it's been a long, long journey... way to go, bill

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After more than a half-century of similar proposals and efforts, healthcare reform is one signature away from being, finally, the law of the land. Far from ideal in its current manifestation, the bill is a vast improvement that will have profound benefits in the real lives of so many people who haven't seen much go their way in this society that has, over the last three decades, become increasingly good at kicking people when they're down. We're a long way from being the relatively civilized society that the world's other industrialized democracies are, at least in terms of guaranteeing their citizens care when they get sick but, albeit in the slow pace in which all evolution proceeds, we're on our way. The law is not what I, and many other liberals, wanted. The law is not what makes most sense for most Americans. But it has been kicked around, poked and prodded, grossly misrepresented, used as a proxy for genuinely vile sentiments, and generally mistreated and maligned by the likes of the noisy and obtuse "Tea Partiers," Fox News, the skilled and disturbingly carefree Frank Luntz, the small army of rabid radio and tv personalities on the right, the obscenely powerful insurance companies and their not-so-small army of well-paid lobbyists, and indeed the considerable, and considerably adroit, Republican political machine. And despite the short-sightedness of many, and its own long odds, what only weeks ago looked like a doomed bill, is now just a tiny, and certain, step away from being a law. And a law that would be almost impossible for the right wing to dismantle. Being mishandled, dirtied, and vilified seems to have fortified what looked like a pretty weak contender.

This whole process has reminded me of the Schoolhouse Rock episode, "I'm just a bill...," and this bill was certainly treated at least as badly as the humble little personification in the cartoon. And yet, it made it all the way to becoming, late last night, a soon-and-certain-to-be law, and as imperfect as it is, it has my affection. May it find love and produce single-payer offspring.

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speak OUT

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Possibly the best of all slogans or battle cries used by a movement, or an organization as part of a movement, is ACT-UP's "Silence=Death." And it's true and wise beyond the scope of AIDS, when applied to so many things. Art is perhaps the embodiment of the axiom as it, by definition, speaks, and often speaks "truth to power." Likewise, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is not just an oppressive military policy, but a dictum reflecting and endorsing a larger and dangerous worldview that gains support from the policy for its application in all spheres of life. It is in direct opposition to Silence Equals Death. 

To help extinguish the policy, and hopefully the larger belief system, make a brief visit to the Courage Campaign and sign a petition to do just that.

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sufferin' til suffrage

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where's habeas?

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click to help find him

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o captain, my captain

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What greater thing has happened in this country and to this country and from this country in recent memory? And a Democrat-controlled Congress as well. How Rainbow Connection.

But Grrrr and shame on you to all those in California, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas who are responsible for the passing of the propositions to ban gay marriage. All that time, money, energy, and messing with Constitutions, and all those lawyers, Mormons, and political strategists and spin doctors for something that has the simplest of solutions: if you are against gay marriage, don't have one. Take a cue from South Dakota, where a proposition to ban (legal) abortion was defeated.

Click on the photo to go to change.gov, the website for the Office of the President-Elect. (How cool does that sound?)

It was an honor to be one of so many who was involved, even in the smallest of ways, in the fruition of the dream.

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shame, shame

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Last night before going to sleep, I was talking on the phone to a friend about the Presidential campaign, and at one point we were talking about where we have voted in previous years, what time of the day we usually vote, and maybe some other little personal Election Day traditions-of-sorts. We also talked about how easy it's always been for us to vote: how we've never encountered long lines, have never been hassled, etc. (We both have almost always been registered to vote in predominantly white, middle class, or upper-middle class areas. For example, for most of the years that I have lived in my home state of Pennsylvania, I have kept my legal, "permanent" address as my parents' address, mostly for reasons of convenience, because I used to move a lot. An added benefit of this, as I saw it, was that I could vote in the more conservative, suburban, swing-district of my childhood, rather than inside the city where I've usually lived and which never needed my liberal vote.) Then this morning when I fed my cats and brushed my teeth and just generally tried to wake up, I watched some of the film, Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, on television. I learned some frightening things and pondered some others:

