Mad about Bush

If there's one person who probably says anything about our world and why it is the way it is today, it's George Bush. I know what you're probably thinking, "He's going to blame Bush for the Iraq War or for the financial crisis." Actually, I wasn't going to, but I might anyway. I was mostly astounded at the fact that here was a guy who, by the end of his presidency, got absolutely no one in the world to take him seriously. Here is a president of the United States who got a grenade thrown at him while speaking abroad and no one cared. They often say that the President of the United States is the most powerful man in the world. If that is true, then by the end of his presidency, Bush was the most powerful person with the least powerful opinion in the world.

A lot of people think that George Bush is evil. He's not. I've never met the guy, but I'm pretty sure that he's not out there to eat our babies and pillage our towns. Some people think that Bush didn't really care about America and simply listened to his corporate buddies. That may seem true, but I think that he did care about the direction America was moving in. He founded the White House Office of Faith-Based Inititatives and spearheaded the No Child Left Behind Act. As much as you didn't like it, No Child Left Behind forced schools to take action on tough issues they probably would not have otherwise. He spearheaded millions of dollars to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa and pushed for the retirement of the Space Shuttle in favor of the Orion program.

The problem with Bush is that he never foresaw the full extent of his actions. Sure, he had visions and ideas for the future and ways to achieve those goals, but he incorrectly predicted how his actions would affect the world. He acted on Iraq using faulty information that turned out to be incorrect. His attempts to streamline government resulted in cuts to agencies such as FEMA. While he appointed more minorities to his cabinet and group of advisors than any other president before him, he failed to fully address issues such as urban poverty. Although he promoted the free market and business growth both in the United States and abroad, many affected groups, including workers and consumers, would eventually suffer from the consequences.

Does this mean that Bush was a great president who simply was misunderstood? Probably not. I'm sure you can think of other Bush policies that haven't had the most positive impact on America. However, I think that it's important to distinguish between leaders who leave a negative impact because they are selfish and incompetent or people who did bad things because they made decisions that ultimately had negative consequences.

On the road...

So, I'm currently at a complete lack of words right now. I actually had a list of things that I wanted to write about for my end of the year blog, but as I'm currently out of town, I have no idea what I was supposed to write about. This only makes things more interesting.

For those who are curious, I'm on vacation, but I'm also looking at a potential job opportunity in the area. I will give no details at the moment, except that my potential office has a view of a satellite dish and that I'll get to do by plane what I did at the Swamp with a backpack.

The Wave

Here's a little secret I've been keeping for about four years. When I first started learning to drive, I noticed that at busy intersections lacking stoplights, people would often wave other drivers or pedestrians through. I then thought of a grand idea: what if, at every single intersection I drove up to and let someone walk or drive by, I waved at them?
What if I let every single pedestrian at every crosswalk walk in front of me?
What if, every time I crossed a crosswalk with a car stopped in front of me, I actually made eye contact with the driver, smiled, and waved?

Now, it's not like I have some crazy scheme to spread infectious happiness. I simply decided one day that I would do this. I wouldn't actually keep track, and I didn't think that four years later, I'd still think of it as a conscious decision. In fact, I don't. I actually just realized it today when I was crossing the street with a group of people. The group cut off a car and forced it to stop suddenly. When everyone else ran across the street, I turned and waved to the driver. I suddenly realized that no one else I was with ever did that, and that no one else I've ever crossed the street with has done it. They've probably never even noticed me do it.

I estimate that at this point in time, I've given well over 1,000 smile-and-waves while driving or crossing streets. The actual number is probably a lot higher. I've unconsciously brought the smile-and-wave with me on my travels to places as exotic as Quebec, San Francisco, and El Salvador.

Am I really trying to accomplish something? I have no idea. I guess I just felt that I should let people know I appreciate not being run over. It's something many people who travel on roads shared with other types of vehicles take for granted. Three years ago, I saw a skateboarder nearly get hit by a van. I thought I was about to see someone die; it appeared that he just got clipped and fell onto the ground. Rather than get up and even look at the driver who almost caused him great personal harm, the skateboarder just got back on his board and skated away. No "thanks for not killing me" from the skater. Not even an "oops, sorry man." Nothing.

I'm not trying to be a rockstar. I'm not trying to sound valiant or like an unsung hero. I'm just letting the world know that I exist - that out there, there is some crazy kid who realized that we're not alone in this world. We depend on others, even if we don't know them.

