The Dog Days Of
September
By Gary Corseri
“Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth.
The unmentionalble odour of death
Offends the September night.”
--W.H. Auden, “September, 1939”
20/09/08 "Countercurrents"
-- - Historians may look back on September, 2008 as
America’s economic 9/11. Major financial institutions are
collapsing—to use a bitter analogy--like the twin towers: first,
Bear Stearns (already 6 months ago!); and now, Lehman Brothers,
Merrill Lynch and the insurance giant A.I.G. Just as 7 years
ago, we cry out, What hit us? Who did this? Why?
Merrill Lynch helped finance the cotton trade before the Civil
War! Say it was an essential “linch-pin” in the rise of the
South on the backs of black slaves. Say that “free-market,”
deregulated capitalism is now getting its due; if I am in
steerage on the Titanic and I hear that the swells who have been
dancing above our heads are about to take a dip in the sea,
Schadenfreude doesn’t calm my queasy stomach.
NBC begins its broadcast with the news that I am now the proud
owner of the world’s largest insurance company. Bull!. If I own
something I can determine how to dispense with it; I can decide
who will oversee my assets. Obviously, I and millions of other
American taxpayers do not own a particle of A.I.G.; we’re just
bailing it out. A.I.G. will be owned by America, Inc. and
managed by people very similar to its former managers. The
question is, Who owns America, Inc.?
It has become clear by September, 2008 that Americans own less
and less. In the past year, hundreds of thousands have lost
their homes. Millions no longer own their jobs. Jobs have been
shipped overseas by the real owners of America, Inc.—our
corporate bosses and their political shills. With our jobs went
our job-related health care. We do not own our own health in W’s
“ownership” society.
As I write this, some 3 million Americans are without power in
Houston/Galveston and along the Gulf Coast. At least 50
Americans died as a result of Hurricane Ike. Cuba, far poorer
than Texas, was hit much harder--and they lost 4 people. Cuba
managed to safely evacuate 1 million people from its coasts. A
couple of years ago, Texas tried to evacuate people before
Hurricane Rita and more than 100 died along the roads—there
wasn’t enough gas to supply the evacuees’ cars, and ambulances,
etc., couldn’t get through the traffic. Do Americans
collectively own their roads, their ambulances, FEMA, gas
stations, oil refineries? What do we own except a ton of
personal and national debt? “Americans” are trillions of dollars
in debt to Japan, China, Western Europe, Russia and Middle East
sheikdoms. Hail the New World Order!
I put “Americans” in quotes because we are no longer who we
were. We can no longer claim to live in “the land of the free
and the home of the brave.” There is nothing free here except
the “free-market” our corporate bosses have foisteed on us and
the rest of the world to open up foreign markets to our
brand-name companies so that foreign workers can make products
that “Americans” will buy at exorbitant prices. How did that
happen? Hypnosis through the mass media that “Americans” were
supposed to own—hypnosis through repetition, spectacle,
diversion.
This September I am supposed to believe Press Secretary Dana
Perino: “The president’s economic advisors had determined that
some of these companies were so big—that to allow them to fail
would have caused even greater harm … .” Unstated: apparently
the president does not believe that the 50 million Americans
without healthcare are “so big” that allowing them to fail would
cause greater harm.
I am supposed to believe that John McCain is a “war-hero.” On
the campaign trail, this decrepit muppet cannot get through his
set speech without looking at his notes, but he repeats the
mantra tirelessly. Frankly, I see nothing “heroic” in dropping
bombs on civilians thousands of feet below. The true heroes of
the Vietnam War died at Kent State, trying to stop that illegal,
imperialist war. Say their names with reverence: Jeffrey,
Allison, William, Sandra.
This September I am sick of the Reagan Revolution that
comandeered our economy and our good sense over two decades ago.
We’ve had Reagan’s orgy of deregulation, Bush Sr.’s “Gulf War,”
Clinton’s backtracking on NAFTA and bombing of Serbia, and we
have had more than enough of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption.
And what have we reaped? What Chalmers Johnson calls the
“blowback” of 9/11; and, dereliction of duty by elected
officials; the abrogation of constitutional protections against
government abuse and police powers; public media used as weapons
of mass deception.
Isn’t it time to think in terms of a new revolution? What about
a new constitution? Can’t we eliminate this ponderous, ludicrous
electoral college? Must we have Palin-like surprises at the end
of an 18-month process? Perhaps a parliamentary system in which
we have a government-in-waiting, constantly vetted, makes better
sense? Can we not institute referenda, as in Venezuela, so that
scofflaws like Bush and Cheney do not run riot for four years
(after stealing one, probably two, elections)? Must we have
life-time appointments for Supreme Court “justices”? Can we not
have a Bill of Economic Rights?
On the day Hitler invaded Poland Auden wrote that he was
“Uncertain and afraid / As the clever hopes expire / Of a low
dishonest decade.” And that: “I and the public know/ What all
schoolchildren learn: / Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in
return.”
Is it not past time to take back America? Or is Auden right:
“The habit-forming pain, / Mismanagement and grief: / We must
suffer them all again.”
I want to believe he is most right here: “All I have is a voice
/ To undo the folded lie … / … the lie of Authority” And here: “
… no one exists alone … / We must love one another or die.”
Gary Corseri has posted/published his work at hundreds of
venues, including, Countercurrents, After Downing Street, Common
Dreams, Information Clearing House, CounterPunch, The New York
Times, and Village Voice. He has taught in universities and
prisons, published novels and poetry books, performed at the
Carter Presidential Library, had his dramas presented on
Atlanta-PBS, etc. He can be contacted at
Gary_Corseri@comcast.net .Click on
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