Personal one on one with my congresswoman, Thelma Drake

[rainy]

I met with Thelma Drake today, just she and I. Here are some high points of our conversation:

First, being an artistic visionary type, I tend to stick to the big picture. I'm better at discussing the larger goal of humanity than the detailed minutia of "issues".
"People of thenext century was gaze back in ghastly awe upon our time. A time of waste and abandon on a scale so vast it knocked the human enterprise out of whack for 1000 years." Adbusters Magazine
Keeping the above in mind, I tried to center our conversation around my belief that we are moving at a rate of un-sustainability. I wanted to discuss the environment, war, money, power and greed. And, we did just that.
She said at the very beginning that she is not allowed to take any corporate money and that MoveOn was lying and misleading the public by associating her with corporations like Exxon and Haliburtion.


Environmentally: She believes that global warming is a myth and that we have cleaned up so much that things are better now than in past centuries.

Capitalism, greed and power: I said that the world is on a path of destruction as we measure our success by our growth and that if we continue to grow and the rest of the world tries to catch upwith our waste, oil use and destruction we will destroy the earth. I pointed out that our capital government cannot operate at 100% employment and that we subsidize corporations like Walmart because they do not pay a living wage so the tax payers end up paying for the employees' emergency medical care and other governmental aid. I pointed out that our politicians are bought and paid for and only represent the monied elite. She said I was anti-business and asked me if I thought communism was a better way?

Of course that was not my point. We discussed waste in spending by corporations like Haliburton and how they have been accused of huge fraud and of not supplying our troops with enough equipment. She said that was a lie and that the troops have everything they need and always have. I pointed out that there were hearings by our government where the wittinesses disagreed with her. I said that Rumsfeld said that 2 trillion dollars cannot be accounted for. She didn'tbelieve me. I found the CBS article stating that fact.

War: She says we have to protect our country. This was too long to tell all. I pointed out that we have to be careful not to become what we hate about out enemies. For instance we got rid of a man who killed, tortured and raped only to have our soldiers kill, torture and rape. She said we do not torture. She said that we feed the detainees very well and that they are treated nicely. I asked her why we spend so much on war, robing our national treasure. I asked her how the British managed to bust a huge terrorist ring without killing anyone and without occupying, illegally, another country. I asked her how it was possible that we could quickly evacuate Lebanon and not Louisiana? I can't remember all that was said on this topic as it is a big one.

I talked about globalization and the fact that corporations now go overseas so that they can exploit workers and steal natural resources. She said that thoseworkers are very happy to be working for American corporations and that those corporations have to abide by US regulations. Which of course is a lie.

Finally, Israel: She said they are not occupying any land in Gaza. Said they pulled out completely and she was there when it was happening. Another lie.

We talked for an hour. I think I blew her mind. I don't think she ever came across anyone like me before.

Well, overall, I said what I wanted to say and she does not get it.

I gave her some info about PNAC and other reading materials and she left.
Rainy

[benddem]

1. she is either delusional

or she's had so much of the koolaid she is drowning.

[Robeson]

2. "she does not get it"....

...that is the understatement of the century. She is living in an alternate universe.

[EST]

3. Jeses Gawd! Is she for real?

That is truly amazing. Can there really be anyone who is that malinformed/uninformed?

I'm stunned.

[Vidar]

4. Damned good try!