Nearby Café Home > Food and Travel > Island Living
|
An acquaintance of mine, Geoffrey F., who lives in Köln, Germany, once suckered me into a long argument about the Holocaust — not about the event itself, but mostly about how many Jews seemed to have a proprietary relationship to the word, an unwillingness to share it with groups who’d undergone different but terrible catastrophes […] Your encounter with nicotine, and your indoctrination into the culture of nicotine addiction, began the moment you flew the gestational coop; you were birthed into a world of cigarette smoke, cigarette smokers, and cigarette merchandising. However long thereafter you picked up your first coffin nail, you’d not only been exposed to endless cubic yards of second-hand smoke, but to years of omnipresent, incessant pro-smoking propaganda. Don’t think for a minute that the decision to light up was entirely your own. […] I meet far too may people who just can’t be bothered to vote; and I, in turn, can’t be bothered with them, can’t take seriously their complaints about the status quo. Participatory democracy is not a spectator sport. They’re choosing to be part of the problem instead of part of the solution. For me, voting is not just a right but a privilege, an obligation, an imperative. […] It was embarrassing to have Susan Molinari introduced at the ’96 Republican Convention as an Islander, all smug and smarmy as she pimped for that great American hero Bob Dole. I dread the thought that she’ll be one of those unfortunate things for which the Island is perpetually known — like the landfill, except worse. […] |