Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Bring Me Home

If you see a shadow, cold, pass across an open window, spare the thought, this captured moment, for spring has come and gone.


Heroes stand statuesque along paths where I run, through all seasons, for all time. In the halls of the institution, ancient and contemporary minds hold up walls with rhetorical tongues of mindless men. And my heroes, I might add, might just as soon tear those very walls to the ground.


Men, we are, and women – children, just the same, so astute in our unforgiven pantheon of idolatry.


Ah yes, but Hope does rise in chambers where lesser men think greater things

where children reign and music sings

and distant doth the death knell ring.


On holiday are the guns – in our minds – in our shallow prosperity, until from distant lands the tears of sons and daughters pour out to be reflected in the tears flowing from the eyes of my own child;


Was it indeed a harmony in his voice, an echoed chamber from another realm of truth, a realm where the heroes reign and greater minds whisper in the rooms through which the souls of children travel.


“Look!” my son cried out, “I am the son of another, an indigenous child whose blood soaks the distant land; Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Sudan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Palestine, South, Central, and North America, Europe and beyond. Bring me home, Father, bring me home. Let the tears of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, little friends on empty shell blown streets be dried and shed no more. Bring me home. For I am no less, but I am no greater and the hero called my name in a dream you held in slumber! Bring me home.”

One blade of grass, chopped short for a dog.


One, two, three, yes four, signs for ‘Quiet Respect Please’ for this tribute to a King.

Yet I say NO! No more quiet, no more silence. No more rhetorical respect.

No more theft of words of glory to be spilled from the mouths of bloodlusting hypocrites.


Let the words be screamed from the streets, from the people who must hear lest they become deaf, dumb, and mute in their complacent apathy.


Let the words be screamed from the streets, that the children of shallow prosperity might be claimed for the glory and hope of righteousness and whisper the echoes they have heard in the rooms through which the souls of heroes travel.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Hitting the Reset Button, or ‘American Global Gladiator – the Thirst for Blood, the Lust for Power, and the Gore of Greed’

The fine, upstanding, trustworthy, noble US government has given its population another bite of sound, another euphemism to assist in calming the weary heart, the wondering and wandering mind, and to quell the conscious conscience of the average citizen.

The US has the desire to ‘hit the reset button’ in Pakistan and the Middle East in general. So what does this mean?



Does it mean that the US is going to assert itself diplomatically and withdraw its troops from the various countries it now occupies?



Does it mean that the word humanitarian will return to its original meaning and that the US will convert its military missions into actual humanitarian missions?



Does it mean that the US will actually support democracy rather than undermine it?



Or, does it mean that it wishes for the countries it is terrorizing to bend and bow to the mighty American forces and acquiesce as they have in the past to the corruption of their governments, the murder and rape of their civilians, and the theft of their resources?



Let us explore current events to determine whether this is rhetoric or sincerity. First, let’s visit the ‘constructive’ statements made by Senator John Kerry upon his visit to Pakistan:



■He said it is “important to hit the reset button” and that it is “important to use this ‘opportunity’ to put the relationship back on track” so that the two countries can ‘jointly’ combat terrorism.
■If this is sincerity, as opposed to disingenuous rhetoric, then Senator Kerry must mean that the two countries will begin to work together to implement the withdrawal of all US forces, including both private and standard military personnel as well as ‘intelligence’ personnel.
■It must mean that drone attacks will cease immediately.
■It must mean that the US will issue apologies immediately for the murder of Pakistan civilians and military personnel and will issue reparations.
■It must mean that the US will agree to not invade Pakistan unless it is proven that Pakistan has, as a country, declared war upon the United States and carried our military operations on US soil – in short, that Pakistan is proven to have done precisely what the US is doing in Pakistan at this moment.
■Anyone with a discerning ear must recognize this as continued posturing by the US. Any acquiescence by the Pakistani government might be perceived as an effort to move forward diplomatically toward the effort of peacefully removing the parasitic US from its soil.


■Senator Kerry further asserted that Pakistan must agree not to provide sanctuary for ‘terrorists’ who might wish to engage in ‘terrorism’ against the US.
■Given the definition of the term ‘terrorism’ (the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes’, one can deduce that Mr. Kerry is stating that the US will abandon all military bases, as military bases would act as a point from which US state terrorism can be carried out.
■My interpretation of this statement is that it is indeed a form of terrorism, as it is a threat to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.


Meanwhile, to track just a handful of events that might give us a better view into the actions from which we might deduce the intent of a nation, in this case, the US:



■Two twelve-year-old girls and a fourteen-year-old boy were killed in Afghanistan in attacks by US or NATO (US) forces.
■Continual war in Libya in what started out as a(nother) peacekeeping, humanitarian mission to promote democracy and to win the hearts and minds of the people through the delivery of mass quantities of arms and bombs.
■Unlimited support of every kind, but primarily military and economic, of the racist apartheid Israeli government.
■Political and military support of the Middle East’s most oppressive nation, Saudi Arabia.
■Continued payoff of Egyptian military officials and other post-Mubarak cronies, as Egypt convicts thousands of dissidents in military trials.
■Continued provocation to force war in Pakistan, murdering civilians with drone attacks, attacking military bases, and threatening repeatedly.


