nothing? Because I ask. I ask them, “what are you looking for?” and more times than not, the reply comes back, “nothing.” In those instances, I respond, “then why are you searching me?” I always get the look indicating “uh, I dunno, it’s my job?”
Like every American, I work for my travel funds. I pay a high price to fly, and also pay the government to search me without cause, to fondle my breasts looking for booby traps, to take my shoes from my feet, leaving me barefoot and without the dignity that a pair of shoes gives to any human being, all in the name of “national security.”
I have decided for myself that I will travel barefoot. With just a pair of socks on my feet. I am sure that, as a result of this, someday soon they will have a “barefeet-only” security requirement. No shoes-No socks.
Though, each time I pass through the security check-points and am told to remove my shoes, I am reminded of the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. After September 11, 2001, I was in Washington DC at the Holocaust Museum. It was my first time there and I can say, that it is truly a humbling, mind numbing and soul breaking experience. As I was walking through the museum, I came upon an exhibit of shoes. Piles of shoes. Piles of empty shoes. Hundreds and hundreds of them. My mind was overwhelmed. My soul connected and I knew in that moment that the people lost their power when they took off their shoes.
The American people have lost their power against a government that is no longer 'of the people, by the people, for the people'.
I am not sure how the American People as a whole tolerate the submission of their rights to the American Government when it comes to air travel. I only know that for me, a non-sheep, that I cannot tolerate it at all. Going through airport security now is a humiliating experience that I feel every time I travel. I flew in October right after September 11, 2001, and I can honestly say, that today, the experience of air travel is far worse than then. First it started with jackets, belts, metal objects. Then it came to shoes. Take off your shoes. I cannot even begin to tell you how I think of the humiliation of asking an otherwise dignified human being going about their lives, to remove their shoes and demand that they walk in the dirt of countless unknown others.
Take off your tennis shoes, your dress shoes, your combat boots, your handmade leather shoes, your high-heel shoes. Take them off. Just take them off. This all happened after the idiot Ramirez tried to light his shoe lace on fire. A shoe bomb. Cool idea for a movie, bad idea for reality. The concept of placing explosives in your shoes and using a shoe lace as a detonation device is creative. The problem for me of course, is finding an explosive stable enough that you can walk on it and have it not blow your feet off.
I can see Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Steven Segal or even Bruce Willis working frantically against the clock to wrestle that pair of shoes from the feet of the bad guy and pitching them out of the bullet busted window-just in the nick of time. Though, the way those guys work, the bad guy gets tossed with the shoes and a mid-air explosion soon follows that rocks plane but does not destroy. And the bad guy gets what he wanted in the first place, suicide by explosion.
But really, for the hundreds of thousands of people who fly every day, must the government really treat every single citizen as a potential criminal? Yes. Yes they must. Because short of doing that, the tax paying sheep do not physically see their government doing anything active about the "terror threat". This is the one place where they see the government 'doing something'. The sheep say ‘I don’t mind as long as I am safe.’ And I, a non-sheep, must ask, what is safe, really? Safe from what? Getting blown up in the sky? What about maintenance concerns and plain old accidents? How are we protected against that? They ask us not to take certain items in carry-on luggage. But they do not guarantee that the check-in baggage will not be robbed or that it will arrive at the proper destination. There have been countless reports of passengers check-in baggage getting robbed by the very baggage handlers that are suppose to be “secured” employees. They are thieves. As thieves, they also have the corruption of mind to do more sinister acts besides stealing from baggage.
So, I wonder what the government really expects and hopes to avoid in asking its traveling class citizen to remove their shoes?
It seems more psychological than preventative. Another way to maintain the control of the people through emotional fear and panic, then through rational thought and critical thinking.
Keep the people in fear and they will lie down like sheep.
Today, it was flip-flops. Today, they would not even allow a bottom-only covered foot to pass through without x-ray scrutiny. Take off your shoes. You must. It is now the rule. No exceptions. Before, when I would refuse to take off my shoes, they merely took me to the side and took my shoes for me. That I could tolerate. At least then, I could sit down. They had the responsibility to remove my shoes, take them to the x-ray machine, and wand me looking for “nothing.” How do I know they are looking for nothing? Because I ask. I ask them, “what are you looking for?” and more times than not, the reply comes back, “nothing.” In those instances, I respond, “then why are you searching me?” I always get the look indicating “uh, I dunno, it’s my job?”
Like every American, I work for my travel funds. I pay a high price to fly, and also pay the government to search me without cause, to fondle my breasts looking for booby traps, to take my shoes from my feet, leaving me barefoot and without the dignity that a pair of shoes gives to any human being, all in the name of “national security.”
I have decided for myself that I will travel barefoot. With just a pair of socks on my feet. I am sure that, as a result of this, someday soon they will have a “barefeet-only” security requirement. No shoes-No socks.
Though, each time I pass through the security check-points and am told to remove my shoes, I am reminded of the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. After September 11, 2001, I was in Washington DC at the Holocaust Museum. It was my first time there and I can say, that it is truly a humbling, mind numbing and soul breaking experience. As I was walking through the museum, I came upon an exhibit of shoes. Piles of shoes. Piles of empty shoes. Hundreds and hundreds of them. My mind was overwhelmed. My soul connected and I knew in that moment that the people lost their power when they took off their shoes.
The American people have lost their power against a government that is no longer 'of the people, by the people, for the people'.
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