Rockaway Park, NY 11694 * September 11, 2011 ** "I will take no bull from your house" Leviticus
HEARD ABOUT TOWN
ZOE GOES FOR A NAKED JAUNT
Some say the naked body is a beautiful thing. Zoe West walked down Broadway naked. She wore a coat of paint by Andy Golub. I say that nudity is a horrific thing when taken out of context. The naked body is not meant to strut along the street. Leave your nudity in bed, Zoe, where I am sure it is quite attractive. Don`t display it to children and old women. It is not art. It is out of place like a fart, an ugly smell in a casual universe. Do not defecate on my parade.
Geoff Jackson:
DECENIA
Ten years
A decennia
Is half a full-blooded
Adult youth
Ready to fight
America`s wars
And avenge the Twin Towers
POLITICS AND THE TIMES SQUARE NAKED COWBOY
Politics is prejudice. It is a cognitive set of values and ideas that leaks into every discussion. Its intention is vocalization rather than sound argumentation. The speaker ratifies himself through his own voice. Why is the bias of politics so prevalent? It is because it is so urgent and important. When we discuss our president or our government we are talking about people and structures that influence and dominate our lives. The wrong choices, the wrong leaders (e.g. Stalin and Hitler) could lead to death and Armageddon. Of course, most of us don`t have much influence on the world. Our opinions are not calls for action, merely opinions. In our awareness of our weakness we get angrier and our opinions get stronger. We are shouts without substance; we are the need to vent rather than the willingness to discuss. So when we talk politics we are merely swapping prejudices. There is no thought, just bias. There is no sense in even discussing politics. At the end of the argument you will remain a liberal and I a conservative. We are dominated more by opinion than by truth. Politics is a form of exhibitionism. It is the Naked Cowboy playing his guitar at Times Square. Nothing will be accomplished. There will be artistic incompetence and no hit records, just an off key poseur in his underwear.
Geoff Jackson:
911
Poetry 2011-09-03
RED MEMOORY OF A BLUE DAY On a
day like this
With a sky
Like a caress of blue
It is a memory now
Red
As the beat
Of heart`s blood
TEETH TORN OUT
Teeth, grinning on a skyline
Taken out by the buzz
Of planes
Staring back like a void
To an infinity
Of blue sky
HURRICANE IRENE IS NO BIG DEAL
Bloomberg failed to handle last Christmas`s snowstorm in an expeditious way. Why worry? He was in Bermuda sunning that small body and that large wallet. So to make up for his snowy failure, he has charged into Hurricane Irene`s rainy skirt with umbrellas charging. He has evacuated people from their houses and nursing homes and created a big brouhaha about his Napoleonic leadership qualities.
He has closed down all mass transit. Shucks. No limo, no go home.
The only problem is that Bloomberg picked the wrong storm. While he should have done something more about the Christmas snow storm, he did far too much about tropical Irene. She was no hurricane. Just a little tropical thunder, a cancan dancer on the third rail of our alarmist shut down.
Charles Fredrickson:
Wisdom
Been there wherever; seen through the unseen; having done it all more than twice; it`s impossible to revert to what once was, might have been, never again will be. There`s no going back to re-live embellished past myth-takes and re-focus blurry memories by abandoning warped pre-conceptions. Grounded in virtual sense-perception reality you can hear, see, touch, smell and taste, then is now time for fearlessly daring to explore abnormal fantasies and to experience the previously unknown.
Been there wherever; seen through the unseen; having done it all more than twice; it`s impossible to revert to what once was, might have been, never again will be. There`s no going back to re-live embellished past myth-takes and re-focus blurry memories by abandoning warped pre-conceptions. Grounded in virtual sense-perception reality you can hear, see, touch, smell and taste, then is now time for fearlessly daring to explore abnormal fantasies and to experience the previously unknown.
Inspiration doesn`t just come to you – you must pursue it with heartfelt passion, stimulating emotionally disturbed emotions to a higher level of commitment. Unset identity in stateless flux, you must seek out unfounded hidden truths lying within, being becoming flexibly aware of gelling unique self-perception.
Embarking upon fourth fifth childhood
fanciful wondrous curiosity nonstop flight
unscheduled departure predestined whereabouts unknown
excess baggage stranded revolving carousel
TELL IT LIKE IT IS CHANNEL ONE
Channel One tells you the size, sex and approximate ages of criminals. While they show the videos of these felons, they won`t state their races even though it`s obvious. Is language politically correct but not videos? Give me a break. Call the perpetrators white, black, Hispanic, Arabic or whatever applies. Tell the truth not compromising lies. Or if you must be so correct, put whites in black face and blacks in white face so that we can never know the race and never apprehend the criminal. Let racial politeness outweigh keeping our country safe from rapists, murderers and hodgepodge criminals. Perhaps we should have fought the American Revolution with ear plugs so that we couldn`t hear our opponents` English accents.
