I scoffed. Her optimism was adorable, but I just didn't think America was enlightened enough to make such a stride, to pick a president based on merit over skin.
Today, I tip my hat to Maggie. Never, never in all my years, have I been so happy to admit I was wrong and the youthfully optimistic Maggie was spot on.
Faith in the better angels? Noted and renewed.
Thanks, Maggie. Thanks, America.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
MLK Day in a very small northern town
Sitting here alone, feeling a bit blue and heading toward a pity party is just not constructive. There are no speeches here abouts today. No events to commemorate the struggle of so many Americans to attain the prize, the vision, the promise that America was supposed to be.
So much wrong with how things are. So much war, so much pain, so much insecurity for most Americans as our economy falls under the crushing weight of keeping the top 1% in the lifestyle they just can't get enough of. So easy to loose hope for tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Hope. Ah yes, for most of us, tomorrow has a little event that might feed the little candle flicker that is hope. But today...
So Attila flips on KXCI Community Radio, Tucson. Attila is grateful the station does an internet broadcast. She misses her favorite station in her current, remote location. She misses little about city life, but variety of radio and the opportunity to observe community events are sometimes longed for.
MLK Day in a very small northern town is pretty much just another day. About the only difference is county offices and the post office are closed. And too many of the locals will bitch about that, with resentful references to n*g*er day which Attila will never be able to hear without becoming ill and very sad for the pointless hate.
KXCI, the chance to be reminded that what is normal here is not normal everywhere. Special programming today. Lots of good music and lots of good memories about a time when vast numbers of people stopped tolerating the injustice that was institutional in America back when I was young. The Dj even played that lovely old recording of What the World Needs Now that starts with a man asking a youngster what terms like racism, hate, bigotry, prejudice mean. The sweet child keeps answering I don't know, until the man asks what 'prejudice' is. The child answers 'I think it's when somebody's sick'. The music, lyrics go on with bits of the song Abraham, Martin, and John, along with audio snips of famous speeches about our better angles, our purpose as a nation, our hopes, our dreams. There are also snips of the news announcing deaths of John, Martin, Bobby....
Songs of the struggle, of the era I recall as so confusing to a kid. My youthful confusion was that the struggle was needed at all. Why should there be ANY systemic, institutional inequity in my America? Why was it necessary to fight for what we say we already are as a nation, a people? I was so tender and naive. And as I watched the news, I heard such horrible things from my grandfather's lips. It was shocking. And as tender as I was, it enraged me as it enlightened me a little about reality in America.
Mom and Dad did not raise me to accept the crap I was hearing from a grandparent. They did not raise me to support the fire hoses, ax handles, vicious dogs, storm troopers on horseback beating my fellow Americans I was seeing on the TV.
I was a scrawny white kid, living pretty much in poverty, but not feeling shame, not until the news showed me what scrawny black kids were dealing with, what their parents and grandparents were dealing with. I was ashamed of America and that confused me, because I also loved America.
Learned you could love something and see it wasn't as perfect as you thought in your ignorance. Learned you could love and want to make better. Learned there were lots of people who felt the same. Learned some of those people were very brave and had a dignity that could not be beaten out of them by ax handles, batons, hooves of horses, teeth of dogs, and no amount of high pressure water would wash the dignity off of people who would not back down in their quest for justice.
KXCI brought it all back in a flood of memories, both horrible and ugly beyond description. In my island of one here in a rural community that will never really accept me, nor I it, there was reminder that here & now is not all there is. My local reality is not the decider of how the world is. No one's local reality is the whole of the world.
I love the bits of speeches from the day. The flood of memories they bring reminds me of the larger picture, and all the good people I watched, all the good people I was lucky enough to encounter as my path merges with a broader road, better traveled road back then. Such incredible people.
Music, the happy, hopeful spirituals I have always loved, tho I have never been a part of any of the churches. How that singing feeds the soul. It was never about God, or Jesus, or the stories and myths for me. It was always about the hopeful voices, even as they would sing about bad times. Damn, I needed to hear that singing I don't get to hear around here.
