Let Us Remember

This morning, I am thinking about (re-membering):

Angie, of course, and her letter to John Kerry after the election. (You can see the letter in this blog entry: http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2005/01/the_angelica_qu.html#comments)

John Kerry himself--it is his birthday today.

Eugene McCarthy--who was one in a long line of gentlemen from Minnesota who were kind, rational, wise, and possibly too gentle to win enough votes, although they all were just the kind of leaders we need so desperately now.

Richard Pryor, who was neither gentle nor always wise, but who held up a mirror for all of us and made us laugh and laugh at ourselves. He, too, was a truth-teller.

And my own truth-teller, wise-child, loving daughter, Bethany Erin, who would have been 29 this year on December 14. We always light the Chanukah candles for her, and all the others we have lost, because each of them is a shining light in the darkness.

Thanks for the thread, Fe. We need the warmth of this community to get us through to the hope of spring.

And not just the warmth, Karen. We also need the strength of this community, too.

By banding together and bonding as we have, we can not only get each other through to the spring, but also get all of us through to the hope of a new future for America.

divided we fold, united we withstand...
Otter

"I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the world." ~Bobby Kennedy =)

And Happy Birthday to John Kerry!

Fe,

Thank-you for your beautiful post. Many of us have lost someone near and dear to us in the past year. Similarly many feel that we have lost our country as well. Still, I do feel rejuvinated by our small community working together for a better tomorrow. Likewise, I am very happy to see Otter back on the blog after his long abscence (welcome back, Otter).

I do hope that April and her family can weather this most tragic of anniversaries.

I am reminded of Shakespeare (from HenryV) when I think of the battles that lie ahead:

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be never so vile. This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

It suddenly occurred to me this morning, why a blog header last month kept bugging me. It too was one of reflection.

When Kennedys assasination anniversary was upon us it was duly noted, and the conversation that followed really stuck with me, bothered me, and I was not sure why. Until now.

I am sure yall will remember the conversation. Those who had been there, been alive in those times were having flashbacks, and speaking quite eloquently about those times. Every one remembers the exact moment they heard the awful news.

Those of us who were not born yet were treated to, you just had to been there scenarios. It was magical, it was Camelot.

It just bugged me. Now I know why.

Let us review what we know about John F Kennedy.

He was ALL mobbed up and probably rigging elections.

He was being shot up everyday, throughout the day with AMPHETAMINES by a physcian nicknamed 'Dr. Feel Good'

Bay of Pigs...Anyone..?

He cheated on his wife every damn chance he got.

He sold out black people when it was politically useful to do so.

And every single one of us, deffer to discuss it, since a bullet ensured we could never judge him as successful or failed.

But the way people still talk about him, you would never know that the cad and the hero exist as one. It is almost as if they can not exist in the same conversation because by definition they COULD NOT have existed in the same man.

Was he a hero, maybe, was he rigging American votes, probably, he could not have been both. But the reaction to his very memory is astounding to me.

Honestly in a way it reminds me of some wierd cultish brainwashed propaganda filled IMAGERY selection that I see even in the elders of my family.

You all say the EXACT SAME things, catch phrases, about Kennedy. Like ALL of you had just finished reading the exact same book. And the way you say it....

I have noticed in person, when someone reflects on those days, they immediately roll thier eyes upwards as their features soften. It REALLY REALLY does remind me of some brainscrubbing side effects I have studied. It is an involuntary well documented reaction to tampering with someones frontal lobes. And it is WAY easier to do to someone than it should be.

Do I think yall were brainwashed with pro Kennedy propaganda..? Maybe, maybe not... but even to this day I find discussions of him completely creepy and bizarre.

When every one of you say 'Camelot' I always flinch. Camelot....?

Camelot was a fairy tale. It still is.

Until we are COMPLETELY honest about the men we elevate to power, we are going to keep elevating lying, junkie, greedy, thieving, vote rigging, war mongering criminal adulterers into the White House.

Reflection is good for the soul, but only if you do it often.

CHristy:

I think the nation was shocked that in our generation's time, a president was killed--and it was right there before us on the TV--mass media coverage of an epic event.

Had he lived, JFK would probably be as reviled and admired as any other president--Clinton, Bush, Reagan. That is the role of most leaders of this country, and their burden. The romance of CAmelot and JK is for what "could have been", and wondering, if ever, would things have been different had he lived?

Also thinking about what has been the REAL turning point in the last century that has shaped our current predicament, and I think it would have to be in succession: Vietnam, Watergate, Iran hostages, then Reagan. Its about wars of adventure to secure corporate interests and their repercussions. And here we are.

