Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tuesday???

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, redeeming is an adjective meaning “serving to offset or compensate for a defect”.

Is it just me, or do Tuesday's have absolutely NO redeeming qualities?

Seriously, think about it.

Besides Fat Tuesday (March 8th this year) for the partiers, Super Tuesday for the political geeks (like me), and Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of every month where Microsoft releases patches for their products) for the computer nerds, there really isn’t anything outstanding about Tuesday’s.

Sure, new music is released on Tuesday’s; but with 99% of the drab coming out nowadays, I really don’t look forward to it (unless it involves a release from one of my favorite bands).

Let’s look at the other days of the week...

Sunday – NFL football.  NASCAR.  Sunday Funday.  Church.  Brunch.  Cook-outs in the summer.  ‘Nuff said.

Monday – NFL football…Trivia Night at Brian Boru in Severna Park…that’s about it…thankfully for 5 glorious months, there is football.  As I’ve mentioned before, after careful consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that Monday’s suck.  But looking at it in a perspective of the glass being half-full, Monday has the redeeming quality of being a day for bitching and complaining about anything and everything...hey, it ain’t much, but it’s something!

Wednesday – Hump Day. Halfway to the weekend. You’re on the downside of the work week.

Thursday – Usually the unofficial start to the weekend…your local pub and grills surely have some kind of Happy Hour special, and probably some kind of special to draw folks in for the evening (a la Karaoke at Cheeseburger in Paradise in the ‘Dena, or Trivia Night at Hero’s in Annapolis, Thirsty Thursday’s at Bamboo Bernies, etc., etc.).

Friday – THE WORK WEEK ENDS AND THE WEEKEND OFFICIALLY BEGINS!  It’s 5 o’clock somewhere all day, every Friday!

Saturday – Weekend shenanigans.  College football.  College basketball.  Cookouts.  Trips to the beach.  Lunch out with the Littleheads.  Always something to get into and up to on Saturday.

Tuesday is the odd day out.

In college, we used Tuesday’s to give our livers a break and catch up on studying.

Now it’s the LONGEST day of the work week (for me at least).

Tuesday.  The Official Day With No Redeeming Qualities.

That’s all I got today.

Happy Tuesday, Beatdowners.

Until next time…

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Quick One

After careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that Monday's suck...especially after a Sunday Funday.

I need to find a legal way to secure multiple hundred's of thousand's of dollars...Heck, perhaps even millions...and figure out a way to become my own boss...

My first edict as boss would be Monday's start whenever I feel like, not at the butt-crack of dawn.

That's all I got right now.

Until next time...

Monday, January 17, 2011

MLK

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

I often go back and read the speech he gave back on April 3, 1968...the speech known by most as "I've Been To The Mountaintop"...in support of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dr. King was shot and killed on the balcony of his hotel the next day.

Back to the speech...it's amazing how timeless MLK's words are...how they can be about so much more than equality based on race...amazing how fitting they are today...MLK spoke of when he would like to be alive in history...

He says, "Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, 'If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy.' Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding — something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee - the cry is always the same - 'We want to be free.'

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence."

Truer words never spoken...and, in my opinion, timeless, and able to be said today with as much meaning now as then, albeit under a different circumstance.

Dr. King also said, "All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper'. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right."

Fitting words in today's tense and hostile political climate in America, don't you think?

He says, "Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation."

Those words - those very words - are why I want to run for office...to take on the challenge of making America what it ought to be. 

But that's nothing I - or you - can do alone. 

That's nothing the Right can do alone. 

That's nothing the Left can do alone.

That's nothing a Tea Party Movement - ANY political movement - can do alone.

That's nothing a Red State or a Blue State can do alone. 

America can be what it ought to be by compromise...

By reaching across the isle...

By saying "NO" to big government...

By saying "NO" to Political Action Committees, Special Interest Groups, big lobbying firms, and big corporations buying policy with donations to our elected officials' re-election campaigns, and our legislature as a whole...

America can be what it ought to be by saying "YES" to WE THE PEOPLE...

By saying "YES" to OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE...

And what better way to close, on this day, than with the greatest and most moving part of this MLK speech...no, not speech...dare I say, this MLK sermon...

