Public Broadcasting Targeted By House
Read This - Full House action anticipated as early as tomorrow.
Sign an electronic petition from Move On dot Org
Can you help us reach 400,000 signers by the end of the day?
Sign petition here
Once you've signed the petition, please pass it along to friends, family and neighbors who count on NPR and PBS.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Even In The Dark... Hope ~ Peace
THERE ARE PROBABILITIES and likelihoods, but there are no guarantees. Rebecca Solnit writes in her commentary: Acts of Hope: Challenging Empire on the World Stage [click here] a sobering representation of the new challenges of activism. [It], says Solnit,"is not a journey to the corner store; it is a plunge into the dark." She points out it is more like weather, not like a game of checkers that at some point will end. The weather goes on... you don't declare a winner and a loser, fold up the board and put it on a shelf.
For Solnit it is easy to see how a lot of the antiwar movement has done that in the wake of our second Iraq war. All the energy that was successfully generated in opposition, yet there was still war. It is only natural to look at it as a contest that ended with a winner and a loser. But that view ignores the larger or global picture. It is like weather... tomorrow the issue is still there... maybe not even in Iraq. Maybe someplace else.
Still, Solnit has looked for and found a silver lining in many of the events of the past couple of years. I found this particular assessment interesting food for thought:
If groping around in the dark is scary for some, Rebecca Solnit thinks it is a bonus for the cause of peace activism. I can see her point. After all, the Bush administration has already pushed the envelope in many areas, including a first-strike military action and questionable mis-statement of intelligence information. Knowing the level to which this administration is willing to operate, and the precedence it has established, give rise to more uncertainty and that should strengthen the resolve of millions to demand more accountability.
In a bit of self-serving pat on the back, I like that she acknowledged the contribution poets have made to the cause:
Even in these dark times... here's to reason, hope and peace.
For Solnit it is easy to see how a lot of the antiwar movement has done that in the wake of our second Iraq war. All the energy that was successfully generated in opposition, yet there was still war. It is only natural to look at it as a contest that ended with a winner and a loser. But that view ignores the larger or global picture. It is like weather... tomorrow the issue is still there... maybe not even in Iraq. Maybe someplace else.
Still, Solnit has looked for and found a silver lining in many of the events of the past couple of years. I found this particular assessment interesting food for thought:
We achieved a global movement without leaders. There were many brilliant
spokespeople, theorists and organizers, but when your fate rests on your leader,
you are only as strong, as incorruptible, and as creative as he -- or,
occasionally, she -- is. What could be more democratic than millions of people
who, via the grapevine, the Internet, and various groups from churches to unions
to direct-action affinity groups, can organize themselves? Of course leaderless
actions and movements have been organized for the past couple of decades, but
never on such a grand scale. The African writer Laurens Van Der Post once said
that no great new leaders were emerging because it was time for us to cease to
be followers. Perhaps we have.
If groping around in the dark is scary for some, Rebecca Solnit thinks it is a bonus for the cause of peace activism. I can see her point. After all, the Bush administration has already pushed the envelope in many areas, including a first-strike military action and questionable mis-statement of intelligence information. Knowing the level to which this administration is willing to operate, and the precedence it has established, give rise to more uncertainty and that should strengthen the resolve of millions to demand more accountability.
In a bit of self-serving pat on the back, I like that she acknowledged the contribution poets have made to the cause:
"American poets became an antiwar movement themselves when Sam Hamill declined an invitation to Laura Bush's "Poetry and the American Voice" symposium shortly after her husband's administration announced their "Shock and Awe" plan, and he circulated his letter of outrage. His e-mail box filled up, he started http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/, to which about 11,000 poets have submitted poems to date. Hamill became a major spokesperson against the war and his website has become an organizing tool for the peace movement."
Even in these dark times... here's to reason, hope and peace.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Exclusionary
The wheel covers come off
Residuals taint the hands
Darkening the pep of fleshtone
A stain not easily overlooked
Limiting what can be touched
Excluding the most important
Residuals taint the hands
Darkening the pep of fleshtone
A stain not easily overlooked
Limiting what can be touched
Excluding the most important
Monday, June 13, 2005
White House Chain of Command Once Again Fuzzy
I CANNOT RESIST making this observation in today's post....
Evidently when President George W. Bush spoke on Wednesday with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel, about the fate of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, he failed to check with his boss first.
In the Wednesday interview with Cavuto, Bush left open the possibility that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Closed down. The question was asked amid growing criticism of the way in which the facility has been used and the treatment prisoners have receive. Former President Jimmy Carter, being among many calling for closure of the facility.
Vice President Dick Cheney, however, says no... Gitmo prison isn't closing - ''The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people,'' he said in an interview for Fox News channels "Hannuity & Columns." adding, '"I mean, these are terrorists for the most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the al-Qaida network."
MEANWHILE... Richard Everhart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet died at his Hanover, NH home on Thursday. The 101 year old poet was admired for mentoring generations of aspiring writers. He was responsible for a dozen books of poetry and verse during a sixty-plus year career. He will be remembered for referring to poetry as, "...A natural energy resource of our country," in his 1977 acceptance speech for a National Book Award. "It has no energy crisis, possessing a potential that will last as long as the country. Its power is equal to that of any country in the world."