Charles Fredrickson:
BOOGEYMAN
Bruised darkness upfall wide asleep
Misbehaving undressed shadows tucked in
Pale moonlit childhood stolen dreams
Dispirited kidnap victims taken hostage
Innocent claims disproved guilt-free declarations
Spinal tap shivers goose warts
Itchy bedbug echoes sound awake
Snugness craving teddy bear hug
BLOOMBERG, FOOD STAMPS AND DIET
Mayor Bloomberg, from his pontificating kingdom of physical fitness and health, has decided that his underlings should not be allowed to sweeten themselves with sugary drinks and has tried to ban sodas from food stamps. I say, "What?" I drink sodas and I am not obese nor do I have diabetes. Why should Adonis Bloomberg be allowed to dictate diet to people when reasonable people are capable of deciding on their own diets? Isn`t it possible that a person who follows his proscription and doesn`t drink soda could have diabetes and obesity anyway? How does Bloomberg assume that he is both a dietician and dictator of foods?
Let`s talk about means and ends. The ends of healthy thinness are good but the means of restricting people`s freedoms to choose their own foods is dictatorial. Soda in itself isn`t bad. Misuse of it is. Should we penalize those who drink sodas sensibly because Bloomberg has a desire to be the great nanny in the sky? Bloomberg is a governmental fascist dressed up as a liberal nurse. It`s time he got out of our lives and slinked out of his third term into billionaire retirement.
Charles Fredrickson:
No Holds Bard
Bamboo that bends
Is stronger than
Almighty oaks
a rudderless world
gone adrift
steering clear of ***
Not for but with
To you
Because of you
- - - -Disappear
^^Cloud cover
Blown away^^^
Reappear- - -
A rudderless world
Gone adrift
Steering clear of
Nebulous void
Bottomless abyss
Hollow echo
- No Holds Bard
YOU`VE GOT TO BE KIDDING
Same sex marriage is ludicrous. I am not prejudiced against it. It is what it is and I dislike it for what it is. For thousands of years men couldn`t marry men. Why is marriage suddenly redefined by advocacy groups? Is Andrew Cuomo the Dean of Language or a sage who is wiser than Freud, Einstein, Shakespeare and all the staunchly heterosexuals who went before him?
Marriage is marriage is heterosexual, involving the possibility of childbirth. Language incorporates its history. You cannot redefine heterosexual marriage as no longer being sui generis.
French is different from English. They have their own histories. Same sex marriage does not even exist in the historical lexicon of the language. It does not share the voice of heterosexual language. It is schizophrenic word salad.
If we refuse to recognize homosexuality as being in another sphere than heterosexuality than we won`t be able to communicate as our languages will be garbled. The Tower of Babel is implicit in the inarticulate rubbing of two phalluses.
Alan Britt:
BURNING THE NIGHT
Old wildebeests get picked off by lions,
old humans by busses & taxis.
The hammer grins & teeters its waxy
mantis legs lined with thorns,
adjusts its torso, swivels its flat head
with a cream mascara circling espresso eyes
& stares deep into an empty Dominican cigar box.
Afraid to end up in a foul-smelling warehouse
puddle as an old tyger`s hairball discarded
along Rousseau`s bamboo forests of the night.
Geoff Jackson:
From Smokey Bottom
Valery Plame and David Kelly
When George W. Bush put himself at the head of American and `Coalition Forces` to invade Iraq, he was on the trail of `Weapons of Mass Destruction` (WDM`s) and it only little-by-little leaked out that there were none. Desperately, the Bush and Blair governments tried to suppress the truth. In the US, the Valery Plame affair gave rise to much controversy and in Britain, the death of David Kelly under mysterious circumstances has led some to believe that he was murdered by security forces. Was the firing of Valery Plame an elaborate cover-up for the fact that the Americans were implicated in the murder of this British scientist? Some have suggested that the suicides of other prominent scientists in the US were not real suicides but killings authorized by (or known to), the President himself. Or is this journalistic paranoia?
`Fair Game`, a movie made in 2010, tells the authorized version of the Valery Plame affair. Valery is a CIA secret agent, a fact concealed from almost all, and is married to Joe Wilson, a career foreign service officer. In a piece in The New York Times, “What I Didn`t Find in Africa*, Wilson maintained that Iraq had not been buying yellowcake uranium in Niger, which the Bush regime claimed it had. This blew Plame`s cover as a CIA agent and she was fired from the Agency. The leak is said to have come from `Scooter` Libby then-time the Vice-President`s chief-of-staff and security advisor and Plame was called to testify before a Congressional committee. They exonerated her and found Libby guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, sentencing him to thirty months imprisonment. However, Bush commuted his sentence due to services rendered to his country and he, like Plame, simply bows out.
Valery Plame was more than an ordinary CIA agent. She was a top operative and her exposure put her network of contacts in grave danger. The movie, `Fair Game` is based on the political memoires of both Valery Plame and Joseph Wilson.
