Ukiah day 2

From August 2014


I have 48  minutes left of computer communication on this Ukiah Pub Library computer.

Argghh! That's not much.

Last night at the Ukiah Brewery and Restaurant a friendly and pretty good fun Open Mic. Comparisons to Peri's Open Mic.. I'll let that go. (Fairfax there is not much out there that can compete.) I ponder a bit what I am doing attempting still to be a 'musician' when there are already so many excellent under appreciated artists out there. That's Allright.

Two nights ago on the motel TV I saw some CSPAN hearings by the progressive congressional caucus regarding the Children's March to the US. I didn't get to see the entire hearings. What i saw was three young people a 15 year old girl, 15 year old boy, 12 year old girl. I heard of the despair, and danger of life in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala etc.. and the need to escape. The congresspeople were moved by the courage of the kids. I didn't hear who was financing the children's escape over 100's of miles and then finding a 'Coyote' to get them across the border. Over the years I've met a couple of very sweet Central American women who told me they have children back in their home countries that they haven't seen in 3, 4, 5 years, how deeply sad they were living in separation. I just couldn't easily accept this in my heart that you abandon your children for the money in the US. Of course they hope to what? Return to their home country and build a nice house?
Marry an American and bring their children up to the US?

The children must have money to make their way up to the border. The children at the hearing were very sweet and the story of their foul treatment by border immigration is pretty shocking. Kept in freezing (very cold) confinement, two ham sandwiches a day. Obama did you listen? Pick up the phone Obama. Say This is the President. 'Who is in charge of these holding cells?' I haven't heard about him doing that.

 The children want to grow up to be doctors and lawyers one wants to go to Stanford University. Wouldn't every child in the world? One female California Congressperson kept pressing with a question' What would you advise your young friends and cousins back home?'  What could they answer but the kids wouldn't take the bait. No they couldn't say everyone come come it's worth it once you get past the border patrol they can reunite you with your dear parents, uncles aunts. Come to America Children of the World!

 Why does that chill me? Why have these third world countries fallen to such horrible levels of civic pride?
Why does violence, and greed rule? Where are the schools and Universities in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala that children should take great pride in attending and becoming Doctors and Lawyers in their own country. Everything is looting and ripping off and I think the problem emanates from the US. We don't give a damn about those countries, we want their cheap labor, we need their cheap labor. We undermine villages and communities throughout Central America and Mexico with our 'free' immigration policies.

  Meantime wealth keeps aggregating upwards. Everywhere.

  So Obama on CSPAN last night I only could watch for about 10 minutes though I told myself, don't turn away, take notes. He was giving a speech somewhere. He looked on top of his game. Shirt sleeves rolled up tie still on. The customary rows of people behind him looking down approvingly upon his back. (When did that start, people seated behind a president becoming the backdrop? Use to be as President you would always put the American Flag behind you. So people would get the idea, I the President equals your Flag.. )
Now it's I represent the people ... see all the smiling people behind me.) He reminded me of one of these new round of late night talk show hosts, whose smiles and aura of confidence is supposed to make you believe yes I am entertaining, this is funny,

 Obama shared some good news. Homeprices are rising. We are now the world's #1 oil and gas producer.'
Did he really say that Guy? I think he did. Yet we have enemies. 'Congress' If it wasn't for .....

 

Bang a Gong!

 Demagogue someone who claims it's always dem' who are the problem, never us... Never US. Thank you Swami Beyondananda for allowing me to appropriate that line. Oh my God.. so much time of seeing things going wrong and not finding the means to stand up, dig in, speak out, write a letter. I know you are thinking just chill Guy.. calm down. Maybe a calm letter would be good.. a series of calm letters. Do I have the brain power to put thoughts in logical coherent order?

 'It's time to matter, the Earth will see you through' appropriating a memory of a line from an old Grateful Dead song probably the tune was 'Mountains of the Moon' cerca 1967 from the Aoxomoxoa album..  47 years later...

