Goodman, Gadhafi and perspective

So Amy Goodman…she of the happy unicorns and nothing but sunshine radio show is coming over to speak in Crested Butte early in March. She has been here before and I have been told she is quite intelligent and an engaging speaker. I must say, I find the KBUT weekday show from 4 to 5 a bit of a downer even when I agree with her premises. Truth. When her show is on in the background, I can’t tell if she and Juan are talking about political prisoners being tortured in Africa or public employees in Madison. It all has the same tenor. That’s not necessarily healthy.

There is a lot of stuff going on in the world right now.
Throngs of people crowded Tahir Square in Egypt until President Hosni Mubarak left office. It was seriously tense for a while.
Similar protests, but much more violent in nature, are happening in Libya. How long before Moammar Gadhafi faces the same fate? How many people will die in the effort to free themselves from his rule?
Plans by the Republican governor of Wisconsin to break a public union have brought out tens of thousands of protestors that look similar to the throngs in the Mideast.
Some people say those chanting in Madison, Wisconsin are the same as the protesters in Egypt and Libya. Seriously? Have we lost all sense of perspective? Being pushed to help pay for your health care and pension is a far cry from facing down the barrel of a gun to rid your country of a dictator. There are real issues in Madison and protesting to maintain bargaining power is important, but it is realer in Tripoli.
My buddy from Christchurch spent the last couple weeks in Crested Butte skiing the nice snow. He got on a plane in Gunnison Saturday and 72 hours later, he and his family were dealing with crumbling buildings from a New Zealand earthquake. It appears close to 100 people have died from that natural disaster. That is real.
A 66-year-old man in northern India apparently has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren. He wants more. 167 people looking to use the bathroom? You think we have problems?
As I heard on the bus and the mountain this weekend, some people in Crested Butte think a few writers in this paper are the devil incarnate. They apparently don’t like looking at things from a different perspective. Sigh. I don’t always agree with the people writing columns or letters in the paper. That’s the point. This community is made of people who provoke thought. That is good, isn’t it? I will say, too many people take themselves a lot more seriously these days than they used to…the column and letter writers at times included. Sigh.

Look, there are a lot of serious things going on in the world. Some are more important than others. Some issues deserve outcry and some deserve serious contemplation. Some are a joke. There will always be serious things going on in the world.

Amy Goodman will be coming over Kebler Pass via snowmobile after speaking in Paonia. I have asked her snow-machine driver, KBUT’s Chad Reich to slap a ‘Bush-Cheney 2012’ bumper sticker on the back of his helmet so she has something to look at during her excursion. Funny or blasphemy? It depends on perspective I suppose. Chad hasn’t said he won’t do it. I don’t know if she’d find it funny or not…but the idea sure makes me smile.