from CNN just now ...
It's finally happened! This is the headline I've been waiting for. Guerrillas have seized a Gorilla Park in the Congo. The refuge will now be called a Guerrilla Park. What the peaceful current residents will do does not bear thinking about. If there is Justice, they will eventually turn into the keepers of the Guerrillas. That just seems right, they are far more civilized!
26 October 2008
05 October 2008
Nope, she's in disguise: She IS a pit bull with lipstick!
5 October 2008
Madrid
There is this thoughtful and passionate guy in Chicago. He's not perfect and his passion blinded him when he was younger. He's white, his name is Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground. He opposed the Vietnam War and he felt America was an unjust society. He advocated radical and even violent solutions to the problems that our society faced. So did the men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
This guy moderated as he grew older. He was still passionate and committed and and he spoke and wrote against injustice (including his own demon-ization). He crossed paths with a brilliant young Harvard lawyer who had opted not for a career of wealth and position in the private sector but had followed a path in politics, beginning with community service. They were acquaintances, not friends. I can't help think, though, that each must have understood, if not shared, the views of the other.
So, did the young, brilliant lawyer consort with a terrorist? Is there no redemption and is there no maturity? Did George Bush take drugs and drink as a young man?
The young Harvard lawyer was of mixed race parentage and raised by a single Mother and his mid-American, white grandparents. What he became and the opportunities he had must be credited to profound social changes that were partly the in reaction to passionate activism, acts of civil disobedience, and, yes, absolutely wrongly, occasional violence by people like the older white man and his ilk (black and white). Both constitutional left and right also fought against an unjust system and we evolved into a society that, still far from perfect, accepts now as a fundamental value that every citizen, every citizen! has the right to life, to liberty and to happiness. And happiness is the result of living in a nation where we are free from fear and where each of us can pursue her or his dream limited only by our individual capacities and the rightful human boundaries that come from a mutual commitment to justice and opportunity for all.
The acquaintance between the older white man and the committed young lawyer was transient, no more than the passing of two ships. Perhaps the memory of seeing and hearing the other did have a benefit. Maybe the older man got some satisfaction in recognising that the younger was evidence that change does indeed happen and things can get better. Could it be that the younger recognised in the older a man who believed in justice but advocated a flawed and illogical path to it? Maybe the younger was made wiser. He now speaks richly and convincingly of a national commitment to a political life whose objective is right and proper: a just and happy society.
Aristotle would be proud.
Sarah Palin attacks this? This act of desperation paints her not as a hockey mom but as that pit bull with lipstick - an unreflective attack machine. I am so disappointed that John McCain's campaign has moved in this direction. If you go down to defeat, do so honorably.
I wrote the Senator that I can no longer support him. I question his judgement in selecting Palin. I initially welcomed her nomination -- a breath of fresh political air but, having listened to her, listened to the debate and reflected on it, I believe the nomination devalues the office and insults the American people. We deserve a better, wiser and more experienced Vice President. Joe Lieberman would have been a good choice. I do not know that it would have swayed me to McCain in the end but I am positive that his ticket will not receive my support!
Madrid
There is this thoughtful and passionate guy in Chicago. He's not perfect and his passion blinded him when he was younger. He's white, his name is Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground. He opposed the Vietnam War and he felt America was an unjust society. He advocated radical and even violent solutions to the problems that our society faced. So did the men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
This guy moderated as he grew older. He was still passionate and committed and and he spoke and wrote against injustice (including his own demon-ization). He crossed paths with a brilliant young Harvard lawyer who had opted not for a career of wealth and position in the private sector but had followed a path in politics, beginning with community service. They were acquaintances, not friends. I can't help think, though, that each must have understood, if not shared, the views of the other.
So, did the young, brilliant lawyer consort with a terrorist? Is there no redemption and is there no maturity? Did George Bush take drugs and drink as a young man?
The young Harvard lawyer was of mixed race parentage and raised by a single Mother and his mid-American, white grandparents. What he became and the opportunities he had must be credited to profound social changes that were partly the in reaction to passionate activism, acts of civil disobedience, and, yes, absolutely wrongly, occasional violence by people like the older white man and his ilk (black and white). Both constitutional left and right also fought against an unjust system and we evolved into a society that, still far from perfect, accepts now as a fundamental value that every citizen, every citizen! has the right to life, to liberty and to happiness. And happiness is the result of living in a nation where we are free from fear and where each of us can pursue her or his dream limited only by our individual capacities and the rightful human boundaries that come from a mutual commitment to justice and opportunity for all.
The acquaintance between the older white man and the committed young lawyer was transient, no more than the passing of two ships. Perhaps the memory of seeing and hearing the other did have a benefit. Maybe the older man got some satisfaction in recognising that the younger was evidence that change does indeed happen and things can get better. Could it be that the younger recognised in the older a man who believed in justice but advocated a flawed and illogical path to it? Maybe the younger was made wiser. He now speaks richly and convincingly of a national commitment to a political life whose objective is right and proper: a just and happy society.
Aristotle would be proud.
Sarah Palin attacks this? This act of desperation paints her not as a hockey mom but as that pit bull with lipstick - an unreflective attack machine. I am so disappointed that John McCain's campaign has moved in this direction. If you go down to defeat, do so honorably.
I wrote the Senator that I can no longer support him. I question his judgement in selecting Palin. I initially welcomed her nomination -- a breath of fresh political air but, having listened to her, listened to the debate and reflected on it, I believe the nomination devalues the office and insults the American people. We deserve a better, wiser and more experienced Vice President. Joe Lieberman would have been a good choice. I do not know that it would have swayed me to McCain in the end but I am positive that his ticket will not receive my support!
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