“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”
- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Bush is a Capitalist… pure and absolute; a particular type of Capitalist, one that embraces an absolute free market. It is revealed consistently through the policies large and small which he promotes. He truly, deeply believes that the market and profit will create a better society; a better culture. His Capitalism is not mitigated, as was Smith’s, by the belief that government take a role in those industries that fail to profit entrepreneurs. Bush believes, rather, that education, healthcare, retirement, etc. are all best served by the private sector and implemented most effectively by those who seek profit.
It is a 19th century mindset that has at its core the idea that all those with material wealth have it because they deserve it. If one has inherited wealth, then it was paid for by the labors of one’s predecessors… if one has wealth through investment, business or personal labor, then it is by virtue of industry and personal character that it has been accrued. The lesser classes are just that, lesser, and it is due to the inadequacy of their own devices that they find themselves so. If “they” were of sturdy enough character, then they would rise above their circumstance and accomplish as their betters have … Under the prevail of this thinking, business operates without government imposition. Laws regulating fair wages and much of fair practice disappear, as do those regulations that restrain the natural growth of businesses by placing an undue burden on them by charging them with concern for the environment. This philosophy promotes the interests of business secure in the belief that successful entrepreneurs create jobs and benefit the greater good. The market will demand that business do those things that are in the best interest of all… To impinge on business is to impinge on the welfare of the people.
Add to this an underlying certainty that all things are so because God wills it… Those that have, have because God has decreed it… Those that have not, have not because God wills it and it is justifiably so…
In the United States, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the barons of industry were building their fortunes, free from much of contemporary regulation, we had child labor, we had sweat shops, we had the Triangle Factory Fire (March 25, 1911), we had the Depression, we had slums and poverty on a scale irreconcilable with the precepts of our espoused philosophies… those that became unimaginably wealthy built on the suffering of those that had not… many of their descendants still maintain that wealth – (while many of the descendants of those sweat shop workers, share croppers, and slave laborers have inherited the “wealth” of their ancestors’ “privilege.”)
Our systems are built to benefit the wealthy… to privilege the privileged… it is as much a matter of classism as anything else…
We pretend that it’s the best we can do… Schools funded through property taxes so that the wealthy neighborhoods have the better schools… We can’t possibly afford universal healthcare… but we can afford the war in Iraq. Do the sons and the daughters of the wealthy go to Iraq? Do they, in large numbers, lay down their lives for what our leadership says is worthy of blood? Our greatest protection against a draft is that it will make clear the mechanisms that exclude some from the cost of war. This is the value that is placed on human life… and now many of our middle class are enslaved through a growing debt… We have sold ourselves to the masters of industry for the cost of a disposable culture… We are awash in apathy… and there is a move among some to push education from the realm of contemplation and critical thinking into the realm of trade-school type training… skills without thinking… and all the time education and its benefits become more and more costly so that those who undertake its pursuit are more deeply enslaved…
…and somehow Capitalism, and Christianity have become conflated…
I would advocate for an economic policy fomented upon the theories of John Nash rather than Adam Smith. Until we recognize the value of our true capital, the lives of our citizens, and cease squandering so much of it for the benefit of the few… until then we will continue to build a culture predicated on struggle, meanness, exclusion, and apathy...
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunday, February 12, 2006
mel chin...
January 19, 2006 – April 2006
Mel Chin exhibition...
Station Museum of Contemporary Art
"Do Not Ask Me"
If you're in or around Houston, Texas stop by the Station...
1502 Alabama
713-529-6900
worthy of viewing...
Mel Chin exhibition...
Station Museum of Contemporary Art
"Do Not Ask Me"
If you're in or around Houston, Texas stop by the Station...
1502 Alabama
713-529-6900
worthy of viewing...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Alabama is on fire...
It saddens me... these fires... What is the reason, ever, for this kind of thing? Raise your voice against injustice... struggle against voices that drown out dissent... but why take vengence on the comfort of others? What is the goal of such acts?
When we will we stop celebrating the accomplishments of the peacemakers and make them instead our own?
When we will we stop celebrating the accomplishments of the peacemakers and make them instead our own?
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Brazil in 1984...
I fear we are slipping into darkness. The “war on terror” which is polarizing appears endless. We allow ourselves to be pulled into a conflict of competing ideologies and cultures. We vilify the “other” and allow ourselves to play the part of the villain.
This vague and formless war, executed by individuals – driven by personalities – proffers a situation conducive to the maintenance of a militarized state. The pundits say Americans are willing to give up some civil liberties in order to remain safe… in a war without a foreseeable end… what kind of culture, what kind of life will we make of this? How long into the future will these concessions continue to erode the thing that we call freedom?
It’s 1984 in Brazil and who knows where the children are?