There was a time, a place where people didn't accept hate for no reason beyond pigmentation. Change was possible, it happened, and though it still needs effort to complete the change, America is a better place than when I was young and naive.
Crackers abound where I live at present. And the crackers are a bit brittle of late. Tomorrow will be pretty difficult for some of them and as annoying as that is to me, I do feel some sadness for them, for their discomfort, for their narrowness that inhibits what is possible for them.
But tomorrow is hope.
Tomorrow is an amazing new leg of the march toward justice, racial, social, and economic. Those things are all interdependent. Poverty is not shameful to the poor. It is shameful to the society that accepts and institutionalizes it. Injustice is the real enemy of America; it is a hypocrisy we should not allow. It is rot in the very foundation of our beloved country.
Tomorrow, as most of the nation celebrates and hopes, I will step back quietly and let my soul be with ghosts of my childhood. So many did not get to the promised land, but they got us down the road, closer to it. I will step back and let their energies surround me, and hope they see America now. I will ask their blessing on us all.
Thanks, KXCI, for letting me hear those voices again. Thanks for helping my soul find the energies again. Thanks for reaching out and spreading hope to places you don't even know exist. You can never know how much good it does. A ripple in a pond, little waves, radio waves, extending to places unknown, and making subtle changes.
The ghosts, the dignity, the hope, the fight, all go on. America is still a promise and a work in progress. There is hope and from time to time, it is a fine thing to celebrate it all. I pray it reminds me to never be complacent and never sit for the crap that too many still accept as the norm.
That little child in that recording had a point about prejudice. Thanks for reminder..
So much wrong with how things are. So much war, so much pain, so much insecurity for most Americans as our economy falls under the crushing weight of keeping the top 1% in the lifestyle they just can't get enough of. So easy to loose hope for tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Hope. Ah yes, for most of us, tomorrow has a little event that might feed the little candle flicker that is hope. But today...
So Attila flips on KXCI Community Radio, Tucson. Attila is grateful the station does an internet broadcast. She misses her favorite station in her current, remote location. She misses little about city life, but variety of radio and the opportunity to observe community events are sometimes longed for.
MLK Day in a very small northern town is pretty much just another day. About the only difference is county offices and the post office are closed. And too many of the locals will bitch about that, with resentful references to n*g*er day which Attila will never be able to hear without becoming ill and very sad for the pointless hate.
KXCI, the chance to be reminded that what is normal here is not normal everywhere. Special programming today. Lots of good music and lots of good memories about a time when vast numbers of people stopped tolerating the injustice that was institutional in America back when I was young. The Dj even played that lovely old recording of What the World Needs Now that starts with a man asking a youngster what terms like racism, hate, bigotry, prejudice mean. The sweet child keeps answering I don't know, until the man asks what 'prejudice' is. The child answers 'I think it's when somebody's sick'. The music, lyrics go on with bits of the song Abraham, Martin, and John, along with audio snips of famous speeches about our better angles, our purpose as a nation, our hopes, our dreams. There are also snips of the news announcing deaths of John, Martin, Bobby....
Songs of the struggle, of the era I recall as so confusing to a kid. My youthful confusion was that the struggle was needed at all. Why should there be ANY systemic, institutional inequity in my America? Why was it necessary to fight for what we say we already are as a nation, a people? I was so tender and naive. And as I watched the news, I heard such horrible things from my grandfather's lips. It was shocking. And as tender as I was, it enraged me as it enlightened me a little about reality in America.
Mom and Dad did not raise me to accept the crap I was hearing from a grandparent. They did not raise me to support the fire hoses, ax handles, vicious dogs, storm troopers on horseback beating my fellow Americans I was seeing on the TV.
I was a scrawny white kid, living pretty much in poverty, but not feeling shame, not until the news showed me what scrawny black kids were dealing with, what their parents and grandparents were dealing with. I was ashamed of America and that confused me, because I also loved America.
Learned you could love something and see it wasn't as perfect as you thought in your ignorance. Learned you could love and want to make better. Learned there were lots of people who felt the same. Learned some of those people were very brave and had a dignity that could not be beaten out of them by ax handles, batons, hooves of horses, teeth of dogs, and no amount of high pressure water would wash the dignity off of people who would not back down in their quest for justice.
