Deciding in the Age of Ambivalence

We are living in the Age of Ambivalence. I admire City Administrator Lisa Kotter—I even gave her a going-away present—though I’m both sad and glad she’s going. During Hometown Days I trekked down to Riverview Park one afternoon to clap for Bob Green and other Cascaders receiving Valor Quilts. But as I told Bob--“This doesn’t mean I don’t abhor war, despise the off-the-books secret military budget (Could that be why the U.S is so in debt?), and especially the bastards who profit from it.” I went because I like and respect these guys and I don’t believe you can have a country without a military, (Look at Ukraine.) In spite of the fact that militaries are mostly misused--consider the Israeli military’s support of land-grabbing Jewish settlers, and Major General Smedley Darlington Butler’s analysis of the U. S. military: I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Capitalism, with its well-recognized capacity to play into the hands of the greediest, has little redeeming social value and has created the inequality that is currently destroying democracy here, in Germany and democracies around the world. However, the most vexing dichotomy the current Age of Ambivalence is whether to donate to the pickleball fundraiser. Especially now that we know Mike Beck turned over to the city a storm sewer line in Oak Hill is broken, and it will cost us $30 or $40,000 to fix. Beck is donating some rocky ground he can’t do anything else with to build new pickleball courts on. This was a problem from the get-go. It is: 1) NOT centrally located giving all citizens equal access, as city parks should 2) NOT environmentally-conscious because players will have to drive 3) NOT socially-conscious to solicit donated funds and use them to build an amenity in the newest, highest property value neighborhood in the city. So what do you do? I have been agonizing for weeks over this one because I play frequently and feel obligated. So, I will be giving the pickleball people a promissory note for far more than I can afford to donate, contingent on them NOT accepting ground from Mike Beck. They’ll need it if they do the right thing.