Squeezin’ the Juice
by SVEA SAUER

Our latest indulgence is to build a one billion dollar embassy in London designed by a Philadelphia architect. We are reminded that the new embassy in Iraq only cost six hundred million but it is as large as the Vatican. How we do like to show our vulgarity.

The London embassy will be medieval in spirit but modern in construction, even having solar panels to reflect the drizzling sky whose moisture will no doubt keep the moat filled with water even when failing to make electricity. Excuse me, the reflecting pool, which is designed to keep out terrorists on wheels. Nothing has been said about those cars that can be driven on water.

We are still breathless about the Iraq embassy which will require l,000 custodians to maintain service even though we are ostensibly leaving Iraq. We will not be leaving until all the oil is gone and we are not leaving until Iran becomes a democracy. Most of us won’t live that long.

But why London? Fear of terrorists is not a sufficient excuse for conspicuous display. Are we putting on bigger and bigger shows to hide our failures in war? Is it wise to advertise our fear? Recently, we’ve been learning about the huge success of building schools to make friends. How many friends does an ostentatious building make? This one will produce a lot of paper work.

What kind of a signal does it send to the world? Aside from not moving statues of Ronald Reagan and Eisenhower to the new location, I cannot see any significance in spending one billion dollars other than to impress others with how much money we have left in the national treasury. Or, do we?

Is it too much in hard times to build something symbolic of our better nature? Do we always have to flex our muscles and be the big dog? There’s a debate going on about the power of culture to shape politics. Our culture is increasingly violent even in our schools and churches. Our public buildings are beginning to show the trend.

The White House is my idea of a building that displays a better culture but even it has underground bunkers. Does anyone imagine when a nuclear bomb explodes, as it did on two cities in Japan, that the government can function underground? It can’t even handle a hurricane in New Orleans.

We have allowed ourselves to be led by so called neocons for too long. Spending huge amounts of money on impressive buildings is a symptom of the failure of their ideology. The people who want to destroy us in retaliation smell our fear.

I think about our doctors and the many volunteers who have gone to Haiti. Whatever personal politics they have is pushed aside to serve others. As a nation we have abused Haiti but my guess is that a whole village will be won over by one doctor, nurse, or teacher, and the pilot who flies the plane that brings relief. How many villages could become our friends if we built simple embassies and spent the money instead on building schools.

sveasauer@gmail.com