Florida, 2000
Along with all of the other questionable election practices that occurred there, including the use in some districts of the confusing "butterfly"ballots, the many old, dirty, clogged, and broken machines (mostly in areas of many African-American voters, who tend to vote -- at approximately 90% -- for Democrats) that resulted in the famous "dimpled," "hanging," and "pregnant" chad, and the Supreme Court ruling to discontinue the recount there, a lesser known injustice occurred when about 20,000 legal voters were purged from the rolls because their names resembled the names of convicted felons, who in Florida do not have the right to vote. This decision to expand the list of purged voters to include voters with names similar to ex-felons was made by Katherine Harris, the Republican Secretary of State for Florida, and a leading member of that state's Campaign to Elect George W. Bush, at the time. About half of these 20,000 (non-felon) citizens denied their right to vote were black. (source 1)

New Hampshire, 2002
Allen Raymond, former GOP operative who was arrested for campaign "dirty tricks," recently explained: "What happened was I was contracted by the Republican National Committee to jam Democratic phone lines. So, there's only one thing that goes on, on election day, and that's getting out the vote. And, so those phone lines on election day were used to call people to remind them to vote, where to vote, incoming phone calls telling them where to vote, could they get a ride to the polls, that type of thing. And my job back then was to stop those phone lines from being able to make calls going out or coming in. And it was very effective for the bit of time that we did it." – In his new book, Mr. Raymond writes that these practices were implemented in other places, in other years, and some were sometimes widespread. (source 2)

Ohio, 2004
"People waiting in line nine hours to vote, some getting discouraged and actually going home without exercising their franchise."
- Tim Russert, NBC. 10:59 pm, Election night, 2004. (source 3)

"People waiting as long as fifteen hours, in line, because they only had two places [working voting machines] to vote
-Tom Brokaw, NBC. 11:38 pm, Election night, 2004. (source 3)

Tactics observed, testified to, and otherwise evidenced in Ohio in 2004: Voter intimidation, voters purged from the rolls, barriers to registering, poll observers banned from polls, voting machine failures, too few voting machines, redrawn precincts, pre-punched ballots, ex-felons (who are allowed to vote in Ohio) threatened, fake flyers with false information about when and where to vote, phone calls with similar misleading information, illegal recount procedures, Kerry votes "flipped" to votes for Bush, long lines.
That year, Ohio's top election administrator was also co-chair of the state's Re-Elect Bush Campaign. Bush won Ohio, without which he would not have won the election.
(source 3)

Sources: 1.) Recount, HBO Films, 2008
2.) Real Time with Bill Maher, 10/24/08
3.) UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections

To find out ways that you can protect your right to vote, help protect others' right to vote, or document anything questionable you witness, GO HERE and/or HERE.To read a few tips from Tim Robbins, GO HERE. To find out where to vote, GO HERE.

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happy labor day

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with love to street artists

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the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

and tenement halls

- Paul Simon

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In Pittsburgh recently a nineteen year-old graffiti artist was charged with offenses that could have resulted in him spending twenty-five years in a maximum-security prison. The judge sentenced him to five years, which was met with sighs of relief from some who were somewhat sympathetic to the youth. I am going to guess that these people have never visited a county jail, let alone a maximum-security prison, let alone served any time in either. Five years is a long time. And for a relatively benign property crime. I suppose I should not be surprised: property is God in what is probably the most ruggedly capitalist society on earth.

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As a practical matter I certainly understand that without laws protecting property and proprietors, a necessary modicum of order could not be ensured, but I've always wondered about this idea of ownership. How can anyone really own much of anything? Whether one believes in God, or in evolution, or both, or neither.... no person ever created any of the land that now people in groups calling themselves nation-states claim as theirs, and within those nation-states the leaders and laws of those nations also claim to have the right to give individuals the right to buy and sell pieces of that land as one's own. It all seems quite arbitrary to me: how have some gotten that right to claim land as theirs, and the right to then sell some of that land to some chosen few? Victory in violent conflict. Might may not make right but it is the origin of property rights, which are then mythologized into something beyond question by systems of commerce, consumerism, language, the construction of hierarchies, and to reference a recent post, even pop-culture staples, such as Monopoly, to name just one icon to which we become habituated. For a rabidly supposed-Christian country, we might be in lock-step with a few conveniently chosen details from the Old Testament, but we're a long way from Jesus' commandment to give our coats, as well, to the person who asks for our shirts.

