by Frank Paynter on September 21, 2008
“It’s come to this,” thought Shelby Jean, as she stared into the muzzle of Lenny Pitts’ snub nosed thirty-eight. Nothing had ever been said about the give-or-get-out-of-the-car moment she had shared with Lenny last winter, but now she couldn’t help but think that if she had let him cop a feel, or at least concealed her revulsion a little better, Lenny wouldn’t be in this particular convenience store, during her shift, cleaning out the register. In fact she knew that the Shell station out by the Mesilla Valley mall I-25 on-ramp always had more in the till after midnight than she ever did. If Lenny was truly on his way down to Paraguay like he claimed, he could have made a bigger score out that way and been half-way to El Paso (which she assumed would be the jumping off point for his big Latin American adventure).
“You sure you’re on your way to Paraguay?” she asked.
“Paraguay,” he affirmed. “They’re very kind to robbers from the USA down that way. They like Americans.”
Though she had a reputation as quite a smart-mouth, Shelby Jean kept it zipped about everyone in this hemisphere being an American anyway. She didn’t know if Lenny was really up to doing any damage with that stubby gun of his, but why find out just now?
“Paraguay is pretty far from Las Cruces,” she said.
“About five thousand miles as the crow flies, but this crow will be flying low and slow,” Lenny smiled at the fanciful metaphor he himself had just drawn out of that fertile brain of his. “I made that up,” he said.
“So it ain’t five thousand miles?”
“No it’s five thousand miles alright… where do you keep the big bills?” Lenny had scooped out all the fives tens and singles and dumped the change in a canvas sack he swiped from under the register. He was looking a little frantic, wondering if a hundred forty-seven dollars and a bag of change was even going to get him of the country.
“Got a safe with a slot in the top. It’s in the office, but I don’t have the combination. And it’s bolted to the floor.”
“Shit!” What had started out as a simple stop-and-steal was turning into a major project, and Shelby Jean was no more impressed with him now than she was last winter on their ‘date.’ In fact, now that he had a little time to think it out, she’d probably phone the cops as soon as he got back on the road. Women: You can’t live with them, and you can’t get them to dress up in a skimpy little Nazi costume and beat you with a warm squash or something. Okay, that was pretty funny but it wasn’t original. He tried it out on Shelby Jean…
“Emo Philips,” she drawled laconically.
“Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps,” he said.
“Well, Lenny. You’ve got a sense of humor even if you ain’t too original.”
____
(Tune in tomorrow to find out if Shelby Jean will ditch the job at the convenience store, and her Las Cruces studio apartment above the all night laundromat and taco stand, and strike out for the wilds of Paraguay with Lenny. Tune in too, to find out if the map Lenny got from Neil Bush in the poker game in Juarez is real, or if it is some odd bit of Unification Church bait and switch strategy. Will Shelby Jean and Lenny get to Paraguay and find they’ve been lured into one of those soccer stadium weddings with about 4000 other couples, or will Lenny get a lucrative job on the trans-Brasil agua pipeline dumping the fresh and cool onto freighters bound for Dubai?)
[tags]true story ain’t it[/tags]
by Frank Paynter on September 21, 2008
UN Secretary-General Ban sent a text message today that said: “On 21 September, the International Day of Peace, I call on world leaders and peoples around the world to join forces against conflict, poverty and hunger, and for all human rights for all.” This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Over the last few weeks the campaigning has reminded me of “the Bush doctrine,” the right that President Bush asserts for the United States to start pre-emptive wars when we feel our peace is threatened. The doctrine should concern us all. Also, there has been an ongoing debate about the ends justifying the means in our treatment of prisoners. Do we have a right to torture people for information? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights suggests not. The US constitution and eight hundred years or so of common law suggest not. My conscience suggests not.
But in our country it’s easy to ignore issues of war and peace. We work, we study, we entertain ourselves and for most of us the cost of conflict is indirect, barely felt, easy to bear. If we feel an ethical twinge when we hear about Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, we can let go of it easily. these places are far away and and that ethical pang is indirect. In times past, the draft brought these costs closer to home. In 20th century wars people from all walks of life were called on to serve, and everyone knew someone “over there.” Everyone was forced to face the question of ethical treatment of prisoners and hoping we would get as good as we gave.
I am a member of the Madison Area Peace Coalition. The coalition is a member of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and comprises over fifty groups of Madison Area residents who share a common vision of people living in peace, people who are able to resolve conflict constructively, and who share the expectation of fair and equal administration of justice.
The Madison Area Peace Coalition came together out of concern regarding our nation’s response to the great crimes of September 11, 2001. Next week, on Sunday October 5th the Coalition will celebrate its 7th anniversary.
Today our nation remains locked in a global conflict that was catalyzed by those great crimes seven years ago. In observance of Peace day, today in Afghanistan NATO troops are observing a 24 hour cease fire. No Peace Day acknowledgement has been reported from Iraq, and in Iran a huge military parade took place. In Pakistan there is concern that the next war may already have begun, as US strikes across the border fan the flames of Pakistani nationalism.
A few years ago we thought we were rich. We thought we could — with the help of our allies — enforce order militarily around the globe. Now, with the collapse of investment banking on Wall Street, we may be faced with some hard choices about how we spend our money. The collapse could signal the end of the curiously named Pax Americana.
World news reflects more global unrest: this week’s truck bombing of a hotel in Islamabad, South African President Mbeki’s forced resignation and his replacement by Zuma, tension in Latin America over our friendly relations with Colombia, and what that means for the left leaning democracies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, and Brasil.
Russian troops support Georgian separatists, while Georgia asserts a right to territorial integrity and the US chooses sides. Palestinians and Israelis struggle: settlers burn olive groves, refugees hurl rocks, both sides suffer injuries and death. The occupation of Palestinian lands on the west bank of the Jordan, and the virtual incarceration of countless refugees in Gaza is a problem that has long been with us. Over the years many witnesses for peace have visited Gaza and reported on what they saw there. Some, like Rachel Corrie attempted to intervene.
There’s a play that gives that young woman’s perspective on Palestine. It’s playing this coming weekend at Edgewood College here in Madison. It’s called “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” tickets are free and two performances are scheduled: a matinee on Friday, October 3, from 12 noon – 2 pm, and an evening show on Saturday, October 4 beginning at 7:30 pm.