This vague and formless war, executed by individuals – driven by personalities – proffers a situation conducive to the maintenance of a militarized state. The pundits say Americans are willing to give up some civil liberties in order to remain safe… in a war without a foreseeable end… what kind of culture, what kind of life will we make of this? How long into the future will these concessions continue to erode the thing that we call freedom?
It’s 1984 in Brazil and who knows where the children are?
Sunday, January 29, 2006
the instruments of revolution...
From time to time I consider the priorities and values of my country and a great grieving overtakes me.
Again I return to what has become a recurrent theme… what is it that we… as a culture, as a society… value?
Prejudice, racism are complex issues. If we take the time to tease it out, it is not so simple as “Do I hate you for the color of your skin? for your religion, your sexual preference, your heritage…” Handed down to us is more than our genes. We live in a framework of expectations, wealth and privilege, social status and opportunity that is our inheritance. We are still living out the implications of the beliefs and attitudes of an endless chain of generations.
There are those who have been born to money and position and invariably that condition was provided for by past labor. In some instances this labor was the sweat equity of their own ancestors, in others, it was the sweat of slaves, share croppers, or a multitude of other exploited laborers. Even attitudes concerning self-worth, education and possibility might be said to some degree to be an inheritance from those who came before us.
Some still suffer under the prejudices, racisms, discriminations of the past. The impoverished of cities like New Orleans are often examples of this. Rather than teasing out carefully the cause and remedies for these situations, too often we apply a myopic vision to the scene and wonder at the inability of the poor to take charge of their own lives and better its cause.
From Casablanca:
Captain Renault: I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
The Croupier: (Handing Renault a roll of bills.) Your winnings, sir.
It was the same in New Orleans after Katrina… “I am shocked, shocked to find that there are poor people here!” …shocked to find that so many were without the resources to “just drive away.” What hypocrisy! We’ve been playing the system all along. It’s built in from generations back… the wealthy have a right to wealth, health care and other “privileges.” If you can’t afford it, you don’t have a right to it…
Would we deny medicine, shelter, or opportunity to poor children? Like a giant elephant we tromp around defending our national security… Our national security, our future rests with our ability to open opportunities up for all our children. We must accept this responsibility. Education can no longer be tied to property value or the economic status of the immediate community. All education must be rigorous, competitive and available to all our citizens who have the wherewithal to pursue it. “Higher” education, quality secondary and preschool education… is the responsibility of the People.
Education: a value of educators-child care-healthcare; these are the instruments of revolution. These are the tools of a future of promise. We must make a commitment to our environment and to our children and move beyond the concerns of instant gratification.
Again I return to what has become a recurrent theme… what is it that we… as a culture, as a society… value?
Prejudice, racism are complex issues. If we take the time to tease it out, it is not so simple as “Do I hate you for the color of your skin? for your religion, your sexual preference, your heritage…” Handed down to us is more than our genes. We live in a framework of expectations, wealth and privilege, social status and opportunity that is our inheritance. We are still living out the implications of the beliefs and attitudes of an endless chain of generations.
There are those who have been born to money and position and invariably that condition was provided for by past labor. In some instances this labor was the sweat equity of their own ancestors, in others, it was the sweat of slaves, share croppers, or a multitude of other exploited laborers. Even attitudes concerning self-worth, education and possibility might be said to some degree to be an inheritance from those who came before us.
Some still suffer under the prejudices, racisms, discriminations of the past. The impoverished of cities like New Orleans are often examples of this. Rather than teasing out carefully the cause and remedies for these situations, too often we apply a myopic vision to the scene and wonder at the inability of the poor to take charge of their own lives and better its cause.
From Casablanca:
Captain Renault: I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
The Croupier: (Handing Renault a roll of bills.) Your winnings, sir.
It was the same in New Orleans after Katrina… “I am shocked, shocked to find that there are poor people here!” …shocked to find that so many were without the resources to “just drive away.” What hypocrisy! We’ve been playing the system all along. It’s built in from generations back… the wealthy have a right to wealth, health care and other “privileges.” If you can’t afford it, you don’t have a right to it…
Would we deny medicine, shelter, or opportunity to poor children? Like a giant elephant we tromp around defending our national security… Our national security, our future rests with our ability to open opportunities up for all our children. We must accept this responsibility. Education can no longer be tied to property value or the economic status of the immediate community. All education must be rigorous, competitive and available to all our citizens who have the wherewithal to pursue it. “Higher” education, quality secondary and preschool education… is the responsibility of the People.
Education: a value of educators-child care-healthcare; these are the instruments of revolution. These are the tools of a future of promise. We must make a commitment to our environment and to our children and move beyond the concerns of instant gratification.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Mike...
This is Mike when he was in his 20s...
The last time I talked to him... he was so worried about everything that needed to be done... so worried about taking care of other people.
I think about the "moral" battles that go on in politics and I can't find anything moral about them.
Free Will... Judge not...
