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CounterPunch
November
11, 2002
Crow's Return
The Augury of Decay and Death
by FRAN SHOR
On my way to vote at my local polling station,
I noticed several crows overhead. Normally, this wouldn't have
struck me as strange. However, no crow had made an appearance
in my neighborhood since late summer. At that time, West Nile
virus had been reported throughout the county. Beyond those humans
who had contracted the virus and raised alarms by their deaths,
I had read that the virus also had a devastating impact on other
species, especially crows. Hence, their disappearance.
Now, I must admit that I've always found
crows interesting. They made a habit of congregating in numerous
trees around where I live. Their calls intrigued me and I often
sensed they were communicating something beyond my inadequate
grasp of avian articulation. So, when the crows vanished literally
into thin air, I sensed an awful tragedy in the making. Hence,
their return immediately produced a momentary elation that they
had weathered an awful scourge.
Of course, only later, after the news
of Republican triumphs nationally did I recognize the dialectic
of the crows's return at work. Perhaps in an overdetermined way,
the circling and cawing crows were a symbol of the augury of
decay and death that the nation would witness. As a consequence
of the failures of the Democrats and the victories of the Republicans,
the future political scene seemed fraught with frightening possibilities
from more right-wing judges (hanging judges surrounded by vultures
of death) and unending wars (with carrion galore).
My somber mood actually preceded the
election with the announcement of the death of Paul Wellstone.
I couldn't get it out of my head that his death came at a most
convenient time for his Republican opponent who was behind the
polls. In addition, Wellstone seemed to be part of a recent string
of deaths and death threats against prominent Democrats, starting
with Mel Carnahan in the 2000 election to the anthrax letters
sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy. All a coincidence, or all
part of a vast right-wing conspiracy? Maybe the crows were communicating
something about this that I still couldn't comprehend.
On the other hand, given the way that
the Democratic Party has mismanaged its "opposition"
to the Bush Administration, from capitulating almost entirely
on the USA Patriot Act to limited and select criticism of the
war on Afghanistan and the coming war on Iraq to tepid arguments
about the state of the economy, one would hardly need an executioner
to produce the death-throes of the Democrats. Poor voter turnout
for the Democrats and a charged up Republican base, with a dash
of election irregularities thrown in from state to state, just
put the nail in the coffin for the hopes of Democratic control
of the Senate and the pick-up of seats in the House.
So, the prognosis for future policing-making
from Washington, DC is not a pretty picture for progressives,
let alone the lonely and limp liberalism of the Democrats. Is
there anything that will stop the ideological messianism of the
Bush Administration in its power-hungry, oil-satiated war drives
against Iraq? How many more "civilizing missions" will
this government undertake before it reaches the cliched "imperial
overreach?"
Let's be clear about one thing. This
Administration is hell-bent on spreading death throughout the
world, whether by its calculated commission of "full-spectrum
dominance" or its cowardly omission of commitments to helping
eradicate AIDS and preventing more water-borne and air-borne
diseases from taking their toll on the young and innocent in
the third world. So much death will follow in the wake of US
policy that the eagle should be replaced by the crow, or, more
specifically, by the vulture.
For so much of the world, the US is a
vulture eating out the entrails of the livelihood of others.
With only 6% of the world's population, the US continues to consume
over 40% of the world's resources. And how those resources are
squandered from SUV's to B2 bombers is outrageous, an affront
to the common decency of our species and our planet.
I suppose a glimmer of hope is the fact
that if Gaia may have salvaged the local crows, she might also
help to salvage our species and our planet. Of course, we can't
rely on the automatic and mystical workings of some planetary
force for good. If, as Dr. King used to say, the "arc of
the universe bends toward justice," we have to continue
bending our will and the will of the nation towards massive social
and political change. Although surrounded by death, we can't
surrender to Thanatos and Republican triumphalism. No more mourning;
it's time to organize.
Fran Shor
teaches at Wayne State University. He is an anti-war activist
and member of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights. His e-mail
address is: f.shor@wayne.edu
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