Based on all of the information reviewed here, not to mention the information that remains hidden behind the US government’s ‘national security’ intelligence firewall, it is quite clear that the mission of the US is to continue to build US military bases throughout the world to support the quest for hegemony, the final thrust of power in the imperial conquest, in the impotent butchery of a failed state.



In the interim, Americans, exercise your freedom. Get lost in the political battle over the next corporate election. Believe that your voice is heard and that the cry of Americans is more than a complicit consumer mass wallowing at the trough. Sink into the apathy of baseball season and turn on Fox News for the latest episode of ‘American Global Gladiator – the Thirst for Blood, the Lust for Power, and the Gore of Greed.’

Friday, May 6, 2011

Education

If you believe that elitism of institutional education differs in any way from elitism related to wealth, status, religion, or any other filter through which you are managed, your belief speaks well to the inherent ignorance of your institutional education.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

April 2011

This is the month of April and early days of a cool spring in Colorado. There are days spent mountain biking, running, sharing with friends and family. There are reflections and vivid moments that shape memories. There is warmth in the eyes of my sons that carries me through the days and there is an acknowledgement that we grow together. I may lead and I may follow and together we are able to learn. Colorado holds spaces and places that I have known since childhood and yet I cannot go a year without discovering a place right here that I've not yet seen. The world is my back yard. It holds my hopes and dreams, my success and my failure, my ambition and humility, my mistakes and my love. The world is ours and we each see it through a sphere which we can only attempt to share. When we are gone, one can only hold the photos and perhaps see a shadow of what we saw. I sometimes hold a photo taken by a loved one and I peer into it as though trying to see a reflection of them. There is something of them in the photo, something in what they saw that held more than the images before me. A place was more than a place, perhaps more or less than home, truth, trust, or betrayal; perhaps a space that represented a moment of happiness, sadness, togetherness, or loneliness - perhaps any and all in singular and collective moments - perhaps finite or eternal. Perhaps there is a piece of us in all that we leave behind - and perhaps we leave behind and take with us more than we might ever know.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Raven Siren

I found a truth buried deep within denial
something hidden in the distant trials
that from which so long now I have run
a portent of the sirens and the sun
upon horizon bare the darkest day
a raven casting shadow on the way
so near and far I find myself in you
a choice that holds the voice and what to do
it is hope that finds me closer to my youth
and I return my heart now to the truth

Perpetrator Victim

The perpetrator had victim written all over him. The rage in his eyes reflected a distant wounded child. The wanton abandonment of his fury might have been the passionate beauty of a better man; yes, passionate beauty, never beheld within the facade of impotent masculinity and only revealed for this man in the discourse of his truth; perhaps not what he'd become, rather a lingering fragment of his hope.

Princess Disgrace (Homeless Man in Park)

Homeless man sleeping in the park. Wealthy white woman strips him of what dignity he has left; not because he poses a danger or does her any harm, but because his very presence causes her to question the validity of her identity and the sincerity of her environment. Everything is nothing more than a reflection of her superiority- her car, her home, her children, her husband. And everything must validate her facade.

Parody on American Response to bin Laden Murder

Guilty cuz W said he is, goddammit, and cuz we spent one helluva lotta muny and kild a whole lotta people too. dumped his carcass in the sea, no questions asked, and sure as hell none answered. just turn on the news, they'll tell ya what ya need ta know. don't need no stinkin' inturnashunal crimnal court, we're Amerikun.

American Hysteria ad nauseam

One Way Church Street America Pouring Beer Draped in Flags Sieg Heil Peace is War Ignorance is History Minus Education with Degree Sold Out Bought Paid For Head Down to the Consumer Trough and Get Me Some of That Million Dollar Sports Hero ...Super No One Failed State Blood Oil Bloodlust War Machine Caterpillar Boeing XE Haliburton Prison State Institutional Racism Child Murder Assassination Pride Nationalism Drunk War Two Day Synagogue Alley Pakistan Spilled Blood Fallen out Medal Praise Who War is Peace Knowledge isn't Education Plus Ignorance without Papers Bought In Zero Pataca Gladiator Yes None Succeed One Adult Love Diplomacy Humanity Sober Resource Indigenous Hope Help Hurt Lost Found Given Lost Taken Bring it Back Never Was Should Have Been Might Not Be Never Been Will Go Inside Out Eternity Finite God Atheistic Holy War Regurgitate Parrot Speak Silence Cry Out Knees Bent Fallen Up Stare Sky Pour Reign Royal Death Wedding Divorce Widowed Bride Bloody Groom Dark Side Deaf Moon Soil Genetic Demon Seed Plant Uproot Despotic Peasant Field Disgraced Child Bring Back Truth From the Sacred Burial Ground

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Or Forever Hold Your Peace

If you have a mind, use it.
If you have a heart, open it.
If you have a voice, let it be heard.

Suffer the Children

Your child or mine, wrong knows no time, days never end, once the suffering begins.

Vestige

Once taken now we are, upon light stripped away
To mourning, distant, pleading, dark surrendered day

Fine, yet finite prism, is rape of choice bereaved
In anguish there to languish upon shores of the deceived

There an empty fading which death cannot attend
Beyond the shelter twilight is hope around the bend

A road never travelled in this our mortal creed
A vestige crumbling world’s birth I do not need