It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. "No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through" -- so says Bush Administration spokesman Scott McClellan. The Bush Administration really means "no amount of money." After a group of American soldiers tortured by Saddam Hussein won a court settlement for compensation of their suffering in time of war, the Bush Administration took away the pool of money from which the compensation was to come. Why will these soldiers never see a dime? The money is needed for the prosecution of Bush's new war of choice in Iraq. (Source: New York Times November 10, 2003) ![]() ![]() ![]() |