Karen:

This time of year, I remember my mother's planning for the Christmas Eve feast, the incredible effort she put into the house to make it as RED and festive as possible. About the all-aluminum Christmas tree and the rotating primary color light show in the living room.

I miss her in her Santa hat giving presents to her grandkids, and of the songs she and her buddies would sing by the piano, My mother's voice was always the one that soared.

Last Christmas, my sister and I so missed mama that we made all the old Filipino dishes that she used to make and ate them for dinner--and this was soul-deep food--some food that most white Americans would not begin to wrap themselves around. But its that memory trigger that we so need to keep our hearts warm and reminded of love, which exists beyond this life. That's the meaning of this thread, and I think those of us who have lost someone they've loved--know this.

Posted by: Fe at December 11, 2005 12:56 PM

Very well put.

Christy,

You raise some very important points. Do our heros have feet of clay? Some do, but it is the totality of their accomplishments or lack thereof that makes for the legacy. For example Richard Nixon was a brilliant President as regards to foreign affairs (short of Viet Nam), however his legacy is one of ..........(pick your own word). Similarly Bill Clinton did much to empower the middle class, but he will be remembered as the President who couldn't control his sexual peccadiloes. I barely recall *anything* about JFK (I remember the funeral procession), but you are right, there is an aura of perfection surrounding his legacy. One has to question why that is. Could it be that his positive accomplishments far outweighed his personal failures? I don't know the answer to the question, but when a President is assasinated I think that people tend to dismiss the negatives and focus on the positives. No doubt JFK was inspirational, and I think that is why most people have a very positive impression of him. Abe Lincoln had his warts despite the fact that he is remembered as one of the greatest, most accomplished Presidents ever.

So what do we do? We can't dismiss accomplishments nor failures. We do have to accept that Presidents are only human after all. We have to accept that we Americans also are only human and subject to making emotional judgements that don't always accurately reflect reality.

Karen,
Ben Doko, the Indonesian guy you met at our Thai food dinner - the one who isn't a citizen yet but registered all those voters (probably 1000 by himself!) - well, he flew to Boston (has never been there) at his own expense, to attend John Kerry's birthday party. He will probably meet up with Mary Beth Saffo & also Maura Flynn (Nurses for Kerry).

I missed seeing Ted Kennedy 2 days ago .. (had to work). He was in town. I felt bad.

Christy
JFK was also the president who tried to do the first weapons inspections in the middle east - of Israel too! They hid them from him underground. Every American president after that just ignored it. I saw it on a whistleblower documentary at a film festival. Google Mordecai Vununu

If JFK had been successful, & if anyone had followed up, we might not be in this fix today. Also we don't know exactly why JFK, RFK or MLK were assassinated. None of that has really been solved. There are only official stories.

Christy,

You're right. Camelot never existed. Ask an African American living in the south at the time if there was a Camelot, and they'd say "WHAT Camelot?!" There never was a Camelot. And that's exactly why Camelot can never be lost. It was a dream-- an IDEA-- that which we are always striving for. In this way, it is similar to America, the DREAM that is America. Remember the Langston Hughes poem, "Let America Be America Again (America never was America to me)"? Hughes says at the end:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Our purpose, our reason for being, and the reason all of us here are so dedicated and working so hard is to achieve this ideal. Will this work all be finished in 2008? No. In our life times? No. Even in the next century? Probably not. But because of our work we can hope to take large steps forward constantly. What makes it so beautiful is that we have the dream of a "Camelot" that is always ahead of us and that we can always work for. As John Kennedy himself once said, "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an IDEA lives on."

I was not alive before John Kennedy died-- I was not even alive before Bobby Kennedy died. I understand that the way people go on about him can be ridiculous and the over-done praise he sometimes gets, and how it may seem that some people make him into a god or a legend. I agree that that is uncalled for (if he were some sort of demi-god, there would be no work left for the next generation to do!) But I really think that sometimes what we praise and lift up is the IDEA of John Kennedy-- the idea that "idealism, high aspirations, and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs--that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems." The reason John Kennedy seems immortal or legendary is because he was an idea, and as he said, an idea cannot die. To try and cut down the man to spite the fact that the idea is immortal, I think, does a disservice to that idea and what it stands for for our country.

Of course you can point to mistakes he made-- and I do. (You used the Bay of Pigs, for example, and I agree. But remember that after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy faced the country said he was wrong, took full responsibility, changed course and next time, got it right. Can you immagine anyone in the current administration doing that?!)