CHANGING OF THE GUARD occurred this weekend at the Northland / Maple Woods Writing Group where Scot Icom stepped down after moderating the group for the past two years and Chris Madonna accepted the torch - careful Chris, don't get burnt! :) Big thanks to Scot, and best wishes to Chris.
MY DAUGHTER MEGHAN, rode in a bike event this Saturday morning - going extra distance( missing the poorly marked turn-point) and still finished second overall and was the first female to complete. This is I believe only her second sanctioned event. I wish I could post a copy of her crossing the the finish, however I was not present, having taken the car to the dealership for service. When she came home she proclaimed herself the "beast" with arms triumphantly in the air... I was quite proud of her and wished I had seen her cross the finish line. I'm sure it had to be poetry in motion....
Evidently when President George W. Bush spoke on Wednesday with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel, about the fate of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, he failed to check with his boss first.
In the Wednesday interview with Cavuto, Bush left open the possibility that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Closed down. The question was asked amid growing criticism of the way in which the facility has been used and the treatment prisoners have receive. Former President Jimmy Carter, being among many calling for closure of the facility.
Vice President Dick Cheney, however, says no... Gitmo prison isn't closing - ''The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people,'' he said in an interview for Fox News channels "Hannuity & Columns." adding, '"I mean, these are terrorists for the most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the al-Qaida network."
MEANWHILE... Richard Everhart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet died at his Hanover, NH home on Thursday. The 101 year old poet was admired for mentoring generations of aspiring writers. He was responsible for a dozen books of poetry and verse during a sixty-plus year career. He will be remembered for referring to poetry as, "...A natural energy resource of our country," in his 1977 acceptance speech for a National Book Award. "It has no energy crisis, possessing a potential that will last as long as the country. Its power is equal to that of any country in the world."
CHANGING OF THE GUARD occurred this weekend at the Northland / Maple Woods Writing Group where Scot Icom stepped down after moderating the group for the past two years and Chris Madonna accepted the torch - careful Chris, don't get burnt! :) Big thanks to Scot, and best wishes to Chris.
MY DAUGHTER MEGHAN, rode in a bike event this Saturday morning - going extra distance( missing the poorly marked turn-point) and still finished second overall and was the first female to complete. This is I believe only her second sanctioned event. I wish I could post a copy of her crossing the the finish, however I was not present, having taken the car to the dealership for service. When she came home she proclaimed herself the "beast" with arms triumphantly in the air... I was quite proud of her and wished I had seen her cross the finish line. I'm sure it had to be poetry in motion....
Friday, June 10, 2005
Finding Things
In what I suppose could best be described as a rare find, an aria composed by Johann Sebastain Bach was recently discovered in the back of a poetry book when a researcher at Weimar's Anna Amalia Library in Germany conducted an inventory of material salvaged from a blaze, which gutted the library last year.
The handwritten piece is said to have been written to accompany one of the poems in a book given to the Duke of Weimer by Bach in 1713. The book was thought to be simply poetry written by a local poet. Evidently, the Library all along has had this intriguing piece and was unaware of it. Strange how things work sometimes. They almost lost something they didn't know they had.
So this got me to thinking about the interesting things I sometimes tuck into book.
At random, I have pulled out four books and found the following:
1. A sheet of self adhesive commemorative Ogden Nash stamps. Ok, there are only 5 stamps left - the others have been used.
2. An officemax receipt from 2-13-95 with notes scribbled on the back relating to diabetic food exchange points.
3. A "real bookmark" - as opposed to one of those other items we insert to keep place in a book.
This on is a Shakespeare - from a Literary Luminaries series.
4. A business card sized cardstock that says "I carry a pager" and has a place for a number. ( What the "F" is a pager? Is that something like an 8-track?)
Well, none of those rises to the level of the Anna Amalia Library find. I suppose 292 years from now, five 37 cent postage stamps may be worth more. Likely at least a good laugh that we could even sent mail across the country for 37 cents... or maybe people will just bust a gut laughing at the thought of snail main period.
The handwritten piece is said to have been written to accompany one of the poems in a book given to the Duke of Weimer by Bach in 1713. The book was thought to be simply poetry written by a local poet. Evidently, the Library all along has had this intriguing piece and was unaware of it. Strange how things work sometimes. They almost lost something they didn't know they had.
So this got me to thinking about the interesting things I sometimes tuck into book.
At random, I have pulled out four books and found the following:
1. A sheet of self adhesive commemorative Ogden Nash stamps. Ok, there are only 5 stamps left - the others have been used.
2. An officemax receipt from 2-13-95 with notes scribbled on the back relating to diabetic food exchange points.
3. A "real bookmark" - as opposed to one of those other items we insert to keep place in a book.
This on is a Shakespeare - from a Literary Luminaries series.
4. A business card sized cardstock that says "I carry a pager" and has a place for a number. ( What the "F" is a pager? Is that something like an 8-track?)
Well, none of those rises to the level of the Anna Amalia Library find. I suppose 292 years from now, five 37 cent postage stamps may be worth more. Likely at least a good laugh that we could even sent mail across the country for 37 cents... or maybe people will just bust a gut laughing at the thought of snail main period.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)