If someone wants an opportunity for a kind of life... to live openly... to not have to lie about who they are to be loved... if one would want to enter into a contract with another for the sake of love and to endow that person with all their worldly goods and with that the rights of family... who is Hecuba, or who is anyone, to say that it is not their choice... their right to pursue that happiness?
Is not my soul my own?
Sunday, January 08, 2006
au revoir les enfants...
I spoke to him last Wednesday… He was upbeat, yet anxious… concerned about what needed to be done at home to take care of his parents, his dogs, his brother, car stuff, house stuff – the business of life… Almost all of his thoughts had to do with taking care of his family. “I’m afraid to know what I’m going to find...” he said “…when I get home.”
He had been in the hospital for three weeks.
Last night I spoke to Chris in New Zealand. I wanted to make sure he knew that Mike was gone. We talked about the mysteries of Mike’s life and the secrets that our family keeps. (Are they my secrets to share with you now?)
Those secrets – who have they helped? What life have they made easier?
It seems to me they have caused more pain than anything else. When family cannot smile generously and embrace one another, when we can’t make room for those that our loved ones love, what does it benefit? And when, after all, are we worthy to judge the life of others?
What are the limits of love? What does love look like? How does it act?
When do we love for the sake of loving?
That much of Mike’s life was hidden, that even at the end he worried about what others might know – wouldn’t it have been better if he could have just known that we loved him?
How do we open our arms to the whole person?
Part of me falls away with you but still part of you stays.
----
Michael Cooper
Native of Hamilton, Alabama
Sign Aries
Birthday March 28, 1959 (I might be a little off on this.)
Mike lived for a time in Birmingham, Alabama and then lived for many years in Los Angeles. In the 90s, while living in LA, he was the victim of a knife attack. He returned to Alabama in the late 90s to help care for his parents.
He was my first cousin. I grew up with Mike. My other cousin, Chris, and I are concerned that those who knew him (loved him) are aware of his death. We would also like to hear from anyone who may have known him. Please leave a post or pass this along to anyone you know who might have known him.
He had been in the hospital for three weeks.
Last night I spoke to Chris in New Zealand. I wanted to make sure he knew that Mike was gone. We talked about the mysteries of Mike’s life and the secrets that our family keeps. (Are they my secrets to share with you now?)
Those secrets – who have they helped? What life have they made easier?
It seems to me they have caused more pain than anything else. When family cannot smile generously and embrace one another, when we can’t make room for those that our loved ones love, what does it benefit? And when, after all, are we worthy to judge the life of others?
What are the limits of love? What does love look like? How does it act?
When do we love for the sake of loving?
That much of Mike’s life was hidden, that even at the end he worried about what others might know – wouldn’t it have been better if he could have just known that we loved him?
How do we open our arms to the whole person?
Part of me falls away with you but still part of you stays.
----
Michael Cooper
Native of Hamilton, Alabama
Sign Aries
Birthday March 28, 1959 (I might be a little off on this.)
Mike lived for a time in Birmingham, Alabama and then lived for many years in Los Angeles. In the 90s, while living in LA, he was the victim of a knife attack. He returned to Alabama in the late 90s to help care for his parents.
He was my first cousin. I grew up with Mike. My other cousin, Chris, and I are concerned that those who knew him (loved him) are aware of his death. We would also like to hear from anyone who may have known him. Please leave a post or pass this along to anyone you know who might have known him.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
... and so this is Christmas...?
Thursday in the mall… Christmas shopping with my other and his son… I often buy lots of small boxes of chocolate for friends and family… small, delicious treats they wouldn’t normally buy for themselves but I know they enjoy… I’m waiting at the kiosk. They have three people working, all young. The young man is helping his friend. They are exchanging tales and the sales person is cajoling his friend into trying a particular piece of candy. It is a slow and lazy exchange. One young lady is waiting on someone on the other side, and the third sales person is in front of me organizing chocolates in the display case. She looks up. My other and his son are standing several feet away. She spots the son, a very attractive young man. She makes a bee-line for him. She has to walk around me to get to them. She asks them if they need help. My other motions toward me. The young lady looks disappointed. She walks back by me and begins again to arrange things in the display case. Someone else walks up and she waits on them. By this time the other young lady is free. She too arranges things in the case. I stalk away, surprisingly angry and strangely hurt. No chocolates this year.
Then we go to a store where they sell videos and dvds. The wait is long. The young lady who finally checks us out looks up after we pay and says with great sarcasm the line I’m sure they’ve been ordered to utter… “Have an enchanted evening…” “You too…” was my sad response.
Looking out over the humanity that fills the mall; the clinging couples, the packs of teens, the floating solitares, friends arm in arm, crying babies and beleaguered parents and grandparents struggling with packages and the transport of their young – all of us consuming as an act of celebration, I’m wondering about the meaning of Christmas.