I guess my point is that I'm not one to worship Kennedy as a god. But I live each day and each breath on the idea that he stood for, and I believe you shouldn't try and take away from the idea that John Kennedy was just because he was also... a man.

Re JFK

Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of the murder. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for his funeral, and millions throughout the world watched it on television. I was 12 years old. I had recently taken a newspaper photo of Kruschev, Kennedy & Castro to school that had a heading of "First Act of World War 3" on it for current events.

As the years have gone by, Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's memories for different reasons. Many respect his coolness under pressure, others his eloquent speeches, others his compassion in fighting for government programs for the poor and ill. Like all leaders, he made mistakes, but he was optimistic about the future & believed that people could solve their common problems if they put their country's interests first and worked together.

We don't see much of that now.

I never paid attention to the Camelot thing, though I do remember Jacquie touring through the White House on tv. It was nice, actually.

For those younger, the attention on Kennedy seems in retrospect more appropriate to me than the brouhaha about Reagan last summer. I consider his reign "dark days" and the empowerment of neocons.

In the Kennedy era, I was poor and went to a school with federal grants. I lived in a 10 x 50 trailer in a rural area (6 people). My dad suffered severe post-traumatic stress. For awhile we got government commodities.

& I associated the President with Civil Rights, with money for schools. In elementary school, I was aware of that. It's something you don't forget.

I missed the thread yesterday, but this one is appropriate. In 1968, when Eugene McCarthy ran for president, I worked in his campaign. I was 16 years old & I learned many things about idealism in the face of reality. My response to the overwhelming odds usually is depression, but this community has helped in the face of a similar challenge in the campaign culminating in the events of Election Day, 2004. Thank you all for being here and hanging in.

DiAnne:

I think modern American presidents (early 20th century and on) have had their hands in "it" since we ventured outside our country as an imperial nation. Nothing has changed. I think Bush is no different than any other president, including Clinton, Reagan, or Kennedy.

What HAS changed is:

1) Our ability as citizens to be cognizant of what they do, which has improved with advances of technology;

2) Our ability, along with our "enemies", to mutually destroy each other irretrievably.

Those two factors alone are enough to make all of us take stock and understand the gravity of an Administration's actions, and how "covert" no longer can go unheeded--especially when the effects are so massively devastating.

I hope that means that soon we come to a new idea of what a "Democracy" is, versus what we term in the rhetorical as a democracy. Right now, that word "demmocracy" is overused, unheeded and stretched grotesquely beyond its original concept.

Perhaps in the best of worlds, we end the days of the superpowers, obviate the role of the American President as the leader of the free world and head towards a model after the EU--have our own leaders but join seriously with other countries in a new union of nations. We'd all adhere to the same environmental and development standards. We'd set trade guidelines and rules on industrial development.

Of course that would seriously piss off the multinationals. But I can dream, can't I?

Some do, but it is the totality of their accomplishments or lack thereof that makes for the legacy. For example Richard Nixon was a brilliant President as regards to foreign affairs (short of Viet Nam), however his legacy is one of

Posted by: oncall at December 11, 2005 01:15 PM

This part is my point exactly...

Now to say Nixon was brilliant in forien affairs EXCEPT the biggest clusterf*ck of death going on at the time.. I REALLY have to question how brilliant he may have been.

It was not about jobs or climate treaties, Americans and Vietnamese were dying in droves. And yet his 'brilliance' somehow faltered and he and his friends got really rich any way and committed crimes against our own country and got away with it.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln.. Did you enjoy the PLAY?

I mean the TOTALITY of Kennedys presidency was ONLY successful at being INSPIRING.. Other than that Kennedy had a mess going on.

This is my point. If Kennedy was rigging American elections then he was literally as slimy as bush. Kennedy COULD NEVER have been the hero he was elevated to be. Even if he inspired MILLIONS he was STILL stealing American votes and to me that is treason. To all of us it is treasonous.

You can not seperate the criminal from the crime. And EXCUSING the crime in favor of fairy tales and magic IS THE WHOLE PROBLEM.

It is the very heart of the problem.

Was Clinton a 'Great' President...? I admit he was better than most.

Was Clinton a great and known LIAR..? Absolutely, and to EVER forget it for a moment is to ACCEPT the lies over the core truth.

I am a democrat because of what happened during the Clinton years. It was more about politics than about him.

Would I trust clinton face to face?

Not even as far as I could pick him up and throw him. WHY WOULD I EVER trust a KNOWN liar...?

WHY WOULD ANYONE...?

