Musings: Asking Too Much?

The rain had just passed and a small patch of sky was on fire in the east when Koko and I went out walking in the murky light of a cloudy pre-dawn. The waning moon shone weakly through the overcast, causing an oval of blue above the Giant to assume a pearly glow.

A truck passed, and the driver greeted me with a quiet toot of the horn, as he does each morning when he sees me on the road, and the horses responded by nickering softly in the pasture. Further on, Koko jumped when we heard pigs grunting in the bush, and she kept looking over her shoulder until we turned back.

Returning in the light of sunrise, I could tell from the yellowing guinea grass, brown wedelia and fried lauae fern that Roundup had been sprayed along the guardrail recently, with no notice, no warning. A lot of people and dogs walk along that section of road and we were all exposed, unknowingly. I know some people don’t care — remember the famous “Roundup is so safe I’ll drink it” line? — but I do. I realize the state and county aren’t ready to give up their roadside death-dealing, but it seems they could at least post a sign before and/or after they spray poison so we can avoid it if we choose.

Is that asking too much?

One of the low-income residents I work with was expressing concern yesterday that the food stamp office had been moved from the State Building Lihue in over to Eleele, which presented a bit of a hardship for her and the many other recipients who don’t have cars. Meanwhile, there’s an article in today’s Star-Advertiser about how furloughs and Lingle’s reorganization of the Dept. of Human Services has resulted in a severe backlog of processing applications for benefits, just as so many of us had predicted. It’s also created burdensome work loads for the employees who remain. And all this comes at a time when the demand for assistance is at a peak:

In May there were 139,816 people statewide on food stamps, up 18 percent from the year before.

[Linda] Tsark, the food stamp administrator, said 79.8 percent of food stamp applications statewide are "timely," which means they are processed within 30 days, or seven days for emergency assistance. That is down from 87 percent in July 2009. Federal guidelines require a 95 percent timeliness rate.

I continually see people getting totally stressed out because they have lost their jobs, have no financial reserves and then must wait weeks for unemployment benefits and food stamps to kick in. As a result, an already trying time is made that much more difficult. It seems a wealthy nation like ours should be able to respond quickly to folks in such dire straits.

Is that asking too much?

Meanwhile, as the U.S. is supposedly ending combat missions in Iraq today — while leaving behind 50,000 troops that could possibly be involved in fighting — 19 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Saturday. How much longer do you suppose the carnage there will continue, for no good reason?

Ironically, the reactionary outcry over building a mosque some 10 blocks from the Twin Towers site is working to boost recruitment, donations and support for the Taliban, according to an article in Newsweek:

America’s enemies in Afghanistan are delighted by the vehement public opposition to the proposed “Ground Zero mosque.” The backlash against the project has drawn the heaviest e-mail response ever on jihadi Web sites, [Taliban operative] Zabihullah claims—far bigger even than France’s ban on burqas earlier this year. This time the target is America itself. “We are getting even more messages of support and solidarity on the mosque issue and questions about how to fight back against this outrage.”

Zabihullah also claims that the issue is such a propaganda windfall—so tailor-made to show how “anti-Islamic” America is—that it now heads the list of talking points in Taliban meetings with fighters, villagers, and potential recruits. “We talk about how America tortures with waterboarding, about the cruel confinement of Muslims in wire cages in Guantánamo, about the killing of innocent women and children in air attacks—and now America gives us another gift with its street protests to prevent a mosque from being built in New York,” Zabihullah says. “Showing reality always makes the best propaganda.”

The cessation of “Iraqi Freedom” operations prompted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make this announcement to the Iraqi people:

”You are regaining the sovereignty of your country,” Mr. Maliki told a divided nation in an address on state-run TV. “Our relations with the United States have entered a new stage between two equal, sovereign countries.”

Um, yeah, right. But anyway, now that we’ve finally “freed” Iraq, perhaps we could focus on releasing our stranglehold on the independent nation of Hawaii.

Is that asking too much?