Our
Claim to Infamy The Rock Island Arsenal
I have taken this picture from
inside the old powerhouse at the old Farmall plant in Rock Island IL.
The Rock Island Arsenal is Munitions
Management Central for the American military machine.
I liked this view of the Rock Island
Arsenal seen through the windows of a broken down powerhouse that used to supply
power for one of the largest farm implement producers in the world. Below you
can see pictures of the inside of the building I am looking out of in these pic
s.
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In these images I see
juxtaposed from one another a reality that most Americans don't seem to
be aware of.
I
see that we have plenty
of money for tanks and bombs and bullets and war but not much for jobs or education or healthcare or
housing. |
The Quad City area has been economically
depressed
for years following the crash of Farmall in 1986.
We have never really fully
recovered. No one really realizes that we are so close to being just like the
old Soviet Union in our militaristic ways and our gutted economy that depends
upon strife in the world for our prosperity. I see real problems with this
narrow view that most Americans look at the world through.
Ronald Reagan sold
us a lemon and we Americans are still driving it around as if it is a caddy.
In reality the upholstery is ripped up, the doors are falling off and it's
louder than hell 'cause the muffler fell off and we go on down the road belching
black smoke into the air for future generations to concern themselves with.
On the other hand, we could start riding bicycles around town instead of hanging
on desperately to a lifestyle which will guarantee our going the way of the
dinosaurs.
| The truth is that either we
get off the oil addiction willingly now, or we are going cold
turkey some shocking time in the future just around the corner.
[1]
[2]
So, think about changing now before all
electric power houses in America look just like this one.
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I have been fascinated with this old
place for many years now.
I wanted to take some pictures of
the inside because I think they are planning to demolish this building which
while it is ugly without a doubt, it is also to me a testament to
why we shouldn't allow corporations to get so huge that they destroy our society
in the wake of their collapse.
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This place is huge and not a
single entity on the planet was able to step into this huge complex and
utilize it. Not even the federal government could do it.
When Farmall went belly up they had just
finished building a huge state of the art computerized, 6 story,
automated warehouse facility which upon completion was immediately
dismantled because Farmall couldn't write them a check.
The Quad Cities didn't know what to think of this
at all. We sure understand it now.
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While G. M. was closing every plant they had in
Flint, MI the Quad Cities was well into a mini depression itself.
I think that we should build things smaller and
keep our independence from huge monolithic corporations which lumber around the
earth destroying everything in their paths.
We
should not allow the courts to regard corporations
as persons under the law. That is the real problem. We should also not allow
ourselves to depend upon the machinery of war for our livelihoods. As Albert
Einstein said; "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. If
our economy depends on war then you can depend upon war to eventually replace
all our activities.
| Eventually we have wars just
to clear the inventory of aging weapons so we can produce more. Our
economy requires it.
I ride my bike down
the path which follows the bank
of the Mississippi between the
shadows of these two
goliaths.
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One just a standing skeleton, a testament to the immensity of our past
folly, the other an assurance of future
horrors to be visited upon our fellow humans.
Some of which are our friends at
this very moment. But we know that will change.
We don't know where these bullets
will eventually fly, but fly they will from the guns that we aim at the behest
of the moneyed elite who have a vested interest in the military industrial
complex and the profit it brings.
Copyright 2004 by David
VanThournout Fair use granted
