As I review my blog I see I repeat the same sentiments over and over. I guess it seems an effort of an fool who should give more energy to other things in life. I guess it's just a fruitless waste of keystrokes. I've been doing this for a long time and things seem to have gotten worse. Oppression has grown. The rich have gotten richer. The poor, poorer. Wars still rage on despite promises they will come to an end. So where will be the next place we send our sons and daughters to die?
I write so I don't act out the anger that boils inside me. Writing is one way to resist. Who care who reads this. I know it's not going to be read by more than one or two people, if that many. But resistance each day is necessary. We can't allow the oligarchy to overrun the rest of us. We have to speak out. We have to protest the obvious injustices and oppression of so many. We have to keep pointing out their isn't a democracy when only two parties funded by the super rich are our only choices. We have to point out corporations AREN'T people despite what the justices of the sham court of the US tells us. We can remain silent or speak out. Writing is one way for me. And so I'll continue to do so.
Monday, May 26
More Random Thoughts from Facebook
I've been absent from my blog while posting way too much on Facebook. So, here's some of those thoughts over the last months since I last posted. Still far left of left but that's who I am. Peace
Memorial Day 2014
1. Face it veterans, you got suckered into wars that you want to believe meant something in providing freedom for the people of the world and protecting your homeland but once they used you left you to your nightmares and wounds like a hitchhiker on a lonely road. Your family and friends may care but are constantly frustrated and infuriated at the maze of bureaucracy meant to drive you and them away. The care-givers care but are so overwhelmed they become casualties themselves.
Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day are what you get along with statuary and walls in DC glorifying all the wars that killed and maimed so many humans. And what lessons have we learned? We have learned to make better weapons and contrive better ways to kill one another. We've learned to ignore history and repeat the same insanity over and over.
Every time I see a politician using his/her military experience as a gimmick to get elected I want to vomit. It's the callous act of sociopaths that glorify the violence of war to garner personal gain. But what the hell, I'm just one of those tools of war they want to shut up or hope dies so they can forget the reality
May 24,14
2. I wake up early and listen to smug economists tell me the job market is improving while all around me I see the older worker get laid off simply because they earn too much and might use health insurance too often. Never mind their vast experience. I see kids with college degrees burdened with huge debt working for Wal-Mart and other service industry jobs. They are encouraged to use state and federal benefits to meet the essential needs their jobs fail to finance. I see infrastructure crumbling all around the empire while the rich claim there's no money. But they pony up for the Pentagon, Big Oil (aka as Big Polluter), Big Pharma and the healthcare system so atrociously dysfunctional. Oh for the day these smug talking heads have to subsist on the same finances as one of my mental health patients. Oh for the day the politicians have to search for a place to stay on a cold night, homeless and without food. My angry mind constantly contrives such scenarios for the rich and clueless. Maybe I should take a pill.
May 23, 14
3. As the "memorial day" approaches the stores bombard our mailboxes with sales. The grocery stores put out ads for grilling and gluttony ...isn't that every holiday...and the flags will fly in the baseball parks and other sporting events. Some teams will wear fatigue uniforms to "honor" the "heroes".
I just wonder how the Vietnamese celebrate the upcoming weekend. I wonder how the Iraqis commemorate our memorials. How do the Afghans see us? How do the Palestinians see this nation that has fallen lockstep behind Zionism and provided so many weapons to kill kids throwing rocks or people encamped in the ghettos of the Israeli apartheid?
We want to believe the fairy tale of democracy and justice being the hallmarks of this nation. But we allow elected stooges bought by the likes of the Koch brothers and ultra-conservative groups of whites to rob us of our freedom. We allow a "supreme" court to call the most predatory corporations "people" so they can buy our government and keep us enslaved with debt. We don't care we're spied upon every day in every way. NSA, CIA, FBI are allegedly the "good guys". Cops with hate and malice in their hearts protect and serve who?
Call a demonstration of democracy and see how much freedom you get. You get the freedom to have chemicals sprayed in your eyes and have pain holds used to "subdue" your "violence" of actually acting out your "free" speech.
As the old blues song said, "If you're black get back. If you're brown, stick around. If you're white, alright." Jim Crow is alive and doing well today every bit as much as he was in the days of MLK and Malcolm X. It's just manifested in different and maybe more subtle ways. Subtle, if you're freaking dense.
Do I hate my country? No, I want it back. I want the real peace and justice promised. I want us to be honest and understand why "they" hate us. The highest form of patriotism has to be citizens who question leaders that fail them and fail the world.
Citizenship has responsibilities. We can't accept the notion we lack power. We can't accept the "dumbing down" of our children. We can't allow our foods to be manipulated chemically for profit. We can't accept the continued dependence on the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels that kill the planet.
We have become narcotized by media and the pharmaceutical companies. Every emotion and feeling of discomfort and anger isn't a disease to be treated. Our children acting like children isn't a mental health issue requiring a pill.
And war is pure and simply the failure of a nation's elected officials to do the right thing. And there isn't any indication Americans are any more exceptional than any other human on the planet. We are simply more blessed and we waste our blessings in pettiness and gaudy consumerism rather than share with those who are in dire straits and lack the essentials needed to live their lives.
As brothers, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, say ...."actions must match our words". Or if we choose to be religious, we must ask if Christ would follow the path of "American Exceptionalism"?
There.....I'm done.
May 22, 14
4. If veterans and their advocates think the VAMC scandal is anything new, they forget history. From the public hangings of vets demanding to get paid by George Washington to the Bonus Army to Agent Orange to Gulf War Syndrome to the current veterans treatment at the VAMC this nation has shown it can cheer and wave flags for those about to go to war but turns a deaf ear and blind eye to the carnage and suffering the wars create. Don't tell me "thanks for your service" or "welcome home"!!! Those platitudes ring hollow given the failure of this nation to prevent wars and their tendency to constantly desire violence and force. Our history shows war after war being politically inspired and without merit. Again, I refer to Smedley Butler's words ....."war is a racket". The winners have never been the veterans or the people of this nation. No, the winners have always been big corporate interests of the military-industrial complex. Always. So, for memorial day this year as I do every year I'll remember the senseless deaths of veterans and innocent victims of wars. Don't thank me for being part of this. Don't memorialize the war dead if you don't intend on working for an end to war.
May 22, 14
5. One thing guaranteed about Memorial Day and Veterans' Day....the corporate world will use veterans to sell anything while claiming to give a damn about veterans and politicians will wrap themselves in the flag and claim to give a damn about veterans. Neither group gives a damn. The corporate world continues to benefit from the wars the vets die in and the politicians use veterans as political fodder for reelection. Take a close look....the care of veterans is a can that has been kicked down the road by both parties since Vietnam and beyond.
Mumia Abu Jamal commented when Obama was elected Obama would become the "black guy they blame all the white guys' problems on". He didn't see Obama being a revolutionary or a change agent. Not a big fan of Obama but blaming him for the decades of neglect toward veterans' care post war is absurd. The pious Tea Party types, the old school GOP and all the other right wingers have wrapped themselves in the flag for years while screwing the vets at every turn.
