*AHEM**{OOC Roled's typist speaking here.. RR has no idea what I am talking about...}
***AHEM!!***I happen to be from Washington DC- born there, raised there. It is not all 'slums' nor is it dirty nor filled with unethical people. It is filled with about 85-90% goodhearted, smart and qualified public servants who do the difficult and important job of preserving our democracy , with a small d, caring for the common good, and working for the benefit of the people of the united states. There are scummy politicians, but there are scummy politicians in every country. What about the good ones? What about the ones who spend their energy and time 'enriching' the lives and well being of people rather than themselves? it is filled with everyday working people who do their jobs- janitor, sales clerk, parking lot attendant, teachers,
barristas even! who do their jobs as well as they can and with good humor.
DC is filled with
FREE public museums, art galleries, parks, monuments of great artistry and inspiration. Who can follow the Wall at the Vietnam memorial and not be moved by the losses on all sides, and by the wastefulness of war? Who can look into Franklin Roosevelt's sculpted face and not see the concern for the nation in his expression, even as his body was wracked with polio? Who for that matter can look at the sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt and not see in her one of the brightest and most influential women in the history of the world? She wrote the UN Declaration of Human Rights, you know...
Don't get me wrong, I am no Tea Party super 'patriot' who forgoes intelligence in favor of polarization. The US, indeed the world community, is full of polarizing effects- from the military junta's take over of Burma to the jailing of dissident/ students in China, to the exile of the Dali Lama... there are those who want to control the world so that
they can have the power, and there are others, those who sacrifice their lives for justice, equality, compassion... and peace.
So that is my defense of the city of DC and it's inhabitants. It is a defense i would guess of every democratic seat of government in the world.
And re Starbucks... well they are a small time company that had the right product at the right time. They buy free trade products. They pay their employees, even beginning ones, TWICE the hourly wage that most other coffee shops do. They are not owed by mega corporations like Nestle' or General Mills or ConAgra. They provide health insurance to all employees. And their coffee isn't bad...
And don't' get me wrong here either- I seldom go to Starbucks, I get my coffee from a local mom and pop shop... and I have never worked there. Ever. And I don't own their stock.
Microsoft is a power controlled culture internally that is verifyable. But Microsoft has given away more computers to schools in one year than Apple has in a decade... and Bill Gate's foundation, all those profits!, is now the world's largest funder of global efforts to reduce malaria, AIDS and provide education in 100 of the poorest countries in the world. The Gates foundation is doing more for global public health and treatment than most countries spend on their own populations. That's the only balancing defense I can think of for microsoft....
My point here is, it is easy to cast aspersions, draw unfounded and un-researched conclusions, and contribute to the generalized polarization in our world. If that is how you want to spend your intellectual energy, so be it.
It is HARDER to do the research, talk to people who know, experience things with an open mind, and treat others with loving kindness. Much harder. And much more dangerous to those who would control you, those who wish to be in power, to have power over. Today is May Day the international day to demonstrate for
worker's justice. That is what is dangerous to repressive regimes.
And to swing this back to the beginning of this thread. It is hard to manage change. People get used to their little world and may be unconsciously fearful of change, so they display that fear with anger, cynicism, cutting remarks, disparagement, condemnations... That's the easy way out.
The harder way out is to participate in making things better for everyone. It's complex.
The Zen saying is apt -"In order to break the mold, first you must fit it."
So thanks to everyone who is working on this tiny little corner of our world, making this game the best it can be and managing the shifting tides of what 'the best' might be...
And now, we return to our regularly scheduled programming... 