Friday, the grocery store… We have people coming into town and so we brave the crush of shopping carts and people. For breakfasts and dinners we search for what will make our Christmas like a Rockwell scene. Did you get cream? bread? sugar? What else do we need? More babies and parents, and older people who use their carts as walkers as they move down the aisles alone… how many are far from family?... We stand in line, another line, to check out. $160 is the cost of a small feast for six.
Then home… we walk in the door and his son stands there… reaching out to take bags from us. “They’ve had a wreck… (a heartbeat)… but they’re ok.”
“What?”
“They’ve had a wreck but they’re ok. They flipped the car twice. It’s totaled but they’re ok. A few cuts and bruises, but they’re ok.”
“You’re kidding, you’re lying.” (A response from a childhood Christmas when I awoke and was told our house had burned down. The same incredulousness.)
“No, No… they’ve had a wreck… but they’re ok.”
Phone calls, phone calls… “Go to the hospital.” “No we won’t go.” “Back to Alabama?” “No… we’ll come on to Cleveland…” “Are you sure?” “If we change our minds, we’ll let you know.”
Christmas Eve, another day of shopping, my other and I are trying to find the gaps we need to fill with gifts and to decide which gifts need to fill those gaps. We try to be efficient and thoughtful all at once. I eye with welled up emotions the chocolates. (Still no chocolate for friends. My pride won’t let me.) We finally struggle home. Done or not, we have to get ready. Not completely sure if they’re coming… my other’s two other children; another son and a daughter, his former and now her other too. The day is long and tense. Lots of getting on nerves. Reports from the road confirm that they are in fact heading toward Cleveland, now packed tight into his former’s other’s car. Near midnight they arrive.
All the fears finally fall away as we see them face to face and they are whole. The work that kept hands and minds busy has done its job and suddenly things seem reordered. The girl at the chocolate kiosk doesn’t matter. The money doesn’t matter. The fact that all those gaps weren’t completely filled doesn’t matter. They’re here and they’re whole. A second’s worth of difference and our world would have changed and instead of waiting to open presents we might have waited in the hall of a hospital. (I am glad to see them all including my other’s former and her other too.)
A re-ordering of the universe… a setting into place the value of things…
Then we go to a store where they sell videos and dvds. The wait is long. The young lady who finally checks us out looks up after we pay and says with great sarcasm the line I’m sure they’ve been ordered to utter… “Have an enchanted evening…” “You too…” was my sad response.
Looking out over the humanity that fills the mall; the clinging couples, the packs of teens, the floating solitares, friends arm in arm, crying babies and beleaguered parents and grandparents struggling with packages and the transport of their young – all of us consuming as an act of celebration, I’m wondering about the meaning of Christmas.
Friday, the grocery store… We have people coming into town and so we brave the crush of shopping carts and people. For breakfasts and dinners we search for what will make our Christmas like a Rockwell scene. Did you get cream? bread? sugar? What else do we need? More babies and parents, and older people who use their carts as walkers as they move down the aisles alone… how many are far from family?... We stand in line, another line, to check out. $160 is the cost of a small feast for six.
Then home… we walk in the door and his son stands there… reaching out to take bags from us. “They’ve had a wreck… (a heartbeat)… but they’re ok.”
“What?”
“They’ve had a wreck but they’re ok. They flipped the car twice. It’s totaled but they’re ok. A few cuts and bruises, but they’re ok.”
“You’re kidding, you’re lying.” (A response from a childhood Christmas when I awoke and was told our house had burned down. The same incredulousness.)
“No, No… they’ve had a wreck… but they’re ok.”
Phone calls, phone calls… “Go to the hospital.” “No we won’t go.” “Back to Alabama?” “No… we’ll come on to Cleveland…” “Are you sure?” “If we change our minds, we’ll let you know.”
Christmas Eve, another day of shopping, my other and I are trying to find the gaps we need to fill with gifts and to decide which gifts need to fill those gaps. We try to be efficient and thoughtful all at once. I eye with welled up emotions the chocolates. (Still no chocolate for friends. My pride won’t let me.) We finally struggle home. Done or not, we have to get ready. Not completely sure if they’re coming… my other’s two other children; another son and a daughter, his former and now her other too. The day is long and tense. Lots of getting on nerves. Reports from the road confirm that they are in fact heading toward Cleveland, now packed tight into his former’s other’s car. Near midnight they arrive.
All the fears finally fall away as we see them face to face and they are whole. The work that kept hands and minds busy has done its job and suddenly things seem reordered. The girl at the chocolate kiosk doesn’t matter. The money doesn’t matter. The fact that all those gaps weren’t completely filled doesn’t matter. They’re here and they’re whole. A second’s worth of difference and our world would have changed and instead of waiting to open presents we might have waited in the hall of a hospital. (I am glad to see them all including my other’s former and her other too.)
A re-ordering of the universe… a setting into place the value of things…
Thursday, December 22, 2005
what remains...
To deny humanity beauty is to deny the human soul...
what remains is a hard and bitter shell,
unfit for habitation.
