The Thrill of Victory and the agony of Ticrit November 13, 2008

One of my favorite lines from the movies has been 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning, it smells like victory to me" from Apocalypse Now. That and " I'm sorry I started a fight at your black panther party" from Forest Gump!" But in reality, victory smells like blood, and burned flesh, and shit. It smells of despair and hopelessness. And if I hear we have won a voctory in Iraq one more time in going to fly to NYC, go to the offending network, and go all Hunter Thompson on the idiot that says it.
Tuesday, at a veteran's day ceremony, Dick, the man who put hole in Jackson Hole, Cheney once again gave his patented spiel about our victory in Iraq, and how the battle against terrorism has not taken place on our shores. Safe since 9-11. The resounding applause made me realize once again, that a large percentage of the American public still believes this rhetoric. And why wouldn't they. On all major news outlets, victory in Iraq seems to be undisputed. The major stories are Sarah Palin, hairless non allergenic dogs, Sarah Palin, our "economic downturn", Sarah Palin, Wall street buy outs, and Sarah Palin. The polls just before election showed that only 6% of the voting public considered the war in Iraq to be the most important issue we are currently facing. SIX PERCENT!!! Ninty four percent are more concerned about the cost of a share of General Motors stock.
There have been two major compilations of the true math involved in the war in Iraq. One was done in the States and one was completed in great Britain. Both came to almost identical figures on most of the topics, so I suspect the figures that they arrived at are as close to real numbers as the situation allows. The following figures are apparently what smells like victory to the Bush administration. 4.5 million displaced Iraqis, many now living in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria. 4 million people in need of immediate emergency aid. That aid being drinking water, shelter and medical aid. 1.3 million dead. 1.3 million men, woman and children that are in large innocent civilian's. Without adding any figures for the countless permanently injured and maimed, the total is roughly a third of the entire population of the country! Or more to the point, what had been a country. A staggering sum of human tragedy that we all must count one person at a time. One mother witnessing the death of her child. One petrified little girl with no one left to care for her. A father living with the horror of not having been able to protect his family. A grandmother consumed with hunger to the point of insanity. A young taxi driver tortured to death simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For what, in gods name. For victory? What makes it possible for a human being to except this? What have we allowed ourselves to become? This has nothing to do with victory in any sense of the word. This is about unbearable sadness and loss.

Calfornia Dreamin November 6, 2008

It took a little while, but the results of the controversial ballot measure in California are in. The entire nation watched as both sides of this hot button issue struggled to get their message across to the people of California. Outside money flowed in from all over the country as battle lines were drawn, and the blood flowed. This was clearly positioned to be a land mark vote, with the results highly anticipated from coast to coast. The question ... are we to be a moral people driven by the clear intentions of God, or are we to be rudderless, lost in an everlasting sea of despair, debauchery and fear. The choice was well defined, and Californians made their decision with a clear, and strong voice. The nation listened.
Tonight, with the storm passed and a loving and forgiving God in their hearts, the majority of people in California, indeed the whole country, will sleep a little sounder. Tomorrow morning they will walk with an extra bounce in their step to the breakfast table, knowing the eggs sitting on their plates were laid by chickens no longer forced to live in crowded conditions. Chickens that have finally been given back the personal space and autonomy that God gave them at birth. With the passing of the animal protection ballot measure, baning the overcrowded cages currently in use to house egg laying chickens, California leads the country, and the world, in making us a more compassionate and understanding community, and I for one rejoice at the vote.

Oh yeah... California, Arizona, and Florida also voted to make same sex marriage a crime punishable by fines and or prison time......
Apparently there's just too much love in this world.

One for the good guys November 5, 2008

As happy as I was last night, I have to say I wasn't surprised on the outcome of the presidential election. But I found myself surprisingly moved when it became official. During president elect Obama's acceptance speech it suddenly hit me that what started with my generation, a movement of tolerance and love that created a paradigm shift in the collective consciousness of us as a nation, a movement that ended so badly 40 years ago at the same location as the celebration was being held, had finally became real! And it took our children to do what we never came close to doing. Equality, dignity, a quest for peace and compassion just became mainstream in an incredibly significant way last night! When we were last in Chicago, we were young, full of hope and ideals. We tried so hard to change ourselves and our surroundings. And we were completely and totally unaware that we were the minority view in this nation. The bloodbath of 1968 election proved that all to clearly. After that election...we just kind of went on our way. There was still a war to end, still to much injustice to ignore, but the movement died in that same park, outside the democratic convention in the summer of 1968, and in the polls in the Autumn that followed. We carried with us what we could, excepted what we had to, and as every generation before us, just disappeared into life. The shift had happened, but I think it was so subtle, and we were so busy being disillusioned, we may have missed much of it. Looking back I can recognise that we all seemed to treat each other a little differently, hateful words and actions were pushed into side alleys and gravel paths...off the main street that had such a short time before been excepted as the natural order of things. Your flag decal didn't get you into heaven anymore! Intolerance and hatred were just a little less acceptable, and had to be a little more hidden. We did not go forward unchanged.
And last night it dawned on me, that in our collective homes our children were being raised to feel that intolerance is intolerable. They were allowed to flourish in the state they were born in and not taught how to hate, or who to hate. And what so many of us thought dead 40 years ago was delivered to the nation last night on the shoulders of our youth. They worked, and volunteered, and most important came out in record numbers to vote. They delivered the first real chance at the kind of change we believed with all our souls to be possible 40 years ago. I am so proud and inspired by our children today.
There was a part of a song I listened to many years ago, and thought beautiful and profound. But last night I finally understood the real meaning of the verse.

We can teach them nothing-nothing but survival in a desert bare,
But they can teach us how to love, and live and tie bright ribbons in our hair

Thank you children, for the lesson
You didn't have to wait so long!