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

MLK...1/15/29 - 4/4/68

Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on him

Thursday, January 13, 2011

My Take On Tucson...or Leave the Politics Alone

On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner - a mentally ill young man - went to a rally/meet-and-greet that United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was holding in the parking lot of a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. 

He had bad intentions. 

He open fired with a semi-automatic weapon, wounding 14 people, including Congresswoman Giffords, who was shot at point-blank range in the head. 

He also killed 6 people...
Dorwin Stoddard, 76, who shielded his wife from the gunfire...she was wounded, but survived.

Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, one of Congresswoman Giffords' community outreach directors.

Dorothy Morris, 76.

Chief Justice of the Arizona District Court, Judge John Roll, 63.

Phyllis Schneck, 79.

Christina Taylor Green, 9 years old, born on 9/11/01, and one of the babies featured in the book Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11.

A horrible, senseless act of violence from a deranged individual.

Yet the media started running stories of people blaming Sarah Palin.  Her rhetoric.  Her web page media.

She responds using the term "blood-libel".

For real, people?

Right, Left, or Middle...POLITICS DOESN'T BELONG IN THIS MIX!

As I stated - it was a senseless act of violence committed by one man who had more than his share of mental issues apparently.

One man, not Hell-bent on attacking the system, not Hell-bent on attacking a Democrat...just one sick and twisted man Hell-bent on hurting.  Killing.  Terrorizing.

President Obama gave the speech of his presidency in my opinion last night...and acknowledge that YES, there is a palatable discourse in the  American geo-political landscape...and using this tragedy as a political tool will only stoke those flames of anger, those flames of discontent, and those flames of war-drum rhetoric.

And wouldn't you know it, this past Tuesday (1/11/11), one Democrat threw a powder-keg on the fire...Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

This guy should be impeached...thrown out of office for his sickening indecency on trying to use the Tucson tragedy as a campaign tool.


Tuesday afternoon Senator Sanders sent out a mailer in order to drum up some fundraising for his campaign, hoping to raise money to "fight Republicans and other right-wing reactionaries responsible for the climate that led to the shooting".

Yes, indeed, that's a direct quote.

The Senator wrote:

Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few words with political friends in Vermont and throughout the country.  I also want to thank the very many supporters who have begun contributing online to my 2012 reelection campaign at www.bernie.org.  There is no question but that the Republican Party, big money corporate interests, and right-wing organizations will vigorously oppose me.  Your financial support now and in the future is much appreciated.

Senator Sanders went on to list several events that tied right-wing rhetoric to the tragedy is Tucson, and continued:


What should be understood is that the violence, and threats of violence against Democrats in Arizona, was not limited to Gabrielle Giffords.  Raul Grijalva, an old friend of mine and one of the most progressive members in the House, was forced to close his district office this summer when someone shot a bullet through his office window.  Another Democratic elected official in Arizona, recently defeated Congressman Harry Mitchell, suspended town meetings in his district because of the threatening phone calls that he received (Mitchell was also in the cross-hairs on the Palin map).  And Judge John Roll, who was shot to death at the Giffords event, had received numerous threatening calls and death threats in 2009.

In light of all of this violence – both actual and threatened – is Arizona a state in which people who are not Republicans are able to participate freely and fully in the democratic process?  Have right-wing reactionaries, through threats and acts of violence, intimidated people with different points of view from expressing their political positions?

Way to pray on emotions, Senator.  Way to exploit a tragedy.

You make me sick, and as an American, I am ashamed that you represent ANYONE in this country down in DC.

I'm sure some on the Right will do/have done the same.  I feel the same exact way about you.

And Governor Palin - "blood-libel"?  Seriously?  I know one person who won't get my vote in 2012.

Remove the politics.  Focus on the victims.  Their families.  The wounded.  Those heart-broken.

I quote the great writer J. R. R. Tolkien...
One character says, "I wish none of this had happened".
Another character responds, "So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us".

Stop playing the politics, guys - in the time WE have, the time that Dorwin Stoddard, Gabriel Zimmerman, Dorothy Morris, Judge John Roll, Phyllis Schneck, and Christina Taylor Green do NOT have - show compassion.  Do your part.  Listen.  Open your ears, your eyes, and your hearts.  Make that which seems so IMPOSSIBLE right now POSSIBLE.

Prayers for peace and hope go to the wounded, those no longer with us, and their friends and families...God Bless.

Until next time...