Was, however, the Valery Plame Affair a smoke-screen to cover up something much more sinister that happened in Britain? Dr. David Kelly was a senior scientist attached to the Ministry of Defense and seconded also to several other government departments, who in May 2003 expressed concerns regarding the accuracy of a White Paper reporting the presence of WMD`s in Iraq. Part of Kelly`s job was to act as an unofficial and confidential source to journalists and in that capacity he began to reveal his doubts about Iraq`s nuclear capability to Andrew Gilligan, who broadcast them on BBC TV.
On July 15th 2003, Kelly was called to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, a Parliamentary committee equivalent to a Congressional hearing. There he was closely examined especially by a Labor MP, Andrew MacKinlay, who Kelly later described privately as an “utter bastard”. On the next day, July 16th Kelly gave evidence to the Intelligence and Security Commmittee. On July 17th Kelly was busy answering emails – mostly supportive – and on the basis of this seems to have been in good spirits. He went for a walk in the woods and his body was found dead the following day. The government appointed Lord Hutton to lead an inquiry into the circumstances of death instead of the usual coroner`s inquest, normally required in cases of death in suspicious circumstances. A British ambassador, David Brouder, had asked Kelly what would happen if Iraq was invaded and Kelly had replied, “I will probably be found dead in the woods”, so foreign turpitude cannot be ruled out either.
The official verdict was death due to suicide. The ulnar artery, a very small artery in the wrist (not the big artery used to take the pulse)was severed, a number of co-proxenal pills were concluded to have been taken and Kelly had a minor cardio-vascular condition. It can be pointed out that the blood loss from the wound was minimal, the co-proxenal both in the blood and in the stomach was not cognizant with even the twenty-nine tablets (a third of a lethal overdose), which he might have taken and the heart condition was minor. Dr. Kelly had had no previous psychiatric condition, which could explain suicide and indeed his tough career suggests an exceptionally resilient character. Lord Hutton slammed a seventy year order of secrecy on the report (rescinded by the Conservatives in the next government), whereby documents would not be released for seventy years.
Remarkably, no finger prints were found. None on the knife, none on the blister pills (which you press out of tin-foil with your fingers) and none on the water bottle presumably containing water to swallow the pills. Moreover, there were no gloves at the scene. So, had there been a third person, possibly with associates, to commit a crime? Had they done something so simple as chloroform Kelly and put a plastic bag around his head to asphyxiate him?
Dr. Michael Powers, both a medical doctor and a practicing attorney, is one of many, who criticizes Lord Hutton`s Inquiry. He points out that a coroner can require a hearing at law under oath, which Hutton could not. The whole of the medical evidence took no more than half a day and the pathologist took a half hour (though the proceedings took twenty four days spread over two months). There was no real courtroom cross-examination. Witnesses were led through prepared evidence. Dr. Powers wants a new enquiry carried out by a coroner on the basis of a number of points of error that would constitute a mis-trial.
It looks suspiciously as if the British government wanted the circumstances surrounding Dr. David Kelly`s death to be passed off as suicide. Why? He was criticizing the Labor government`s policy of invading Iraq. Valery Plame had to be denounced as leaking classified information to the press. Why? She was also undermining Bush policy in Iraq. `Scooter` Libby was behind defaming Plame. Are the two incidents connected? Did they smear and fire the one and murder the other? Who are “they”? we will never know. Some mysterious deals are cut on the corridors of power and fortunately for mere mortals like ourselves, we are not big enough to threaten our masters and be worth liquidating.
~ Geoff Jackson
NOTES AND ASIDES
The global balance of power, authority, might and control has been shifting from West to East. At a critical time, when our interconnected, evolving planet faces a horrific, implosive economic crisis, a lack of confidence to perform effectively and a credibility gap related to political corruption, greedy fraud and refusal to negotiate compromise, we must adjust to the abrupt shift of the correlation of forces away from the United States towards the People`s Republic of China. Now the world`s second largest economy, most international forecasters believe that China`s ability to surpass America`s is not a question of "if" but "when."
China`s burgeoning economy, massive foreign currency holdings, U.S. Treasury Bond investments, abundance of cash flow, human resources development to improve the standard of education, advanced technological outreach priorities and modern mercantilist policies give it significant role-playing leverage on the worldwide stage. By contrast, ballooning public debt, social welfare, pension and health care obligations, lending bank insolvency, outmoded financial rules and federal regulations on industry and ener gy all serve as impediments to progressive reforms. Overextended militarily, the debacle of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars has severely dented U.S. prowess and supremacist invincibility.
