No One Wants

No one wants a military base in one's own neighborhood.

It's noisy. Just noisy. Terribly noisy.

I do feel sorry for the people who have to live and breathe next to military bases, every day.

The military stinks. It must stink. All day and all year.

But the current Japanese, and Okinawan, opposition to the U.S. of A. regarding the location of a military base, this opposition is at best an insincere one.

What I mean is that this opposition doesn't innocently reflect the opinions of those people who may have to live and breathe next to a noisy and stinking military base. Well, any sane person would never want to live right next to a military base. The Okinawans have suffered so much already, at the hand of the mainland Japanese.... They have been colonized, brutalized, subjugated, and sucked out over the past 300 or more years, by Japan. Okinawa remains the poorest province in Japan, and that must be because of Japan's long-standing exploitation of it.

But the problem is that this whole issue of the American military base, like most other "issues" out there, is being usurped and manipulated by the ruling party, who just wants more votes. More votes, people! This is the insincerity. No one talks about the Japanese exploitation of Okinawa. Or about how much it sucks to have to live next to an American military base. No thorough discussion, very little explanation and careful weighing of the pros and cons from multiple perspectives.

This party has no principle, has no idea what "politics" is supposed to entail. All they care about is the number of votes.

Politics, oh dear party, politics means leading a good life. Elections are just means to an end, quite obviously! We need a degree of idealism, a sheen of it, all over politics. Not too much, but politicians do need to act like fools who blindly believe in the sanctity of certain ideas and ideals. If not, that is, if you believe more in the value of money, quantity, and plain old dirty power, then go into business, please. You may succeed.

Oh, politicians, they will do anything to secure their votes. They think of votes as assets, not as liabilities and obligations which they really are. They are so short-sighted, they should be given eyeglasses and contacts instead of votes.

Forgetfulness is a curse and a blessing, as the saying goes or doesn't go. Have we forgotten already? Poverty, isolationism, war? But remember, forgetting requires as much work and effort as remembrance. Since the energy required remains the same, why not pick memory over amnesia? Does any human being, or living thing, want to be forgotten? Absolutely not.

The country of Japan is on a road to diplomatic isolation at full speed. Let's put on the brakes, now.

By speaking up and out.