Congress has constantly underfunded the VA and the benefits for new vets. They're always one or two wars behind. But, by God, on these days of memorializing wars and those who took part, these flunkies are always proclaiming their thanks for service and welcome homes.
May 22, 14
6. I'm making no excuses for the current VAMC lacking in the care of vets but I've tracked the bureaucracy since the 70s. For the same people who ignored the veterans returning from the current wars to express their outrage today is total hypocrisy. Where the hell were they when Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were treating veterans as interchangeable parts to be disposed of when broken? Where were they when Jeff Lucey and so many others couldn't get adequate care early in the wars? Where were they when a VA nurse kept sending letters about Walter Reed's atrocious care and condition? It took an ABC reporter more than a year later to expose Walter Reed. Bitch all you want about the current VAMC but put the responsibility where it belongs. It took years of neglect and underfunding by the Republican Senators and Representatives for the VAMC to continue the failing of all veterans. And the old blowhard, John McCain, claims to care about vets but he was just as culpable as any in DC for these failings.
To add to the VAMC commentary....where are all the yellow ribbons now that 2.5 million young vets have been deployed and returned to the US? It was all good when we sent them off to the phony Bush wars but now all that cheerleading is a forgotten memory. Now more people care about the next Voice winner or who's doing what in the celebrity world. Mark Twain's WAR PRAYER always comes to mind as we head into Memorial Day, the phony holiday of a war addicted nation.
May 21, 14
7. A professor friend told me about a student who planned on joining the military for the "adventure".. I say he should join Dr. Gino Strada in Sudan to help with the kids having heart failure because their strep throat goes untreated. Or the other EMERGENCY hospitals treating kids losing limbs because they pick up an American cluster bomb-let that failed to detonate. Fuck adventure....try humanity!
May 20, 14
8. The oligarchy want us to believe the choice between one plutocrat of one party over another plutocrat of the other party is democracy. They stir us up about gay marriage, abortion and contraception, Benghazi and sex scandals by one or the other sides while they steal our pensions through 401ks and other market based rip-offs. They steal our kids through their foolish wars. They steal our homes through their own corruption and their unwillingness to pay their fair share. They steal our jobs by exporting them to slave camps around the globe. They steal our souls through mind numbing media that tells us nothing about the rest of the world and little about our own nation or communities. They steal our bravery through constant fear mongering of terrorism or some other bogus attack upon our way of life. They steal our voices with militarized cops trampling basic rights of assembly and free speech. And they steal our courage with oppression against any who might expose them for the true terrorists, criminals and frauds they are.
May 17, 14 9. Sometimes it seems our arrogance lets some think Western medicine will surely find a cure for dying of old age. Or could it be that Western medicine has made it an industry to maintain life regardless of its quality?. The problem of this great desire to live a long life is the total disregard for elders in a youth obsessed culture. And, we baby-boomers can't complain since we are the generation most responsible for the obsession. Now we ask why ageism is so prevalent? Maybe we set that stage as well. As for me, I'm incredibly surprised I'll make 65 this month unless the random hand of death gets me first. Always figured I'd never make 30. I was a prime candidate to off myself. Then I met Pam. But I sure as hell don't want to stick around as a test tube for the end of life industry!
May 15, 14
10. Was thinking back on some songs of my generation that have really made me think or struck an emotional chord. One by Crosby, Stills and Nash, FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM, is a five or six stanza song that sends me back to my war almost every time I hear it. Another by Dylan, MASTERS OF WAR, captures my rage. Thinking about this because a student wants to write a song about a presentation I gave on my war experience. It led me to thinking about the music that helped keep me going during the years. So many folks like Seeger, Phil Ochs, Edwin Starr, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, Woody Guthrie, Country Joe, Richie Havens, Odetta, Buffy Saint Marie, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary....et.al. gave voice to dissent and protest that so many of us needed for inspiration. Thanks to the musicians and artists who give expression to the noble causes.
May 2014
11. So, one tragic incident occurs with an edible pot product and the entire US corporate media blows it up out of all proportion but every day there are deaths by DUI, violence stemming from over use of alcohol and the chronic effects of addiction to alcohol. And, yet, we still get a constant bombardment on how cool it is to drink booze?? And fear tactics that reckon back to that oldie but goodie, REEFER MADNESS. One more example of governmental and media stupidity.
April 2014
12. So, here's the way things work in police departments. First they get beacoup money to arm themselves with military style weapons and body armor to fight that ever mysterious war on drugs. Then for every call they have their SWAT or whatever they call their goon squad on standby. If it's a mentally ill or homeless (often one in the same) person they encounter, they immediately fear for their lives and after one or two commands confusing the person about what they did, they use that person for target practice. Or a vet with a gun to his own head threatening to off himself is considered a danger to cops so they logically have a sniper shoot him or just open fire point blank. Then, once word gets around about their murders, protesters come out and .....yippee ki ay MF....time to shoot pepper spray from behind the turtle suits of body armor at the protesters. It's damn hard being a cop nowadays with all the lowlife homeless and crazy ass vets and protesters.
March 2014
13. Amerika Inc., which has sucked 50 billion plus in handouts from tax payers, would rather destroy the economy and people's lives than give an increase in minimum wage. Not even a living wage. They'd rather give jobs to slave camps overseas to demonstrate they won't share their obscene profits with the workers who toil in fear and poverty. The truth is giving more salary to workers means more spending and a stimulus to the economy but the idea increased wages will cost jobs is only true because the "bosses" don't want workers having power or a living wage. The loss of jobs is due to the traitorous corporations, using handouts and tax breaks to enrich themselves, refusal to share their wealth. Imagine a well paid workforce. It could mean workers had the ability to alleviate the onerous debt that enslaves them!!
14. Jan 2014
You know there is a story about the swinging lifestyle in today's DENVER POST. I suppose it should bother me but I really don't care. No more than I care about a husband or wife cheating on one another. At least the swingers are up front with their inability to maintain a monogamous relationship rather than lying and keeping their spouse in the dark. I've been married over 40 years. I obviously like monogamy. I was lucky to find my soul mate. But those who need to swing or practice polyamory or whatever to feel completed don't bother me. I see them as searching for love and intimacy just like the majority of us. And let's face it...monogamy is about a 50% failure if divorce rates are any measure.
I see the religious fanatics, the duck callers and all the right wingers appalled about men loving men and women loving women but they're fine with spending trillions to kill other humans because they have a strange notion some group or the other is going to come here and steal their way of life. They hate the gays but don't blink a bit to see children starving or workers losing any semblance of financial support when they've lost jobs to slave labor.
I'm just too old, I guess, to throw stones at humans trying to find ways to love one another or just enjoy the acts of love without ever imposing on me. Yeah, I know the Bible sez all that stuff while Kind David had how many wives??