I will never again give my vote to a race where I feel the lesser of the two evils rule applies.
A lesser evil is STILL evil.

And personally I am sick of try to explain to my kids why I will never again classify a PRESIDENT as a HERO.

That was so beautiful, Fe.

Thank you.

I'm thrilled and thankful to have found this phenomenal community here, at DCP, and all of you terrific, impassioned, dedicated souls.
Decisions are made by those who show up ---- So, thank you guys for all you do, and for your heart and spirit!

http://hometown.aol.com/chells4681/teresaandjohn.html

Decisions are made by those who show up

Posted by: Michelle at December 11, 2005 02:00 PM

Amen

Christy– sorry, allow me to respond one more time:

I mean the TOTALITY of Kennedys presidency was ONLY successful at being INSPIRING.. Other than that Kennedy had a mess going on.

Posted by: Christy at December 11, 2005 01:54 PM

First of all, there are a lot of other things that Kennedy was successful at: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty? Governor Wallace? The Peace Corps? Spaceflight? Cuban Missile Crisis-- he chose not to engage in PREEMPTIVE WARFARE, brought us out of the brink of nuclear war. When Kennedy became president, a French diplomat said, "We have felt so sad in Europe lately...recently American hadn't been leading...We are so glad that America is coming back again." I mean, things like that. And of course there were problems. He did not do enough for civil rights, and there's no excuse. But don't forget his successes.

Anyway, that's not my point.

My point is you said he was "ONLY successful at being INSPIRING..." ..."only"?!?!?! His success at being inspiring is the reason we have the activism we do today. There were the 50s where everyone was absorbed with consumerism and conformity and then BOOM... Kennedy and the 60s with the public service and debate and activism and young people believing they can make a difference and "ask what you can do for your country." You'd be surprised the number of great men that were inspired by John Kennedy (John Kerry, Max Cleland, even MLK...) and there are more to come, as I am a testament to the fact that JFK inspires even those who never lived to see him.

Finally, I see what you are saying about "EXCUSING the crime in favor of fairy tales and magic," but isn't that what we do with America? We love our country. But isn't what we love a fairy tale? Think of all the crimes we have committed! Native Americans, the Alien and Sedition acts, slavery, segregation, Jim Crowe, imperialism, women's rights, worker's rights, FDR and the St. Louis, the Japanese internment camps, a dozen wars of choice, Vietnam, Iraq, torture...etc. But my grandparents immigrated to this country for what you would call the "fairy tale," but what I would call the dream that is always ahead of us, and what we work and strive for. It’s beautiful.

William Faulkner once said that he loved his country "not in spite of it's faults, but because of them." Actually, I'm not really sure if I agree with that completely. ...but it seemed fitting!

ldaghlian@elections.state.ny.us

Send comments re voting machines, paper trails etc to email below before Mid January
Least opportunity for fraud lies with optical scanner.
Pass this on and encourage comments!!
"permanent voter marked paper trail record that cannot be lost or altered electronically."
That is what we want!

Posted by: Christy at December 11, 2005 01:54 PM

Christy,

I think you missed my point. I was not excusing anybody for criminal behavior. I was reflecting on your comment and trying to explain the psychology, as I understand it, as to possible reasons that some Presidents are held in high esteem while others aren't. My examples could have been better, I admit.

No Oncall I got your point this part really struck me...

So what do we do? We can't dismiss accomplishments nor failures.

It is an interesting question if and of itself.

To try and cut down the man to spite the fact that the idea is immortal, I think, does a disservice to that idea and what it stands for for our country.

Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at December 11, 2005 01:33 PM

It is not about being spiteful.

It is about calling a duck a duck.

To hold up THE MAN as a hero, fine. Did he have GRAND SUCCESSESS..? Absolutely.

Was he also tweeking on amphetamines while boffing monroe..? DEFINATELY.

And as far as this goes...

"But isn't what we love a fairy tale? *
But my grandparents immigrated to this country for what you would call the "fairy tale,"

NO it is NOT a 'fairy tale.'

Camelot is NOT an enduring IDEA it is a FAIRY TALE.

The American Dream is VERY REAL. It is simple too.

A dream of something better.

I have a DREAM that one day this nation will be ran by a BETTER man than those whos REAL NATURE must be hidden.

I have a dream that presidents will NOT LIE to us,... Why... BECAUSE ITS BETTER. Not because it will make life magical.

And by the way, one side of my family was SLAUGHTERED for the IDEA of this nation.

I am QUITE familiar with the IDEA of this country.

