The lemongrass saison is a pretty solid saison but not very generous with its lemongrass. The nose holds a promise of tartness, which made me a little apprehensive, but the beer itself is dry like a white wine and has a comparable level of tart, too. That’s something I can get behind.
The Commons is pretty full tonight, which just feels wrong. If a place is going to close, then damnit there should be signs of a struggle. Instead, there are people here drinking beer and eating food and having a nice time. How is it that this can go away? It’s popular! It appears successful!
Sigh. It just feels wrong to have that happen.
Though I suppose things feeling wrong is an fair umbrella to put the US under right now.
I don’t believe that ‘irony’ really captures the situation when women across the world are coming forward about their sexual assault in a country that is currently being led by a man who has admitted to sexual assault and gone unpunished.
It just feels wrong. We are positioned in the wrong place at the wrong time to move forward.
Similarly, it feels wrong to me to see other Americans wanting to write off Puerto Rico-as though somehow, the denizens of that island ‘had it coming.’ As though record-breaking hurricanes were a force that we could summon like wizards.
We have an absurd amount of resources in America-a fact for which I am deeply thankful-why has the narrative been focused so much on the “I” instead of the “we”? It feels wrong to have that strain of greed running through us.
Actually, I know the answer to the question: it’s because a lot of money and resources have been put into selling us the idea that government is bad, wastes your money and takes away your rights, while corporations are good and will save us. Americans had a vested interest in the environment in the 1970’s, for example, yet five decades later, along with a massive campaign to discredit climate change data, there are people in government with actual responsibility who don’t believe in science. They just respond to the money given to them.
As though, somehow, corporations are the face of individual rights, instead of just economic machines under capitalism designed to suck as many resources away from everyone as possible.
When confronted with actual suffering though: government agencies are the ones we expect to represent help and aid. Budweiser might repurpose a million cans towards water to help for an emergency, but they aren’t going to lay the infrastructure to actually let people drink clean water for a lifetime.
I think we’re going to need to keep that in mind, especially as we look at nearly any other situation. What’s our long term plan and who should we legitimately expect to execute it?
And if that plan isn’t about helping the citizens at large-especially the weakest and least advantaged amongst us-then that just feels wrong. I, for one, am weary of things being wrong.
Today’s second pint goes to Charitynavigator.
A pint for Dionysus 