Pink Houses

"Lil' Pink Houses," KiniArt (2004)

Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
--Working Class Hero, John Lennon

There's a black man with a black cat
Living in a black neighborhood
He's got an interstate runnin' through his front yard
You know, he think, that he's got it so good
--Pink Houses, John Mellencamp

So I bought a .44 magnum it was solid steel cast
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast
'Til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace
--57 Channels (And Nothin' On), Bruce Springsteen
___________

[We chose that stanza from The Boss's song in honor of the recent passing of Robert Goulet, may he RIP.]

True, everyone has a different standard for what constitutes success. Speaking today with an Army reservist back from a tour in Iraq, Ranger was amazed to hear his read on the Army's successes. To wit: the average Iraqi can now view pornography on (presumably) his cell phone, and cable t.v. now offers 100 channels. I had heard as much from a Rush Limbaugh-listening fan, but didn't expect it from one of the "boots on the ground."

The soldier concluded, "Iraq is our baby; now we have to raise it." Presumably, she shall be a Larry Flynt incarnate.

The Limbaugh fan is convinced that the folks in Iraq need something to live for -- televisions with a multitude of cable channels, and laptops were the first things suggested. Of course, what if the introduction of ubiquitous porn is a backward step for the Iraqis? What if it rends the fabric which defines social and personal relationships? Women still wear abayas. Will their position be degraded by the introduction of a new "skin class"?

We can't knock the young soldier. He went; he put it on the line. But everything he said tells us he buys the con job, hook, line and sinker.

A commenter at a recent piece by Andrew Cohen at the Washington Post said, in defense of this administration's willy-nilly stance on torture, that he still likes to see America in the "Little Pink Houses" mode of singer John Mellencamp (missing the sarcasm of that erstwhile homage to homeyness.) Further he wrote, we don't lose if we don't leave.

What a dismal concept. Think of any losing endeavor you've ever been involved in. In a sense, it is technically not a loss if you don't fold. You can often live in a bad situation in the land of the "draw" or the "check" in perpetuity. My parents have been legally separated 25 years. It is possible to continue in limboland indefinitely, if you do not choose for something else.

Morse's choice of biblical verse for his first telegraphic transmission is as applicable today as it was 150 years ago -- "What hath God wrought?"

--Lisa

[Note: Word verification has been turned back on
due to a rash of spamming.]