Last weekend I got involved in a somewhat heated debate about the subject of graffiti and street art. My attempts to assert the importance, the political relevance, the very necessity of art were countered by, "then they should put it on a canvas." To which I was unable to ever say, "and how many people would ever see it?" (Not to mention, "Not that it would give much art the exposure it can get on the 'street,' but does 'they should put it on a canvas,' mean you support greater funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and other taxpayer funded art initiatives, education, and distribution?" ) I did get to at least flirt with a discussion about how the very act of putting art in illegal places is performing one of the functions of art, which is to push the envelope, to cause questioning, to express and give form to dissent, but that truth didn't find any takers at the dinner table.

Artists in general don't get much love these days, as many of us endeavoring in poetry know all too intimately, but although our work may motivate rejection slips from editors, stir some unease in our mothers, raise a hair or two of controversy from time to time, and raise some random eyebrows a bit more often than from time to time, I don't think most of us are in much danger of being thrown in the Big House for what we write. At least not in this country. At least not yet. Let's take care to make certain that never happens by letting our lawmakers, as well as our friends, families, and others, know that while laws protecting property may indeed have their place, art is by far the more valuable commodity.

Both of the above by the artist a1one, in Tehran.

In Paris.

In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

An abandoned gas station rebirthed by Jennifer Marsh.


In Perugia, Italy; by Phorm.

In Lebanon.

In Barcelona.

And of course there are those masters like Keith Haring who "started," in part, on the streets. His work is now framed and "owned" by many wealthy collectors and some of the most prestigious museums in the world.

Many of the above images were found on the following sites: Graffiti on Oil , The Wooster Street Art Collective, and Art Crimes. Along with other sites like the Iranian Street Art Report, Dan Witz Street Art (he's amazing), and Urban Art Movement, they are really worth checking out. Wooster is an especially great starting point, and has many links to awe inspiring art and artists.

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blogging smarties

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READ THESE POSTS.

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The last special George Carlin did for HBO was called It's Bad for Ya. The following posts, I'm convinced, are Good for Ya.

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Life Above Ground , by Tim Keane

13 Facts About Bob Hicok, by Steven Schroeder: Not only one of the best things I've read about my favorite living poet, but hilarious too.

Sam Rasnake's series of posts, Music to Live By, as well as a photo and a certain quote from Pulp Fiction (okay, yeah, yeah, the quote's original source is the Bible, but it's so much more fun in this context. And I'm thinking maybe just maybe, disaoppointed with some of the writers who claimed to be speaking for God and penning GOD's literature, She created Quentin Tarantino.)

Civil Rights, Who Gets Them and How Often, by Amy King, who hands down has the best and dare-I-say most relevant and important blog in any sphere

Daniel Nester's Just on the Morning News: "Takin' Care of Jesus" with a link to Amy King's take on the subject, as well. Daniel Nester's project is good ol' political fun, and so is Amy's descriptive article.

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Michi Gabriel's just plain funny Sunday Morning Visitor.

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And if you haven't seen Nick Courtright's Tier 3 definitely check it out. It's a higher species than the blog.

Read a politically relevant take on Monopoly on Tim Keane's blog

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Also seen on the poetry blogosphere:

Michi Gabriel's little gem, "I may be the biggest female fool in the world, but at least i'm not a man"


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savage inequalities

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Within the United States:



• In 2004, the Average Income in the U.S. was $60, 528, while the Median Income was only $43,389. Since 2000, when George W. Bush took office, this gap between the mean income and the median income, which has long been the widest among rich countries, has grown even wider. After adjusting for inflation, the median American household earns less than it did in 2000, while the earnings of the richest Americans increased dramatically. (sources 1&2)
  
• U.S. labor productivity has increased by more than 15% since 1995, but the real incomes of the bottom half of American incomes have either barely increased or declined. (source 2)


• The U.S. average (or "mean" or "per capita") income is almost always at the very top of global rankings, but because its income distribution skews toward the rich, its median income ranks about tenth. (source 2)
  
• 42% of the world's billionaires are Americans, yet approximately one out of five American children live in poverty. (source 3, source 4)
  