As a woman I am also QUITE familiar with the IDEA of a GOOD man. Both honest AND strong.

I would like to VOTE for one SOME DAY.

Well that's what Camelot is, too. A dream of something better. Just like America. That's what I said here:

But my grandparents immigrated to this country for what you would call the "fairy tale," but what I would call the dream that is always ahead of us, and what we work and strive for. It’s beautiful.
Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at December 11, 2005 02:32 PM

The beauty is not in what it IS, it's in what it CAN be. America, Camelot, etc...

Christy,

If I may try to explain:

I was relating my observations and experiences as a fourteen year old child ~ my age when Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

I seriously doubt that I was brainwashed at that age, I was busy with school and friends.

My remembrances were what I saw and what went through my mind that horrible day and week. In those days the press hid what was going on in a President's private life. None of us, and I repeat NONE OF US who were alive then and old enough for his assassination to make an impact were remotely aware of went on behind the scene.

How do we know for sure he rigged votes, was shot up every day with amphetamines, and was a cad? How much of that is reality, and how much is politics?

I remember he gave us a sense of hope. He was charismatic, in my opinion, and gave speeches filled with idealism, hope, and a plea to reach for higher aspirations.

My current events teacher DID cry the day he was murdered. School WAS dismissed. My family and every family I knew was huddled around their little black and white t.v. that week watching history in the making.

To suggest that we who remember and relate what we experienced on the anniversary of his death is because we are brainwashed is not accurate.

I now know the man's feet were made of clay. The years and other men (sometimes other men hungry for a buck) have made sure none have been spared the realities of the man or the myth.

That doesn't change how it came down that week in the mind of America.

And, no matter what you think of the man, his wife taught us volumes about strength and courage in the face of tragedy. She put together an elegant memorial service that will live on in memory for all Americans after showering his brains off her body.

It was Camelot to me.

I remember he gave us a sense of hope.

Snip

To suggest that we who remember and relate what we experienced on the anniversary of his death is because we are brainwashed is not accurate.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at December 11, 2005 03:13 PM

That is Kennedys legacy. Hope. I am not trying to deny him of what he DID do.

And I did not mean to suggest it was all brainwashing. But considering current events it is VERY eerie to realize the propaganda has been going as long as the presidency. It REALLY REALLY is very odd trying to seperate the truth from the spin.

The truth lays somewhere in the middle.

Frankly, why are we all picking on JFK? What about FDR, eh? What did HE do for Civil Rights at home while he "fought for freedom and democracy" abroad?! What about how he placed Japanese Americans in prison camps?! He had affairs out side of his marriage. He turned back a ship (The St. Louis) filled of 1,000 Jews that were later murder in Europe. Even the New Deal was largely a failure if you measure it terms of a dent in unemployment. In fact, as Christy said that JFK was "ONLY successful at being INSPIRING," you could say that FDR was "ONLY successful in lifting people up and giving them hope." (of course that's forgetting some major accomplishments of both FDR and JFK, but if we want to harp on the failures...) The point is, since when is being THAT INSPIRING such a little thing?! Since when is giving people HOPE a small accomplishment? At the time of the great depression, people believed the American Dream was broken, until FDR gave them hope again.

In his failures, JFK is no different from most presidents (although I'd say that it is no small deal that he faced the country, ADMITTED his mistake in the Bay of Pigs, and took full responsibility... our current president would never do that!). But in his triumphs, JFK, like FDR, paved the way for the work that WE do each day.

In his inaugural address JFK said "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans." Now, thanks to JFK and FDR, and many many others... the torch is passed again, this time to US. Thanks in part to "Camelot" we have a vision and a goal to strive for with this torch. And if, as Christy points out, JFK made mistakes in his work for America, the torch is now OURS so we can learn from his mistakes and CORRECT them.

the torch is now OURS so we can learn from his mistakes and CORRECT them.

AMEN!!!

Can we REQUIRE all presidential wannabes take a lie detector test on prime time?

Just askin

Can anyone name ONE president that wasn't banging the help, or without a KNOWN mistress...?

Seriously was there ONE...?

Christy,

Something else equally odd regarding truth and lies and presidents...

LBJ rigged his election to the senate from Texas. He stole it. Now, had he not gone to the senate his political career would have been over and he never would have been president... so no Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensuring suffrage for millions of Americans who had been disenfranchised.

Isn't it weird how things work?

(I'm not saying his rigging of the election was justified!!)

I hear TR and John Adams were completely faithful, but who knows. LBJ had affairs. Woodrow Wilson stopped the conference in Versailles to go have an affair. And Warren Harding... whoo!