Cooperation not conflict is the key to sustaining the global economy and establishing a New World Order, one which features new centers of influence, new potential rivalry threats and new challenges to better understand international relations ideologies, aims, beliefs and values. Also required are strategic alliances and economic partnerships which mutually address and help solve common problems and perceptions in such areas as climate change, reducing toxic gas emissions, monitoring the spread of nuclear weapons, reconciling conflict disputes, countering violent extremism and terrorist insurgency. Furthermore, fair-minded governance needs equitable, sweeping reforms of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
~ Dr. Charles Frederickson
Geoff Jackson:
PRELUDE TO DISASTER
AS SUN RIPPLES* * *
Sunshine ripples from the roofs
Sky almost wipes a couple of white clouds
As slowly, the Two towers fall
One by one
WHEN THE WORLD STOOD STILL
The roar of plane engines
The vent of angry smoke
And sky-scrapers poised like chimney stacks
Ready to fall
DISTURBED LOVERS
The green of Central Park
The rustle of the trees
Couples in the grass
The innocence of the sky
- The threat hanging in the air
Michael Lee Johnson:
Sundown, Fall
Fall, everything is turning yellow and golden.
No wind, Indian summer, bright day,
wind charms with Indian enchantment,
last brides before winter snow,
grass growth slows down,
bushes cut back with chills,
haven of the winter, grows legs,
learns baby steps, pushes itself
up slowly against my patio door,
and says, “soon, soon, I`ll be there.”
Winter is sweeping up what`s left of fall;
making room for shorter days, longer nights.
Echoes of a new season.
ANDY MARTIN:
GOOD NEWS
(NEW YORK) (September 24, 2011) This column brings good news for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine. A new Republican president will end the endless conflict in 2013. I am openly predicting a "Nixon in China" moment for the Middle East. The Palestinian/Israel confrontation is not insoluble, as some believe, and it will not grind on much longer, as many expect.The vast majority of the Israeli people want peace, and the vast majority of Palestinians want peace. So peace is not the issue. Internal Israeli politics and US campaign politics are the major stumbling blocks to peace. They are not insurmountable.
Barack Obama—despite the right-wing hissy fits that Obama is anti-Israel--is not anti-Israel. The Middle East does not begin to establish why Obama is a failure as a world leader. I could tell "President" Obama how to get reelected. I don`t expect him to call me, and I won`t volunteer his path to reelection, but it`s there. Obama just can`t see it. And so it will be left to Republicans to solve the Israel/Palestine confrontation in 2013.
I call 2013 a potential "Nixon in China" moment because it took President Nixon, who had a history of opposition to China, to open the door to China. Here`s why.
I. In reality, the U. S. can no longer protect Israel
Despite all of the fund raising hoopla in both parties about the "friendship" between Israel and the United States, the US can no longer defend Israel. In 1973, President Nixon saved Israel when he ordered "everything that could fly" to resupply Israel in the midst of the 1973 war. Today, the US could probably not mount such a vast resupply operation; our resources are shrinking daily and we lack the capacity to do what Nixon did.
Israel has lost all of its regional allies. Israel cannot be secure without the support of Egypt and Turkey. These nations are regional leaders and regional powers. This week Turkey denounced Israel at the UN.
Egyptian public opinion is strongly against Israel. The future is ominous.
The US cannot neutralize the Iranian threat to world peace without the strong support of our regional allies. But our allies will not lift a finger to help us as long as their domestic public opinion is trending anti-American. We need to change that dynamic. Only a Republican can.
You won`t see it published in any US newspaper but even President Bill Clinton`s ultra-sensitive antennas have criticized the Israeli government. So time is not on Israel`s side.
The contours of a Palestinian/Israeli solution have been known for years. Israeli leaders who are free to speak the truth know that. Pro-Israel media admit that as well.
So what are we waiting for?
Answer: we are waiting for a Republican leader to do a "Nixon in China" and make peace.
II. There is a "new" Palestine
Friday there was a full-color, full-page ad in the New York Times. On behalf of the people of Palestine. Americans who are locked in a retrospective view of the Palestinian people are living in the past. This is "not your grandfather`s PLO." History is of little help in dealing with the future. The world community, national leaders, diplomats, have seen the current Palestinian leadership run circles around the Israelis. Take a look at that full-color, full-page Palestinian ad if you have access to the printed Times.
Palestinian President Abbas does not wear a pistol, Arafat-style. His western dress is as conservative as that of any national leader. There are no keffiyehs in the Palestinian delegation. More importantly, only Abbas can defeat Hamas and stop Iranian expansionism. The US can`t defeat Hamas, the Israelis can`t defeat Hamas. Only Palestinians can regain control of their polity.
Israel can still win a shooing war against Palestinians. But Israelis can no longer win a public relations war; in fact they are losing the public relations war. And the outcome of their conflict will be determined and defined by public relations and politics, not bullets.
III. Without a Palestinian state, Israel will not survive
If political fund-raiser speeches could change the world or define the world what an easy world it would be. Hot-air and half-truths could rage against reality and never lose. But the real world is a very different placefrom the fantasy island of politics or the comic book collage of talking points for campaign contributors.
Today we have Barack Obama in his full "St. Augustine" mode (I`m for peace, God, "but not quite yet.") Or Governor Perry, who seems to have founded his own one-man crusade, "Christians for Israel." Or Michele Bachmann, who is not Jewish but allows the false impression to propagate that she is Jewish in the hopes of raising campaign cash.
