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| | Jalen's Moon. | | | Sunday, December 14, 2008 (6:48 PM)
(I'm feeling melancholy) | | Friday's full moon was amazing - the closest the moon has been to us in a long time.
I wished upon it, calling it Jalen's moon.
Jalen was a beautiful 5 year old boy, the son of a friend where I work, a twin to his sister Sheriden. But last Tuesday, he died suddenly. His appendix burst, and he died. His family is heartbroken beyond belief.
Yesterday, during the visitation and memorial service, people were lined up to give their condolences to my friend and his family. Lots of people from work, and who used to work there, showed up. Our CEO showed up and like all of us, tried to comfort daddy, who we know as Big D, one of the funniest people at work.
Dad and Mom are the strongest people I have known in a long time - they got up and talked about their son, kept it together better than I could have.
And now, the rest of that family's life goes on, without their Jalen, and they will never be the same.
I never had kids, and I cannot imagine the intense pain they feel. I know that the pain pervaded the funeral home yesterday, it just shot through me in waves.
So many thoughts ran through my head, how lucky my family is, really, our kids being healthy and growing up to be young men and women. We haven't had a tragedy in our family like this since I was a kid myself.
And those long ago tragedies of children lost came to my mind; my friend David, in a freak baseball accident. My brother in laws loss of his sister inlaw and her kids, in an auto accident.
It's an impossible loss for my friend to recover from. Now we can be there for him. But that's all we can do.
But from now on, December's full moon will be Jalen's moon, at least to me, and I believe to other people too. | | | 65 Views | 0  Thumbs Up | 0 Comments |  |
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| | Election | | | Wednesday, November 5, 2008 (5:39 AM)
(I'm feeling drained) | | I am in awe of the people who got out and voted, showing their power in America, and seeing that power translate into something the whole world hoped for.
I fear for Obama and his family, because we have plenty of armed idiots in this country that get crazy ideas.
I want him given a fair chance to make a mark on this country - to bring back what we can be.
I look forward to not being hit over the head with fear, fear, fear of people in places whom we don't even know. Because if we met them on the street, we would see we have more in common than differences. And this administration didn't want that kind of idea around.
I still have fears that the current administration will do something incredibly stupid, like attacking Iran. That would plunge the world into a horror of unbelieveable consequences. I just want them to back off, completely. I want them and their cronies to leave America alone now - hands off.
I want to see what we all can do together - with a leader that can inspire us and point us to a different way of doing things - without signing statements hanging over our heads.
So, even though I am happy, I am cautious, I am on guard, and I am vigilant. There is no relaxing now.
There's a lot of work to do. | | | | 78 Views | 6 Thumbs Up | 4 Comments | |
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| | CUFF again! what a weird rep... | | | Thursday, October 23, 2008 (7:41 AM)
(I'm feeling pleased) | | I am psyched! Second year in a row I appear in a film at the Chicago Underground Film Festival - "The Universe and Young Pilot Nelson" by Jerzy Rose/Julia Zinn!!
So, Oct 30, I'll have that weird sensation of strangers laughing at my antics... love it! | | | | 74 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | Move - Martyn Bennett | | | Friday, October 3, 2008 (7:55 PM)
(I'm feeling drained) | | | http://www.martynbennett.com/images/swf/MB_Move_01.swf | | | | 85 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | Not up to par | | | Sunday, July 27, 2008 (7:22 AM)
(I'm feeling sick) | | "'I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave.
Dave, my mind is going.
I can feel it. I can feel it.
My mind is going.
There is no question about it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I'm a... fraid.
Good afternoon, gentlemen."
2001: A Space Odyssey
You don't expect your body to go into sick shutdown, it just does. Anything that was planned, any activity expected, anything can be sidelined.
You can try to fight through it, try to ignore it. But it will take over anyway.
As I end up saying, getting sick is nature's way of telling you to lay the hell down. | | | | 127 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | Impeachment for Treason | | | Sunday, July 13, 2008 (10:57 AM)
(I'm feeling awake) | |
Impeachment is a word heard more these days, I see articles or hear about legislators talking about it.
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales - the lot of them need to be impeached.
Harriet Myers has failed to show up for testimony TWICE! If I did that I'd be in jail now.
I want them out - all of them. I want them tried for treason and murder.
Here is my fear.
I fear martial law being used when more angry Americans get angry enough to surround more cars and take to the streets. All the groundwork has been laid for martial law and internment of citizens who disagree with our government. It is not out of character for this administration to see impeachment proceedings as a 'national emergency' and declare martial law.
Then the few troops we have here will have to make a horribly tough call.
While I want impeachment, I fear what the madmen will do.
I never wished to be a coward, but I have deep abiding fear of these people and their power. As citizen, I should not fear these people this much, but they have put in place all that is needed to enforce martial law in this country.
Are these fears unreasonable?
Are these visions just overactive imagination?
Could we lose everything before we are forced to reclaim it?
And I wonder why I have trouble sleeping. | | | | 124 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | One Day at a Time | | | Sunday, July 13, 2008 (10:44 AM)
(I'm feeling awake) | |
Maybe tomorrow will be a normal day.
Maybe, just maybe, it will be a good day.
Maybe, tomorrow will be the beginning of the revolution.
That is the maybe I can't get used to thinking about. I'd rather... not think about it.
Will we get to that point? Will we have to take up makeshift weapons when our peace placards won't do the job any more?
