thematically fickle

(Best paired with song to the right.)

Ah, karma. She works in not-so-mysterious ways. Yesterday, I drove North to meet friends for lunch at the Stone Brewery in Escondido (if you’re local and you haven’t been, you should high tail it up there). Sam and I were deep in discussion about my last column, about The Idler, about the amazing discourse taking place in the comments section and how I was still working on an appropriate response. It dawned on me as we passed Carlsbad that, Oops! Thanks to my intense concentration on the topic, I’d gotten on the wrong freeway and ended up taking a twenty-mile detour. I might as well have left my car idling in a parking lot. So there’s my hypocrisy laid bear for all you nay-sayers.

Speaking of The Idler, let’s talk about him: A number of people have given this guy a hall pass for his behavior and I couldn’t disagree more with this tack (though I fully support the expression of all opinions here). That he’s getting any sympathy for his actions is baffling to me and is very telling about how far we have to go down the rabbit hole of American gluttony before people are going to pull their heads out of their asses. Will $8 a gallon be the magic number to give Americans pause? But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me start with simpler things.

A couple of people sided with the plight of the canine and I get that. I’m with you. Sort of. I wouldn’t want any harm to come to this guy’s dog. But a point that everyone seems to have missed—which is my fault for not writing a more cohesive piece—is that the driver left his car on with the air conditioning running AND his driver side window rolled down half-way, for more than thirty minutes. Sure, each thing individually might be innocuous enough (I’m being generous). It’s the sum of the parts which is greater than the whole.

I ask you, thinking people everywhere: What is the point? Would you not consider this wasteful and irresponsible? In the same vain/vein (whatever) I sat in my car with the windows down for nearly fifteen minutes waiting for him and I didn’t overheat or die. There was actually a nice cross breeze. So I think it’s safe to say that the dog would have been fine if her owner had just left all four windows down half-way.

Of course, he could have also chosen to leash his dog to a bike rack outside of Ralph’s or wherever. I can hear a chorus of people now saying, “But wait! Leash the dog to a bike rack? She could be stolen!” To which I say, she couldn’t be any more stolen than if the car itself had been stolen. I mean, the keys were in it, after all.

Also, for the record, I didn’t choose this topic because it would “jazz things up” for my paper. That isn’t how I write and anyone who has been reading me for any length of time would know this about me. I chose it because, yes, it really did bother me this much and I have something to say about it that I think needs to be said. I gambled that I wasn’t alone on this one and I was right. (For some amazing and eloquent insights, go back and see what Scott has added. He said much of what I’m trying to say, only he said it better and may, in fact, end up with my columnist’s position.)

That I get published in a small alt-weekly in a conservative town is a gift for which I am very grateful. Luckily, my editors allow me free reign in the subject matter department and I pick my topics by what moves me. And this topic? Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Folks, this guy wasn’t dropping his wheelchair bound grandma off at her physical therapy appointment. He was shopping. The All-American patriotic past-time! And he was at it for a looooooong time. I submit that if someone isn’t at least a little bit aghast at a driverless vehicle idling for more than thirty minutes, they’re not paying attention.

Look, as I see it, this is about a socially unacceptable behavior with one person as a representative example for the (too) many others just like him. And I don’t view this behavior as inappropriate because I want to “get on that bandwagon” or because “[i]t’s the hip, cool thing to do” as Christina said in the comments section. Sure being “green” may be the hip, cool thing to do and if that’s what it takes to get people to think about their place on this earth, then so be it.

But for me, it’s the right thing to do and that is a major difference. Sort of like treating others like you wish to be treated. Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world” and that’s a mantra I try to incorporate into my personal value system. Am I perfect at living this belief? Hell no, nor do I claim to be (see opening paragraph or the names I flung at the Idler in my column). But I also try to make my choices in life with thoughtfulness as to how I impact others and how I would feel if I were in those shoes over there. I believe that we humans have a moral obligation to take care of each other and our planet, and the attitude that those of us who are trying to make some changes are simply sticking our fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, is a cynical and hopeless view, a symptom of what is dreadfully askew with our American culture.

Christina also said (and I paraphrase), Meh! What difference can one person make? Look at China! Indeed, Christina, do you mean the China that is busy pouring toxins into the air while making all of the many, many goods to sate the seemingly bottomless appetite Americans have for cheap shit? Like all of the many toys American children play with and their sippy cups and their Snack-Traps and their Diaper Genies and their hair clips and their sun glasses and their beach pails and their toothbrushes and their hideous Crocs (another affront to humanity)? Oh, and don’t forget the charms to adorn the Crocs! Is that the China you’re citing in your example? The same China that makes our flatware and our dishes and our clothes and cell phones and garden tools and furniture and bedding and vibrators and shall I go on? Right. That China. We fiend for it, they deliver it.

The thing is, we are all interconnected (Mother Jones had a great piece on China last December, about how we’ll sink or swim with ‘em, for anyone who has some serious time and a couple doses of Prozac to follow it) and therefore, any amount of change coming from individuals adds up, in either direction.

Ultimately, I’m talking about a change in behavior that, if we don’t choose to make it, will be forced upon us and is, in fact, being forced right now as much as The Idlers of the World don’t wish to see it. Which brings me back to the $8 a gallon question from earlier.

Americans are struggling to make ends meet as gas prices go higher and higher. There will be no more “Sunday drives” for Americans because we can’t afford it financially. Forget about whether we can afford it environmentally. The good old-fashioned family road trips to the Grand Canyon? Thing of the past. Hell, summer vacation is off the calendar for many families who are now having to choose between a trip or dinner on the table.

The government subsidized airlines are cutting back yet again, eliminating routes, charging now for a checked bag and booking trips with frequent flier miles. This mode of travel is becoming increasingly out of reach for average Americans—back to it’s roots, one could say, when air travel was solely for the upper classes—many of whom live far away from family and who depend on flying to reconnect. People are beginning to take more trains at the same time the railways are experiencing cutbacks.

Christina said that we need the government to step in and regulate this change with laws and treaties but, with all due respect, that’s a cop-out of the it’s-not-my-problem magnitude. What about personal responsibility? Not to mention that governmental leadership (oxymoron) isn’t the way change starts, certainly not when government and big oil are in bed together. No. Change comes from the people and generally from the wealthiest people, which, comparatively speaking, Americans are. It is our moral obligation as the wealthiest people on earth with the most access to…everything, to lead by example and be the change we wish to see in the world.

Change is hard. It hurts. We’re addicted to our way of life, to the convenience of things and the myriad choices and the creature comforts to which we feel entitled. And most of us don’t want to give up the luxuries we’ve become used to in lieu of inconvenience. Some of us are so resistant that we refuse to acknowledge there is anything wrong with certain behaviors (i.e. The Idler). But change is coming at us whether we want to embrace it or not. And while we haven’t been asked to make any sacrifices, we will have to start making them because our way of life as we know it is simply not sustainable.

And so, The Idler: He had several choices, and he chose the most convenient one for him, with complete disregard for anything beyond the tip of his nose. He was wrong and I do question and judge his behavior out here in the open. I do not apologize for it.

Oh. And to Ed, fellow CityBeat columnist and vociferous rabble-rouser: Seriously? Hiding cigarette butts from your wife by throwing them out the window. I’ll curse you on my next beach clean up. Damn it, Ed. I’ll curse you here as well: You’re an ass. (Said with utmost love and respect.) You’re a lovable ass, but an ass nevertheless.