I'm not naïve enough to think some are coerced into the swinging lifestyle. I'm sure 99% have been women. I'm sure the porn trade is rife with coercion and terrible abuses. I worked with adolescent girls and boys for a number of years. The sexual abuse they reported when I did the initial evaluation with them kept me up at nights. Sex is always going to be used as something to control someone Something to exert power over someone. And the idea that some terrorized victim is showing love by means of sex is an absurdly vile notion. But, the same terror is found in monogamous relationships. I've also worked with battered spouses on many occasions. Their stories in their own ways are just as awful and disturbing as any that have kept me up at night wondering how we humans can do these things to one another. And usually I end up thinking of my own actions when I was 18 and 19. I end up thinking of the ultimate evil thing a human can carry out. Take a life. How twisted is it to train young people to hate groups of other cultures in order for them to kill them?
I guess this whole post is rambling but I want to boil it down to the notion I can't be upset with those folks looking for love and intimacy when I put it in perspective of all the evil carried out in our world. Sorry, just can't.
15. Strange how we'd be violating someone's freedom of religion by calling them out for their hate-speak against gays. The righteous phonies lambast the critics using words like "political correctness" but use their own "Christian correctness" to excuse their hate. Let's not be misled. It was in my lifetime the same alleged followers of Christ called miscegenation a sin against God and excused their racism as a religious freedom. The righteous Christian seem to always have the answers for all of us whether we want them or not. And if we don't want their "righteous" answers then, by God, we're all going to hell. Let me tell you....if I had the choice of being in the heavenly sanctum of the "righteous" like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and the Quack Dynasty leader or the choice of hell with the likes of Mark Twain and other atheists and anarchists there would be no choice. I'm going to hell!
16. December 20, 2013 While spending the last four days in a flu driven psychosis a weird thought came to me. How many females have taken automatic weapons, shotguns, bombs and other lethal items to a school with intent to kill innocent kids? Or to shopping malls, Naval Yards, churches, military bases, Afghanistan villages or movie theaters? Is that a relevant thought or just part of the flu??
17. November 26, 2013 The politicians say food stamp programs are unsustainable like all other entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid?). But they never mention the unsustainable wars, the unsustainable corporate welfare in form of tax breaks and tax-payer giveaways to corporate farms. The entitled few always look upon any program meant to demonstrate humanity or actually paid for and earned by the average worker as excessive government. And then they go off to their villas and mansions in gated communities paid for by their often illegal or unethical dash for cash. Subsidized and bailed out by the taxes actually paid by that average worker. They cry wolf whenever they're called out saying those who do so are trying to start a class warfare. That's the thing about the true entitled few.....they accuse any opposition group of us lowlifes of the exact thing they actually do and are.
18. November 17, 2013 An example of being a slave to debt is working in the healthcare system and knowing every day, no matter how caring you try to be, no matter how much you try to use your skill as an advocate...you're still participating in the big pharma-medical treatment plan putting profit above prevention and recovery. It's working in a profession where you realize every day how stupidly insane it is to worry about someone's insurance coverage paying for necessary care. How stupidly insane it is every man, woman and child doesn't have the right to medical care. How stupidly insane medical professionals don't focus full attention to medical care. And going to work every day is a struggle. Not because of our patients but because of our broken system.
19. November 9, 2013 I thought about the vets parade but couldn't manage to do it. What in God's name deserves a parade? Which war should we choose as righteous? We should be reflecting on the insane losses of our brothers and sisters because they, like we who survived, believed we would serve a higher cause. We were betrayed by the masters of war, the captains of capitalism who drained our blood and efforts to fuel their greed and corruption. Don't fucking thank me for my service this weekend. None was provided. My participation didn't further the cause of democracy or the betterment of the world. If anything, it helped bring the anger of others against this nation for the blood lust of the leaders we allow to be elected time after time.
20. October 8, 2013 I can't remember a time during my 65 years on this planet when so many traitors were allowed to have the power of governing this nation. It speaks to how we've become U.S.A., Incorporated. How we've allowed the foxes to guard our henhouses. Think the term "traitors" too strong? How else can the betrayal of all the values this nation allegedly stands for be described? How else can we describe the betrayal of hope and freedom for the vast majority of humans around the world?
21. September 21, 2013 Obama complains about the GOP holding his party hostage like it's something new. But let's be realistic, both parties are held hostage to their rich corporate daddies dictating what they should do if they want reelection. And the poor, middle class and upper middle class are held hostage to these heartless, gutless immoral politicians who love to wave the flag and have us sing "America the Beautiful" to assuage our worries. But, in truth, if we're to define traitorous we only need look at what's happening in Washington D.C. in the halls of the alleged government. They are the puppets of the rich and elite who have only one allegiance. Greed. And, apparently, it will take a total collapse of the economy and government before the people of this nation are willing to march on the bastards to throw them out. When the mainstream rag, TIME, has a cover suggesting there will be another financial collapse the time of reckoning could be very soon. Sadly, if past history is any indication, there will be a large number of people taking up arms and making it a Darwinian struggle of survival and selfishness. Or put simpler ...."I got mine, fuck you". Hope I'm wrong.
22. Sept 11, 13
On Jan 31, 1968 I was a first hand witness of children killed by chemical warfare, Mr. President. They didn't writhe in pain at the time my company reached them. No, by then they had become "crispy critters"....humans charred beyond recognition by napalm dropped by U.S. jets. On that Jan '68 day my company commander decided a village would be destroyed even if it meant those kids were to die. Is that part of the 7 decades of American stability throughout the world?
And when people think of Vietnam they should think of DOW Chemical's Agent Orange still inflicting pain on the Vietnamese people generations later. That agent was part of that American stability.
And on this day, September 11, we will remember the Twin Towers being destroyed, killing over 3000 lives in New York City. But will we remember the overthrow of Allende and imposition of Pinochet in the 70's caused by the arrogance of Henry Kisssinger? A coup fully supported by this nation against a democratically elected leader that didn't bow down to the American exceptionalism. A coup leading to tens of thousands killed or tortured.
Watching the overt hypocrisy and outright lies of an American President is getting old for me. Being in my 60s, I've seen it so many times I've almost grown desensitized to it. Almost. I'm glad to say it still outrages me to see a country I love be the bully and most violent nation in the world over the last 7 decades of what is described as American stability by the current liar-in-chief.
There's an old folk song with the refrain, "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?". It seems to never grow old.
23. June 13 If we live in the greatest nation in the world why is it reflected in being the largest provider of military weaponry in the world? Why not the nation that exports peaceful interventions? Why does the greatest nation have 50 million citizens without healthcare benefits and probably another 50 million with inadequate healthcare? Why do we put 52% of our budget into the military and continue to cut programs that educate our children, feed the poor here and around the world and protect the most vulnerable? It seems greatness as measured by the government, selected by big corporate interests, is who's the greatest bully on the block.