Peace be with us.
what remains is a hard and bitter shell,
unfit for habitation.
Peace be with us.
Monday, December 12, 2005
oh my God!
Even Bush admits that 30,000-- yes I said 30,000 civilians have died in Iraq!
We lost approximately 3,000 on 9/11.
30,000.
We lost approximately 3,000 on 9/11.
30,000.
Friday, December 09, 2005
my best blog award...
There are these blog awards... I'd rather give my own.
I want to give my best blog award to "Words Light Fires" -- you'll find the link under "blogs" -- It is concise, well written and Jeanette and Marie like the Beatles... What could be better? They also maintain great links (including some to videos) that you should check out. Give it a visit if you get a chance...
I want to give my best blog award to "Words Light Fires" -- you'll find the link under "blogs" -- It is concise, well written and Jeanette and Marie like the Beatles... What could be better? They also maintain great links (including some to videos) that you should check out. Give it a visit if you get a chance...
Thursday, December 08, 2005
random things said in dreams...
“It’s not a direct question, ‘Did I love her?’ Looking back on things, remembering things that I said or did, I must have loved her – it’s the only way I would have said or done those things… but the truth is mutable, time and memory changes it… Sitting here now I can’t imagine that I ever loved her.”
“Your parents, like most parents, did the best that they could. They did the only the thing that they knew how. There were no conscious decisions about what was good or bad… there was just doing, reacting. Would they have changed things if they had known what harm they were doing? Certainly, without a doubt… they would never have wanted to cause such harm to their children. It’s the same for me… if I could go back and change things, I would, but I can’t. It is the source of greatest regret for me.
“So try not to blame them, they did the best that they knew how.”
“Let go of grieving. It does no good.”
---
Good night John.
“Your parents, like most parents, did the best that they could. They did the only the thing that they knew how. There were no conscious decisions about what was good or bad… there was just doing, reacting. Would they have changed things if they had known what harm they were doing? Certainly, without a doubt… they would never have wanted to cause such harm to their children. It’s the same for me… if I could go back and change things, I would, but I can’t. It is the source of greatest regret for me.
“So try not to blame them, they did the best that they knew how.”
“Let go of grieving. It does no good.”
---
Good night John.
mis-led...
Do I think that the Bush Administration has mis-led the American people? Per Encarta’s World English Dictionary definitions 1 & 3… yes… we’ve been misled. If we grant that number 1 may have occurred without conscious knowledge, nevertheless number 3 still stands unmitigated.
Misled – past participle of mislead; past tense of mislead
mis·lead vt
1. to cause somebody to make a mistake or form a false opinion or belief, either by employing deliberate deception or by supplying incorrect information
2. to be responsible for making somebody, especially somebody younger, do wrong or adopt bad habits
3. to lead somebody in a wrong direction
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Misled – past participle of mislead; past tense of mislead
mis·lead vt
1. to cause somebody to make a mistake or form a false opinion or belief, either by employing deliberate deception or by supplying incorrect information
2. to be responsible for making somebody, especially somebody younger, do wrong or adopt bad habits
3. to lead somebody in a wrong direction
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
John...
I cannot believe that it's been 25 years... It seems like only yesterday I woke up and I heard the news... We need more people like John today... voices, voices, we need a clarity of voices that remind us of what we truly value.
my position...
No matter who was or was not for the war in Iraq… Democrat or Republican… I never was. I remember the correlations drawn between Iraq and 9/11 in the months leading up to the war. I didn’t buy into them. I didn’t believe that Iraq was a real and imminent threat. I thought that going to war with Iraq was a mistake. I felt that we should finish the war in Afghanistan and then help to rebuild that country with the Christian generosity our leader would seemingly embrace.
And I was not alone. There were others who felt as I did and as I do now. There were others who protested and cried out against the prospect. I remember in the early weeks of March 2003 hoping that something would stop what then seemed inevitable.
I do not support the war. I support the people, soldiers and civilians who are caught up in it. It was a grave error that has wasted lives. Lives American and Iraqi – not numbers, every number is just a place holder for a life, for a person – with family and friends and a future. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Like it’s a car accident rather than ritualized fratricide. It is absolutely an abomination that we participate in killing while we play games of religious rhetoric.
The long and the short of it – I don’t care what Kerry (or anyone else) says unless he moves to LEAD us in some reasonable way out of this morass.
It is not for me a subject of light or academic debate (and there are many other such subjects I feel likewise about.) I do not wish to engage in tit for tat debate. I write to express in the clearest fashion I can manage those matters that concern me most. I undertake this to preserve my friends and vent my frustrations with our failed leadership. I am not interested in defending the comments or actions of others unless I take them on as mine to defend.
I am a liberal – a raging, radical liberal – and it is not an epithet that I am ashamed of…
And I was not alone. There were others who felt as I did and as I do now. There were others who protested and cried out against the prospect. I remember in the early weeks of March 2003 hoping that something would stop what then seemed inevitable.