The new president who lands in the White House in 2013 will make peace between Israel and Palestine.
Finally, I do have one grievance against the people of Israel. So far as I am aware there is no public memorial or monument to President Richard Nixon in Israel. This is sad.
President Nixon was pilloried for making anti-Semitic remarks on the White House tapes. But Nixon saved the state of Israel from being overrun in 1973. He sent the planes flying full of American supplies. He turned the tide. Israelis have yet to erect any monument respecting his beneficence (no doubt because it raises the embarrassing rejoinder of why they were so unprepared for war). Israel owes President Nixon an appropriate appreciation and remembrance.
Nixon was not an anti-Semite. He made outrageous statements, but who among us has not? Nixon reflected the state-of-mind of the era in which he lived and the "locker room" atmosphere of a White House where talking trash was macho.
While Andy has made some interesting points concerning diminished US capabilities, the view that there can ever be peace between Israel and Palestine brokered by The US is a wishful thinking.
Clinton Van Inman:
SONG OF ULYSSES
For greatness and glory`s sake,
For all things rich and noble,
In proud ships tall let us make
Again where only men are able.
Tired we`ve grown of glitter and gold,
The Cimmerian curse of a market place,
Let us dream of Delphic days of old
That even Poseidon`s rage could not erase.
Come, arise, my men, arise
For tomorrow we shall sail
Again under blue Aegean skies
There to find newer walls to assail.
Circe`s song had made us weak
For we have slept too long and late.
Now for greater joys let us seek
Knowing we are masters of our fate.
This woeful world is much too remiss,
But only in a world such as this
One without comfort, joy, or bliss
Dare we climb the steps of Olympus.
Come my men, let us venture
Into the depths of the setting sun,
There we`ll find newer worlds to conquer
Long, long after this day is done.
Geoff Jackson:
EUROLAND
The EU and Greece
Critics of the European Union (EU) call it contemptuously `The United States of Europe` and are jealous of the infringement on their national sovereignty. The United States of America is a federal union – `e pluribus unum` – and one country. It was formed from thirteen colonies, sharing a common language, culture and law, fused in the War of Independence and tested and tempered in the civil War. There are now twenty-seven states in the EU, all with their own language, culture, law and national identity and sovereignty. Seventeen of these states belong to `Euroland` or use the `Euro` as their national currency. It has been necessary for these states to cooperate economically in order to preserve their position in the world`s markets but there has been an erosion of national liberty due to the encroachment of Big Government. It seems that no sooner do we elect politicians to the European Parliament at Strasbourg than that these people open their loud mouths and put their foot in it. Moreover, the bureaucracy in Brussels could easily be described in Charles Dickens`s words as `the Ministry of Red Tape and Sealing Wax`. The key to the functioning of the whole is the meetings of heads of states and in particular what is being called the Franco-German Axis. At the moment, the EU and particularly `Euroland` is in crisis. Three small Euro-currency states do not have the money to balance the budget. The first to crack last year was the Republic of Ireland. Government bonds went through the roof and the Irish went cap-in-hand to the EU, the IMF and the European Bank. This government was kicked out in March this year and the new government mumbled truculently about re-negotiating the loan and Irish economic sovereignty. This latter because of the strings attached to the loan whereby the Irish were told how to set their economic house in order.
Cont`d col 3
Barry Boesel:
"A Realization"
Drops of early summer rain splattered against the high window which ran from the ceiling to the ground. It was a church window with its thickly stained glass and bright colors shining garishly even in the rain which had now just begun to fall heavily on the ground below. From within the muffled sounds of an organ and people singing could be heard.
It was summer now and the church had seemed to take on a new life, and people, somehow realizing this, offered more enthusiasm than ever before. Every Sunday the church was packed and already there had been three unscheduled buffet suppers and yet the new season had just arrived.
Summer is the time for planning. Everyone plans something in the summer. A trip to England, a visit up north somewhere with the family, or perhaps a mere vacation at home away from work. Amanda Brechner was thinking of summer now as she sat stiffly in a brightly polished mahogany pew watching her father move about in front of the altar. She knew very well that her father would not for a moment consider taking a vacation away from the church. He loved his work too much. But for that matter her own Sunday school classes would double by mid-summer. They always had and she really loved to teach. Much more than she would ever admit to her father. No vacation. No change. But then who cares? It`s summer.
And there he was now, standing behind the podium ready to begin his sermon. Amanda loved her father`s sermons. They were always based on a bit of obscure foreign poetry, and then there would be a comparison to a present day problem, and last, he would always draw from the lines the need for God. And then he began to explain the origin of the poetry he was about to recite.
"* * * a very old Korean poem with an anonymous source offers the following lines which we will discuss today."
