praise the lord!!! praise the lord!!!

and of course, today was a day of prayer for the victims of katrina– president shrub declared it so– according to an article in the bbc news online, several pastors criticised the day of prayer– one, the Rev. Reginald Jackson stated “Not to be critical, but the president is a little late”– another, Rev. Enoch Fuzz stated “We need a prayer that’s walking and not just talking”– “We need a prayer with legs right now”– well, at least george tried– right??? of course most of us have been praying since a day before the storm hit shore and haven’t stopped yet– maybe we should give the shrub a point for effort– maybe not–

and of course on the other side

there also was a handful of (i’m not sure how to word it) non-supporters, gop right lil-wings or perhaps confused kids– they had signs which at first glance looked like they fit right in– there two largest were “god bless america” and “pray for our troops”– okay, i think most of the folks at the rally agreed with them– god get’s thrown around a lot, doesn’t he/she?? also they had a poster that said “osama says ‘i love cindy sheehan’” you know, i didn’t know that– wow!!! wait till the tabloids find out– of course, osama isn’t in iraq but as i said, perhaps they were just confused kids– and you know, if they have this kind of info, then maybe . . . they should be watched– another poster that they had stated that “freedom isn’t free”– perhaps they were from the local college, but we all know that freedom isn’t free, that’s why we pay taxes– kids sure are funny aren’t they??

the bring them home now tour– albany, ny

i had the opportunity to see the northern “bring them home now tour” in albany, new york today and it was good to see folks that are looking in the right (correct) direction–

further recovery 091005

speculation . . . capitalism . . . racism . . .

okay, up front i have to admit that i distrust the bush administration and believe that most of their actions are for capital gain and for capital gain alone– so, going with that line of thought– i am curious and waiting with baited breath as to what will be decided for the outcome of the property in the “poorest sections” of new orleans– of course it has already been stated by donald rumsfeld that the citizens that were forced to evacuate might not be able to return for years– is it me??? or do i see eminent domain kicking into gear here??? i would think that the property right at the mouth of the mississippi would fetch a nice price if all the houses were removed– is it just me??? or do i see wheels spinning here– after all as barbara bush recently stated:

“What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay
in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of
the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so
this, (chuckle) this is working very well for them.”

okay-and let’s figure the further away that you send them the less likely it will be for them to return– do i think it’s a racial thing??? it’s always a racial thing!!! when it effects a population that is mostly of one race!!! when it is controlled by a population that is mostly of the other race!!! hello??? hey!!!! folks . . . wake the fuck up!!!! i have watched this disaster from the beginning and have bristled every time someone has posed the race question– duh . . .

look– if all the different races in our country were intermingled so that there was not a disproportionate amount of any one race in one area, then i would say “no, i don’t believe it is a racial thing at all.” but you might have noticed that in many places in america there
are large populations of one race– have you noticed this??? well, keep your eyes open–

do i think that this is a socio-economic thing??? well, seems like a lot of the folks evacuated were poor, huh??? let’s see how many of the middle income people return to their homes– and with incentives like $2000.00 waiting at the nearest “astrodome”– hmmmmm maybe it’s just me–

recovery– a beginning . . . from a web page to a blog . . .

“from a whisper to a scream . . .” elvis costello

thoughts . . . etc . . .

traveling amongst the years . . .

we are all as alice after chasing the white rabbit, awakening as infants after falling through the rabbit hole . . . forever trying to comprehend the absurdities of man . . . i’m late, i’m late . . . .

“don’t believe in yourself, don’t deceive with belief, knowledge comes with death’s release. i’m not a prophet or a stone-age man, just a mortal with the potential of a superman; i’m living on. tethered to the logic of homo-sapien, can’t take my eyes from the great salvation of bullshit faith . . . . ” david bowie

and so on . . .

what can (will) i tell you about myself? well . . . i am a forty-six year old male and i am married to a beautiful woman named kathleen– kathleen and i live on a small hobby farm in upstate new york– besides doing the work thing, we occupy ourselves by making chimes, bird houses, and in general, pursuing any activities which are productive and constructive to our immediate environment– i am a writer of poetry and prose, philosopher of default, and an occasional minstrel of my own compositions– residing in upstate new york, yet forever a child of the ocean from the providence plantation–

a lot has changed since i have worked on this page (scratch that) blog– “september 11th” hit kinda hard within the state of new york and i have spent the time since doing some major flip-flopping– of course that must mean that i am a liberal, yup, i guess i have to confess to that– personally i think it just means that i am able to think and that i am able to re-evaluate my own beliefs and change them as i see fit without worrying about what some other flag-waving asshole thinks– one nice thing that i have always noticed about liberal folk is that they not only have intelligence . . . they use it too–

i have never been pro-war but after the 11th i found myself quite hawkish and i felt that the united states had the right to tear up the rest of the world to get osama-bin-laden– however, our wonderful king got distracted somewhere along the way and decided to settle old family grudges and add to our oil supply– he obviously wasn’t that concerned about the families that lost people in the attacks and he obviously doesn’t have any problem forgetting about the americans that jumped to their deaths from the towers– looking back at the succession of events since the 11th i would not be surprized to learn that king george was also involved with the 11th or at least aware that something major was going to take place– i believe that he planned to use a major attack on the USA as an excuse to attack IRAQ– now, i can only add my voice to others that oppose the war and hope that king george is brought up on war crimes and impeached–

i DO support our troops in IRAQ, yet i am sick to death of the endless magnetic yellow ribbons– most appear to have been slapped on because it was the thing to do and i can’t help but notice how they appear to have faded as they and the troops are so easily forgotten, replaced by thoughts of michael jackson, brad and jen, tom and katie and the rest of the crap that people distract themselves with– i also have an increasingly hard time with the way our troops are being portrayed for some of the things that they are doing– although i don’t condone abuse of prisoners etc., i feel that these young men and women have been trained to follow orders and it is the higher commanders which should be answering to charges– take it all the way up to rumsfeld and bush and slap their asses in jail–

in short, i DO support the troops– let’s bring the kids home before anymore die, lose an arm or a leg or maybe their minds–

peace,

john bourne harbour