Wow! What a difference a week makes as there are no longer throngs of people crowding the streets in downtown DC. In fact this afternoon was a breezy mostly solitary commute, punctuated by an occasional salt truck or two.No cheering crowds, no banners, television crews, military uniforms- only a couple of banks of rented bleachers encrusted in ice.
Not even the Pharmaceutical companies ventured out tonight. I did catch a glimpse of the new Secretary of Energy and Gloria Estaphan’s husband (VERY gracious ) who was in town for a Latino fund raiser.
Stunned when one guest asked me to acknowledge that in less than a week, the new President had totally tanked the economy with his “new” plan. As he told me that it wouldn’t be until the next administration in four years until we saw a turnaround, I quietly spun my knife around the capsule of the moderately priced bottle of wine he ordered, and thought geez “I might see an economic turnaround this evening if you guys drink three of these bottles… and afterwards I kinda felt sorry for them as they were preparing for a trial that involved telling people that bought insurance (for something or another) that the company actually couldn’t afford to pay their claims – rather the money they paid in premiums would be returned. In a moment of bad taste, after they asked who had offices upstairs, I mentioned the $50 million settlement one of my regulars had spearheaded in regards to oil deregulation in Texas a few years back.
I am not doing too good on the keeping my mouth shut aspect. Three gentleman indicated that they hadn’t seen each other in years and were looking forward to a visit over dinner. I asked them where they were from? The third man responded Oakland, CA. I asked them if they had seen the special on CNBC on the economics of the marijuana trade on Sunday night? They said no- but one indicated that Oakland is the US center of the legal trade… Funny thing- the reason they were having a reunion is related to the upheaval at the FDA?
Most shocking and upsetting= I went into Borders to kill a few minutes, the main entrance was locked. For a moment I thought maybe the email I had recieved about store closings applied beyond Sacramento? In the 3,000 square feet main floor of the store, there were two people reading magazines, one cashier and two customers counting myself. I almost bought a cookbook marked down from $55 to 4.99 minus my grand “blowout sale” coupon (wondering just where it would fit on my bookshelf that spills onto the floor more often than not) when I was overcome with a grand sadness almost beyond belief. Hundreds of thousands of books languishing on their shelves, perhaps to be read in the future after being borrowed from the library or downloaded to a Kindle? Or a less than subtle signal that the economy is in deeper trouble than ever imagined.
I somewhat intimately understand the correlation between clever food, saving gas and electricity in a day by day balance of unrelenting hope. But what happens to our society if all of the not so superfluous “icings” of our existence fall by the wayside? What happens if NPR recycles most of their programming and long tenured producers of Science Friday are “laid off” (which has already happened) ? What happens when the new geniuses of Fiction experience eclipsed opportunities to publish their work? What if the only “new” music released has to fit an exact imagined profile of advertiser driven sales? What happens if the main revenue stream of the Washington Post becomes legal notices?
Asking each of you to go out and buy a book in the next week certainly won’t turn the tide. Perhaps the inevitable demise of the neighborhood book store will be followed by the collapse of several of the big box book stores? Buying green is a wonderful – but if you can buy “gold” as investment in the continued support of the intellectual and artistic JOY of our beings- whether a new Music CD, A contribution to NPR , a piece of art and/or a book …consider it!