And then, in that whispery voice he always saved for reading poetry, he muttered two lines:
"The wind has no had and yet it sways all the trees;
The moon has no feet and yet it travels across the skies;
He glanced up now and all eyes were watching him. Even the youngest children were entranced, for somehow they knew that this was one of Reverend Brechner`s sermons. And then, as he searched the eyes of his listeners, he began to explain the lines and show how he felt them important.
"Korea is a very minute nation plagued on all sides by very forceful powers, Russia and China. Surrounded by wealth, unlimited resources, money, immense populations, and sheer power. What has Korea? None of these, and yet she has remained a proud and unconquered nation throughout the centuries. But how is this possible? How does a lesser power overcome a greater power?
"The wind has no hands and yet it sways all the trees;
"The moon has no feet and yet it travels across the skies"
There is a factor other than size or power that enables the lesser to overcome the greater. To the Korean people that factor is the belief in themselves as a free people. But to us that factor is God. With the help of God the lesser can overcome the greater. It is not necessary to have extreme wealth or power. But the important thing to remember is that, although you may not be a lesser power in any way today, there may be a time when you will have need for God in this way. So do not wait til the time comes. You can never tell the future. God is ready now. Now as well as later . . . Let us pray."
Amanda Brechner knelt and closed her eyes in prayer.
It had stopped raining and the sun was beginning to emerge once again from behind a disappearing cloud. The service was over and reverend Brechner was standing in the doorway of the church shaking hands and receiving compliments on his service. When his daughter came cut, he kissed her lightly on the cheek and told her to take the car and go home without him. "I`ve got some people to meet later on and I am sure they will give me a lift home. It`s right on their way," he had told her. And she had said that that would be fine and that she would see him later. But Amanda Brechner did not see her father later. Not later not ever again. Reverend Brechner had been killed in an automobile accident on his way home that afternoon.
Eight years. It had been eight years and a day had not gone by when Amanda Brechner had not cried for her father. Why had this happened? For what reason? She had asked these questions many times but not once in eight years had she found an answer. The first years had gone by very slowly, perhaps because she was constantly being reminded of it all. The funeral, the letters, postcards, flowers, the visitors with their empty explanations, the apologies ye, very slow years. And then she had moved to a small apartment on the other side of town. That had helped. Yes, but still, why? Why had this happened? No answer. Suddenly she could see her father standing in the church doorway with the breeze ruffling his white hair. He was shaking hands. Everyone`s hands. And then the fresh smile he bore for everyone he saw. The warm handshakes. A smile. A gentle kiss. Eight years and then suddenly a chill ran down Amanda Brechner`s back as she remembered her father`s sermo n that day.
"But the important thing is that you remember that, although you may not have need for God in this way today, you cannot tell the future. So remember that God is ready now. Now as well as later."
The next morning Amanda Brechner got up early and drove from her apartment to the other side of town. When she came to a small church with a strained-glass window she stopped and got out of her car. For a while she stood still, staring at the doorway which was now closed. Slowly she began to walk, and when she got to the door she opened it quietly. She could see no one inside. She went in and walked down a side aisle. When she came to a door marked BIBLE CLASSES she stopped. "Must I?" she thought, "Must I?" She opened the door and looked within. It was just as she remembered it to be. Slowly she walked up to a big desk in the front of the room. She sat down. Tears dropped from her eyes as she ran her fingers over the worn wood. "If only" she thought.
Suddenly the door opened and a man dressed in janitor`s clothes entered.
"What you doin` here, ma`m?" he asked, "Ain`t nobody supposed to be here for another hour yet."
"Oh, I`m the new Sunday school teacher," she said.
"I didn`t know they got another one so soon"
"Well, they did," Amanda said softly.
Michael Lee Johnson:
Kentucky Blue
When you`re gone, you`re gone.
Sweet Kentucky Bluegrass
common as house spiders
and railroad spikes-
frozen green between
snowflakes and fall-
a cheap silver band Timex
watch lost, tossed
in the middle of the lawn-
still ticking, battery
weak,
and oh, so very
alone.
Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass
the night comes on.
When you`re gone, you`re gone.
Geoff Jackson:
Collapse
CRUSHED
Debris
Torn firemen`s lungs
Billows of smashed pride
Fallen Towers
WRITTEN IN DUST
As the dust
Of the Twin Towers settled
It settled on Afghanistan
A dusty desert
Criss-crossed
By rivulets of blood
Robert L. Martin:
After the so called "war," I was mad as hell. The rules of war were completely violated. It should be strength pitted against strength, not strength against weakness. It was like shooting a lamb with heavy artillery. I wanted to go to Afghanistan right away with guns blazing, killing as many terrorists as I could for what they did to us. If I would have died doing it, then so be it. My revenge was caught up in the same frenzy that it took to instigate it.
Battles are fought with designated combatants, knowing who the enemy is and plotting to out think and over power them; not seeing how many women and children that can be killed in the process. A soldier`s dignity wouldn`t allow him to.