KXCI brought it all back in a flood of memories, both horrible and ugly beyond description. In my island of one here in a rural community that will never really accept me, nor I it, there was reminder that here & now is not all there is. My local reality is not the decider of how the world is. No one's local reality is the whole of the world.
I love the bits of speeches from the day. The flood of memories they bring reminds me of the larger picture, and all the good people I watched, all the good people I was lucky enough to encounter as my path merges with a broader road, better traveled road back then. Such incredible people.
Music, the happy, hopeful spirituals I have always loved, tho I have never been a part of any of the churches. How that singing feeds the soul. It was never about God, or Jesus, or the stories and myths for me. It was always about the hopeful voices, even as they would sing about bad times. Damn, I needed to hear that singing I don't get to hear around here.
There was a time, a place where people didn't accept hate for no reason beyond pigmentation. Change was possible, it happened, and though it still needs effort to complete the change, America is a better place than when I was young and naive.
Crackers abound where I live at present. And the crackers are a bit brittle of late. Tomorrow will be pretty difficult for some of them and as annoying as that is to me, I do feel some sadness for them, for their discomfort, for their narrowness that inhibits what is possible for them.
But tomorrow is hope.
Tomorrow is an amazing new leg of the march toward justice, racial, social, and economic. Those things are all interdependent. Poverty is not shameful to the poor. It is shameful to the society that accepts and institutionalizes it. Injustice is the real enemy of America; it is a hypocrisy we should not allow. It is rot in the very foundation of our beloved country.
Tomorrow, as most of the nation celebrates and hopes, I will step back quietly and let my soul be with ghosts of my childhood. So many did not get to the promised land, but they got us down the road, closer to it. I will step back and let their energies surround me, and hope they see America now. I will ask their blessing on us all.
Thanks, KXCI, for letting me hear those voices again. Thanks for helping my soul find the energies again. Thanks for reaching out and spreading hope to places you don't even know exist. You can never know how much good it does. A ripple in a pond, little waves, radio waves, extending to places unknown, and making subtle changes.
The ghosts, the dignity, the hope, the fight, all go on. America is still a promise and a work in progress. There is hope and from time to time, it is a fine thing to celebrate it all. I pray it reminds me to never be complacent and never sit for the crap that too many still accept as the norm.
That little child in that recording had a point about prejudice. Thanks for reminder..
Friday, January 16, 2009
Maybe It Was An Omen? For Sure, US Airways Flight 1549 a Lesson!
The swan song of george Wastrel bush got pre-empted in media focus by the daring-do of veteran aviator and calm hero Chesley Sullenberger.
When those passengers needed clear headed action to save them, Captain Sullenberger held them together, literally and figuratively. He kept the plane from taking out part of New York, and saved all the people in his critical path. At the mercy of events well beyond his control or choosing, he did the nearly impossible and then was the last man off the wreck. He shouldered the responsibility adroitly. Like a good father, he did the job and made sure everyone, EVERYONE, was safe before looking to his own welfare.
Whatever george Wastrel bush said yesterday sank in significance. The airbus-turned-boat stayed afloat. A real hero stepped up to a real threat and took Bab's boy off page one of history in a way that was just damned poetic.
Whatever george Wastrel bush is, he has never been calm, competent, adroit, or one who looked to the greater good of others over his own safety.
The real miracle of Chesley Sullenberger is not that he pulled off a feat most of us would not believe had there not been media coverage, it was the stark contrast between real and make believe that he illustrated for America. The gentleman did not go looking for attention. He did not orchestrate an event to show off his skill. A situation, likely to turn tragic, arose and he rose to the situation and then some.
The pilot who pranced on that aircraft carrier under that Mission Accomplished banner, that illusion of a cowboy 'clearing brush' in a jacket with manufacturer's packing creases still visible, was always make believe. W has always been a contrived, orchestrated PR event, an empty suit, not a human being. Most certainly he was never any sort of hero, tho he liked to play with them on TV. He was a pouting, tantrum throwing two year old out to stick it to his uncaring parents. And he used America as the stick.
george Wastrel bush was a pilot only because his family had the pull to get him into a much sought after slot. He didn't do it on his own. It seems likely some other chap, who did actually earn the TANG position on his own merit, was denied to make room for the plate of dimson that is george Wastrel bush.