24. December 18, 2012 If we want to honor the children killed by the insanity of violence, we must connect their deaths to the social conditions fomenting that violence. It isn't just about guns, it's about a culture of violence we've allowed to percolate for decade after decade. It's about failing the oppressed, the addicted, the mentally ill while providing obscene amounts of tax money on militarism and prisons. Year after year mental health budgets are cut while year after year the military budget grows. Year after year prevention programs disappear while more and more prisons are funded.
To those who prefer calling the mentally ill wackos, nuts or loons, I say shut the fuck up until you understand psychosis, mania, major depression, auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions and personality disorders. You have no clue how parents of children struggling with mental health issues have to fight to get treatment. How some professionals tell them to give up parental rights in order for their children to get placed with social services. Or allow them to be imprisoned because jails and prisons provide more care than any other institutional entity in most states.
It's the failure of a culture when time after time children are slaughtered. A government that condones killing children as collateral damage of their wars shouldn't be surprised when there are mass killings at home. A culture that allows childhood to be tainted on a daily basis with images of brutal killings from television to movies to video games shouldn't be surprised children grow up with violent tendencies. Proliferation of weapons intended only to kill other humans can only lead to the horrible fact this nation has more gun deaths than any other nation in the industrialized world. By far.
If we want to honor the children, maybe we should think about changing their role models.....us adults.
25. December 15, 2012 I don't want to diminish the deaths of 20 young children and 6 adults to another American madman toting semi-automatic weapons to shoot his prey. I have grandkids close to the age of the children killed. I'd be enraged and bereaved beyond description.
I do have to agree with a young veteran friend who asks the question why these children warrant so much of our attention when there's been so many thousands upon thousands killed by other American armaments. Where was the outcry when our bombs killed entire villages and whole blocks that were inhabited by far more children?
Where was the outcry for the children of Fallujah, a city battered by multiple American assaults of artillery and bombs? Where's the outcry for the children killed all too often in drone attacks by American and Israeli military?
Where's the outcry for the youth sent to the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Oh people will say there's a difference between all those I mention and the children in Newtown, CT. No, there's not. They all have one thing in common. Far too many victims are children and the weapons used are predominately sold by American arms companies.
If it is people who kill people then we need to look at the means by which they are killing them. And, without a doubt, there is a culture of violence that permeates this nation from the time of childhood until we die prematurely or of old age.
The enduring image of my war was the day I walked through a village the day after a napalm bombing. There was a smell of ham from the incinerated pot belly pig but there was also the smell of burned human flesh. As I found out as I got deeper into the village, it was primarily the burned flesh of infants, young children and mothers. How does another human grasp such a scene? How do we reconcile the dead children with our sense of morality?
At least once or twice a year, we find ourselves asking the same questions. Why do we allow the children to be killed without acting to change the culture of violence we've allowed? And that goes without asking why we allow the children of foreign lands to be butchered at the hand of those using "our weapons".
All the cretins and apologists for the NRA will try to justify the continued availability of assault weapons as a right of all Americans under the Second Amendment. They decry any attempt to control deadly weapons used to kill our children. And we refuse to identify them as the terrorist organization they are. They don't give a damn about our rights. They only care about further promoting the violence culture so their masters, the weapons industry, continue to reap huge profits on the backs of those massacred by their implements of death.
If the past is any indication, the deaths of the 20 children and 6 adults on December 14, 12 will only join the massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora's theatres and all the other tragedies caused by a person, usually male, who has some deranged or psychotic impulse to kill and ready access to weapons to carry out that impulse. There will be weeks of reaction but when it comes time for courage and action very few will stand up in the halls of Congress, the White House or state legislatures.
And that makes us a nation willing to sacrifice the potential of young lives simply to maintain the means to carry out the violence so deeply steeped in the American psyche.
26. November 8, 2012 My wife's best friend won't go out with her this week because the election has shown Americans have become "faithless and immoral". WTF??? My wife is the kindest person I know. She believes in Catholicism but isn't a zombie that accepts the dogma without thoughtful consideration. She stayed clear of politics with the friend to maintain the friendship. But because of my willingness to oppose the Church the friend knows we are two of "those people".
The zombie Catholic sect that believes the dogma of the misogynists is willing to elect a man who is a blatant liar, a ruthless job-killer, a war-monger and truly immoral. Why? Because he and his Opus Dei running mate are saying they will oppose all abortion, gay marriage and the right of "moral" employers to refuse insuring women who choose to use "THE PILL".
The local archbishop sent a letter wailing freedom of religion is in jeopardy if certain politicians are elected. And the zombies all fell in line. Apparently including the "friend".
This thinking is why I will not return to the Catholic church. Yeah, I know there are the progressive and liberal groups in the Church but they refuse to directly oppose Papal authority. I tell my patients to leave abusive relationships if the abuse has no chance of stopping. Why think the abuses of the Papal authority will ever stop? Yeah, I am a heretic.
This is the sad fact of political debate in this nation. We can't talk with one another. We propagate hatefulness instead. We see whites at "Ole Miss" riot when the black guy wins. And had he lost would there have been riots from the other side?
Most folks dismissed the poignant thoughts of a man horribly abused by police, Rodney King. When the cops were found not guilty of their crime riots began. Rodney appealed to all of us when he asked "can't we all get along?"
27. October 6, 2012 Saw a bumper sticker saying "I'm Catholic and I vote". Next to it was a Romney/Ryan sticker. On a Cadillac with an elderly woman getting out of the car.
I couldn't help wonder if the elderly lady was a recipient of Medicare. Then I thought about how many of the "greatest generation" I know that seem to think they have "theirs" and don't give a damn about the young.
Spent time down in The Villages in Florida for a family funeral. It was filled with well off whites who hated Obama for irrational reasons. They seemed oblivious to the suffering of others as they rode their golf carts out to the multitude of courses or to the array of expensive restaurants. Their greatest fear seemed to be "socialism" as represented by Obama. They feared they might have to share.
My dad was a blue collar member of the "greatest generation". He'd give anyone the shirt off his back. He died as a result of his work's toxic conditions many years ago. He was a union stewart. He walked picket lines. He worked hard for companies who failed to return his loyalty.
I look at those people in the Villages and think my dad would be ashamed to be included in their version of the greatest generation.
As a former Catholic, the elderly lady in her Romney Cadillac represents all the reasons I left the Church. Mindless devotion to the dogma doesn't make it moral.
28 October 5, 2012
Dammit! Once again I find myself defending Obama because of the overt racist comments coming from Romney's campaign. Code words like "lazy" coming from bigots like John Sununu. Code words insinuating and directly saying Obama doesn't have the intelligence. Inferences by Rush Blowhard he used affirmative action and other racially motivated devices to get into Harvard and get passing grades. These cowardly racists use their bullypits to spout hate against people of color and where is the mainstream press calling them out? I lived during the days of lynching and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement. The level of racial hatred then was much more overt and accepted but what is happening today is an insidious and none too subtle attempt to return to those days using the "black Presidency" as the way to do it. While I will never be an Obama supporter, I am sickened by the racist attacks. And we have to know the racism directed toward him certainly "trickles down" to all people of color.