Somebody and her mom

My first symbol of the decade is a song and its accompanying music video. It’s called “Stacy’s Mom,” and it’s sung by a band called Fountains of Wayne. Even if you’ve heard the song, I suggest you watch the video below, because it’s the focus of this article (and quite entertaining).



Now, you’re probably thinking “Chris, why on earth did you just make me watch that? Not only is that complete trash, but I can’t see why someone decent like you would like something like that.” Well, my first response is:
1. It’s a really catchy melody.
2. Yes, I know it’s trash.
But isn’t that what life is all about nowadays? It’s all catchy trash. Why do people buy iPods when there are better mp3 players out there? Because they’re shiny and everyone else has one. Why do people watch Rush Limbaugh, or Bill O’Reilly, or John Stewart, or Jay Leno, or Survivor? Because as much as they are trash (in their own different ways), we like watching them. Here’s a little demonstration of my point that you can try at home. I was watching the news the other day and decided I would play a little game. I would watch the anchor introduce a story and then imagine what I would like to know next about the topic. Then I’d watch the rest of the segment to see if what I wanted to know was actually discussed. You should try it sometime, and you will probably be amazed at how unsatisfied your cravings are. The vast majority of information we get isn't something we actually need to hear or really even want to hear, it's what we hear first and hear most pleasantly.

My second (and more profound) lesson from “Stacy’s Mom” is the reflection of society that it portrays. There’s absolutely no question as to what that kid is doing at the end of that video. Likewise, there’s absolutely no question as to what that girl’s reaction is to what she finds him doing. Twenty years ago, you couldn’t even talk about masturbation except if you were smoking pot with your buddies. Sure, there were songs out there with all sorts of lyrics relating to sexual acts (“Jet Boy Jet Girl” by Elton Motello, “Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other” by Willie Nelson) and non-traditional relationships (“Mrs. Robinson”). However, there’s something different about today. We’re the generation that grew up with Jim and his American Pie and Finch fantasizing about Stifler’s Mom. We’re the generation in which we don’t care if you inhaled, because so did everyone else. We’re the generation that realizes that people are people, that everyone has their quirks, and that the symbolic “closed door” to the bedroom that things happen behind is closed for a reason.

What’s my explanation for this? People grew up and got real. They realized that to write songs about “normal love” or to only talk about “traditional” topics was to believe that “normality” and “tradition” never changed. I’m to break this to those to may differ, but tradition changes. And with it does society. Society never was, or never is, nor ever will be, full of the same , monotonous people. The worlds of “Leave it to Beaver,” “Brady Bunch,” “Family Ties” and “I Love Lucy” weren’t full of middle-class white families who played catch and ate breakfast together, and neither is our world today.

Does this mean that society has suddenly gone lax? Are our teachers going to be encouraging preschoolers to get gay marriages, and will it soon be legal for people to marry their dogs, cats, and vending machines? Of course not. A lot of the same limits will still exist and will probably never be changed. It will never be normal to see a grown man wearing pink eyeshadow or to discuss one’s sauerkraut fetish at the office lunch table. However, we have to realize that the way that people in a society express themselves changes with time. We may not all be harboring a socially unacceptable secret, but I guarantee you that you know someone who is.

The Blog Review of the 2000s.

In various newspapers and magazines, they’re having reviews of this past decade. From Sports Illustrated to the Star-Ledger, various editors and writers have all felt it necessary to take a look back at the past and reflect. Now, I’ve tried doing this in the past. Of course, I’ve failed miserably. However, I think that I’ve really grown a lot, and ever since I’ve started blogging, I have gotten a better feel of how to collect my thoughts on paper. Plus, there’s just so much to write about. It may be impossible to predict the future, but if you went back in time to January 1, 2000 and told someone what the world is like now, they’d be completely taken a back. Would they believe that we would elect a black man president, much less a man who would run for Congress that year and get a third of the vote in the primary? Would they believe that gay couples can marry in some states but can still be jailed for having sex in others? Would they believe that millions of Americans listen to music not on a cassette or a CD, but on a tiny plastic box that can hold thousands of songs? Would they believe that there are phones that take videos, mice that glow in the dark, and websites where your coworkers willingly post pictures of their drunken selves running around pantless at three o’clock in the morning?

Rather than make a concise and structured list like “Top 10 songs of the decade” or “Top 20 one-hit wonders of the decades” or “Top 25 Television Commercials of the 00s,” I’m going to post a series of articles about symbols of the decade. They might be people. They might be pictures. They might be videos. Whatever they are, I’ve selected them because I think we can learn a little bit about the decade from these symbols. Enjoy.