Unlike Chesley Sullenberger, W did not become a pilot to serve his country. He did it to save his ass from actually having to go into battle. His family pulled strings to make him appear like a pilot while protecting him from any requirement to serve his country.
Unlike Chesley Sullenberger, W did not become anything. He was propped up by chums of the family and allowed business failure after business failure. If he had his own feet to stand on, he never found or used them.
Chesley Sullenberger is a real pilot. He actually served our nation in the military.Seems like he paid attention, learned well. He went to work in a profession where performance is everything, and failure to preform well costs lives in split seconds. Seems he also took the concept of DUTY seriously. On January 15 he showed what real heroes do. It was a most refreshing reminder of the possibilities.
george Wastrel bush wanted his 15 minutes last evening. He wanted to have the last word. He got upstaged by a miracle that was no real miracle but rather a real pilot performing at the very height of that profession. He got upstaged by every boat captain and crew, every EMT, every dispatcher who responded so fast and so well to the potentially horrible event of that plane coming down in water. He got upstaged by human beings reacting exceedingly well, and in keeping with their diligent training, to a situation not many would have ever considered.
Nobody sent any of the airline crew or first responders a PDB suggesting they should be watchful of a flock of geese sending metal tube full of people falling into the Hudson River on January 15 of 2009. Nobody spelled it all out for them with all the details Condi Rice would have needed. Nobody held their hands and led them to the appropriate actions. They responded to a situation with the resources of their various disciplines. They applied themselves to a situation. They did not make excuses.
Chesley Sullenberger was just doing the job he obviously takes very seriously. He did it in a manner which will be studied for years. The passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 also performed to perfection. They got out in an orderly manner, did it very quickly (probably partly due to the professional guidance of flight attendants who must have been the essence of grace under fire) and they did it as a people, not as individuals out to save themselves. Crews and support personnel of those rescue crafts acted swiftly and saw to the follow-through. They earned the banner Mission Accomplished. I hope we read the names of each and every one who worked together to do the nearly impossible.
The miracle is the illustration we all witnessed:
We have a new President coming into office within but a few hours. After 8 years of contrived and convoluted actions against the greater good, we have a chance at getting the victims of W out of danger, getting the job done, keeping things afloat until everyone is safe. But it will take more than just a competent captain performing brilliantly. It will take all hands pulling together, calmly, diligently, for the greater good and without thoughts of self interests prevailing over the interests of everybody involved.
It will take all of us working very hard TOGETHER to keep the potential wreck that is America-on-the-brink from becoming an empty hulk sinking into the cold, dark abyss of history.
Captain Sullenberger pulled off an amazing feat. Many others jumped in to help him see it through. They turned a near-certain disaster into just a weird sort of scenic river cruise.
The miracle is the timing. We got the illustration of what is possible right when we needed it most, when it was likely to fit into our heads like an easy to recall poem.
Maybe it was an omen, a sign. For sure, it was an object lesson: If we use skill, employ our better angels and still our baser impulses, we can keep America afloat and get everyone out of the cold.
When those passengers needed clear headed action to save them, Captain Sullenberger held them together, literally and figuratively. He kept the plane from taking out part of New York, and saved all the people in his critical path. At the mercy of events well beyond his control or choosing, he did the nearly impossible and then was the last man off the wreck. He shouldered the responsibility adroitly. Like a good father, he did the job and made sure everyone, EVERYONE, was safe before looking to his own welfare.
Whatever george Wastrel bush said yesterday sank in significance. The airbus-turned-boat stayed afloat. A real hero stepped up to a real threat and took Bab's boy off page one of history in a way that was just damned poetic.
Whatever george Wastrel bush is, he has never been calm, competent, adroit, or one who looked to the greater good of others over his own safety.
The real miracle of Chesley Sullenberger is not that he pulled off a feat most of us would not believe had there not been media coverage, it was the stark contrast between real and make believe that he illustrated for America. The gentleman did not go looking for attention. He did not orchestrate an event to show off his skill. A situation, likely to turn tragic, arose and he rose to the situation and then some.