• The poverty rate for children, at over 21%, is far higher than for any other age group. (Interestingly, the poverty rate among the elderly, after declining dramatically from 35.2 percent in 1959 to 12.2 percent in 1990, has since then been lower than for the rest of the population. And while senior citizens tend to vote at a higher rate than other adult age groups, children, of course, cannot vote. This is perhaps informative especially when considering issues such as health care: Medicare, guaranteed to all citizens over 65 years of age, is generally a much better form of insurance than Medicaid, which serves poor children, and it is also not guaranteed to even all children who are not covered by any other type of insurance (occasionally poor children, and often the "near-poor," or even children of lower-middle-class parents who cannot afford the rising cost of medical coverage.)) (source 2)

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(Photograph by Bobby Diba)
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• In 2006, for all full-time workers, men's median income was $42,210, while women who worked full time had a median income of $32,649. (source 1)
  
• More than two out of three adults who are impoverished in the United States are women. This higher incidence of poverty, together with the rising share of households headed by women, has led to what researchers call the "feminization of poverty," with an increasing fraction of the poor in female-headed households. In 1990 this fraction was at 37.5 percent, and it has continued to increase. (sources1, 2, & 4)
  
• The poverty rate among black households at 31.9 percent in 1990 was three times as high as the rate among white households. (sources 2 & 4 )
  
• The percentage of non-Hispanic whites living in poverty in 2006 was 9.3% whereas 25.5% of blacks lived in poverty that year, and 21.5% of Hispanics of all races were impoverished. The race with the highest likelihood of living in poverty was Native Americans: 26.6% of them lived in poverty. (source 1)
  
• The top 20% of income-earning households' share of all U.S. income was 50% in 2006, while the bottom 20% of households shared only 3.4% of all U.S. income. (source 1) (note: The data for the actual bottom 20% is most likely much more bleak, however, as it does not include the "absolutely" homeless, who are those individuals and families with no residence whatsoever (notice that the Census reports here on households), and most likely does not include most other homeless families and individuals who have some type of temporary residence, such as motels that charge by the week or month: As Barbara Ehrenreich explains in Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, "Long-term motel residents are almost certainly undercounted, since motel owners often deny access to census takers and the residents themselves may be reluctant to admit they live in motels, crowded in with as many as four or more people in a room." (page 140) And if the homeless were included, this would of course change the overall picture, making the inequities even more extreme, especially for the bottom 40% as some of those who the Census counts as being in the bottom 20% would then be pushed up into the next quintile as the homeless are usually the poorest of the poor and would be in the bottom 20%.
  
• Representative of all other recent years, in 2006 U.S. households shared income as follows: *top 20%=50% of income *The second highest 20%=23% *The middle20%=14.8% *The second lowest 20%=8.8% *The lowest 20%=3.4% (source 1) (note from above applies here as well)
  
• 50% of the children in the U.S. who drop out of high-school come from only12% of the school districts. These school districts tend to be disproportionately poor, as well as disproportionately urban and rural, and disproportionately African-American and Hispanic. (source 5)

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Globally:

• Of the 221 countries (most territories, such as U.S. Guam and Puerto Rico, are counted as countries as well) of the world, life expectency is highest in the western-European country of Andorra, where it is 83.52 years, while life expectency is the lowest in the sub-Saharan country of Swaziland, where it is 32.23 years. (The richest country, by many measures, in the world, the United States, ranks 45th, with a lower life expectancy than Bosnia, Jordan, Bermuda, and Guam, among others. ) Other countries that fare well include Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Canada. Other countries at the bottom of the list include Haiti, Afghanistan, and many sub-Saharan countries such as Niger, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Malawi. (sources 6&7)
  
• The total net worth of the 1,125 richest people in the world is $4.4 trillion, while 1.2 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day. (source 3, source 8)
  
• The average American home runs a washing machine, on average, approximately two times a day, and runs a dishwasher slightly over once a day on average, while 12 million people around the world die every year from a lack of water. (source 8) (This data was particularly startling and sobering to me, especially as someone who spends probably 15 minutes every day just washing my hair. And this information doesn't include all water use such as showers, watering lawns, watering golf courses, etc., and doesn't include all of the other industrialized countries.)

