Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
Yesterday afternoon I attended a meeting at the Bainbridge Island City Hall with some of my fellow FOKRs (Friends of Kallgren Road) and some city officials including two members of the City Council, Ross Hathaway, and the Fire Marshall. Deni Christiensen and her son were also there.
Ever since I left that meeting I can’t get Aretha Franklin’s Who’s Zoomin’ Who? out of my head.
You walked in on the sly
Scopin’ for love
In the crowd, I caught your eye
You can’t hide your stuffYou came to catch
You thought I’d be naive and tame
You met your match
I beat you at your own game(chorus)
Who’s zoomin’ who, take another look, tell me baby
Who’s zoomin who…oh
Who’s zoomin’ who, now the fish jumped off the hook
Didn’t I baby…Who’s zoomin’ who (repeat)Guess you believed the world
Played by your rules
Here stands an experienced girl
Nobody’s fool…Don’t speculate
you thought you had me covered, but
I’ve got your bait
You’re bound to be my lover…ohWho’s zoomin’ who, take another look, tell me baby
Who’s zoomin who…oh
Who’s zoomin’ who, now the fish jumped off the hook
Didn’t I baby…Who’s zoomin’ who
Politicians devote their lives to trying to keep the citizen fish hooked on their lines.
But the citizen fish in that room weren’t buying the hook, the line or the sinker. They have been pulled in and reeled out so many times the past few weeks, but all the important questions still remain unresolved.
The politicians and bureaucrats are all running on auto-pilot. To hear them describe their own powerlessness, their lack of control over outcomes, you might think that aliens have planted microchips in their brains. There’s a program running in an infinite loop inside their heads.
Like when George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice talk about the war in Iraq, they stay on message, they give a little slack in the line, let the citizen fish think they’re regaining some control, then they pull the line tight again, back on message.
Rebecca Robbins delivered a petition with the signatures of 100 more people on it who are opposed to the Kallgren Road extension. Most the new signatures come from people who don’t live on Kallgren. In addition to all the letters of opposition the city has received, they now have 300 signatures in opposition.
The only people who want the road extended are people working for the city, and perhaps their real bosses, because they obviously aren’t working for the citizens. They claim they are only following city policies but the city of course, is an irrational, inanimate entity. It is not capable of giving orders to those who work for it. That means the orders are coming from people elsewhere, or perhaps from those aliens who planted the microchips in their heads.
One thing was for sure: the mandate to build the road is not coming from the citizens of Bainbridge, the little fish who pay the big taxes.
My fellow FOKRs impressed me with their grasp of the dialectics of the situation, the numerous angles from which they are able to view the situation. The questions they ask are smart, the contradictions they point out are clear, but the discussion reminds me of reporters trying to get facts about the war in Iraq. In spite of any evidence that undermines their position, the bureaucrats stay on message, as if repeating irrational statements over and over again can magically transform them into truth.
Click your ruby slippers together three times and say: “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” “Saddam Hussein had WMD, SaddamHussein had WMD…” “It is necessary to extend Kallgren Road, it is necessary to extend Kallgren Road…”
This is just what you would expect from a religion that is disguised as a government. I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again: the premise that certain people have a “right” to steal property and freedom from other people has no basis in science; there is no evidence to support the belief that such a right exists.
Therefore the belief is faith-based, mystical, and religious in nature. It is invariably used to justify the sacrifice of some human lives to the whims of others.
It’s the basis for the belief that the citizen fish are required to pay taxes to buy new fishing gear for the fishermen.
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