I do not support the war. I support the people, soldiers and civilians who are caught up in it. It was a grave error that has wasted lives. Lives American and Iraqi – not numbers, every number is just a place holder for a life, for a person – with family and friends and a future. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Like it’s a car accident rather than ritualized fratricide. It is absolutely an abomination that we participate in killing while we play games of religious rhetoric.
The long and the short of it – I don’t care what Kerry (or anyone else) says unless he moves to LEAD us in some reasonable way out of this morass.
It is not for me a subject of light or academic debate (and there are many other such subjects I feel likewise about.) I do not wish to engage in tit for tat debate. I write to express in the clearest fashion I can manage those matters that concern me most. I undertake this to preserve my friends and vent my frustrations with our failed leadership. I am not interested in defending the comments or actions of others unless I take them on as mine to defend.
I am a liberal – a raging, radical liberal – and it is not an epithet that I am ashamed of…
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
i ramble sometimes...
If you’re in Cleveland, there’s a pretty nice show up right now. Cool, clean and fairly elegant.
at
spaces
2220 Superior Viaduct
Cleveland, OH 44113
216-621-2314
www.spacesgallery.org
The name of the show is Multiplicity and it’s up through Jan. 6, 2006.
Danielle Julian Norton’s delicately lit rice boats are the nicest, most poignant part of the show. It’s success as a piece is assured by the curling tethers of monofilament that mark the loss of one of its vessels. The missing vessel’s place in the air armada remains unfilled – a void.
It’s strange – I’m an artist and I love art but very little of it really moves me. --- I said this to my students recently and they asked me why, if so much of it leaves me flat, do I dedicate my life to it… I had to tell them that it is a statement of faith. To believe in art is to believe that there is something beyond the grinding practicality of this day to day life. It is an expression of a belief in a reality that consists of something other than hard surfaces, a turned gilder, and an end without remorse.
Fate is an illusion created by history and video tape. When the nineteen screwed their courage to some unknowable sticking place and crashed into those hard surfaces, they exploded into the ashes of an un-accounted number of lives… a rose is a rose is a rose… instant replay… the image of that moment was repeated over and over again… repeating it, like Gertrude’s rose, made it real, somehow comprehensible… It also seemed to make it possible to hold back that moment through the watching… but rather than staying that execution it writes it down as fate.
Fate is created in an instant.
And here we are… our future, and our fate, was written in a response to a response and now we are playing it out…
Was it just yesterday that eleven American soldiers and thousands of “others” were taken…
Who do we grieve for? Our own? And what about those “nameless” others? Those who know their names – how do they grieve? Let us humanize one another…
at
spaces
2220 Superior Viaduct
Cleveland, OH 44113
216-621-2314
www.spacesgallery.org
The name of the show is Multiplicity and it’s up through Jan. 6, 2006.
Danielle Julian Norton’s delicately lit rice boats are the nicest, most poignant part of the show. It’s success as a piece is assured by the curling tethers of monofilament that mark the loss of one of its vessels. The missing vessel’s place in the air armada remains unfilled – a void.
It’s strange – I’m an artist and I love art but very little of it really moves me. --- I said this to my students recently and they asked me why, if so much of it leaves me flat, do I dedicate my life to it… I had to tell them that it is a statement of faith. To believe in art is to believe that there is something beyond the grinding practicality of this day to day life. It is an expression of a belief in a reality that consists of something other than hard surfaces, a turned gilder, and an end without remorse.
Fate is an illusion created by history and video tape. When the nineteen screwed their courage to some unknowable sticking place and crashed into those hard surfaces, they exploded into the ashes of an un-accounted number of lives… a rose is a rose is a rose… instant replay… the image of that moment was repeated over and over again… repeating it, like Gertrude’s rose, made it real, somehow comprehensible… It also seemed to make it possible to hold back that moment through the watching… but rather than staying that execution it writes it down as fate.
Fate is created in an instant.
And here we are… our future, and our fate, was written in a response to a response and now we are playing it out…
Was it just yesterday that eleven American soldiers and thousands of “others” were taken…
Who do we grieve for? Our own? And what about those “nameless” others? Those who know their names – how do they grieve? Let us humanize one another…
reading list...
The following makes for interesting reading…
(cut & paste again...)
Iraq disarmament crisis timeline 1997-2000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_disarmament_crisis_timeline_1997-2000
Iraq disarmament crisis timeline 2001-2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_disarmament_crisis_timeline_2001-2003
MEET THE PRESS - Transcript for Sept. 14
Sunday, September 14, 2003 GUEST: Dick Cheney, vice president
Tim Russert, moderator
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/
For Immediate Release
From the Office of the Vice President
Dated October 10, 2003
“Remarks by the Vice President to the Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.”
