Ten years and no thaw.....

When I shot this photo, I did not think it would be a metaphor. But it is. Someone left the fountain on purposely, and made a free-form ice sculptcha'. Yup

Sums it up, oh yes. Not to worry. This is about local stuff. Oh, yeah... It represents what the Democratic Party is there and the Socialist party is here.

And I am NOT bitching. Just clueless.

The first time I came to Europe, I was a lowly student who hadn't an inkling of what was beyond our borders. It was 1972. I had the 'good' luck to work in the Olympic Village in Munich, working in the cafeteria where the athletes ate. THAT was fairly AWESOME.... 14oo students from all over the world. I would have given my left nut for that experience... and it just sort of fell into my lap, hey.

Well, I had hardly been there a week, and this German JUSO (young Socialist) comes running down the hall and grabs me. 'We have to DO something! We need a delegation!'

What got their panties in a twist? The cafeteria didn't have freezers or coolers and were throwing away the best foods you can think of into the garbage every day. Prime beef steaks, everything. And every night they would deliver everything fresh again. Wahnsinn! Crazy!

The Jusos were going from floor to floor to find delegates to help stop the wastage. They wanted to go to the management, point out this waste, and threaten to strike on opening day, and threatren them with a report to the }}}}Bild ZEITUNG{{{{. That is just one step up from the National Enquirer in tone, and everybody read it. And being 23 years old, I said, YES, let's DO this. The thought did cross my mind that I would get expelled, and have to go back to that horrible city I grew up in, but he got me fired up, and ENRAGED.

So I said, 'yes, let's DO this!' All ten of us get into the managers' office, and the 'firebrand ' punks me. He probably thought it would be better coming from a 'ferner'. I don't know. My German was fairly fluent. But only fairly. And all of a sudden, I am the 'speaker' for this group. I was polite, but firm. 'You can't really believe that you can just throw things away, when there are people in need, or that some people in old-aged homes (!) would be thankful if you would have it sent to them instead of throwing into the GARBAGE....

At that moment, I was terrified. Inside. Outwardly, I was firm. I thought Socialists were Communists or something... And deep within me, I was seething about how unjust it was. And I thought, 'If I have to go back to my Mill town and look at bricks all my life, this is so WORTH it.' So I grabbed my courage in my hand and let loose.

And I felt I was doing the right thing.

And then I DELIVERED the ultimatum. Sometimes, back then, I used to have a courage I didn't even know I had... Young and reckless, hey, if not in the sense of being part of a motorcycle gang...

As soon as I mentioned 'strike on opening day', and Bild Zeitung, they went pale. Obviously I did NOT get fired. And the next day, all these social services people drove up to the back ramp and loaded the good stuff to be taken to old age homes, and so on. And I thought, HOLY fucking SHIT, we have some powerful stuff going on here...

And that is how I became a Socialist in mentality. Never was a card-carrying member. We were doing something constructrive, it wasn't for personal gain, and we put our jobs on the line, and won.

It was heady, it was wonderful, and it was real, you could see that you made a difference. For the good, nothing selfish...

Zoom ahead thirty years. Complacency? Check. A social ice age? Check. Greedy assholes who even rob your strike funds? For a shady deal with an american bank that was so nefarious, even I could hardly beleive it, and have seen some egregrious things in my day. WHAT the FUCK??? CHECK. Wha' HAPPENED, hey???

In the past fifteen or so years, the people who made that party WHAT IT WAS, died. And the people who took it over? Bankers. And they ruined whatever I admired and worked for over many years. The whole fucking world 'changed'. Dashed hopes and whatever.

So what does this have to do with the Democratic Party, you ask? It also is like that fountain in the picture.... Stasis. Got frozen. Except it seems you guys are experiencing a little bit of a thaw. People are going out and getting active there, and they do not want to take what is being crammed down their throats any more. And that is all to the good.

Their programmes have always been a bit to the left, but it is always lip service, for the most part.

Sorry, but am sort of bilious at the moment.

So when the Fuck does my thaw come?

I cannot see it yet..

Am going to vote Communist, I swear....