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I did an experiment today: I took the bus to work.
My sister's car died really dead a few weeks ago, so I've been sharing mine with her. Because she drives a lot more than I do, I usually don't have a car during the day. I was planning on catching a ride to work today but my ride left without me. I tried to get a ride with someone else, but that person wasn't going in to work until late, so that didn't work out either.
In despair, (oy!), I layed down on the couch and stared at the ceiling as I tried to figure out how I could get to work.
Could I walk?
Not in these boots. And not with my laptop.
Could I get someone to drive me as a favor?
I couldn't think of anyone who'd be available at that time of the day.
As I lay there wondering, "How on earth do people get around without cars?" it suddenly came to me:
The Bus!
It only occurred to me because at the wedding I mentioned in my last post, a friend of mine who used to lived in New York mentioned taking the bus when she moved to this city.
No one takes the bus around here. Well, obviously some people do, but the majority of my city's population have cars. The bus is generally seen as a mode of transportation for people who have no other choice. (In other words, they're too poor.) More than anything, I think it's a cultural thing. In New York, everyone takes public transportation. Out here, it's embarrassing to take it.
If celebrities want to help the country, like they say they do in their "Pledge to Obama" video, what they really should do is promote public transportation in their own city. Buying hybrids doesn't help the environment nearly as much as popular public transportation could.
Note: The photograph above is of the original busing experiment.
I'm in the library right now doing some work and I'm wearing one of my, "W - The President" baseball caps. The one I'm wearing now is the less "obnoxious" one; it's black and says, "W" on the front and, "The President" on the back. I bought it during the 2004 election, when I was helping with the Bush campaign.
My other "W" hat says, "W - STILL the President," on it. I bought that one after Bush won. It was a, "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, we won!" hat. I wore it for Purim that first year and got maybe one look in shul.
Right now, I'm getting tons of them. Every person who walks by is eying me like I'm a child of the devil.
I know I'm one of the last remaining few who still likes Dubya. Especially here in Democrat-blue-country California. I haven't looked at his popularity ratings in a while, but I know they're in the dregs.
They are better than Olmert's, though that's not saying much. I picked up a copy of, "The Jewish Journal," today, a truly awful excuse for a newspaper here in LA put out by the Jewish Federation, and on the cover it announced, "OLMERT'S APPROVAL RATING GOES UP -- TO 3%"
But Olmert truly deserves his ratings. He's a terrible Prime Minister. Bush, however... If I were to say this aloud I'd likely be stoned with rotten vegetables, but he really hasn't done such a bad job as President. That's just a fact.
But people don't care about facts when it comes to Bush. They just plain hate him. "He's dumb and evil!" they declare. "Bush is today's Hitler!" liberals scream.
How is it that everyone has forgotten Saddam Hussein? How he gassed and tortured his own people? Does that sound familiar to anyone else?
And then everyone whines and cries about Bush going into Iraq. Forget the fact that he went in with Congressional approval so every member of Congress who voted to go to war is just as liable as him; how can any Jewish person in the world not rejoice in the downfall of Saddam Hussein, the mini-Hitler of our time?
Or, since Purim just passed, the true Haman of our time. Didn't anyone else see the picture of Jewish U.S. troops celebrating Purim in the palace of Saddam Hussein, of cursed memory?
Jewish philosophy teaches that it's our job to take the sparks of negative energy into the world and turn them into sparks of positive, G-dly energy. If celebrating Purim in Saddam Hussein's palace isn't flipping the evil sparks of Saddam's reign onto their collective backs, throwing them into G-dliness, I don't know what is.
How can a Jew still hate Bush, seeing this? Seriously; I know I have readers who dislike Bush -- explain it to me!
I received an email the other day entitled, "An Open Letter to President George W. Bush." It was written by Ruth Mater of "Women in Green," and basically consisted of an accusation that the biggest mistake that Bush has made during his presidency is promising a state to the Palestinian people.
I'm not going to argue about what the greatest mistake of Bush's presidency has been, but the majority of Americans believe it to have been the War in Iraq. Promising the Palestinians a state is hardly on the minds of most Americans as the greatest mistake of Bush's presidency.
Emails, or other forms of communication, with messages like these are a pet peeve of mine. It really annoys me when people blame President Bush for Israel's problems. How self-centered\ethnocentric do you have to be to consider the biggest problem of Bush's presidency to be about something that doesn't really affect his country?
Bush has his own political agendas to attend to, which include promoting peace in the Middle East. He, and America, have seen that tyranny and horror in Middle East have led to terrorism that has hurt Americans and therefore it is in his country's best interest promote peace in the Middle East.
Politically speaking, promoting peace in the Middle East includes trying to keep Muslims from despising America. So what does Bush do? He tries to placate them with promises of a state for the Palestinians (once they achieve a democratic system of government - something unlikely to ever happen.)
[NOTE: When I say "politically speaking," I'm referring to the science of politics within the United States, which includes the fact that the President can't do anything without considering the ramifications that his actions will have. Not to mention that the President doesn't create Middle East foreign policy on his own; he has to consider the views and stances of his cabinet, Congress and the public who elected him. That's how a democracy works.]
Can we really expect the President of the United States to work for anything other than his own country's best interest? Can we really condemn his for working toward that goal?
Personally, I think that the people we should be angry at is the Israeli government. Is blaming Bush and sending him long letters\emails with, "A History of the Middle East," to prove that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews, (as this email included) - something that, as an Evangelical Christian, Bush is well aware of already, - really going to help Israel?
I think it's a waste of time and energy.
Women in Green, focus your anger at the government of Israel, not at President Bush, who is only doing his job.
I did an experiment today: I took the bus to work.
