Copyright 2009 Craig Stone
the whole thing all at once. I'm sure someone's thought of this. There were a few passages wherein the drafters spoke pointedly about writing down what was occurring so that others would fully understand the Declaration. As King George's actions were chronicled, so too should Bush and Cheney's. My bright boy saw immediately a few parallels and I explained others to him. We need to write a Declaration of Independence from the past eight years so that everyone now and in future can see how we will have reacquainted ourselves with our founders' ideals in the next few years.
of the liberals I know. I love the revolutionary ideal of these United States, even as I despise the previous administration and most of the Republicans in power. With Obama in charge it feels like adults once again steer the ship of state. A good example of the childishness of the Republicans: the Second Amendment. I agree that people have the right to own weapons, guns included. But there have to be some restrictions to balance the right with the necessity of having a reasonably safe society. Else, why not be able to carry concealed hand grenades? Or gird ourselves with swords as we fly? A sword would certainly be a protection from terrorists with box cutters. Or allow Civil War re-enactors to form as real militias? Or allow private citizens to duel, be it with Sopwith Camels, tanks or RPGs? I could go on. But it's such a waste of time. I'm so tired of the dumb-ass NRA Limbaugh Fox News Newt Gingrich Ronald Reagan yarkosphere. See how easy it is to ensnare oneself in childish things? There is real work to be done and here I am again: name-calling. A Republican I like: Abraham Lincoln. Obama is shrewd to read and learn from history. I should remember to Be Like Barack. 01-25-09 Here's something I'd like to remember. I've just spent the evening looking at all the happy and hopeful faces during and after the Inauguration. Basically, it feels like when the Berlin Wall came down. But even better. Like it's never felt before. Garrison Keillor had an especially gushy song on his show today. I told the boys this is probably the best President they'll ever have. They'll all be downhill from here, most likely. Anyway, how far we've come. Just a few months back I remember realizing something. I told the boys this is what finally kicked a lot of the Republicans out of office: the Republicans are exclusive in who they like, at least when you witness the campaigns they wage. They don't like liberals, people who read books, pro-choice women, gays, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, protesters, peace-niks, hippies, long hairs, black people, brown people, immigrants, the poor, arabs, atheists, union people, teachers, non-right wing celebrities, San Franciscans, New Yorkers, blue-staters, anti-gun activists, veterans who criticize, non-believers, non-religious scientists, lawyers, "evolutionists," gun-control realists, birth control advocates, animal activists, conservationists, ACLU members, Democrats, people who want the government to help the poor, preachers who dare criticize, people who don't wear flags, anti-war activists, rock-the-voters, ACORN, the French, the Chinese, the Iranians, conscientious objectors, socialists, artists, environmentalists, global warming believers, anyone but the military who wants government money, regulators, whistle-blowers, single mothers, professors, non-hunters, the United Nations, "elitists," people who eat arugula, no-nukes people, animal rights activists, "activist" judges, the Kennedy's, the Roosevelts, civil libertarians, vegetarians, New Age-ists, liberal Christians, non- apologetic Chomskys, Hillary Clinton and other uppity women, student activists. I could go on and on and on and on and on. It's not even worth thinking about but there you have it.