The pilot who pranced on that aircraft carrier under that Mission Accomplished banner, that illusion of a cowboy 'clearing brush' in a jacket with manufacturer's packing creases still visible, was always make believe. W has always been a contrived, orchestrated PR event, an empty suit, not a human being. Most certainly he was never any sort of hero, tho he liked to play with them on TV. He was a pouting, tantrum throwing two year old out to stick it to his uncaring parents. And he used America as the stick.
george Wastrel bush was a pilot only because his family had the pull to get him into a much sought after slot. He didn't do it on his own. It seems likely some other chap, who did actually earn the TANG position on his own merit, was denied to make room for the plate of dimson that is george Wastrel bush.
Unlike Chesley Sullenberger, W did not become a pilot to serve his country. He did it to save his ass from actually having to go into battle. His family pulled strings to make him appear like a pilot while protecting him from any requirement to serve his country.
Unlike Chesley Sullenberger, W did not become anything. He was propped up by chums of the family and allowed business failure after business failure. If he had his own feet to stand on, he never found or used them.
Chesley Sullenberger is a real pilot. He actually served our nation in the military.Seems like he paid attention, learned well. He went to work in a profession where performance is everything, and failure to preform well costs lives in split seconds. Seems he also took the concept of DUTY seriously. On January 15 he showed what real heroes do. It was a most refreshing reminder of the possibilities.
george Wastrel bush wanted his 15 minutes last evening. He wanted to have the last word. He got upstaged by a miracle that was no real miracle but rather a real pilot performing at the very height of that profession. He got upstaged by every boat captain and crew, every EMT, every dispatcher who responded so fast and so well to the potentially horrible event of that plane coming down in water. He got upstaged by human beings reacting exceedingly well, and in keeping with their diligent training, to a situation not many would have ever considered.
Nobody sent any of the airline crew or first responders a PDB suggesting they should be watchful of a flock of geese sending metal tube full of people falling into the Hudson River on January 15 of 2009. Nobody spelled it all out for them with all the details Condi Rice would have needed. Nobody held their hands and led them to the appropriate actions. They responded to a situation with the resources of their various disciplines. They applied themselves to a situation. They did not make excuses.
Chesley Sullenberger was just doing the job he obviously takes very seriously. He did it in a manner which will be studied for years. The passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 also performed to perfection. They got out in an orderly manner, did it very quickly (probably partly due to the professional guidance of flight attendants who must have been the essence of grace under fire) and they did it as a people, not as individuals out to save themselves. Crews and support personnel of those rescue crafts acted swiftly and saw to the follow-through. They earned the banner Mission Accomplished. I hope we read the names of each and every one who worked together to do the nearly impossible.
The miracle is the illustration we all witnessed:
- Applied skill, diligent training and drills
- Calm response to real situation
- Acting for the greater good instead of panicked response to save ones self and damn the rest
- Taking a sure bet disaster and MacGyvering it into unlikely triumph.
We have a new President coming into office within but a few hours. After 8 years of contrived and convoluted actions against the greater good, we have a chance at getting the victims of W out of danger, getting the job done, keeping things afloat until everyone is safe. But it will take more than just a competent captain performing brilliantly. It will take all hands pulling together, calmly, diligently, for the greater good and without thoughts of self interests prevailing over the interests of everybody involved.
It will take all of us working very hard TOGETHER to keep the potential wreck that is America-on-the-brink from becoming an empty hulk sinking into the cold, dark abyss of history.
Captain Sullenberger pulled off an amazing feat. Many others jumped in to help him see it through. They turned a near-certain disaster into just a weird sort of scenic river cruise.
The miracle is the timing. We got the illustration of what is possible right when we needed it most, when it was likely to fit into our heads like an easy to recall poem.
Maybe it was an omen, a sign. For sure, it was an object lesson: If we use skill, employ our better angels and still our baser impulses, we can keep America afloat and get everyone out of the cold.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Bernie Made Off With Billions - Just Like Many Corporate Officers & Brokerage Firms- But Bernie Will Pay For His Sins
Why is Bernie under house arrest (yeah, I would rather he be in jail too) while others who defrauded investors, workers, taxpayers, and the US economy not only get off, they get billions in bailout cash?
