Lately in these columns I’ve been trying to write about light and happy things. My life has been pretty busy and stressful lately, and I need a chill pill. Unfortunately, I am not really a light and happy person. Things bug me, which is probably why I wanted to become a columnist in the first place and get stuff off my chest.

So in that vein, I thought I would take this opportunity to write a cathartic column and list some of the things that are really irritating me today.

To start, I wish people would stop having meetings that don’t actually get anything done. And even more than that, I wish they would stop expecting me to attend these meetings. Most meetings are entirely unnecessary, but people who get paid to go to meetings don’t realize that. Just send me a list of what you need me to do and I’ll do it. But don’t make me sit somewhere for an hour and a half discussing it first.

I’m angry at how ugly our media is. The other night I walked into Blockbuster Video to see what was new. I started at the Z’s and worked my way down the alphabet, growing increasingly more desperate as the number of possibilities grew smaller and smaller. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw 27 Dresses, the very last movie on this alphabetical tour. Luckily, it ended up being kind of a cute. But why did I have to scour the entire store to find a fun movie? Why do we have to glorify the ugliness of life so much?

Speaking of ugly, I’m angry at people who wear t-shirts venerating mass murderers. Why do people like Mao? The man is the biggest mass murderer in human history, massacring one hundred million of his own people. And before anyone starts saying that the Americans kill people all the time, there is a big difference between people dying unintentionally in a war, and people being massacred by their own leaders. I’m angry that people don’t get that. If you don’t get it, then you must think Churchill was just as responsible for World War II as Hitler, and that’s just wrong.

Before we leave T-shirts, can I please put in a request that teenagers stop wearing Che Guevera ones? The man was Castro’s executioner. By his own admission he ordered the killing of several thousand, and murdered some himself, including some as young as fourteen. Would you wear a Paul Bernardo T-shirt? A Timothy McVeigh T-shirt? A Muhammad Atta T-shirt? Then stop wearing Che ones. Just because he’s a communist doesn’t make him cool. It makes him evil. Learn more about the guy before you wear him on your chest.

I’m also ticked that my RRSPs have plunged, and my parents’ RRSPs have plunged, even though we were doing everything we were supposed to do. I know stock markets have their ups and downs. I’m fine with that. What I’m not fine with is a financial crisis caused by imbeciles who work in banks and imbeciles in the American Congress who decided that giving out dumb loans was a smart thing to do. I may not have an economics degree, but even I know that qualifications for loans should include more than “can I see your welfare slip and your note from your parole officer?” And I’m angry they won’t go to jail for plunging the world into this crisis, where the poorest will be hit the hardest.

I’m angry that we can have an election and barely talk about the real issues. We tip toe around the stuff that’s really important and never really say what’s on our minds, in case people might disagree with us. No wonder so few people voted! Maybe if someone opened up their mouths and said what he or she was really thinking, more people would have realized that politicians are real people, too. Instead, they seem far removed, and they all have really bad hair.

Other than that, I’m pretty happy. I wish more people would take responsibility for their actions, and be good to their families, and I’ll keep hammering those points home. But now that I’ve got these ones off of my chest, I can breathe a sigh of relief, and wait until next week when something else is sure to bug me again.

Labels: columns, politics, social issues