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For more information or to find out how you can take action against such inequities, visit any of the following websites:
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Global concerns: Oxfam, CARE, CARE Corps, Kiva, ONE, Workers of the World, MercyCorps, Sweatshop Watch, UNIFEM, Women Thrive Worldwide

National concerns: Unite Here!, Union for Radical Political Economics, Citizens for Tax Justice, LaborNet, National Urban League, National Organization for Women, Sweatshop Watch

*Sources (with links where applicable) : (1) "Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2006 American Community Survey" US CENSUS BUREAU, pages 2-20 (2) Faulkner, L. "Race, Gender, and Poverty" Sacramento State Univ. Sociology Dept. (3) Kroll, L. "World's Billionaires" Forbes.com March 5, 2008 (4) Sawhill, I. "Poverty in the United states," The Library of Economics and Liberty (5) Bob Wise "An Hour on Education with Bob Wise and Wendy Kopp" Charlie Rose Show: PBS July1, 2008 (6) Wikipedia "List of Countries by Life Expectancy" (by CIA World Factbook) (7) Swivel... (8) Oxfam America Other sources: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development "World Economy: Frequently Asked Statistics: Earnings" ~Economic Statistics Briefing Room, The White House

you lost a lot when you lost me

* George Carlin 1937-2008

Here's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

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The status quo sucks.

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I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

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You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.

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By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.

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Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

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When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat.

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Always do whatever's next.

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(All of the above quotes link to an article about George Carlin or a transcript of one of his monologues. Particularly good, I think, is the Rolling Stone magazine article and interview from 1972 which is linked to from the fourth quote -- "I think it's the duty..." -- and a transcript of his famous monologue, "Filthy Words," better known as "Seven Dirty Words," which the FCC took all the way to the Supreme Court, which is linked to from the sixth quote, "By and large...")

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good man / good woman

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bellylaugh skit from SNL

but dead-on seriousness

the woman-hating of hillary-hating

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girls on film

"How do we beat the bitch?!"

-- A supporter of John McCain, at a rally for the presumptive Republican nominee for the Presidency (who responded, "Excellent question.")

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Barbara Walters wants to know whether former president Clinton will organize the Easter egg hunt or fuss over Christmas decorations if there is a future President Clinton.
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Dick Cheney is worried that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has shrunken the "big sticks" of the once-tough guys who were the vice president's colleagues in Congress.
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Tee hee hee.
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--Ruth Marcus (click to continue to read the above right-on op-ed in The Washington Post)
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When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at[Hillary Clinton], it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at [Barack Obama], it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.

...This is not funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison... Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
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--Robin Morgan (click to read her entire article in the Women's Media Center news)

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“You can … discuss this avalanche of misogyny without endorsing her campaign …”

-- Bill Moyers in conversation with Kathleen Hall Jamieson (from Amy King's blog post How to Hate Hillary)

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And go here to Amy's blog for another important read, indeed. And to view an insightful yet disturbing YOU TUBE video clip

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higher education blues

Below is an expurgated version of the full article, "Readers share student loan stories," by Eleanor Chute, which recently appeared on the website of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Excerpted is just the article's intro. and the short essay by one of my favorite people in the universe, my friend, Stephanie.
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Student loans change lives.
Without them, many people could never afford to go on to higher education and would have little chance of higher-paying jobs.
But when the amounts owed are high and hopes don't become realities, student loans can become a burden.
We asked our Web readers to recount their experiences with student loans as a way to help others entering the student-loan frontier. Students and parents told stories of both gratitude and regret.
Here are their stories from their e-mails, edited for brevity and clarity.

...

Stephanie Shea of Wilkinsburg, bachelor's degree in human services administration from what is now Chatham University in 1997, master's degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999:

I began taking out student loans in 1995 when I returned to school at the age of 25 to complete my bachelor's degree. I attended Chatham for five semesters before graduating in 1997 with nearly $30,000 in student loans.

I then went on to the University of Pittsburgh to earn a master's degree in social work. The program was very internship intensive (over 1,300 hours required), so I had to take out loans for tuition, books, fees as well as to subsidize my living expenses. I was a full-time graduate student, worked (on average) 24 hours per week as an intern, and waitressed/tended bar as often as time allowed.