9:25 A.M. EDT, March 20, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031010-1.html#
Books:
Jimmy Carter
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
NPR story and interviews relating to Carter’s book:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4984885
Leo Braudy, Ph.D.
From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity
Publisher: Vintage
Excerpt (although not the excerpt I would have chosen) and Amazon link
http://www.enotalone.com/article/4904.html
** If links don’t work, please cut and paste. Thanks.
PS – Dear Senator Kerry, I saw you on "Face the Nation" and it occurred to me that you may not have noticed that many people do not have the depth of knowledge that is required to tease out your various arguments. Most people are not academics or highly trained intellectuals. Most people come from working-class backgrounds and have direct and common sense. Speak accordingly. It is not that the average American is incapable of understanding the complexities of your points, it is that they require a language more like their own.
PS PS – Also, try not to give in to the temptations of adopting that which is not your own in order to accommodate those that you imagine
(cut & paste again...)
Iraq disarmament crisis timeline 1997-2000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_disarmament_crisis_timeline_1997-2000
Iraq disarmament crisis timeline 2001-2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_disarmament_crisis_timeline_2001-2003
MEET THE PRESS - Transcript for Sept. 14
Sunday, September 14, 2003 GUEST: Dick Cheney, vice president
Tim Russert, moderator
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/
For Immediate Release
From the Office of the Vice President
Dated October 10, 2003
“Remarks by the Vice President to the Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.”
9:25 A.M. EDT, March 20, 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031010-1.html#
Books:
Jimmy Carter
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
NPR story and interviews relating to Carter’s book:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4984885
Leo Braudy, Ph.D.
From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity
Publisher: Vintage
Excerpt (although not the excerpt I would have chosen) and Amazon link
http://www.enotalone.com/article/4904.html
** If links don’t work, please cut and paste. Thanks.
PS – Dear Senator Kerry, I saw you on "Face the Nation" and it occurred to me that you may not have noticed that many people do not have the depth of knowledge that is required to tease out your various arguments. Most people are not academics or highly trained intellectuals. Most people come from working-class backgrounds and have direct and common sense. Speak accordingly. It is not that the average American is incapable of understanding the complexities of your points, it is that they require a language more like their own.
PS PS – Also, try not to give in to the temptations of adopting that which is not your own in order to accommodate those that you imagine
Sunday, November 27, 2005
cut & paste...
If all else fails... cut and paste...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
Cheney on Murtha
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13257342.htm
On Cheney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4400728.stm
BBC story on CIA Prisons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644.html
Washington Post story CIA Prisons
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
Cheney on Murtha
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13257342.htm
On Cheney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4400728.stm
BBC story on CIA Prisons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644.html
Washington Post story CIA Prisons
the list grows long...
Who are we? The rhetoric of Christianity dominates our national politics yet what values define our national character? What do we value? Our children? All children equally? Is that reflected in the education we provide for our nation’s children regardless of the affluence of their neighborhoods?
Is it life we value? Do we value life? How do we express that? How do we honor the loses of 9/11 and the those soldiers who, in full faith of the rightness of the cause, have gone willing to Iraq and Afghanistan? And how do we honor the innocent?
What values define our national character?
I do believe that we need to examine closely what brought us into this war. Yes, Bush and Cheney misled the American people by continually juxtaposing 9/11 with Iraq and yes, the members of Congress too often cared more for their political lives than the lives that might be lost in such an undertaking.
And we as a people, what did we want or value that we were led this way; that we chose leaders that would take us to this place? How do we move forward now? Let us look more closely at what it is that we should do and consider through that looking what it is that we value and how that should inform the choices that we make. Let us choose our future leaders with a mind to what it is we truly value. Let us hold the leaders we have now and ourselves accountable for our grave mistakes.
The list for grieving grows ever longer… someone tell me,…what would Jesus do?
Let us demand that the media take on the task our founders set for them… Let us examine, closely, where we are and how we got here.
---
Cheney on Murtha
On Cheney
BBC story on CIA Prisons
Washington Post story CIA Prisons
Is it life we value? Do we value life? How do we express that? How do we honor the loses of 9/11 and the those soldiers who, in full faith of the rightness of the cause, have gone willing to Iraq and Afghanistan? And how do we honor the innocent?
What values define our national character?
I do believe that we need to examine closely what brought us into this war. Yes, Bush and Cheney misled the American people by continually juxtaposing 9/11 with Iraq and yes, the members of Congress too often cared more for their political lives than the lives that might be lost in such an undertaking.
And we as a people, what did we want or value that we were led this way; that we chose leaders that would take us to this place? How do we move forward now? Let us look more closely at what it is that we should do and consider through that looking what it is that we value and how that should inform the choices that we make. Let us choose our future leaders with a mind to what it is we truly value. Let us hold the leaders we have now and ourselves accountable for our grave mistakes.
The list for grieving grows ever longer… someone tell me,…what would Jesus do?
