the downer blog (or "blah-g" as my friend rose says)

Go out yonder, peace in the valley
Come downtown, have to rumble in the alley
Ohhhhhhhhhhh, you don't know the shape I'm in
--The Band

If you haven't heard this song, you're missing out. It's great for a rainy day or one beer too many or once-a-century family blowouts or any of one hundred other undesirable situations. It's got a tread like few other songs do.

Over the Independence Day weekend, I went down to my best friend's place. We threw back some cold ones and he grilled steak. As summer holidays go, this one was pure. Somehow at 3 AM, our wives long asleep, we ended up on the topic of U.S. immigration while watching Michael Jackson coverage on CNN. Dan Mesa (my best friend) is a teacher who specializes in teaching English as a second language. From the tone of our debate, I'd say he was a little burnt. He spoke fervently (which he rarely does) about the perils of having a singular immigration block (illegally emigrating Mexicans) that does not seek to move toward the mean of American life: language, taxes, politics and the like. It was a passionate argument, each of us incredulous at the other's differing view.

I want to make it clear that Dan Mesa is not a gun-toting, Tobey-Keith-promoting conservative, nor was his argument overwhelmingly xenophobic. He was articulate and made great points. He just happens to feel really strongly that illegal immigration is the top political issue that needing immediate attention and remedy in our country.

I don't disagree that illegal, covert immigration hurts both the United States and causes great mortal danger to those trying to sneak in over rivers, oceans and deserts. This system really sucks. I just don't think it's the ultimate issue to determine the rise or fall of our country.

Dan asked me to come up with the issues that I felt posed greater peril to the nation than illegal immigration. I deferred at the time because the beer was making me tired and I was starting to get emotional about all the King of Pop coverage (there's nothing like Nancy Grace reporting live from Gary, Indiana).

Below is my raincheck to Dan Mesa, I guess. In order of greatest peril, here's my list of top political concerns for the nation. These views are from my chair alone and should be considered as only moderately thought out (not Shawshank Redemption thought out).

1. Nuclear technology. Anything that can annihilate the entire planet in less than a day has to be at the top of the list. This category includes not only nuclear proliferation, but also nuclear waste. We have no good way to store it (note: West Lawn Park does not consider Indian reservations a good method of storing nuclear waste). And the subtle nature of nuclear technology is the politics it leads to. If Ahmadinejad gets a nuclear weapon, then Sarah Palin starts being mentioned in the same sentence as Douglas MacArthur. And then we're all hosed.

Homework assignment: write a letter to your congressman and ask him/her if he/she knows how long spent nuclear reactor fuel remains radioactive.

2. Stimulus-response global society. I look around and I see some of the smartest people I know entranced by their Iphones. More than half of the pediatric patients I see are incapable of maintaining eye contact with me through a medical interview. I myself have great difficulty of remembering even the most basic plot points of books I read only a few years ago. Humans are not thinking much these days. Isn't it Brave New World when more people know Ryan Seacrest and Pink than know Paul Krugman and Cornell West? This is just untested hypothesis on my part, but I think society was safer 200 years ago when ardent racists and tongue-speaking evangelicals could recite Shakespeare and debate the issues of the day rather than today when staunch liberals sit at Starbucks and check Facebook while staunch conservatives wait for the next spoon-feeding from the Drudge Report. This may seem like a flaky choice on my part, but it truly does scare me for the future of our country.

Homework assignment: talk to anyone (ANYONE) and ask them if they can give you 10 minutes worth of conversation on any issue of their choosing. Bonus: pick up a copy of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Compare this with the results of your homework assignment.

3. More. Yes, the number 3 issue on my personal list of perils to the United States is the word "more". The longer enunciation of more would "non-sustainable consumption based economies." Whenever the economy sags, we tear up more terra firma and build parking lots. We don't make our city infrastructure more efficient, we just make it bigger. 95% of Americans' lifetime health insurance benefits are spent in the last 12 months of life. Global resource allocation falls under this tab. The Third World strives for first world values and qualities of life. What are we going to do if they obtain it? People less cynical than me argue that we'll just invent new technologies to make food supplies and air quality maintainable given the increased strain on the biosphere. I don't share this idea.

Homework assignment: Ask an infectious disease specialist about the "new technology" antibiotics that are in the pipeline given the ever-increasing bacterial resistance to current antibiotics (MRSA, VRE, etc.). Bonus: Ask the same specialists why drug companies aren't pursuing R&D on new antibiotics.

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So I really didn't set out to be depressing. But I did set out to answer my best buddy. I don't share his opinion that illegal immigration is the preeminent issue facing American society and government today. You may ask where old standards of poverty, health care and family values are in my list. I think if you think big, you'll see that all three and many more like them fit into the above 3 greatest perils.

And let me say now that I'm not an end-of-times person. I tend to be hopeful. I think humans ultimately choose to survive and don't have the balls to complete incinerate the Earth's crust.

In high school we read this article about an Athenian dude (his name escapes me despite endless scholarly google searches) who made a speech before the assembly about 10 years before the final fall of classical Athens. He spelled out in detail the reasons why endless internal conflicts amongst the Greeks would lead to the fall of the entire culture. That dude was right.

I'm not that dude, though. I'm just a guy drinking too much beer and watching Michael Jackson coverage. And writing an internet blog because I don't take the time to call and write my friends. . .and I never was a fan of eye contact.