Look who got victimized: Very wealthy people whose money buys access to power were Bernie's marks. The CEOs, CFOs, Boards, and Upper Management of scores of corporations stole as much or more by fraud, but the victims were the whole of American citizenry.
When workers, small investors hoping to save for old age, middle class living reasonably within their means and investing carefully are the viticims, they are S.O.L. They can't buy access to power. They can't buy flashy media attention. They can't afford attornies to sue corporate frauds.
Bernie should be in jail while waiting for his day in court. ANYBODY with that sort of financial resources IS a flight risk. He has already been caught trying to squirrle away assests for his post-prision life. Yes, jail while waiting for trial, then punishment as dictated by the outcome of the trials; there WILL be appeals, Bernie can afford LOTS of legal representation.
Should Bernie be the distraction/whipping boy so Americans don't righteously, and vehemently demand prosecution of the OTHER criminals who defrauded, stole, killed the economy, then had the gall to show up and stomp their feet for taxpayer bailouts so they could continue? No! Bernie should not be the scapegoat sacrificed for the mobs to vent their anger upon.
Bernie is not the issue. Fraud is the issue and the whole system has been running on it for a long time.
Lock up Bernie, but give him lots of well dressed company. There are enough corporate criminals to raise employment numbers if we would just try them, imprison them, hire guards to fucking keep them in jail.
Look who got victimized: Very wealthy people whose money buys access to power were Bernie's marks. The CEOs, CFOs, Boards, and Upper Management of scores of corporations stole as much or more by fraud, but the victims were the whole of American citizenry.
When workers, small investors hoping to save for old age, middle class living reasonably within their means and investing carefully are the viticims, they are S.O.L. They can't buy access to power. They can't buy flashy media attention. They can't afford attornies to sue corporate frauds.
Bernie should be in jail while waiting for his day in court. ANYBODY with that sort of financial resources IS a flight risk. He has already been caught trying to squirrle away assests for his post-prision life. Yes, jail while waiting for trial, then punishment as dictated by the outcome of the trials; there WILL be appeals, Bernie can afford LOTS of legal representation.
Should Bernie be the distraction/whipping boy so Americans don't righteously, and vehemently demand prosecution of the OTHER criminals who defrauded, stole, killed the economy, then had the gall to show up and stomp their feet for taxpayer bailouts so they could continue? No! Bernie should not be the scapegoat sacrificed for the mobs to vent their anger upon.
Bernie is not the issue. Fraud is the issue and the whole system has been running on it for a long time.
Lock up Bernie, but give him lots of well dressed company. There are enough corporate criminals to raise employment numbers if we would just try them, imprison them, hire guards to fucking keep them in jail.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
The babies are adorable and our new leader seems to get approval from them where ever he goes. His body language shows comfort and real caring. I hope he also gets his steely-resolve re-changed each time he looks one in the eyes. Their futures have been so badly threatened by the neocons. So much damage to roll back to give the kids a fighting chance decent lives.
Can't help but chuckle at the sight of the Secret Service Detail all casual in polo shirts and tropical prints! What a hoot! Secret Service Casual Dress Friday goes extended.
After dealing with the arrogant criminals they have most recently been protecting, a well earned change to get to protect a leader worthy of their efforts.
One wonders how the Detail with bush or cheney feels when they look at the new guy. Obama's penchant for mingling has to worry them, but babies to kiss and smiling parents have to be more satisfying than journalists throwing shoes.
Looking at the faces of the people with their lawfully (and overwhelmingly) elected leader has to have an impact on the soul. Watching the new leader's interactions with those people must have an impact on the people around Obama. The faces encountered while traveling with Obama would seem likely to impart a more hopeful view of the future for the nation the agents serve.
I am grateful such dedicated civil servants have a leader who actually deserves the honor of their company. And America certainly showed support for the troops by electing a sane and brilliant CIC who cares about people beyond the Haves and the Have Mores.
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