By Mickey Walker - February 06, 2011
A week ago I sped up a bit on a country two-lane East Texas
county road I had travelled for over 3 decades. I was passing another car. There was plenty of room, but you know how it is when you
speed up to pass another vehicle, and I did, and after clearing and veering
back into my lane, the red and blue lights of an oncoming white vehicle in the
distance began flashing. I was
busted. The colored lights were
hidden inside at the top of the windshield. Clever. “Speeding.”
the officer said as he gave me the ticket from a glassy eye and ashen
face. He walked disinterestedly
away from me back to his car.
I was furious with myself, you see, for I had been giving myself
pep talks and mental warnings about how with all the broken budgets and mammoth
debt in local, state, and federal government, they would be out there like
Gang-Busters waiting for you with all the empathy of a Cottonmouth.
I had picked up an old friend from high school to show him
my new home site on a small lake with Wood Ducks and Lesser Scaups landing in
the middle to raft and raise up splashingly and remind us of when we went up
the Intracoastal Canal near Port Arthur, Texas and out onto Keith’s Lake to
hunt waterfowl and be with the mysteries of the marsh as young men. 50 years had passed, but the feeling
was still there. Each time we
would go out in those days of our youth, it was like waiting for Santa Claus to
come. The great anticipation of
what first light would bring as you trudged through the deep cow licked marsh
grass, a backload of decoys in your gunny sack, afraid you would step on a
grunting alligator, was a priceless adventure. Stars smiled on you, and the faint high-pitched (wing-wing-wing-wing)
metallic flight echo of low-fliers, unseen, but just as good as calendar ducks
on the refrigerator magnet, made you smile inside.
I digress. I
just want to say that before the deputy sheriff encounter, I was up and going
home again with an old friend when up jumped the Tar Baby, all dripping black
and wanting to dance with me again. “I’ll lead.” his unrelenting demeanor told me. Well this little speeding infraction was my fault. I was projecting, I know, my feelings
about life and good and evil onto the officer who was just doing his job
catching speeders and taking big money for the county. I should have known better I tell
you. It was my own fault and
nobody else’s. But I kept thinking
and doing a slow burn. Why
couldn’t he go catch the criminals who had just stolen copper from 6 houses
under construction in my new paradise subdivision with the Cormorants, the
Mallards, and the Ospreys? Yes,
and hovering Ospreys at that. I
hated the Tar Babies and having to dance with them so often, these days.
But wait. Maybe
it was my ancient eye, all clouded with logic that seems hardly rational to
anyone but me. I began to feel
like I was crazy, talking about dancing with Tar Babies and all. Maybe I need to see a shrink. But how would I know if they are secretly crazy or not
before wasting a few grand on their own hidden agenda and craziness?
Perhaps my disease is one of accumulation. See, each bit of
news these days seems so black and gooey with tar to the human senses. Know what I mean?
Life used to be simple. I cry out for the passion I used to feel from the flower,
the Carolina Wrens, the Red Fox, the rooting Armadillos, the Bluebirds, and the
Brown Thrashers, thrashing the dark leaves of the forest floor. In my mind I can still hear the
other-worldly “galoop, galoop, galoop of the Yellow-Billed
Cuckoo, hiding among the thick high leaves and boughs, flitting about as he
flashes his white and black polka-dotted bottom tail feathers, if you are
lucky. Where have they gone, these
Rain Crows of the forest that made the heart leap? Think maybe Sarah Palin shot them all?
Accumulation. I
just heard the news that Tom DeLay was sentenced to 3 years in prison for his
criminal conviction of money laundering and breaking a Texas Law about what
campaign money was to be used for. And not. The smart money says DeLay will never do any time due to slick
lawyers and legal delays. Even
though DeLay blew the money on redistricting Texas congressional districts that
would change forever the way House members were selected in Texas. And yes, somehow the GOP seemed to have
gained at least 6 new seats in Washington, thanks to old Tom.
