Journal Entry: September 1, 2001

Is this what everyone’s life is like? I’ve been busy, productive, and strangely in flux. Most days are routine, but the minutiae of human experience is always different and leaves me wondering what will happen next.

I’ve had a number of things on my mind lately: projects and work, my mother, the “Getting Things Done” methodology, the grad school application process, the Blues, my relationship with others, current political events, and ice cream. I shouldn’t leave photography out of the mix either. Plus, my birthday is just over a month away.

My father and brother both called today. . . . My brother is doing well. He was recently compelled to move to a new apartment after the state of Iowa restructured its Section 8 program for low-income and medically-needed citizens. I’m amazed that heavily rural states like Iowa can keep most of their neediest from falling through the cracks. Heaven knows that my brother doesn’t have anyone to really take care of him outside of the public-private partnership that check up on him and help him manage his commitments.

The younger George Bush has proposed divesting some of the money (at least the federal portion) that goes to programs like the one that helps my brother and giving it to religious and “community” organizations who will — so the story goes — spend it on similar projects. . . .

Plus the economy remains “soft.” The surplus (outside of Social Security) has completely evaporated, and we haven’t yet seen G.W.’s 2002 budget. It’s expected that almost every department will have proposed cuts. This is needed, of course, to pay for the $1.6 trillion “tax relief” package and the several hundred billions for the nuclear missile defense shield that we don’t need and probably won’t work.

The President, the V.P., the Secretary of Defense, and NSA appear to be rekindling the fires of the Cold War. They have managed to enrage China and North Korea, ignore strategic opportunities with Russia, and propose an anti-ballistic missile program that will greatly destabilize nuclear politics around the globe. I used to think that presidents made decisions like this based on secretive meetings after they became officeholders when confronted with a bevy of conclusive evidence, but this administration set this inflammatory tone well before assuming the presidency. We’ll live through this, of course, because other nations are more sensible than we are. I’m worried about reliving the nervous nuclear days of my youth, though.

Lisa was talking to a prof. at the Heller School the other day. During the conversation he recalled his impressions of the days after Reagan to power. “My G-d, he’s against everything we believe in!” he remembered saying. That is precisely how I feel about this administration.

Well, I’m not exactly grouchy, but I feel myself leaning in that direction. So, I’ll end for today.