How could the "Seventh Pillar" of the Islam Faith in the Koran have been written by God? (to fight anyone who resists the Islam Faith?)
God is good. He is loving. He is impartial. He encourages man to look for the dignity in others. How could he wish for any harm to come to anyone? If he wanted man to lose his blood, his life-line, why would he clot it to make it stop flowing through his wound? The answer is in his design for natural convalescence. Man`s prejudices disregard his innate kindness and drive him to demonstrate his superiority over his fellow man.
He who kneels before the altar in church is no better that he who recites from his Torah at the synagogue, or who prays at his mosque. The Holy Spirit is a non-selective universal grace that penetrates every living soul and stops before no one. It equalizes as it consecrates all humanity and makes us all brothers and sisters of the same Holy Spirit.
~ Robert L. Martin
Geoff Jackson:
Billowing Dust
WHEN THE BIRDS FLEW UP
A thousand birds flew up
From New York Harbor
Spinning in the Wind of Terror
As the Twin Towers
Burned
Across the bay
ONLY RUBBLE
From a blue sky
Ash and rubble
Rolling down streets
Like canyons
TEARS
The water had carried
A tear jewel from the sky
Leaving flawless blue
And the silhouette of Twin Towers
EXPLOSION
An explosion
Of white cloud
Over a slim sky-scraper
And the edifice
Hangs in the air
Before it begins
To collapse
Geoff Jackson:
EUROLAND
con`t
The Portuguese, too, needed a loan. The Prime Minister promised the EU a Programma de Austeridades. Again, his own electors sent him packing. The worst hit country, however, is Greece. There are just no Euros left in the state coffers. Immediate loans had to be arranged, interim loans planned and long-term loans negotiated into place. The Greek government has been forced to save in every way and that has been so unpopular that it has led to widespread strikes and street-fighting in Athens. In a way, it is natural that the EU (particularly Germany) and the international banking system wants to keep an eye on its loans and make sure the lender is in a position to pay back. At the same time, it is a very unfortunate example of the workings of `The United States of Europe` together with the banks to run a small country at long distance. Already, people are being killed in the riots in Athens (more fool them for rioting, you might say) and the Greek government seems to be losing control of the situation. Moreover, Greece has a turbulent history of military coups and guerillas fighting from their mountain fastnesses and no one would want this.
con`t col 4 =
Geoff Jackson:
Euroland
cont`d
However, it is important that the Greek economy be shored up. The collapse of the Greek banking system will bring down many European banks. The EU has decided to support Greece and if it suddenly stops, this could be the end of the Euro. The other European countries cannot lend without safeguards and so it is they, who are directing politics in Greece. The Greek government is unable to take its own people with it and so we see already unacceptable disturbances with no one knowing where they will end. Although law and order is imperative and casting Molotov cocktails at police cannot be condoned, it has to be asked where all this civil disobedience and disorder will lead to. Many observers think that the end of the road will be the bankruptcy of Greece. Other countries are also faced with rising debt, high unemployment and falling production, most notably Italy and Spain. The difference between them and Ireland, Portugal and Greece is that they are much bigger and a bail-out will cost much more. It may in fact be the end of the road for the European partnership as we know it. No one really wants to be part of `The United States of Europe`. They want to be French, Italians, Greeks, British etc. However, European economic cooperation has worked until now. Now, though, it is seriously threatened by the world economic crisis and so much so that many countries want out of `Euroland`. The French want their franc, the Germans want their mark, and even the Greeks, who you think would be grateful, want their drachma back. The future remains written in a book of gold that is not for us to read in, but for some the present is already a portentous writing on the wall.
~ Geoff Jackson
Geoff Jackson:
Aftermath
PURPOSELESSNESS
Planes over Baghdad
As the planes over New York
That day
Exacting a terrible revenge
- And to what purpose?
SAD, SAD NIGHT
The sadness of a
Soft September night
After a perfect summer day
Yet of terror and death
IRREPLACEABLE
Yet still
Toothless gaps
On a skyline
Ground Zero is a bitter memory
IF ONE COULD ONLY FORGET
Sing to me
Seas of forgetfulness
Sing no more of 9/11
For my shame
I would forget
THE EAGLE ONCE FLEW
Let the crow and the raven
Preside over the land
For the eagle once built his eyrie
In the Twin Towers
UNBELIEVEABLE
The day they went to work
And knew no evil
Until the planes struck
And the bodies rained down
DEATH`S JOURNEY
How many souls
Crossed from the East to the West
That day
To the realm of night and silent death
JUST ANOTHER DAY?
The cars streamed into the City on 9/11
Workers went to their offices
And then disaster struck
LET US NEVER FORGET
Should we forget the Fallen?
Those in New York?
The dead on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan?