When does the other shoe drop? Which peace protest will I be at when the teargas flies? Which peace vigil will be the one that I feel a billy club crack my skull, and before I black out feel something warm run down my shoulders?
I have never wanted to go back in time more than I do right now. Ten years... when I had just moved back to Chicago. Fifteen years...when I lived in Indiana. Twenty years... 1987 - a much simpler time, compared to now. I want to go back to then. I wasn't paid well then, I didn't feel well then, but I didn't fear like this then.
When my house was broken into, nothing was stolen. Now I worry - what was left behind? I haven't found bugging devices, but where and how would I look? How many tracking systems are on my computer to note every word I type, every word I say into the mic, every video I watch?
What do the powers that be have in store for us? We, the people; we, the useless eaters; we, the cannon fodder. We mean nothing to them. We are in their way. We are too loud. We make too much trouble. We are inconvenient.
We are the inconvenient truth. | | | | 121 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | staggering ground and passive distance | | | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 (9:47 PM)
(I'm feeling drained) | |
on the next block two do not speak, they eat in
silence and dare not break that silence, or they
would have to love. that would hurt even more.
they turn to go to work and both drive crying.
half a mile away a small girl is caught escaping to
school, i don't want to go to chemo again, i just
want to be the girl with all the hats. i don't want to
be the girl with cancer anymore. her mother and
she exchange fear. they get in the car and head for the hospital.
in the next town a retired couple exchange gentle
touch and whispers, he thinks - she's so fragile, i
hope i stay healthy to take care of her. she thinks -
he's so fragile - I hope he won't suffer.
in the next state one car is entangled in another.
two cars have become one. life runs out of the
doors and mingles with gasoline, breath is not
heard, then a faint whoosh, and then the fireball. | | | | 128 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | It's hard to impeach Cheney | | | Friday, May 30, 2008 (8:55 PM)
(I'm feeling aggravated) | | Mr Wexler of Florida asked the US House of Representatives to take this forward in January 2008, and I haven't heard a peep since.
[Congressional Record: January 15, 2008 (House)]
[Page H8]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr15ja08-86]
BEGIN IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS ON RESOLUTION OF IMPEACHMENT OF VICE
PRESIDENT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WEXLER. Madam Speaker, on November 7, 2007, this House voted to
refer Congressman Kucinich's resolution of impeachment of Vice
President Cheney to the House Judiciary Committee. As a member of the
Judiciary Committee, I now ask that we immediately begin impeachment
hearings.
The issues at hand are far too serious to ignore. Dick Cheney faces
credible allegations of abuse of power that if proven may well
constitute high crimes and misdemeanors.
Did the Vice President manipulate intelligence to push this Nation
into war based on false pretense?
Did the Vice President unmask a covert CIA agent for political
purposes?
Did the Vice President order the illegal surveillance of Americans
and the illegal use of torture?
These questions must be answered.
Just recently, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan
revealed that the Vice President and his staff purposely gave him false
information to report to the American people, a clear obstruction of
justice.
This administration has undermined the checks and balances of our
government by brazenly ignoring congressional subpoenas and recklessly
claiming executive privilege. Impeachment hearings are the only way to
force the Bush administration to answer questions and tell the truth.
Congress must take the first step by enforcing the subpoenas against
Harriet Miers and the President's Chief of Staff and hold them in
contempt of Congress. In this time, at this moment, Congress must stand
for the truth. If we fail to act, history may well judge us complicit
in the alleged crimes of Vice President Cheney.
Madam Speaker, a growing chorus of Americans are calling for
accountability. The response from Congress thus far has been silence
and denial.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida is reminded to
refrain from personal references toward the Vice President.
Mr. WEXLER. Madam Speaker, not long ago I launched a Web site in
support of my call for hearings. The people responded en masse. After
only 4 weeks, over 189,000 Americans have registered their support for
hearings, names I now hold in my hand. These frustrated and patriotic
Americans come from all 50 States and share one common goal:
accountability for the Bush-Cheney administration and a rebirth of
Congress as an equal branch of government.
So many have been working on this cause before me. Groups like
Democrats.com, AfterDowningStreet.org, CodePink, ImpeachBush.org,
Impeach for Peace and others. All told, there have been well over 1
million signatures urging us to take action.
Tomorrow, I will deliver these names to my colleagues on the
Judiciary Committee with a letter to my friend Chairman Conyers calling
for hearings. I will ask my colleagues to sign this letter. In
addition, tomorrow, and continuing every day for months, I will publish
in the Congressional Record several thousand names of supporters who
have signed up.
History demands that we take action, because the case against Vice
President Cheney is far stronger than the illegalities surrounding
Watergate. When compared to the partisan and petty allegations made
against President Clinton by Ken Starr and the GOP Congress, the true
gravity of the case against the Vice President appears in its
devastating clarity. In fact, in the history of our Nation, we have
never encountered a moment where the actions of a President or a Vice
President have more strongly demanded the use of the power of
impeachment.
I have heard the arguments that it is too late, that we have run out
of time, and that we don't have the votes. While today there may not be
enough votes to impeach, it is premature to think that such support
would not exist after hearings. Let us remember that it wasn't until
after hearings began that the Watergate tapes emerged. Who knows what
facts will comfort when the full truth is told in this case?
Arguing that it is too late signals to future administrations that in
the waning months in office they are immune from constitutional
accountability. Hold hearings which will put the evidence on the table,
and the evidence alone must determine the outcome. | | | | 155 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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