 What are the year's most censored stories? Sorry that's censored. Do we even have a news media anymore... The 4th Estate packed up and left.

 Ommmmmm... breathe remember it's all my fault. And it's OK. ommmmmmmm.

 

January 10 'Common Sense' Day

Today according to my newspaper was the day the Tom Paine's pamphlet got published in 1776 that help galvanized the American people to get it together and embrace Independence.

Now more than ever, do we need a shot of .... Common Sense or maybe an Uncommon Sense that could be held in Common.

Where do we even start?

That Life is Fragile precious and deeply threatened by our ......

Obama and the State of the Union

'America, for all that we have endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong. (Applause.)

At this moment -- with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy production -- we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next 15 years and for decades to come.'


How do we analyze the words of our President? What is the critical lens which we as individuals use to make sense of the grand rhetoric that every year every President trots out be they Republican or Democrat. Honed by the best speech writers money can buy, a speech built on a rhythm that allows for frequent response wherein your supporters are obliged to applaud if not stand up like some ritual Cheerleaders hoping that the noise of their clapping hands will overwhelm your emotions as you watch on TV... Yes by Golly this man is so Right.
The man in the Pulpit.

 I do not join the applause. Where is our vision? Where are the words? What have you done Mr Meyer?

Help!

     "Who cried out?
      Gather your strength and listen; the whole heart of man is a single outcry. Lean against your breast to hear it; someone is struggling and shouting within you.
      It is your duty every moment, day and night, in joy or in sorrow, amid all daily necessities, to discern this Cry with vehemence or restraint, according to your nature, with laughter or with weeping, in action or in thought, striving to find out who is imperiled and cries out.
      And how we may all be mobilized together to free him.
      Amidst our greatest happiness someone within us cries out: "I am in pain! I want to escape your happiness! I am stifling!"
      Amidst our deepest despair someone within us cries out: "I do not despair! I fight on! I grasp at your head, I unsheathe myself from your body, I detach myself from the earth, I cannot be contained in brains, in names, in deeds!"
      Out of our most ample virtue someone rises up in despair and cries out: "Virtue is narrow, I cannot breathe! Paradise is small and cannot contain me! Your God resembles a man, I do not want him!"
      I hear the savage cry, and I shudder. The agony that ascends within me composes itself, for the first time, into an integral human voice; it turns full face toward me and calls me clearly, with my own name, with the name of my father and my race.
      This is the moment of greatest crisis. This is the signal for the March to begin. If you do not hear this Cry tearing at your entrails, do not set out.
      Continue, with patience and submission, your sacred military service in the first, second, and third rank of preparation.
      And listen: In sleep in an act of love or of creation, in a proud and disinterested act of yours, or in a profound despairing silence, you may suddenly hear the Cry and set forth.
     Until that moment my heart streams on, it rises and falls with the Universe. But when I hear the Cry, my emotions and the Universe are divided into two camps.
     Someone within me is in danger, he raises his hands and shouts: "Save me!" Someone within me climbs, stumbles, and shouts: "Help Me! "
      Which of the two eternal roads shall I choose? Suddenly I know my whole life hangs on this decision -- the life of the entire Universe.
      Of the two I choose the ascending path. Why? For no intelligible reason, without any certainty; I know how ineffectual the mind and all the small certainties of man can be in this moment of crisis.
      I choose the ascending path because my heart drives me toward it. "Upward! Upward! Upward!" My heart shouts, and I follow it trustingly.
      I feel this is what the dread primordial cry asks of me. I leap to its side. I cast in my lot with it's own.
      Someone within me is struggling to lift a great weight, to cast off the mind and flesh by overcoming habit, laziness, necessity.
      I do not know from where he comes or where he goes. I clutch at his onward march in my ephemeral breast, I listen to his panting struggle, I shudder when I touch him.
      Who is he? I prick up my ears. I set up various signs, I sniff the air. I ascend groping upwards, panting and struggling. The dread and mystical March begins.'

     Nikos Kazantzakis 1922 from 'The Rock Garden' first published in 1939