I was shaken when Valerie Plame, a CIA undercover terrorist
agent was likely offed by someone in the White House. Her husband, Joe Wilson, had investigated Bush’s contention
that we needed to attack Iraq because Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy
Uranium Yellow Cake from Niger. Wilson called bull on Bush and Cheney about the necessity to attack Iraq
based upon the bogus intelligence Bush used in his state of the union address
to scare Americans with images of mushroom clouds in our very own cities. When special prosecutor Fitzgerald’s investigation
and subsequent trial saw Scooter Libby, Cheney’s man Friday, convicted of lying
under oath, I felt great exhilaration. Then came the day for sentencing, and President Bush stepped in and
commuted Libby’s sentence. “May I
have this dance?” asked the Tar Baby.
The nation suffered 8 years of dancing with the Tar Baby
under Bush II. The National Debt
grew by 4 Trillion Dollars! Bush
told us we needed to borrow and spend 4 Trillion Dollars in order to keep Iraq
from setting off Weapons of Mass Destruction on our shores. Add that little addition to Ronald
Reagan’s borrowing and spending spree of 3 Trillion dollars to bring the Evil
Empire (Russia) to its knees, and you have a total of 7 Trillion Dollars of
debt. That is HALF the present
National Debt! Attributable to
just 2 American presidents! Both
Republican. So, how ‘bout them
big-spending Democrats? Where did
they all go? Out dancing with the
Tar Baby?
Representative Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin said,
after Obama’s state of the union address Tuesday night, that Obama was
responsible for the ongoing massive spending and debt facing our children and
grandchildren. Say what?!! It is always most noticeable how these
rah-rah Republicans never mention all the Bush II borrowing and spending that
shoved us over the cliff of National Debt. Neither did talking head and former congressman, (Morning
Joe) Scarborough. He said Obama’s
speech was tepid and boring. He
also lauded Paul Ryan as an up-and-coming force in the GOP. But Joe Scarborough
didn’t mention all of Bush’s borrowing and spending to attack and occupy Iraq
either, so what is Morning Joe thinking? Did he pass Arithmetic in the 3rd Grade or what? Did he have a memory lapse over Bush
II’s massive borrowing and spending? So in my world why do these Tar Babies keep on appearing like ugly
genies from a bottle? And how can
they lie so eloquently? Golly Gee
Whiskers!
For months I felt that good things might be just around the
corner for all Americans. It
appeared that Congress would pass our first National Health Bill. I was as exuberant as I was on the day
of American’s first moon landing. It
felt like Santa Claus might be coming after all. The bill passed and Obama signed it into law. But guess
what? Before the ink dried good, the
new Republican majority in the House voted to repeal the National Health
Plan! If it would ever pass the
Senate and Obama’s presidential veto, there would be no more coverage for
millions of Americans. Pre-existing conditions would be a reason for insurance companies to
deny coverage to all Americans once again. We would be right back where we started. Where over 45 million Americans would
once again be without insurance coverage.
One of the biggest Tar Babies I ever had to dance with was
when I researched many states for a possible business venture idea I had. I have been passionate about building
and producing electricity from my own solar farm for years. I studied how to build on and bring it
online to produce electricity as real, usable power. I sought to produce many
more KW, even MW of electricity to sell back to the electric companies for
profit. I researched the laws and regulations
of several states, including my own here in Texas. No soap. Texas
utility companies did not want to buy back excess electricity you produced even
if it were engineered by professionals who specialized in hooking up solar
panel systems to the grid. All the
baloney we always heard about how the electric company had to pay you back for
excess energy your system generated was just that. Bunk. See, the
electric companies (Big Brown) want to generate all their own electricity, and
they do not want to pay individuals for any excess power they might
generate. And the Texas Lege backs
Big Brown up. So do most of the
other states in the USA. The
electric companies have a giant lobby that works well. So basically all the excess power an
individual or company generates and routes back to the electric grid is the
property of the electric company. Wow,
what a Tar Baby to dance with. I
spent 2 whole years only to discover that a private businessman could not make
a solar farm profitable. Why not? Because you cannot sell (net meter) it back
to Big Brown. They want it
all. Some land of opportunity, eh?
In Part II we will explore one of the biggest Tar Babies of all, one that will determine the future of the human
race. And everyone, every human
alive must dance with him. Unless
we all suck it up and drive him away.