Posted by: Christy at December 11, 2005 03:36 PM

Jimmy Carter. He admitted to lusting in his heart, and from what I've seen & read about him, I truly believe that's the extent of his indiscretions. He was too good a man to be president. The politicos ate him up and spit him out. What a shame. I have so much respect for him now.

Bill Clinton never had an affair! He was framed!

...just kidding...

During the Jackson molestation trial my friend Kim told me

"Michael Jackson did NOT molest those boys!! He made love to them."

Oh my! haha

This is said to have been found among the papers of an legislator from long ago...

Among life's dying embers
These are my regrets:
When I'm "right" no one remembers,
When I'm "wrong" no one forgets.

Christy,

This is the way I look at it:

It may not have been Camelot in reality. But, for that one, brief moment, it was Camelot in our minds. And, on the anniversary of President Kennedy's death, I remember that fleeting sense of Camelot.

The days that followed that November 22nd, seem dark to me. There was Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. Very young men all around me were being drafted. School friends were coming home in a box. Bobby Kennedy's assassination. Nixon and Watergate.

I don't recall though that we were ever in a place like we are now, with one party doing everything in it's power to bring about one party rule.

We MUST band together through this winter period, make the winter months a time to regroup, make our bonds stronger, feed our minds and spirits, and do what we can to be effective during these months, and organize for the warmer months coming in a few short months....

This past year has brought ALOT of changes! Last year at this time many of us were depressed about the loss of the election, and were watching the Emporer getting ready for his multi-million dollar celebration in Washington, D.C. His poll ratings were still high, people still thought he could walk on water. I guess Katrina fixed that!!

This past year we have seen the start of an anti-war movement. We have seen images of the truth of the apparent wasting of federal funds as FEMA stood numbly by while people suffered in NOLA. We have seen some networks start to broadcast truth. We have seen Senators come forward and speak truth to power.

We have reason and cause for hope. Our success is not insured. These cold winter months could give way to depression and hopelessness if we let them. We shall not. We will band together as the band of brothers Oncall speaks so eloquently about in his post upthread.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at December 11, 2005 04:05 PM

Amen! I DO remember last year I was much much more depressed than I am now! So much has happened since then! Now I am angry, but I am also hopeful and excited for all the great things that I know we can accomplish in the future!

Posted by: madame defarge at December 11, 2005 03:44 PM

I remember looking at Jimmy Carter while he was President.

And though I was young, I remember I had my tin foil hat on, and I got this discernment:

He looked like he has alot of powerful men coming from all angles trying to "run him". He looked like he was "in over his head" (i.e. alot of corrupt men were trying to take control of a good man), and he looked disillusioned.

excuse me, should read "had" not has.

Sending greetings of love to April and her family.

I don't care about the sex life of politicians as long as they accomplish things that improve the greater good. I don't care what their religoius beliefs are - their works will speak for them. I don't think any US President is any kind of "God" - they are head of the US & can in some sense steer the direction a little & certainly give an "image" for the rest of the world. But if the whole system serves pro-corporate ends, then the whole system needs to be reformed & until it is, even the best of US Presidents is just a figurehead.

Aimzz - Glad to hear you also worked for McCarthy at 16! Now that was inspiring - & America didn't follow, but it was a big start for pressure to get us out of the quagmire Vietnam.

Now I am changing the subject to Iraq because there is some terrible stuff going on and being covered up. We need to get active.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/politics/11propaganda.html?th&emc=th
Propaganda: Military's Information War is Often
Vast & Secretive

Conyers, 7 Reps: 'Casualty Counts Are Off'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105X.shtml
In a shocking charge a group of seven House Democrats wrote President Bush this week, accusing the Pentagon of under-reporting casualties in Iraq.

Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at December 11, 2005 03:47 PM

LOL

Anybody who thinks that Jimmy Carter was off the grid should have absotively, posilutely, checked out his amazing interview with -- of all people -- Jon Stewart last week.

Carter held his own and then some in that interview, which ain't so bad for such an antiquated ineffectual irrelevant old geezer type person (ahem).

And you know what? He made sense and scored points. So you go try doing *that* twenty years from now, Mr. DeLay! (Ahem redux.)

But I digress.

Carter's real problem was that he was couldn't hide the fact that he was way smarter than virtually everyone else who's been elected to that office within living memory.

And, alas, it's been at least a century now since the Amurrikin people, by inclination as well as by training, have emphatically refused to trust anybody that they're afraid just might be smarter than they are.

