“No Bank Left Behind”: Leaving America’s Behind Behind

“How shall I know, unless I go
To Cairo and Cathay,
Whether or not this blessed spot
Is blest in every way?

Now it may be, the flower for me
Is this beneath my nose:
How shall I tell, unless I smell
The Carthaginian rose?

The fabric of my faithful love
No power shall dim or ravel
Whilst I stay here, — but oh, my dear,
If I should ever travel!”
– Edna St. Vincent Millay’s To the Not Impossible Him

For awhile proctologists may do a booming business, hired to find out what’s wrong… and how to fix it. But whatever they come up with won’t help you. It’s time for you to get out of the _ _ _ _ hole.

I can say that without knowing a thing about you. As long as you are still capable of enjoying La Dolce Vita. Not the movie, the real life sweetness of the Italian countryside.

The U.S. has already descended to a Hell of sorts since I came into being in 1942 Newark, New Jersey, but it’s slated to get much much worse in short order. This is — partly — a wake-up call ’cause Sylvie, Marcel and I would like to have a (very) few like-minded join us overseas in and around Lucca, Italy… when we depart for good in 2009. To introduce to our new-found friends who are firmly, happily ensconced there.

Neither Italy (beset with its own unique horrors) nor anywhere else on this planet will escape the oceanic vortex that takes hold as the Titanic U.S. sucks others down with it to the depths. However, there’s a pace of life that beckons. Infused with, enveloped by Art. An attitude toward food and so much more that is in keeping with what’s luscious about life. With pristine water and quiet mountain views to boot… minutes from the relatively free* Tyrrhenian Sea.

*To be elaborated on upon request.

You see, we want to go before it’s too late. Before the passports won’t work.

Call me Lucca’s Chicken Little, if you will, but read a little first… and then get back to me… for elaboration. For the intelligent discussion that too few seem to be interested in these days. Habit, without question, is certainly The Great Deadener.

Both articles below will radically revise what’s been fed to you via mainstream media outlets… concerning our economic woes. They are not perfect pieces, festooned as they are with minor points which may prove to be wrong. However, the thrust of the articles is spot-on-target:

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10062008.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney10062008.html

Then… just in case you are audacious enough to harbor any hope respecting Obama… or any other false (American) hope… I recommend glancing at Paul Street’s http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/19027.

There is the potential for citizens to rise to the occasion as per Paul Street’s recommendations… but they won’t. That’s my take.

And as a former college professor (30 years+) and the proud owner of two years’ experience as a taxi driver in New York City (and Manager of a Massage Parlor there), it is my considered opinion that my fellow citizens lack the imagination AND the requisite sense of history to follow through on Paul’s advice. Or mine, for that matter.

But then — with this article — I’m only looking for a select very few.

One would have to be sensitive to what “we” are involved with at present, what’s in the water, what’s in the air, of course. What’s in our very bodies and minds too. To have a shot at understanding what’s in store for us if we stay here.

Tall order. Yet, there are a few whose heads are not up their behinds.

One of the most common objections that I come across — expressed, or not — when I encourage others to join hands with me and Sylvie and Marcel is that “Hey, this is the greatest country on earth!”.

That’s a hard sell to someone who smells Auschwitz in the air.

And — if that’s too dramatic for the ill-informed, suffering from historical amnesia, let me point out that we are ranked 37th in the world for our health care system, and we have a higher infant mortality rate than countries like Cyprus and Slovenia.

It’s not that our fantasized little ex-pat community is necessarily going to have all kinds of formal health benefits abroad. Oh no, not likely by a long shot.

However, if the reader can rise above understandable, well-entrenched fears, please note that we intend to live a much healthier lifestyle than we do here — on all counts — making moot the value of medical professionals. Or something of the sort.

Hey, don’t be so literally impacted. Stop being so anal.

Get out at your earliest convenience.

With or without… us.

“Ricardo Bueyhombre” can be reached at headburg@yahoo.com. The sooner the better, for over 99% of the people I communicate with are as deficient in their sense of history* and current events as I am with regard to screwing in a light bulb; I could use some help.
*Not my take on history, but simply exposure to (non-intentionally tainted) History; to wit, the number of heartbeats spent with any kind of substantial historical records.