We will remember always
ETERNAL FLAME
The Sacred Flame
Burns at Arlington
For those who gave their lives
To avenge the Twin Towers
IN MY HEART
Old Glory was not on that battlefield
When planes struck the Twin Towers
Clouds of choking dust filled the streets
The dead smothered in smoke in the Towers
But she was in all our hearts that day
PERFECT HUSH
The world turns
Upon a penny
And stood still that day
The Twin Towers fell
THE ARMOURED GODDESS
The spear and helm
Of Athena stand ready
Her shield guards the approaches to New York
Never will there be a 9/11 again
DAY BREAKS
In the watches of the night
The City held her breath
Waiting for the first dawn
On Ground Zero
James Davies:
Lord Woodbury:
Summer Mentorial:
TIME GENTLEMEN
Greetings Dean, Greetings:
I hope all is well. I thank you for your clarification on the phrase TIME GENTLEMEN, though it has passed out of use in the Home Island, along with the regulation Pint Glass. I hear the Brits have adopted the Australian schooner, a 400 ML glass and abandoned the traditional pint.
I do take note of the Supreme Court`s decision on the Bush Era Treaty with Mexico requiring notification to foreign embassies of their nationals under arrest. The uh-Republic of Texas nonetheless gave the juice to some Mexicans, notwithstanding. In the opinion of the High Court, the Treaty was not self-executing. Congressional action would have been required to implement it. Justice Breyer in dissent would have held treaties part of organic law.
Speaking of organics, the People`s Republic of China is once again in the news, this time with exploding watermelons. It seems their growth enhancing chemicals affect the expansion of the meat of the melon, but not the rind. I have also heard that what doesn`t explode is insufferably tasteless. Not all scientists agree with the Lord Dean`s analysis that the growth enhancing chemicals probably cause greater water retention than the rind will allow. In the Dean`s view, the super-saturated watermelons will lose taste, because of the excessive water. Experts may disagree with the Dean, but of course, the Dean at this time grown succulents such as pumpkins and cucumbers; the experts specialize in pontificating. The solution under Chairman Mao might have been rustification of the experts. Indeed.
I take note of various bombastic comments of the Dean that may be some good in the TURBANIZATION of America: women would have to be silent and walk three feet behind. We will have the opportunity to pillory white liberals, bending them over to face Mecca, kicking them in the rear and rubbing their roses in dog dirt. This must fit in with the Dean`s modest proposal to weave United We Stand T-Shirts into prayer rugs at the appropriate juncture.
I am by no means so bleak in outlook. I am encouraged by the Arab spring spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. We are at the dawn of a new age in which the Little Brown Man will join hands in moderation with the democratic ideal, don business suits and resolve differences through Parliamentary Action.
Indeed, I see in the recent news concerning the person described by the Dean as Sahib Malkik Hassan, purportedly a Major in the US Army Medical Cortps, a new ray of hope. His cousin is setting up an Islamic Charity to discourage use of violence in support of Islamic causes. Indeed there is such a thing as a Muslim moderate, a concept the Dean rejects out of hand and denounces as schizophrenic thinking.
You may have heard the latest tiff from San Francisco where BART has closed down the WiFi connections on its underground lines resulting in mass demonstrations. Watching people plug these apparatuses into their ears, incessantly prating on the phone reminds me of the Star Trek episodes on The Borg. Instead of resisting absorption into the Borg collective, the ultra Californos are jumping up and down to be let in.
Crossing over into a different transit system in NYC, I take note that the Mayor of NYC shut down the subways during the recent hurricane. I am glad to hear the report of the Dean that accounts of destruction on the US media were greatly exaggerated. I take note that in an era of Global Warming these sort of storms will become more frequent as the water`s warmth feeds the storms further north. The Dean`s exception that tropical storms come about every four years, the most destructive of which every twenty five years, is not well taken in light of scientific findings, all of which the Dean rejects.
Well on that note, I must move on and take care of pressing matters.
Cheerio Dean, Cheerio!
James Davies,
Lord Woodbury
Mentor RPPS
Charles Fredrickson:
Zingers
Dusky gathering ghostly conclave haunt
Solarized rays exposing naked true-lies
Diminished luminous intensity celestial eclipse
Pallid colorblind spectrum shades drawn
Mutually rooted cosmos dualistic pursuit
Mismatched pair coupled tight fit
Dark yin overshadowing light yang
Shed glisten upsetting delicate balance
Seedy pollination sowing butterfly dismay
Ephemeral fleetly existence spiritual regeneration
Transparent existence snaggy twisted barbs
Bloodlet wingspan veins freedom grounded
Heat stroke footrace feverish marathon
Collapsed endurance limits sweaty stalemate
Obstacle course breakthrough personal best
Exhausted pride maybe next time
Once inviting portal slammed shut
Threshold swinging on rusty hinges
Ajar crack keyhole peered through
Entrancing tight squeeze No Exit
Going out delving farther within
Wherever you are right Here
Somewhat distant There beyond grasp
Hidden find sought after Evermore
Simply being honest with oneself
Everlasting uncomplicated existence sans regrets
Being in process of becoming
Not yet quite sure what
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