Good thing that's such a relatively short list, right? (Well, until the *current* century, anyway...)

James Earl Carter was the first president that I specifically worked my personal asterisk off to help get elected to the office. And you know what? To this very day, that's one of the things that I am still most politically pround of.

Jimmy Carter became my president. And Ah hepped.

You got a problem with that? Sue me.

I still believe in my country but I sure have to wonder about its internal constituencies sometimes,
Otter

This poem by Langston Hughes has been posted several times on the blog, but I thought it would be apropos for this conversation as well.

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

All the brave soldiers that cannot get older
Been asking after you

Hear the past a-calling
From Armageddon's side

When everyone's talking
And no one is listening
How can we decide?

thanks again for the use of the hall mr. stills,
Otter

I worked for McCarthy in high school & McGovern in college, but Carter was the first President I was old enough to vote for. I have voted straight Democrat ever since & have never expected godliness or perfection & in fact, prefer humanity & empathy. I would place any of the Democratic presidents, faults and mistakes and foibles, far ahead of any of the Republicans we have had. I read criticism of the Democratic party, & I agree with some of it, but given the state of the country right now, we have to work with what we've got.

I've heard some recent interviews with Carter & plan to read his book. He is light years ahead of what we have now.

We're living in a world where air marshalls shoot a mentally ill man without listening to what his wife has to say & where a Brazilian man in a puffy coat is shot in a subway, no questions asked.

The times of Kennedy and Carter seem quite innocent by comparison, though it was also not fun to sit at the other end of a nuclear arsenal. Somehow I knew even as a child, that the issue wasn't capitalism vs communism & that both sides were escalating to further violence. After the Soviets broke up, the neocons started to look for other 'bogeymen' - the current one is terrorism.

In fact, we face more danger from car accidents, illness and environmental toxins as well as natural disasters which seem more frequent as we warm the planet a few degrees with our consumption.

Here is the extent of our consumption, just the amount from personal plastic:

Americans owe $800 billion in credit card debt, more than triple the amount from 1989, and a 31 percent increase from five years ago, according to a recent report, "The Plastic Safety Net," by the Center for Responsible Lending, and Demos, a research group based in New York.

We are morally & economically bankrupt.

Sayeth DiAnne: "We are morally & economically bankrupt."

Nah, we ain't.

We may be broke and seriously overdrawn on all our accounts, but we ain't *totally* bankrupt.

At least not yet, anyway.

Sure does sound like it's long past time to fix that little problem, though, nu?

find the cost of freedom,
Otter

FBI Agents Lament: "Radical Militant Librarians"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105A.shtml
Some agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been frustrated by what they see as the Justice Department's reluctance to let them demand records and to use other far-ranging investigative measures in terrorism cases.

I have one of these radical militant librarians across the street from my house. She is retired from the VA Library though, and has a frame shop. In the window are an Orwell quote and a big sign that says "America Wants the Truth."

Our local library also hands out information on the Patriot Act & vows to protect our reading privacy.

That's it! I demand that the fedrul gummint immediately institute a seven-day waiting period on all library books!

gimme back my country dammit,
Otter

And gimme back my yuletide solstice while you're at it, too.

More about local community libraries:

By James Kimberly
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 20, 2005

Before long, patrons wanting to use Naperville Public Library System computers without a hassle will have to prove their identity with a fingerprint.

The three-library system this week signed a $40,646 contract with a local company, U.S. Biometrics Corp., to install fingerprint scanners on 130 computers with Internet access or a time limit on usage.

The decision, according to the American Library Association, makes Naperville only the second library system in the country to install fingerprint scanners.

Library officials say the added security is necessary to ensure people who are using the computers are who they say they are.

Officials promise to protect the confidentiality of the fingerprint records.

But with Congress contemplating an expansion of the USA Patriot Act, which gives federal authorities access to confidential library records, and cameras watching the streets some Chicagoans drive or the sidewalks they stroll, privacy advocates are concerned about yet another erosion of personal liberty.

"We take people's fingerprints because we think they might be guilty of something, not because they want to use the library," said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Yohnka said Naperville may mean well, but that does not mean the technology won't be used for something else at a later date.

"You're creating just another database of information about people," Yohnka said. "I'm sure they started out with the best of intentions of not sharing this information, but the reality is sometimes intentions go awry."

Currently patrons use their library cards and personal identification numbers to access the computers.

That will change once the scanners are installed. The glass-topped, silver metal boxes about the size of a package of Tic-Tacs read the print on a patron's index finger and use an algorithm to convert at least 15 specific points into a unique numeric sequence.