It's one thing for ignorant crackers living in the hateful cesspools of community bigotry to be saying these things. But, the calculated and cynical use of race-baiting by the likes of Rove and Romney, Sununu and Blowhard to access power is even worse. They rant about Obama being un-American or a threat but it is they who are the traitors who have allegiance only to the "white brotherhood" of American elitists. They may not wear hoods or burn crosses but they are only a more sophisticated group of Klansmen with the grand wizards men like the Koch brothers.
I deplore the policies of Obama but the use of his Presidency to bring the ugliness of racism into public view without objection makes us complicit in the hate.
Memorial Day 2014
1. Face it veterans, you got suckered into wars that you want to believe meant something in providing freedom for the people of the world and protecting your homeland but once they used you left you to your nightmares and wounds like a hitchhiker on a lonely road. Your family and friends may care but are constantly frustrated and infuriated at the maze of bureaucracy meant to drive you and them away. The care-givers care but are so overwhelmed they become casualties themselves.
Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day are what you get along with statuary and walls in DC glorifying all the wars that killed and maimed so many humans. And what lessons have we learned? We have learned to make better weapons and contrive better ways to kill one another. We've learned to ignore history and repeat the same insanity over and over.
Every time I see a politician using his/her military experience as a gimmick to get elected I want to vomit. It's the callous act of sociopaths that glorify the violence of war to garner personal gain. But what the hell, I'm just one of those tools of war they want to shut up or hope dies so they can forget the reality
May 24,14
2. I wake up early and listen to smug economists tell me the job market is improving while all around me I see the older worker get laid off simply because they earn too much and might use health insurance too often. Never mind their vast experience. I see kids with college degrees burdened with huge debt working for Wal-Mart and other service industry jobs. They are encouraged to use state and federal benefits to meet the essential needs their jobs fail to finance. I see infrastructure crumbling all around the empire while the rich claim there's no money. But they pony up for the Pentagon, Big Oil (aka as Big Polluter), Big Pharma and the healthcare system so atrociously dysfunctional. Oh for the day these smug talking heads have to subsist on the same finances as one of my mental health patients. Oh for the day the politicians have to search for a place to stay on a cold night, homeless and without food. My angry mind constantly contrives such scenarios for the rich and clueless. Maybe I should take a pill.
May 23, 14
3. As the "memorial day" approaches the stores bombard our mailboxes with sales. The grocery stores put out ads for grilling and gluttony ...isn't that every holiday...and the flags will fly in the baseball parks and other sporting events. Some teams will wear fatigue uniforms to "honor" the "heroes".
I just wonder how the Vietnamese celebrate the upcoming weekend. I wonder how the Iraqis commemorate our memorials. How do the Afghans see us? How do the Palestinians see this nation that has fallen lockstep behind Zionism and provided so many weapons to kill kids throwing rocks or people encamped in the ghettos of the Israeli apartheid?
We want to believe the fairy tale of democracy and justice being the hallmarks of this nation. But we allow elected stooges bought by the likes of the Koch brothers and ultra-conservative groups of whites to rob us of our freedom. We allow a "supreme" court to call the most predatory corporations "people" so they can buy our government and keep us enslaved with debt. We don't care we're spied upon every day in every way. NSA, CIA, FBI are allegedly the "good guys". Cops with hate and malice in their hearts protect and serve who?
Call a demonstration of democracy and see how much freedom you get. You get the freedom to have chemicals sprayed in your eyes and have pain holds used to "subdue" your "violence" of actually acting out your "free" speech.
As the old blues song said, "If you're black get back. If you're brown, stick around. If you're white, alright." Jim Crow is alive and doing well today every bit as much as he was in the days of MLK and Malcolm X. It's just manifested in different and maybe more subtle ways. Subtle, if you're freaking dense.
Do I hate my country? No, I want it back. I want the real peace and justice promised. I want us to be honest and understand why "they" hate us. The highest form of patriotism has to be citizens who question leaders that fail them and fail the world.
Citizenship has responsibilities. We can't accept the notion we lack power. We can't accept the "dumbing down" of our children. We can't allow our foods to be manipulated chemically for profit. We can't accept the continued dependence on the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels that kill the planet.
We have become narcotized by media and the pharmaceutical companies. Every emotion and feeling of discomfort and anger isn't a disease to be treated. Our children acting like children isn't a mental health issue requiring a pill.
And war is pure and simply the failure of a nation's elected officials to do the right thing. And there isn't any indication Americans are any more exceptional than any other human on the planet. We are simply more blessed and we waste our blessings in pettiness and gaudy consumerism rather than share with those who are in dire straits and lack the essentials needed to live their lives.
As brothers, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, say ...."actions must match our words". Or if we choose to be religious, we must ask if Christ would follow the path of "American Exceptionalism"?
There.....I'm done.
May 22, 14
4. If veterans and their advocates think the VAMC scandal is anything new, they forget history. From the public hangings of vets demanding to get paid by George Washington to the Bonus Army to Agent Orange to Gulf War Syndrome to the current veterans treatment at the VAMC this nation has shown it can cheer and wave flags for those about to go to war but turns a deaf ear and blind eye to the carnage and suffering the wars create. Don't tell me "thanks for your service" or "welcome home"!!! Those platitudes ring hollow given the failure of this nation to prevent wars and their tendency to constantly desire violence and force. Our history shows war after war being politically inspired and without merit. Again, I refer to Smedley Butler's words ....."war is a racket". The winners have never been the veterans or the people of this nation. No, the winners have always been big corporate interests of the military-industrial complex. Always. So, for memorial day this year as I do every year I'll remember the senseless deaths of veterans and innocent victims of wars. Don't thank me for being part of this. Don't memorialize the war dead if you don't intend on working for an end to war.
May 22, 14
5. One thing guaranteed about Memorial Day and Veterans' Day....the corporate world will use veterans to sell anything while claiming to give a damn about veterans and politicians will wrap themselves in the flag and claim to give a damn about veterans. Neither group gives a damn. The corporate world continues to benefit from the wars the vets die in and the politicians use veterans as political fodder for reelection. Take a close look....the care of veterans is a can that has been kicked down the road by both parties since Vietnam and beyond.
Mumia Abu Jamal commented when Obama was elected Obama would become the "black guy they blame all the white guys' problems on". He didn't see Obama being a revolutionary or a change agent. Not a big fan of Obama but blaming him for the decades of neglect toward veterans' care post war is absurd. The pious Tea Party types, the old school GOP and all the other right wingers have wrapped themselves in the flag for years while screwing the vets at every turn.
Congress has constantly underfunded the VA and the benefits for new vets. They're always one or two wars behind. But, by God, on these days of memorializing wars and those who took part, these flunkies are always proclaiming their thanks for service and welcome homes.