I graduated from Pitt in May 1999 with a total of $63,500 in student loans. When my six-month grace period ended, I consolidated my loans (at an astronomical 7.5 percent).

My first "real job" paid $28,000 per year -- and my student loan payments were nearly $600 a month for 30 years. Needless to say, I couldn't afford it. I called my lender and explained the situation. I was told that I qualified for the "income sensitive repayment plan", and that according to my income, I could afford to pay $92 a month. I paid $100 a month for almost the next five years. However, the interest on my loans was around $500 per month, so my loans grew at an alarming rate.

(Ms. Shea, who works two jobs, said she is now on an economic hardship forbearance so that she can pay for child care and elementary school tuition for her two children.)

My loans are currently hovering around the $100,000 mark. Most days I am so depressed, I can't even bear to face my current financial nightmare. I have ZERO dollars in savings, and my only retirement savings are from employer contributions.

It stinks being the poster child for "Generation Debt."

(and not included in the article...) Companies like Sallie Mae (ie: my third child) are every bit as predatory as those involved in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, yet this issue receives much less attention in the media. Needless to say, reform in this arena is at the top of my list for the upcoming election. Go Hillary!

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(And go Stephanie!)

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have a mint

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courtesy of the Unemployed Philosphers' Guild

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grrrrrr

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this makes me so mad i could spit.
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good question

The Children's Defense Fund is supporting a ten-year-old "candidate" who has a good question for the current Administration and Congress, as well as for the "other" candidates. No, 'a GREAT question actually: How do you decide which children don't get health insurance?

Kids have a way of getting right to the heart of the matter.

(applause, applause)

To sign a petition (it takes about thirty seconds) in support of health insurance for all of America's children, visit Susie Flynn's website.

john edwards on charlie rose

on the same television screen, sitting together at the same table... what a dream. My dream comes true on PBS tonight, and again tomorrow. These two dreamy intellects will discuss issues pertinent to the decisions with which we will all be entrusted in the next eleven months. You can find out when you can see the acclaimed interviewer converse with the left-leaning (and, I think, best) candidate for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination in your area by checking this page of the PBS website.

No matter what your beliefs or candidate preferences, this is a rare chance to hear a relevant conversation approached with candor and seriousness uncommon among all the network and cable horse-race chatter.

things i find strange

Jon Stewart (and others like him) does not, and I cannot imagine ever would, refer to himself as a journalist ("I tell dumb jokes for a living"), but Bill O'Reilly (and others like him) does (and quite vehemently).

Humans have about the same number of genes as do fish and mice, and even less than plants do. (But what I find even stranger than this...)

(is that...) George W. Bush and Al Gore are the same species ('never mind that they were up for the same job.)

(and likewise...) Albert Einstein and, well take your pick -- hmmm -- for example, Alberto Gonzalez, are genetically so very similar. Human beings and chimpanzees share 98.9% of the same genes, so even though most chimps seem to be so much cooler (I've never actually met one, but all those PBS shows...) than some human beings do, and I'm sure are (think Ann Coulter vs. a really nice chimp -- or Ann Coulter vs. all but the very meanest and most narcissistic chimps), the fact that Einstein and Gonzalez, et al., are all homosapiens dictates that they would have to have... (seriously?) Also with the same tiny genetic variability are: Eleanor Roosevelt and Rudy Giuliani; Kafka and Danielle Steele; Thurgood Marshall and Dick Cheney; Gandhi and my neighbor who has a sign on his door that reads, "Forget 9-1-1, I dial .357."

Part of the actual, traditional conservative worldview and ideology is supposedly a mistrust of government, and even though very few so-called-conservatives today actually advocate limited government in most areas, almost all of these self-professed conservatives use that doctrine as an explanation for any government action or program that actually helps anyone -- except of course for big-business, the richest 1% of Americans, etc. -- 'no surprise there -- that's been happening for a long time. But neo-conservatism takes it to a level that defies not only logic, but sanity as well. But what I find to be really strange is that all these people who say they don't trust government to, for example, provide health care coverage (but they trust the insurance industry?? but I digress...), trust the government to mete out the death penalty -- "I don't trust you to pay for the doctors' bills of people who have nothing to lose because they currently do not have any medical coverage, but I will entrust you with the power to kill my fellow citizens -- and me, should I happen to have a run of bad luck and get convicted of something I did not do" -- ???

