Dark Side

Enough Is Enough
There are some symbolic parallels in what’s happening with the paper route, my professional (?) life, and what’s happening in the Middle East. Israel has essentially decided that it’s had enough with the threats of Hezbollah, and has taken it upon themselves to rid Lebanon of this menace.  Unfortunately, since Hezbollah is in the habit of embedding themselves in the civilian population, the Lebanese civilian population and infrastructure are being destroyed along with Hezbollah.  The appeasers of the world, the UN, all cry out ”stop the hostilities!” as town after town is reduced to rubble.  The UN is an ineffectual bureaucracy that produces useless resolutions.  UN resolutions and calls for cease-fire are about as ineffectual as squirting a garden hose to get two dogs to stop fighting.  Hezbollah refuses to stop fighting until Israel leaves Lebanon, and Israel refuses to stop fighting until Hezbollah stops firing rockets into Israeli cities.  The conflict is reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in “Every Which Way But Loose” where Philo Beddoe and Tank Murdock are matched in an unsupervised brawl, where they slug it out, neither one winning, neither one loosing, until they both collapse in exhaustion.

I don’t know why I have repeat chronic complainers on the paper route.  Maybe the guy is just dumb.  Maybe somebody downtown wants to deny me my bonus every week.  Maybe one of the other paper carriers doesn’t like me because my political views differ from his, or that I’ve previously had a perfect route for weeks, even months on end.  But I’ve decided that the chronic complainer has got to go.  Meanwhile, at least one customer loves me for the special attention I oblige her with.  If only compliments would cancel out complaints.  Instead, the one customer that calls in the first complaint that puts my complete rate over the acceptable threshold costs me my $40 bonus.  That’s a lot of money to lose for delivery of a Sunday only newspaper subscription.

Israel sometimes imposes censorship rules on the media, so that they have to put their hand over the camera so as not to show the layout of the city and their position.  Other times, the camera pans back and forth across the city, looking for signs of incoming Katyusha rocket strikes.  It’s wise not to further describe tactics and strategies.  The newspaper agency won’t allow me to give the customers a means (cell phone no.) to contact me directly to correct my mistakes, since that would be “subverting the company.”  I find myself on the wrong side of a confict, engaging in more terrorist-like tactics to defend my income.

Would You Like Brain Fries With That Sir?
The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paperboy brings more.

I compare the global war on terror to a thunderstorm.  Like a thunderstorm that's been building and throwing nothing but thunder and lightning around, it's time for the full fury of a good thunderstorm.  It'll do the earth some good.  There's too much energy in the air, too much hatred and weapons in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Somalia.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.