Once a patron's fingerprint has been recorded, accessing a computer will require only the touch of a finger.

Library Deputy Director Mark West said the system will be implemented over the summer beginning with a public education campaign in June. West said he is confident the public will embrace the technology once it learns its limitations.

The stored numeric data cannot be used to reconstruct a fingerprint, West said, nor can it be cross-referenced with other fingerprint databases such as those kept by the FBI or the Illinois State Police.

"Right now we give you a library card with a bar code attached to it. This is just a bar code, but it's built in," West said.

Last May, when Naperville police demanded the account information of a man who had fondled himself in front of teenagers while viewing pornography in the computer lab at Nichols Library, the library refused to release the information without a subpoena, citing the Illinois Library Records Confidentiality Act.

Naperville police obtained the subpoena and later arrested Richard Blaszak, 35, of Naperville.

In January, Blaszak pleaded guilty to public indecency and was sentenced to 2 years of probation. He is prohibited by court order from using computers in DuPage County libraries during his probation.

During the investigation of the incident, library officials discovered that many patrons logged onto library computers using library cards and passwords of friends or relatives. That realization, coupled with a new library policy that allows parents to install automatic Internet filters on their children's accounts, prompted the search for better computer security, West said.

West said he had to be convinced that the technology would protect patron privacy before he would recommend it to the Library Board.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SunsetThePatriotAct/message/47

Come on all of you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Afghaniraqnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
My next stop is Afghaniraqnam
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates
Ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die

Come on generals, let's move fast
Your big chance has come at last
Now you can go out and get those ragheads
Cause the only good insurgent is one that's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
My next stop is Afghaniraqnam
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates
Ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die

Now come on, Wall Street, don't be slow
Why, man, this is war au-go-go
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying our army with the tools of its trade
But let's hope and pray that when they pop their own bombs,
They screw it up and pop 'em wrong

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
My next stop is Afghaniraqnam
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates
Ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die

Come on mothers throughout the land
Pack your boys off to Afghaniraqnam
Come on fathers don't hesitate
Send your sons off before it's too late
And you can be the first ones on your block
To have your boy come home in a box

with nostalgia, thanx, and a tip of the ol' furcap to country joe & the fish,
Otter

Karen,

Your daughter sounds like such a beautiful person.

I have a son like that, who has always been "an old wise soul".

I think often of April's parting with Angelica, and while I cannot begin to experientially know the emotions of physically losing a child, I do know the gut wrenching feelings of loss that come when our children grow up, take their independence (like healthy children should), and leave our physical presence. We are never again afforded the time and concentrated quality of that early relationship again.

This word of wisdom from Kahlil Gibran spoke volumes to me during my feelings of loss when my children left my side and went to live their lives as adults:

~ On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

~ snip

And, although as the universe unfolds it reveals different plans for each one, we were so privileged to have been able to be in their lives, and have them in ours on such a concentrated level, during those early years...
Who knows, maybe they were sent to teach us something.....

more

http://www.columbia.edu/~gm84/gibtable.html

For Angie and April, Bethany and Karen & Dick, and others who have lost a child:

On That Holy Mountain by Joe Mattingly adapted from Isaiah 11:6-9

The wolf is the guest of the lamb, on that holy mountain.
The lion and the calf shall lie down, on that holy mountain.
Together they shall rest with the child on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain of the lord.

No harm or ruin - on that holy mountain.
That sacred day shall be filled with knowledge.
There shall be peace, led by all the children.
On that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain of the lord.

The poor shall receive from the rich on that holy mountain.
The sick and the lame shall be healed on that holy mountain.
The wicked shall be slain by God's breath.
On that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, onthat holy mountain of the lord.

No harm or ruin on that holy mountain.
That sacred day shall be filled with knowledge.
There shall be peace led by all the children.
On that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain of the lord.

Justice shall flow for all time on that holy mountain.
As long as the sun still can shine, on that holy mountain.
Peace till the moon be no more, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain of the lord.

No harm or ruin on that holy mountain.
That sacred day shall be filled with knowledge.
There shall be peace led by all the children. On that holy mountain, on that holy mountain, on that holy mountain of the lord.

Carol and everyone,

Thak you all so much for your support and understanding. It means worlds to me.

What a beautiful post and meditation, Fe.

Great insights.

Makes me realize I missed out over the past year by not knowing this community existed (and persisted).

Wow!

It's nice to read your words again Fe. And many others as well.

Community, yes.

You have created it here.