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O, Canada
I was zipping down the freeway over by Camp Roberts the other day, and for once I didn't find it reminding me of Iraqi madness and the War on Terror-which the Bush administration should begin calling the War on Error-but before I knew it, I was thinking about House Bill 163, and my thoughts weren't very patriotic, I don't think, but I'm not sure, so don't ask me.
What I do know is that HB 163 is pretty scary, and that being afraid isn't any fun, unless I'm afraid that I simply can't eat any more, thank you, no more for me. If passed, HB 163 will have us ducking mortars and bullets to the shouts of "Allah be praised-death to all Yankees!" and hoping we'll get out with all our limbs still attached to their proper sockets.
Here's what HB 163 wants to do:
"To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes."
It wants to reinstate the draft, an idea that's been here and done that, with disastrous results 30 years ago. Everyone who'd like to return to that wondrous time, raise your Molotov cocktails and get ready to off the pigs.
For some reason, this bill to put the hip-hop generation into stylish khakis hasn't gotten much media attention-I've read not a whit of it here in stylish New Times-but it's stirring up concern here and there nonetheless. The 18-to-25 set are no doubt the target (if you will) of HB 163, along with its companion Senate Bill 89, which is exactly the same bill that's attempting exactly the same thing: Dress the kids in Army green and ship 'em out.
Bizarrely, the bill was sponsored by liberal loudmouth Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and in the Senate by Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C. Rangel's support is particularly strange, seeing as how he voted against the war with Iraq and so would seem to wear an antiwar hat signifying an antiwar stance. A draft means more soldiers and presumably more war.
Rangel's thinking is typically fuzzy-brained: He says the draft would go a long way toward creating equality in America, that it would be a great equalizer, making the affluent who can avoid service have to serve alongside minorities who can't. I guess he figures that if everybody has to get drafted and sent off to get killed, things will be lots better for those still left alive.
What Rangel doesn't seem to get is that rich people will always figure out how to work the loopholes, just like they do with their taxes. Lance's dad will get him a military-related internship in Maryland, while Rufus will find himself staring down the barrel of a standard-issue rocket launcher with insurgents closing in. So much for equality, but that's America for you.
As one draft opponent put it, "Something tells me that the boys of the Beltway will find a way to keep youth's privileged out of harm's way even if the draft returned."
I couldn't have said it better. Wait. I just did.
THE END IS NEAR: I heard recently that multimillionaire developers John King, Rob Rossi, and Tom Copeland might go broke if something isn't done pretty soon, which would certainly provoke no cries of pity and anguish from Ernie Dalidio and Bill Bird, two other multimillionaire developers in the hunt for more millions. Boy, being in the company of these guys makes me feel like a real nobody.
I am a nobody, but that's not the point. The point is that the impending doom of downtown San Luis Obispo will once again be foretold, this time by the aforementioned John, Rob & Tom.
Back when Madonna Plaza was built, the screams came from downtown that all was lost. Same thing happened with Central Coast Plaza when it was built, then with its recent overhaul, and now it's the Marketplace project on the Dalidio Farm that's going to send the tumbleweeds scuttling down Higuera Street and the merchants off to the homeless shelter.
A little while back, Bird and Dalidio paid for a study that the city commissioned to evaluate the economic impact the Marketplace would have on downtown. And how about that? Turned out the impact would be insignificant.
Enter J, R & T who said they want to "balance" that study with one of their own that will doubtless reveal a mass exodus of shoppers from downtown, leaving nothing but smoking ruins.
Those of us on the lower end of the food chain may be near penniless, but we're not entirely stupid. This battle of the titans is just another self-serving exercise in gimme-gimme, mine-mine, with the rest of us smirking on the sidelines wondering where the best prices are going to be found.
Bird and Dalidio want to develop the Marketplace and rake in the bucks. JRT have their own plans to develop downtown and don't want any competition from Macy's, Target, Lowe's, and a bunch of other big retailers slated for the Marketplace. They should just say so and stop pretending that their "studies" are intended to do anything beyond fattening their already fat wallets. ³
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