Let us demand that the media take on the task our founders set for them… Let us examine, closely, where we are and how we got here.
---
Cheney on Murtha
On Cheney
BBC story on CIA Prisons
Washington Post story CIA Prisons
Friday, November 11, 2005
Can we go to the tapes please…
I think Mr. Rove may be back at work. There’s currently spin coming out of the White House that utilizes many of the diversionary tactics of the past. The line being sold is that the current critics of Bush’s rationale leading up to the Iraq War are undertaking revisionist history. The Bush administration asserts that many of his critics also believed that Saddam was attempting to acquire “Weapons of Mass Destruction” or possibly already had such weapons.
This is the White House’s frequently used tactic of juxtaposing seemingly related information to generate a conclusion that seems logical but in fact does not hold up under close scrutiny.
Yes, many world leaders, French, German and even U.S. leaders such as Clinton included, believed that Saddam possessed chemical and biological weapons… however… that does not mean that they believed that the threat was significant enough to warrant a war. Many felt that Saddam was adequately contained and that the international community’s goals in regard to Iraq could be attained through peaceful means. Also, the fact that many world leaders believed that Saddam possessed such weapons does not mean that they also felt that those weapons were a real threat to the United States or that Iraq was a base for terrorists activities (which now, as a result of Iraqi border breakdown, it is). Additionally this does not change the fact that the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence to support its war agenda. The continued references to 9/11, the use of discredited evidence of Iraq’s nuclear capabilities, and the repeated assurances from administration officials, such as Cheney, that there would be a quick resolution to a war in Iraq, are all instances of manipulation, if not of intelligence then of the American people. The Bush Administration incited fear among the Americans in order to advance its own agenda.
We act as if we have no memory and no record of what led up to the war. We act as if it’s a “they said, we said,” situation that’s all a matter of opinion. We have the video. We have the interviews and the speeches and even a record of the arguments made opposing the war.
What I think we need is a review of the tapes. Let’s look at what was said and how it was said. I think Cheney’s interviews will be particularly interesting. Wouldn’t it be remarkable if all the news organizations stopped feeding us the canned crap they normally feed us and actually undertook such a review… hey maybe even during primetime. (Why should Dateline have all the fun?)
If Clinton was impeached for lying about sex… you get the drill… Of course congress needs to take a hard look at its own fortitude and political will…
Whether you agree with me or not, let the news outlets know what YOU want from them. Email them. You usually have to go their websites but it’s a small thing that we can do. Ask them to review what was said instead of just quoting the current rhetoric.
Email:
CBS
NBC
FOX
CNN
et. al.
(My thoughts on the reasons for the War in Iraq are outlined in the archived post from Friday, August 19, 2005, entitled:
Bush and the Reasons for the War in Iraq)
This is the White House’s frequently used tactic of juxtaposing seemingly related information to generate a conclusion that seems logical but in fact does not hold up under close scrutiny.
Yes, many world leaders, French, German and even U.S. leaders such as Clinton included, believed that Saddam possessed chemical and biological weapons… however… that does not mean that they believed that the threat was significant enough to warrant a war. Many felt that Saddam was adequately contained and that the international community’s goals in regard to Iraq could be attained through peaceful means. Also, the fact that many world leaders believed that Saddam possessed such weapons does not mean that they also felt that those weapons were a real threat to the United States or that Iraq was a base for terrorists activities (which now, as a result of Iraqi border breakdown, it is). Additionally this does not change the fact that the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence to support its war agenda. The continued references to 9/11, the use of discredited evidence of Iraq’s nuclear capabilities, and the repeated assurances from administration officials, such as Cheney, that there would be a quick resolution to a war in Iraq, are all instances of manipulation, if not of intelligence then of the American people. The Bush Administration incited fear among the Americans in order to advance its own agenda.
We act as if we have no memory and no record of what led up to the war. We act as if it’s a “they said, we said,” situation that’s all a matter of opinion. We have the video. We have the interviews and the speeches and even a record of the arguments made opposing the war.
What I think we need is a review of the tapes. Let’s look at what was said and how it was said. I think Cheney’s interviews will be particularly interesting. Wouldn’t it be remarkable if all the news organizations stopped feeding us the canned crap they normally feed us and actually undertook such a review… hey maybe even during primetime. (Why should Dateline have all the fun?)
If Clinton was impeached for lying about sex… you get the drill… Of course congress needs to take a hard look at its own fortitude and political will…
Whether you agree with me or not, let the news outlets know what YOU want from them. Email them. You usually have to go their websites but it’s a small thing that we can do. Ask them to review what was said instead of just quoting the current rhetoric.
Email:
CBS
NBC
FOX
CNN
et. al.
(My thoughts on the reasons for the War in Iraq are outlined in the archived post from Friday, August 19, 2005, entitled:
Bush and the Reasons for the War in Iraq)
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