Tonka is marketing a walker in the shape of a miniature truck with the slogan "Because face it: Boys are built different." Apparently, the same geniuses who used an adjective where an adverb is needed -- in a nationally televised ad -- also think ten-month-old boys toddle "different" than do ten-month-old girls, and that their skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems are different, as well.

Probably a good 10% of gifts I'm given have something to do with Maya Angelou, and at least 10% of the shelf space for poetry at most chain-bookstores is filled with Maya Angelou's, umm, "poetry." She may be a very good person, but poet? I just get cranky when even most independent or used bookstores dedicate two or three shelves to poetry, and what's on those shelves except for all the usual suspects. Thanks, I already have Shakespeare's sonnets and as much as I adore her, I don't need to read another tabloid, er um, I mean biography of Sylvia Plath. (Which, by the way -- Bravo to booksellers like Clay Banes , and his bookstore, Pegasus.)

timely

The poem below, by Tony Hoagland, was first published (in Third Coast) in 1997, but ten years later it reads as if it was written yesterday in expectation of the season that officially starts today.

Congress wasn't even back in session yet when this past summer, now just slowly receding, the newspapers and newsprograms were saturated with the humiliations of Larry Craig, who was driven into public bathroom stalls by Senator Larry Craig, whose voting record on issues impacting the lives of queer citizens earned him a rating of zero by the Human Rights Campaign. And Congress was not yet back in session when we witnessed the blatant homophobia evidenced by the double standard of many Republican members of Congress who enthusiastically applauded Senator David Vitter (R. - Louisiana) in July after he was caught on the phone list of a D.C. "madame" and admitted to hiring prostitutes, but who then crossed the distance they put between themselves and the apparently gay or bisexual Idaho Senator only to urge him to resign. And now, with elected officials all across the country going back to their work in the federal and state legislatures, and with the Primary Campaigns in full swing, we will most likely be hearing a lot about gay marriage, and gay men and lesbians in the military, and any other related topic that the fearmongering among the representatives and candidates can exploit to grab headlines or votes, or both.

Ahhhh, the fall season. I love it. But along with sweater-weather, good films, and nature's blatant and awe-inspiring beauty, we get to look forward to the perennial bullshit. Happy First Day of Autumn.


HEARINGS

Autumn and the trees decide again they don't
need leaves. Mothers add more blankets to the bed.
Yellow lights in windows of the junior high
mean that nightschool is back in session,
tired grownups sitting in the plastic desks
learning to bisect the hypotenuse,
how to say spreadsheet in Japanese.
This week on the televised hearings,
we get to watch our congressmen
nervously pronounce the word homosexual
in public; the committee trying to determine
whether queers are good enough
to pull the triggers
on machines designed to foreclose lives
contrary to the national well-being,
--but the Congressman can't
pull the trigger on his own tongue
to fire out the word without
tripping over it, fumbling, stumbling
into the ditch between home and sexual.
--You might say his defense industry is troubled,
as if he had a subterranean suspicion
that to say it might mean, just a little, to become it,
which might be right--since language uses us
the way that birds use sky, the way that seeds and viruses
knit themselves into a mammal's fur
and hitchhike towards the future.
When you say a word,
you enter its vocabulary,
its got your home address, your phone number, and weight;
it won't forget;
the way the parents who finally bring themselves to say lesbian
enter, through that checkpoint,
the country where their daughter lives.
Tonight, all over Washington, senators in mirrors
will practice
until they are as fluent saying homosexual
as they already are at saying Mr. President and first strike option.
Sometimes we think the truth is the worst thing that could happen
but the truth is not the worst thing that could happen.
Now it is autumn and in stores
the turquoise wading pools,
spangled with starfish and shells,
are stacked against the wall, on sale,
implying what was costly yesterday
is cheap today, and may be free tomorrow:
all our yearnings and our fears
--so many seahorses
galloping through bubbles.