Monday, July 27, 2009

Alexis Cohen (Idol Wannabe) Hit and Killed - Cops were to blame

A young gal named Alexis Cohen was hit and killed in the small hours of the morning. She was apparently a two-time contestant on American Idol. News stories abound with brief comments on her career and with descriptions of the despicable hit and run act by the bad guy Daniel Bark. Discussions are all about his record, his bail, what a "punk" he is.

I'm sure these are valid conversations. But one story mentions that the hit and run occurred as Bark was running from the Police, who were chasing him. This means that if the cops hadn't chased Bark, young Ms. Cohen would be alive.

Why does nobody ever assign blame to the cops? I don't mean to suggest that Bark is blameless. Doubtless the court will find him guilty of manslaughter or worse. But why aren't cops ever held to account for this kind of thing? Why do cops get the kid glove treatment from the public? When President Obama had the temerity to question the judgement of the police in the Gates case, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. How dare he question the police?

Let's quit molly-codling the cops and start holding them accountable. A quirky young woman who played the erstwhile entertainer for America is dead, and nobody is asking for that kind of accountability.

Friday, July 24, 2009

To the Victors go the Spoilage

So we thought everything was going to be alright now that we elected a Democratic Congress, Senate and Administration. What’s more, we even managed to break at least one glass ceiling on the way (two, if you consider comedy, and Al Franken).

So I forgot about blogging. I went back to Kleenex inventorying, and Scotch sampling. All was now supposed to be good with the world. It was time to enjoy the pretty sunset colors.

Universal healthcare. Ahhh, so nice. Don’t ask, don’t even worry. Better. Guantana-no mo. Bush and Cheney in irons. Patriot – Last Act. What lovely vistas. Let’s raise a glass and toast to these visions of American rebirth.

Huh?

What’s up?

Did I miss something? I know I was in the john for a bit, but surely things can’t have taken the right turn they seem to have.

Can they?

Is this 1992 all over again? I can’t imagine we haven’t learned anything. We couldn’t possibly have let a vast right wing conspiracy survive as anything more than a whisper of a rotten ghost of a long-dead corpse of a miscreant forgotten by all but some dreary Neanderthals.

Could we?

Have we really allowed a coherent voice from speakers for the dead? Are we actually fighting the same old battles, only with the added juice of race? And with more hyped up venom than ever? With lies which site other lies as “proof,” which themselves are based on falsehoods, based on prevarications, based on malicious slander, and on and on. But of course, like Roger Daughtry, we can’t get fooled again.

Can we?

We have managed to facilitate a bulwark of mighty truth have we not? We have assembled a mountain of evidence. We have instructed our misled brethren (and sisthren) in the holy art of critical thinking.

Haven’t we?

The really bad guys who had free reign in this land, and who made our names synonymous with evil, are vanquished.

Aren’t they?

Why then do we continue to fight what we have won?

How is it that we made battle and unified a people as hadn’t been unified for half a century, and yet we still cannot act like winners?

Quit the apologies. Forget the goddamned bipartisanship. Screw the Republican party.

We won.

They lost.

Let’s be victors and claim the spoils.

Before they spoil.