wrote a poem re the Israeli/Palestinian conflict almost 25 years ago. In the UWM Union students from both strident sides were protesting each other's presence, marching, singing yelling, waving flags--blue/white raging in one direction, green and black?, raging in the other. Going around in circles. How metaphorical can you get? The obvious thought here is: none of the participants can really understand what's happening. They march in circles like ants. Here's the poem: basically, fence the whole country in. Instead of guard towers, speaker towers. Like the FBI blasts music at hostage takers, etc., play two songs: "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance," overandoverandoverandover until every "Palisraelian" understands. Crazy stupid idea? Irrational? Someone like me just can't get it? I'm an idiot? Well. Please explain to me: why exactly are they firing rockets and blowing themselves up? What, concretely, is this going to accomplish? And what will bombing and terrorizing Gazans do? Please tell me how, after these current atrocities are over, the killing will have solved the problems. Here's another chilling item. Sarah and I were surfing, going back through the decades, reading the details of the conflicts over the past 50 years. We came across an accounting and analysis of the current situation. We thought the document was timely, reasoned, accurate. The author was right on. The problem was, the article was circa 1971. Wow. Nothing had changed except the names of the innocent dead. 01-04-09 The usual happening in Israel/Palestine. This time a war on Hamas. Hamas war on Isreali people via rocket fire. Everyone thinks they know it all. Here's my solution, or was until I thought of a more detailed plan. 1. Either side stop violence completely, no matter what, until the non-violent victim garners sympathy from world, and the extra extra extra help the non-violent side gets a lasting and justice peace or a peaceful lasting justice. Just as easy as saying "Give Peace a Chance." The citizens of either side have to put a stop to their violent citizens in order for this to work. Hey, here's an idea. How about both sides working on this simultaneously? Okay. Here's my more detailed, up to date, solution. I'll pretend I'm Barack and formulate a goal to work toward. This plan assumes that Israel and Palestine will exist independent of the other. 1. Israel's obviously more powerful than the Palestinians in every way. So they renounce any violent response no matter what. 2. Israel bombards Palestine with food, aid, medical resources, money, schools, jobs as if the Palestinians were actually Jew's who are oppressed and in need of humanitarian compassion. This could take decades. 3. In the meantime, some group like the United Nations, or a new mid-east alliance with partners from every possible persuasion, works to stop rocket fire, suicide attacks, etc. This is essential. The Israeli's will need all the help they can get and more to be able to live in peace without continual threats of violence . The neutral helper organization will be responsible to stop the violence so the Israeli's can concentrate on being good guys, since they will be, by virtue of all the help they will be giving the Palestinians. (This assumes that Palestinians are thought of as "good guys" as well. No bad guys except for the violent ones) 4. There's a part for every nation. But the U.S. has the most responsibility being the superpower it is. Pressure, influence, roll up it's citizen sleeves and pressure Arab nations to do their part to stop the rocket attacks, suicide bombers. We did win WWII after all. The Arab nations have to open their lands, hearts to embrace Palestinians as their own. Give the Palestinians everything they give their own citizens, including dual-citizenship. And, while they're at it, stop supporting idiots who proclaim Israel should be wiped off the map. (Hey, here's an idea. Egypt: give up some of your territory to enlarge Palestine. Why should the Israeli's be the only ones giving up the miniscule territory they have? Israel is way too small as it is. ) 12-28-08 Well we're in Chicago for a family trip. Great fun. Vietnamese noodle soup--my favorite. So are the Impressionists. The aqaurium--eh. I always enjoy art museums with Adolph. So what got me wrriting tonight? Oh yeah. John Lennon is "appearing" in a commercial to promote cheap laptops to the masses. Kind of creepy. But I'm sure he'd approve. I write that is if he is my own personal saviour. I'm another rabid fan. But on BBC.co.uk they had asked for people's imprsessions of where they were when he was shot. I'll tell you where I was--in my bedroom in the dark and my father came in and we stood listening to the radio and I was so young I don't believe I understood enough to put into words what it meant for a few years. I was 16 at the time, almost 17. Right there in the next months I stopped being a boy. I was suddenly aware of the realities of life, as in holy shit! This place is a terrible place! What shit happens. What was that Ferlinghetti poem. Life is a beautiful place? Things were much worse than they appeared in pictures. Even now I can't put it into words except to say I stopped believing there were fantasy realms just over the next horizon of wooded hills. I mean--the pointlessness of the cruelty of humans, how we're all ants really. Another "growing up" point was when I suddenly realised that, no, Bob, no one has to serve