Too Bad

One of the questions that I have to ask immediately after "What matters most?" is this: Why do we have so many problems?

Maybe because it's a presidential election year, I find myself thinking in terms of the departments of the executive's cabinet. It's a good system for identifying what's what.

Agriculture: well, at least there seems to be lots of food. Too bad there's such an emphasis on meat production. Too bad family farms are nearly dead and agribusiness is the order of the day. Too bad we utilize land in extraordinarily taxing ways, piling deadly pesticides upon petrochemical fertilizers and irrigating the whole shebang with water diverted from dangerously depleted aquifers.

Commerce: too bad that big business is safer and fatter than ever. About 40% of "C" corporations have paid no federal income taxes in any of the past five years.

Defense: too bad that we are pouring billions of dollars into a war we cannot win. We are losing hearts and minds around the world. We are killing our own family members and the families of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis.

Education: too bad that people are more poorly educated than even a decade ago. We can't keep good teachers in the classroom. We can barely keep the classrooms.

Energy: too bad that oil is at its highest price since the last Bush administration. I have a small, old car that takes $30 of gasoline. Oy.

Health: too bad that people are amazingly fatter than even a decade ago. Despite this trend, we are placing more fast food outlets inside schools.

Homeland security: too bad that we didn't even NEED this department in the 20th century. Oh, wait - that's not too bad. That's actually a good thing.

Housing: too bad that there are more homeless people than ever.

Interior: too bad that we are losing species at the fastest rate in modern history. Atmospheric and water pollution levels are rising. Global warming is a fact.

Justice: too bad that we are in danger of losing decades of hard-won rights to privacy. Women will surely lose their right to abortion if the Bush Administration has its way.

Labor: too bad that there are more people are out of work, underemployed, or fearful of losing their job than at any time since the Great Depression.

State: too bad that our diplomatic corp is in open rebellion against the direction of foreign policy.

Transportation: too bad that our freeways are clogged, roads are potholed, airplanes routinely crash, and trains derail.

Treasury: too bad that monetary policy isn't doing anything except helping the rich.

Too bad, too bad, too bad.

We are several years into the 21st century, an epoch which once held promise of flying cars, two-way wrist radios, and a great deal of leisure. Instead, we have SUVs, cell phones, and a workforce that clocks more hours per capita than at any time since the 19th century, when farmers worked 14-hour days.

Too bad.