09 January 2011

 I don't like our use of war wording for everything we do...the war on poverty, the war on drugs...she battled against cancer...blather blather.

Sure the shooter's wacko...so what?  Violent rhetoric is directed at the craziest of the crazies...then when they actually take action and murder a doctor or assassinate a representative the ones who yelled fire in the crowded theater are quick to offer their condolences and act as if it's just another crazy...as if they had no responsibility for the stampede that ensued after they screamed...meanwhile, they high five each other in their smoke filled back rooms.

You have me mistaken for someone else if you believe I'm a 'lefty' or 'democrat' or some other label, btw...I'm not right nor left.  But, I'm certainly not a yellow stripe in the middle of the road where the skunks die.  To me, the yellow line divides the two lanes...but our political parties are both using one of the lanes at the same time, careening and crashing against each other...sometimes head on.

Radio and television fueled the genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda...Violent rhetoric and violence itself, should have no place in our society.  Period.  It should be shunned like the plague.  Not giggled at, or lauded.  Violent behaviours and rhetoric take many forms...it's in kitchens and backyards everywhere...

Leonard Cohen says it well:

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

(let's all hope)

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