anybody. (I think Lennon had said something about everyone has to serve themselves when he heard that song.) Not only is there no heaven, but, even worse, there's no hell where the deserving get what's coming to them. So the only thing Dick Cheney's going to suffer from is what comes to all of us. And he's going to have a hell of a lot of rich fun doing it, the bastard. Don't call his "sport" hunting. Finally, there's no reincarnation either. So we're all alive and then we're dead. Everything else is a frickin' fairy tale. According to what I understand of the Buddha, we are not to believe in anything, but see with our own eyes and look as clearly as possible. So I'm a "believer" in science. The only way I "understand" reincarnation is that we evolve as we live and we are different every day. So, hopefully, today's asshole is a little better than yesterday's. I'm now a better father than the selfish bastard I was before I was reborn in the Lord that is me. 12-14-08 Tonight Sarah is making the family tree in photos for Cal, for his Spanish class. It's taken quite a while. Meanwhile, I taught the boys how to play football like we used to in study hall. (The football is a paper folded into a triangle.) I can't remember if the opponent got to kick a field goal if you knocked the football over the edge? The boys had tons of fun playing the game. It brought back memories for me. I remember pretending to be the Packers or the Vikings. Great fun. 12-08-08 Here's another idea. I shouldn't write anything unless I've got something to say. Which I aways do but who wants to read it? I don't even want to read it. Maybe once I'm not self- concious about it I'll put in something good. For instance, because I use the spell check all of the time- I can't spell worth a damn. I used to be a great speller. (See "self-concious" above. That happened unconciously.) I'll try writing it again, as if I'm merely typing the word in something worth reading.) Little Johny oops Johney no Johnny? Jonney? Little Johnny was self-conscious about playing on the railroad tracks. I told him not to play on the tracks. Of course, he didn't know what an LP was either. So much time had passed for me as well. The taxi driver said to me: "Do you remember party lines?" And I knew he knew I knew exactly what they were, that they had a certain girl or needed to get a hold of a friend before he left his house, I would pick up the phone, what they called a touch-tone phone, which meant "new, modern", and I'd hear some woman yacking on the "other line"," as we used to say, Even with the space-age technology of touch-tone phones we would all say we had to dial the number as in, "Is Franky home?" and the party on the opposite end would say, "There's no Franky here." and maybe after youd' apologized for getting the wrong number the other party would say "Welll what number did you dial." And you'd say '123-456-7890"" and they'd say, well that's your problem, this is 123-456-7899. You dialed the wrong number." Sorry, you'd say. Of course, these days you don't have to interact with the other party, much less have to wait for the woman you thought might live down the street to get off the phone so you could call your girlfriend before your parents got home. Not that we had what they call phone sex these days. You just had the ache and you had to talk with her because her parents would be home soon as well. See how much simpler things were back then? Any minute your parents might walk in and ask "Who are you calling?" and you pick up the phone for the third time and the woman who might actually be the one who lives down the block is still yacking on the phone. Well after the third time you don't have to politely put down the reciiever. It's alright if you slam it down, maybe after saying "Damn it!" So finally then when she's off the phone your parents are still not home and your girlfriend's folks aren't home, you call and she's home and you can see her face when she speaks, you can almost smell her smell from when you kissed behind the garage, and just after "How was your day" "I miss you so badly" When can you come over next?" "My mom said I can stay out till 9 o'clock on weekends?" just about then when you can talk as if you'e both under the same blanket at the picnic, you hear the party line woman pick up her phone and click put it down. You can't believe it! That woman was on the phone for half an hour! And your girlfriend says, "Well, we should probably get off the phone." And you say, "Damn. No. We can talk." And the woman picks up and clicks for you to get off again. So much for that. And you think you hear your parents in the drive anyway. "Goodbye, see you after school tomorrow." "I love you pookie." Ilove you too But you still have the ache to speak to her waht you feel in your body like you did in the rec room when her parents were gone overnight to a wedding in some kind of town that was far enough away so that you knew how long it would take for them to come home from the hour they had called for the last "Is everything okay? Sissy has to be home before 11 so leave a light on for her." 12-07-08 Here's an idea...this was something I said before this last election, you know, the Obama one. Why don't the Democrats ever stand up for anything? Why aren't they tougher? Why didn't they fight alito and roberts more? Now we're stuck with these guys. Maybe Supreme terms should not be for life.1 |
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