May 22, 14
6. I'm making no excuses for the current VAMC lacking in the care of vets but I've tracked the bureaucracy since the 70s. For the same people who ignored the veterans returning from the current wars to express their outrage today is total hypocrisy. Where the hell were they when Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were treating veterans as interchangeable parts to be disposed of when broken? Where were they when Jeff Lucey and so many others couldn't get adequate care early in the wars? Where were they when a VA nurse kept sending letters about Walter Reed's atrocious care and condition? It took an ABC reporter more than a year later to expose Walter Reed. Bitch all you want about the current VAMC but put the responsibility where it belongs. It took years of neglect and underfunding by the Republican Senators and Representatives for the VAMC to continue the failing of all veterans. And the old blowhard, John McCain, claims to care about vets but he was just as culpable as any in DC for these failings.
To add to the VAMC commentary....where are all the yellow ribbons now that 2.5 million young vets have been deployed and returned to the US? It was all good when we sent them off to the phony Bush wars but now all that cheerleading is a forgotten memory. Now more people care about the next Voice winner or who's doing what in the celebrity world. Mark Twain's WAR PRAYER always comes to mind as we head into Memorial Day, the phony holiday of a war addicted nation.
May 21, 14
7. A professor friend told me about a student who planned on joining the military for the "adventure".. I say he should join Dr. Gino Strada in Sudan to help with the kids having heart failure because their strep throat goes untreated. Or the other EMERGENCY hospitals treating kids losing limbs because they pick up an American cluster bomb-let that failed to detonate. Fuck adventure....try humanity!
May 20, 14
8. The oligarchy want us to believe the choice between one plutocrat of one party over another plutocrat of the other party is democracy. They stir us up about gay marriage, abortion and contraception, Benghazi and sex scandals by one or the other sides while they steal our pensions through 401ks and other market based rip-offs. They steal our kids through their foolish wars. They steal our homes through their own corruption and their unwillingness to pay their fair share. They steal our jobs by exporting them to slave camps around the globe. They steal our souls through mind numbing media that tells us nothing about the rest of the world and little about our own nation or communities. They steal our bravery through constant fear mongering of terrorism or some other bogus attack upon our way of life. They steal our voices with militarized cops trampling basic rights of assembly and free speech. And they steal our courage with oppression against any who might expose them for the true terrorists, criminals and frauds they are.
May 17, 14 9. Sometimes it seems our arrogance lets some think Western medicine will surely find a cure for dying of old age. Or could it be that Western medicine has made it an industry to maintain life regardless of its quality?. The problem of this great desire to live a long life is the total disregard for elders in a youth obsessed culture. And, we baby-boomers can't complain since we are the generation most responsible for the obsession. Now we ask why ageism is so prevalent? Maybe we set that stage as well. As for me, I'm incredibly surprised I'll make 65 this month unless the random hand of death gets me first. Always figured I'd never make 30. I was a prime candidate to off myself. Then I met Pam. But I sure as hell don't want to stick around as a test tube for the end of life industry!
May 15, 14
10. Was thinking back on some songs of my generation that have really made me think or struck an emotional chord. One by Crosby, Stills and Nash, FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM, is a five or six stanza song that sends me back to my war almost every time I hear it. Another by Dylan, MASTERS OF WAR, captures my rage. Thinking about this because a student wants to write a song about a presentation I gave on my war experience. It led me to thinking about the music that helped keep me going during the years. So many folks like Seeger, Phil Ochs, Edwin Starr, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, Woody Guthrie, Country Joe, Richie Havens, Odetta, Buffy Saint Marie, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary....et.al. gave voice to dissent and protest that so many of us needed for inspiration. Thanks to the musicians and artists who give expression to the noble causes.
May 2014
11. So, one tragic incident occurs with an edible pot product and the entire US corporate media blows it up out of all proportion but every day there are deaths by DUI, violence stemming from over use of alcohol and the chronic effects of addiction to alcohol. And, yet, we still get a constant bombardment on how cool it is to drink booze?? And fear tactics that reckon back to that oldie but goodie, REEFER MADNESS. One more example of governmental and media stupidity.
April 2014
12. So, here's the way things work in police departments. First they get beacoup money to arm themselves with military style weapons and body armor to fight that ever mysterious war on drugs. Then for every call they have their SWAT or whatever they call their goon squad on standby. If it's a mentally ill or homeless (often one in the same) person they encounter, they immediately fear for their lives and after one or two commands confusing the person about what they did, they use that person for target practice. Or a vet with a gun to his own head threatening to off himself is considered a danger to cops so they logically have a sniper shoot him or just open fire point blank. Then, once word gets around about their murders, protesters come out and .....yippee ki ay MF....time to shoot pepper spray from behind the turtle suits of body armor at the protesters. It's damn hard being a cop nowadays with all the lowlife homeless and crazy ass vets and protesters.
March 2014
13. Amerika Inc., which has sucked 50 billion plus in handouts from tax payers, would rather destroy the economy and people's lives than give an increase in minimum wage. Not even a living wage. They'd rather give jobs to slave camps overseas to demonstrate they won't share their obscene profits with the workers who toil in fear and poverty. The truth is giving more salary to workers means more spending and a stimulus to the economy but the idea increased wages will cost jobs is only true because the "bosses" don't want workers having power or a living wage. The loss of jobs is due to the traitorous corporations, using handouts and tax breaks to enrich themselves, refusal to share their wealth. Imagine a well paid workforce. It could mean workers had the ability to alleviate the onerous debt that enslaves them!!
14. Jan 2014
You know there is a story about the swinging lifestyle in today's DENVER POST. I suppose it should bother me but I really don't care. No more than I care about a husband or wife cheating on one another. At least the swingers are up front with their inability to maintain a monogamous relationship rather than lying and keeping their spouse in the dark. I've been married over 40 years. I obviously like monogamy. I was lucky to find my soul mate. But those who need to swing or practice polyamory or whatever to feel completed don't bother me. I see them as searching for love and intimacy just like the majority of us. And let's face it...monogamy is about a 50% failure if divorce rates are any measure.
I see the religious fanatics, the duck callers and all the right wingers appalled about men loving men and women loving women but they're fine with spending trillions to kill other humans because they have a strange notion some group or the other is going to come here and steal their way of life. They hate the gays but don't blink a bit to see children starving or workers losing any semblance of financial support when they've lost jobs to slave labor.
I'm just too old, I guess, to throw stones at humans trying to find ways to love one another or just enjoy the acts of love without ever imposing on me. Yeah, I know the Bible sez all that stuff while Kind David had how many wives??
I'm not naïve enough to think some are coerced into the swinging lifestyle. I'm sure 99% have been women. I'm sure the porn trade is rife with coercion and terrible abuses. I worked with adolescent girls and boys for a number of years. The sexual abuse they reported when I did the initial evaluation with them kept me up at nights. Sex is always going to be used as something to control someone Something to exert power over someone. And the idea that some terrorized victim is showing love by means of sex is an absurdly vile notion. But, the same terror is found in monogamous relationships. I've also worked with battered spouses on many occasions. Their stories in their own ways are just as awful and disturbing as any that have kept me up at night wondering how we humans can do these things to one another. And usually I end up thinking of my own actions when I was 18 and 19. I end up thinking of the ultimate evil thing a human can carry out. Take a life. How twisted is it to train young people to hate groups of other cultures in order for them to kill them?
