Letter from Slim Wolfe
Democracy – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Martha,
I enjoyed your editorial and particularly your conclusion about us not being followers. There were, however, a number of confusing items I found there. First, was the assertion that the U.S. is exporting democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe that was a bit of sordid humor, but anyone tempted to believe such a preposterous lie should have heard the news show I heard this evening. And check out the civilian corpses in Falluja felled by U.S. nerve gas, and hear the U.N. human rights investigator for Afghanistan explain why his position was terminated by U.S. pressure although there were no alleged grievances against him.
Next, you seemed to infer closer-to-average wages and health care for Summit County residents based on appearances of growth. Do the locals actually live in those new faux-Victorians and patronize the malls? Or were they just built as write-offs, scams, and boondoggles? The working folks I knew up that way lived in trailers and had to beg the state for health coverage though they did partake of non-prescription anaesthesia quite heartily. I doubt if the workers in the new malls are doing much better.
Last puzzle was the suggestion that Chaffee County outrage might have prevented similar growth here. It sure hasn’t stopped housing subdivisions, and we can imagine that as soon as the numbers-crunchers find the propitious moment, more will follow. What is Highway 50 now but one long mall, anyway? I can’t recall ever seeing anything like real outrage in these parts, the sort that topples governments and forces out newspaper publishers (what a thought!) Real outrage is so desperate it doesn’t know or care if it’s going to end up with the Menshaviks, the Bolsheviks, or a firing squad. Real outrage makes godly nuns break fences and pour their blood on missiles, and go to jail.
There are two levels of outrage, though: the second is controlled and productive, as when we get together and create suitable structures to replace the unsuitable ones which the larger economy foists upon us. Rather than express my outrage by having a sit-in in the drive-up lane of the Chaffee County Bank which has changed hands so many times in ten years that it can’t manage to find my account, I can start or get involved with a locally-owned credit union … or a food cooperative or a labor exchange … if there is a way to prevent the onslaught of the mall economy it’s to remove the demand by offering local goods and services which satisfy the public needs, but this takes initiative and perseverance.
The only news more depressing than the war news these days is the economic news. We’re on a roller-coaster zooming around the curves, barely holding to the track, and we can either a) just pray or b) Seize control long enough to get off and find a better ride.
Slim Wolfe
Villa Grove
Dear Slim,
Rather than “infer” that Chaffee County’s outrage prevented growth, I actually wrote almost exactly what you did: “But … it seems doubtful that our current situation has anything to do with how much we resisted so-called progress — because as I remember it, every time a large percentage of our citizenry turned out to protest a proposed subdivision or apartment building, it got built anyway.” Also, it’s a matter of record that wages are better in Summit County (although it’s so much more expensive to live in Summit County that people tend to commute there from Grand County).
But I would like to make it clear that I was in no way objecting to civil participation. On the contrary, I was merely dubious about “outrage.” In fact, I think that ordinary civil participation frequently works well. (Even though I certainly didn’t advocate ’60s-style demonstrations in parking lots, as you seem to imply.)
Over the years, I’ve seen citizens accomplish a great deal by speaking out at city and county meetings (in regard to planning, zoning, parking, curfews, water raids, reservoirs, etc.). However, I don’t view that as expressing outrage. On the contrary, I think that showing up at critical junctions and stating your case — or joining unions, or lobbying, or forming co-operatives to launch grassroots efforts, or writing your congressmen, or picketing your place of employment, or signing petitions, or boycotting offensive corporations, or donating money to fund lawsuits against draconian public policies — is just common-sensible behavior (which unfortunately we sometimes bypass).
American outrage, however, frequently seems to inspire bigotry, hatred, arson, and bombings rather than reforms — and that seems to hold true whether that outrage is from the right or the left, and whether it’s directed at men, or women, or school prayer, or blacks, or gays, or dams, or civil rights workers, or abortion doctors.
Thus, as I see it, there is too much outrage — and mean-spirited rhetoric — in America, and too many Ann Coulters and eco-terrorists.
But on the other hand, there isn’t nearly enough real democratic participation. So maybe, as you also seem to suggest, we should try more things that involve participating and co-operating.
In fact, if only more citizens wrote as many letters as you do, to as many publications, maybe the world would be a better place, and I wouldn’t need to fill up so much space.
Thank you for the input, Slim,
Martha
