Words - Action = ?

Dec. 28, 2005

Saw King Kong yesterday. It was okay, but hardly the four-star blowout I expected.
The problem is, I‘d already seen the high points of the movie umpteen times in TV previews or
specials on the making of the film on the Sci-Fi Channel and HBO. The dinosaur fights, the
biplane attack, the pretty blonde screaming and the line, “‘Twas Beauty killed the Beast“ spoiled
the film for me with too much hype.
Why go if you know how it ends? Why kill the suspense? ‘Twas hype killed the beastie flick.
Then there was President Bush‘s pep talk on the war in Iraq before Christmas. I listened to one
of the speeches and thought Bush made good sense on the idea of finishing what we have
started, if only not to leave a lot of trusting people hanging over there. I too believe that the
American system of democracy is the best in the world and would be a fine thing if we could
plant its seed everywhere, disposing of dictatorships and royal families. If the governments of
the world have an American face by 2100 with people everywhere able to elect their own
leaders, then George Bush may well deserve credit as the forward-thinking Winston Churchill
of our time.
The next day I browsed the local paper for details on Bush‘s speech, hoping to hear more good
news about us good guy Americans spreading democracy in Iraq and the Muslim world.
And, wouldn‘t you know it? There on the opposite page was a story about members of the CIA
torturing people in secret prisons in Afghanistan. “Dark Prisons,“ where suspects denied a trial
are placed in solitary confinement in total darkness and subjected to weeks of death metal and
gangsta rap music played at earsplitting volume.
And that, of course, reminded me of the whole water-board torture debate, more secret prisons
in Africa, domestic spying by the NSA on Americans... When President Bush okays the
wiretapping of environmental and anti-poverty groups in the name of the War on Terror, what
does it say about his belief in democracy?
More hype. You can‘t talk about democracy and the blessings of liberty on one side of your
mouth and then defend torture and domestic spying on the other. That‘s just hype -- the
opposite of sincerity.
It popped my feel-good balloon toward the President and his wise words. If you don‘t walk the
walk, what good is it to talk the talk? Or to quote another sage in a mathematical moment:
Words - Action = B.S.

Northern Michigan 2006
You don‘t have to squint too hard into the crystal ball to see what‘s in store for Northern
Michigan in 2006: more development.
In Emmet County, a new $80 million Petoskey Pointe development is bringing luxury hotel
condos downtown along with a new restaurant, movie theater, bank, pool & spa, and a
conference center.
In Traverse City, citizens on the east side of town mull the impact of a new Meijer‘s and what
sort of instant downtown will be built in Acme. Meanwhile, sprawl advances south toward
Kingsley and west to Lake Ann.
A new marina in Elberta, the planned doubling in size of Suttons Bay, yet another whopper Big
Box store for Gaylord -- these projects are just the tip of the iceberg.
Where we lag behind, however, is mass transit. Currently, films such as Syriana and Jarhead are
focusing attention on our world running out of oil. We‘ve had a real-world taste of that
ourselves this year with high gas and heating oil prices.
I can‘t recall ever seeing so many people riding bicycles in the winter as this year. Either they‘re
casualties of DUIL‘s or fitness freaks, or folks are just finding it too expensive to drive.
Whatever, it seems likely we‘ll see more cyclists and pedestrians by the end of this decade,
along with more ardor for mass transit in Northern Michigan. On our Letters page this week is
a call for renewed train service in the region. Meanwhile, a new bus service is connecting
Benzie County with Traverse City and BATA has rolled out a new hybrid bus that gets half its
power from electricity.
We‘ve got a long way to go with mass transit, but we‘ll get a helpful reminder on the need for it
every time we say fill-er-up at the pump this year. It‘s not much, but it‘s a start.