I guess this whole post is rambling but I want to boil it down to the notion I can't be upset with those folks looking for love and intimacy when I put it in perspective of all the evil carried out in our world. Sorry, just can't.
15. Strange how we'd be violating someone's freedom of religion by calling them out for their hate-speak against gays. The righteous phonies lambast the critics using words like "political correctness" but use their own "Christian correctness" to excuse their hate. Let's not be misled. It was in my lifetime the same alleged followers of Christ called miscegenation a sin against God and excused their racism as a religious freedom. The righteous Christian seem to always have the answers for all of us whether we want them or not. And if we don't want their "righteous" answers then, by God, we're all going to hell. Let me tell you....if I had the choice of being in the heavenly sanctum of the "righteous" like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and the Quack Dynasty leader or the choice of hell with the likes of Mark Twain and other atheists and anarchists there would be no choice. I'm going to hell!
16. December 20, 2013 While spending the last four days in a flu driven psychosis a weird thought came to me. How many females have taken automatic weapons, shotguns, bombs and other lethal items to a school with intent to kill innocent kids? Or to shopping malls, Naval Yards, churches, military bases, Afghanistan villages or movie theaters? Is that a relevant thought or just part of the flu??
17. November 26, 2013 The politicians say food stamp programs are unsustainable like all other entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid?). But they never mention the unsustainable wars, the unsustainable corporate welfare in form of tax breaks and tax-payer giveaways to corporate farms. The entitled few always look upon any program meant to demonstrate humanity or actually paid for and earned by the average worker as excessive government. And then they go off to their villas and mansions in gated communities paid for by their often illegal or unethical dash for cash. Subsidized and bailed out by the taxes actually paid by that average worker. They cry wolf whenever they're called out saying those who do so are trying to start a class warfare. That's the thing about the true entitled few.....they accuse any opposition group of us lowlifes of the exact thing they actually do and are.
18. November 17, 2013 An example of being a slave to debt is working in the healthcare system and knowing every day, no matter how caring you try to be, no matter how much you try to use your skill as an advocate...you're still participating in the big pharma-medical treatment plan putting profit above prevention and recovery. It's working in a profession where you realize every day how stupidly insane it is to worry about someone's insurance coverage paying for necessary care. How stupidly insane it is every man, woman and child doesn't have the right to medical care. How stupidly insane medical professionals don't focus full attention to medical care. And going to work every day is a struggle. Not because of our patients but because of our broken system.
19. November 9, 2013 I thought about the vets parade but couldn't manage to do it. What in God's name deserves a parade? Which war should we choose as righteous? We should be reflecting on the insane losses of our brothers and sisters because they, like we who survived, believed we would serve a higher cause. We were betrayed by the masters of war, the captains of capitalism who drained our blood and efforts to fuel their greed and corruption. Don't fucking thank me for my service this weekend. None was provided. My participation didn't further the cause of democracy or the betterment of the world. If anything, it helped bring the anger of others against this nation for the blood lust of the leaders we allow to be elected time after time.
20. October 8, 2013 I can't remember a time during my 65 years on this planet when so many traitors were allowed to have the power of governing this nation. It speaks to how we've become U.S.A., Incorporated. How we've allowed the foxes to guard our henhouses. Think the term "traitors" too strong? How else can the betrayal of all the values this nation allegedly stands for be described? How else can we describe the betrayal of hope and freedom for the vast majority of humans around the world?
21. September 21, 2013 Obama complains about the GOP holding his party hostage like it's something new. But let's be realistic, both parties are held hostage to their rich corporate daddies dictating what they should do if they want reelection. And the poor, middle class and upper middle class are held hostage to these heartless, gutless immoral politicians who love to wave the flag and have us sing "America the Beautiful" to assuage our worries. But, in truth, if we're to define traitorous we only need look at what's happening in Washington D.C. in the halls of the alleged government. They are the puppets of the rich and elite who have only one allegiance. Greed. And, apparently, it will take a total collapse of the economy and government before the people of this nation are willing to march on the bastards to throw them out. When the mainstream rag, TIME, has a cover suggesting there will be another financial collapse the time of reckoning could be very soon. Sadly, if past history is any indication, there will be a large number of people taking up arms and making it a Darwinian struggle of survival and selfishness. Or put simpler ...."I got mine, fuck you". Hope I'm wrong.
22. Sept 11, 13
On Jan 31, 1968 I was a first hand witness of children killed by chemical warfare, Mr. President. They didn't writhe in pain at the time my company reached them. No, by then they had become "crispy critters"....humans charred beyond recognition by napalm dropped by U.S. jets. On that Jan '68 day my company commander decided a village would be destroyed even if it meant those kids were to die. Is that part of the 7 decades of American stability throughout the world?
And when people think of Vietnam they should think of DOW Chemical's Agent Orange still inflicting pain on the Vietnamese people generations later. That agent was part of that American stability.
And on this day, September 11, we will remember the Twin Towers being destroyed, killing over 3000 lives in New York City. But will we remember the overthrow of Allende and imposition of Pinochet in the 70's caused by the arrogance of Henry Kisssinger? A coup fully supported by this nation against a democratically elected leader that didn't bow down to the American exceptionalism. A coup leading to tens of thousands killed or tortured.
Watching the overt hypocrisy and outright lies of an American President is getting old for me. Being in my 60s, I've seen it so many times I've almost grown desensitized to it. Almost. I'm glad to say it still outrages me to see a country I love be the bully and most violent nation in the world over the last 7 decades of what is described as American stability by the current liar-in-chief.
There's an old folk song with the refrain, "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?". It seems to never grow old.
23. June 13 If we live in the greatest nation in the world why is it reflected in being the largest provider of military weaponry in the world? Why not the nation that exports peaceful interventions? Why does the greatest nation have 50 million citizens without healthcare benefits and probably another 50 million with inadequate healthcare? Why do we put 52% of our budget into the military and continue to cut programs that educate our children, feed the poor here and around the world and protect the most vulnerable? It seems greatness as measured by the government, selected by big corporate interests, is who's the greatest bully on the block.
24. December 18, 2012 If we want to honor the children killed by the insanity of violence, we must connect their deaths to the social conditions fomenting that violence. It isn't just about guns, it's about a culture of violence we've allowed to percolate for decade after decade. It's about failing the oppressed, the addicted, the mentally ill while providing obscene amounts of tax money on militarism and prisons. Year after year mental health budgets are cut while year after year the military budget grows. Year after year prevention programs disappear while more and more prisons are funded.
To those who prefer calling the mentally ill wackos, nuts or loons, I say shut the fuck up until you understand psychosis, mania, major depression, auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions and personality disorders. You have no clue how parents of children struggling with mental health issues have to fight to get treatment. How some professionals tell them to give up parental rights in order for their children to get placed with social services. Or allow them to be imprisoned because jails and prisons provide more care than any other institutional entity in most states.
