Yearly Archives: 2005

Who Pays? Who Profits?

9/20/2005 – 7:06 pm

I’m in Louisiana, in the flood zone. Katrina was here, in many ways is still here. Now Rita is in the gulf, gaining strength. I’m sending this early because I can’t predict where I’ll be Thursday and I doubt I’ll have time to write. While the tragedy of New Orleans has been well reported, there […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Unready for Anything

9/15/2005 – 11:42 am

I’ve been spending time in airports and on airplanes recently; I’ve accommodated myself to the security drills, sequestering all metal objects into my briefcase before I pass through security, getting my shoes off and on again quickly, practicing compliance when I’m selected for “additional screening.” Burlington is a non-hub airport, so most of the flights […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Freedom Crawls

9/11/2005 – 8:19 pm

I’m in Washington, DC, a city I have not visited since the fall of 2000. Things here are very different from the place I once knew. I remember riding my bicycle on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol; today barriers and fences and police preventing access are everywhere. The fourth anniversary of the September 11, […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Two Americas

9/8/2005 – 9:40 am

Events the scale of Katrina and its aftermath stretch the bounds of cognitive thinking so I’m turning to metaphysics to make sense of what’s happening. There are two Americas which exist in the same physical space, but which have only brief spatial and temporal overlaps. Katrina has opened a door and is letting one America […]

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Selfish Ignorance

9/1/2005 – 7:50 am

Now that Katrina has passed through and left misery behind her, should we search for a moral message? Were the burst levees a judgment on the sybarites of New Orleans? Was the devastation of the Gulf Coast a rebuke to seaside casinos? Maybe Katrina was divine retribution to some of the reddest states of the […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (1)

Something Must Have Happened

8/25/2005 – 8:19 am

In Vermont, you can bring your beer and soda cans and bottles back to the store and get a nickel for each. The deposit law doesn’t cover juice, wine or bottled water, only carbonated beverages. Seems odd, but there it is. Adrienne and I don’t drink many carbonated beverages, so when we have two or […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (1)

On Wedgies

8/18/2005 – 9:31 am

Summer is in full throat. Cicadas drone through the day, crickets are loud every night. Pairs and threes of teenagers walk through the evening neighborhoods, their voices drifting through the window screens. At summer camp, wedgies must be getting out of hand. Experienced camp administrators know wedgies play a regulatory role in the living organism […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (3)