It's the failure of a culture when time after time children are slaughtered. A government that condones killing children as collateral damage of their wars shouldn't be surprised when there are mass killings at home. A culture that allows childhood to be tainted on a daily basis with images of brutal killings from television to movies to video games shouldn't be surprised children grow up with violent tendencies. Proliferation of weapons intended only to kill other humans can only lead to the horrible fact this nation has more gun deaths than any other nation in the industrialized world. By far.
If we want to honor the children, maybe we should think about changing their role models.....us adults.
25. December 15, 2012 I don't want to diminish the deaths of 20 young children and 6 adults to another American madman toting semi-automatic weapons to shoot his prey. I have grandkids close to the age of the children killed. I'd be enraged and bereaved beyond description.
I do have to agree with a young veteran friend who asks the question why these children warrant so much of our attention when there's been so many thousands upon thousands killed by other American armaments. Where was the outcry when our bombs killed entire villages and whole blocks that were inhabited by far more children?
Where was the outcry for the children of Fallujah, a city battered by multiple American assaults of artillery and bombs? Where's the outcry for the children killed all too often in drone attacks by American and Israeli military?
Where's the outcry for the youth sent to the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Oh people will say there's a difference between all those I mention and the children in Newtown, CT. No, there's not. They all have one thing in common. Far too many victims are children and the weapons used are predominately sold by American arms companies.
If it is people who kill people then we need to look at the means by which they are killing them. And, without a doubt, there is a culture of violence that permeates this nation from the time of childhood until we die prematurely or of old age.
The enduring image of my war was the day I walked through a village the day after a napalm bombing. There was a smell of ham from the incinerated pot belly pig but there was also the smell of burned human flesh. As I found out as I got deeper into the village, it was primarily the burned flesh of infants, young children and mothers. How does another human grasp such a scene? How do we reconcile the dead children with our sense of morality?
At least once or twice a year, we find ourselves asking the same questions. Why do we allow the children to be killed without acting to change the culture of violence we've allowed? And that goes without asking why we allow the children of foreign lands to be butchered at the hand of those using "our weapons".
All the cretins and apologists for the NRA will try to justify the continued availability of assault weapons as a right of all Americans under the Second Amendment. They decry any attempt to control deadly weapons used to kill our children. And we refuse to identify them as the terrorist organization they are. They don't give a damn about our rights. They only care about further promoting the violence culture so their masters, the weapons industry, continue to reap huge profits on the backs of those massacred by their implements of death.
If the past is any indication, the deaths of the 20 children and 6 adults on December 14, 12 will only join the massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora's theatres and all the other tragedies caused by a person, usually male, who has some deranged or psychotic impulse to kill and ready access to weapons to carry out that impulse. There will be weeks of reaction but when it comes time for courage and action very few will stand up in the halls of Congress, the White House or state legislatures.
And that makes us a nation willing to sacrifice the potential of young lives simply to maintain the means to carry out the violence so deeply steeped in the American psyche.
26. November 8, 2012 My wife's best friend won't go out with her this week because the election has shown Americans have become "faithless and immoral". WTF??? My wife is the kindest person I know. She believes in Catholicism but isn't a zombie that accepts the dogma without thoughtful consideration. She stayed clear of politics with the friend to maintain the friendship. But because of my willingness to oppose the Church the friend knows we are two of "those people".
The zombie Catholic sect that believes the dogma of the misogynists is willing to elect a man who is a blatant liar, a ruthless job-killer, a war-monger and truly immoral. Why? Because he and his Opus Dei running mate are saying they will oppose all abortion, gay marriage and the right of "moral" employers to refuse insuring women who choose to use "THE PILL".
The local archbishop sent a letter wailing freedom of religion is in jeopardy if certain politicians are elected. And the zombies all fell in line. Apparently including the "friend".
This thinking is why I will not return to the Catholic church. Yeah, I know there are the progressive and liberal groups in the Church but they refuse to directly oppose Papal authority. I tell my patients to leave abusive relationships if the abuse has no chance of stopping. Why think the abuses of the Papal authority will ever stop? Yeah, I am a heretic.
This is the sad fact of political debate in this nation. We can't talk with one another. We propagate hatefulness instead. We see whites at "Ole Miss" riot when the black guy wins. And had he lost would there have been riots from the other side?
Most folks dismissed the poignant thoughts of a man horribly abused by police, Rodney King. When the cops were found not guilty of their crime riots began. Rodney appealed to all of us when he asked "can't we all get along?"
27. October 6, 2012 Saw a bumper sticker saying "I'm Catholic and I vote". Next to it was a Romney/Ryan sticker. On a Cadillac with an elderly woman getting out of the car.
I couldn't help wonder if the elderly lady was a recipient of Medicare. Then I thought about how many of the "greatest generation" I know that seem to think they have "theirs" and don't give a damn about the young.
Spent time down in The Villages in Florida for a family funeral. It was filled with well off whites who hated Obama for irrational reasons. They seemed oblivious to the suffering of others as they rode their golf carts out to the multitude of courses or to the array of expensive restaurants. Their greatest fear seemed to be "socialism" as represented by Obama. They feared they might have to share.
My dad was a blue collar member of the "greatest generation". He'd give anyone the shirt off his back. He died as a result of his work's toxic conditions many years ago. He was a union stewart. He walked picket lines. He worked hard for companies who failed to return his loyalty.
I look at those people in the Villages and think my dad would be ashamed to be included in their version of the greatest generation.
As a former Catholic, the elderly lady in her Romney Cadillac represents all the reasons I left the Church. Mindless devotion to the dogma doesn't make it moral.
28 October 5, 2012
Dammit! Once again I find myself defending Obama because of the overt racist comments coming from Romney's campaign. Code words like "lazy" coming from bigots like John Sununu. Code words insinuating and directly saying Obama doesn't have the intelligence. Inferences by Rush Blowhard he used affirmative action and other racially motivated devices to get into Harvard and get passing grades. These cowardly racists use their bullypits to spout hate against people of color and where is the mainstream press calling them out? I lived during the days of lynching and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement. The level of racial hatred then was much more overt and accepted but what is happening today is an insidious and none too subtle attempt to return to those days using the "black Presidency" as the way to do it. While I will never be an Obama supporter, I am sickened by the racist attacks. And we have to know the racism directed toward him certainly "trickles down" to all people of color.
It's one thing for ignorant crackers living in the hateful cesspools of community bigotry to be saying these things. But, the calculated and cynical use of race-baiting by the likes of Rove and Romney, Sununu and Blowhard to access power is even worse. They rant about Obama being un-American or a threat but it is they who are the traitors who have allegiance only to the "white brotherhood" of American elitists. They may not wear hoods or burn crosses but they are only a more sophisticated group of Klansmen with the grand wizards men like the Koch brothers.
I deplore the policies of Obama but the use of his Presidency to bring the ugliness of racism into public view without objection makes us complicit in the hate.
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