Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Comments

omgwtf!

Mixed emotions.

“There are gangs of armed men in the city moving around the city.”

New Orleans is under water. The only strip that has remained dry is the French Quarter and a strip of land in what is known as “Uptown;” the part that has been used for hundreds of years as a trading post by the American Indians in the area, and later by French and other settlers. The highest elevation in what was originally millions of acres of swampland. I still wear a sterling silver necklace that I bought at that trading post on the banks of the Mississippi…a curved sword…that gets many compliments.

This is what happens when you build a city in a bowl made of sponge, surrounded by deep water, and then fail to maintain the levees and pumps and other safeguards that keep the water back behind the barriers. Man, they can’t even bury people in New Orleans because the city is below sea level and you hit water like a foot into the ground. That’s why they have their Cities of the Dead (one of which abuts the French Quarter).

(wait, I can explain…)

Let Freedom Ring.

Today is the thirty second anniversary of the March On Washington. On this day, 33 years ago, it was the largest and most significant demonstration of its kind in the history of the United States.

Yaz sent me this link, which I had never seen before, this morning, reminding me of today’s momentous anniversary…thank you, Yaz!

There were many, many people who spoke and sang in Washington that day, in the name of freedom. And when I say freedom, I mean actual freedom; not the current administration’s curious interpretation of that noble word. So many people turned out that day, of all colours and walks of life. But anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that for me, the most important, most impactful person at that demonstration was Martin Luther King, Jr, and the speech he made that day.

Every year on this anniversary…or round about on the anniversary, since I suck at remembering dates…I read, and since the advent of the Internets, I listen to I Have A Dream again, usually more than once. I am, in fact, listening to it right at this very moment, as I type this. Every time I listen to it, it makes me completely emotional, because it’s something I’ve held close to me as long as I’ve been alive. It means so much to me. I believe in this message with every fiber of my being. My entire life has been wrapped up in this speech. From my earliest years, I remember my mother talking about Dr King, reciting lines from this speech and oftentimes reading me the entire speech at a go…at first because she loved it, but then because I requested it.

In the eighth grade, it was this speech that I chose to memorize and recite in front of my class. One of my best memories of my mother is working on editing this speech so I could use it for that school project, because it’s just too long for an English class. I remember that some people laughed at me because I was so passionate…but I also remember not caring, because I knew whoever laughed was too ignorant to pay any attention to anyway.

Now, as I type this, as I listen to Dr King’s cruelly silenced voice reach out and touch the hearts of everyone within hearing on that summer day more than three decades past, I can hear the heated murmuring of my roommates as they discuss the situation in Iraq. I am reminded of Simon and Garfunkel, and their version of the song Silent Night, set over an evening newscast.

I listen, and I think about Iraq, and I am reminded of Vietnam. I am reminded of soldiers dying, I am reminded of hatred and torture and murder, and peace and hope and a bright future. I am reminded of corruption and vigilance, of tyranny and of revolution. I am reminded that as far as we have come, we still have such an infinite way to go, as a society, as a nation, as a species.

Whatever you’re doing right now, stop and listen. You can spare the time. Listen, and remember, and be inspired to do your part. We are all responsible for one another. Yes, we are. Remember that this man was murdered for these words, like so many before him, and so many after. If there is but one soul still enchained, none of us can ever know the true taste of freedom.

When you listen, and I hope you do, keep your ear tuned for what I believe is the very best part of this, or really any, speech. Dr King asks a question at one point: When will we be satisfied? Members of the crowd call back “NEVER!”

This moment in this speech is the perfect illustration of why I never give up or back down, no matter how difficult the struggle forward for freedom and equality seems. If not me, then who? Someone has to speak out, someone has to refuse to be cowed. I know that I, for one, will never be satisfied until freedom does ring, and not just in one country, but all. If people like Martin Luther King can die for it, then I certainly have no business giving up when I hardly lift a finger in the first place. No, I’ll never be satisfied. Never.

To me, that says it all.

Peace.

New chair!

I got a new computer chair today. It is far superior to the old computer chair, seeing as how the new computer chair is not tipping me out onto the floor, like the old computer chair has been doing.

This morning, I finally took a look under the old chair and saw that the metal plate that is screwed to the bottom of the seat had literally torn almost all the the way through. Great.

I got lucky, though, because when I went to Fry’s Electronics to get a replacement chair, the one that was marked $60 was actually on sale for only $40, so my chair picked a good day to break! I also picked up a gaming headset so that I can talk to my friends in World of Warcraft, finally.

So now I have a new chair, totally write-offable (woot!), and a nice headset, and a full night of gaming ahead of me. I want to make level 40 so goddamn bad I can taste it. Starting over on another server has been really horrible, but the best part is some of my best friends in the world are on the new server, so it’s been awesome talking to them. Plus as a bonus, I’ve met some really cool new people, as well.

Sometimes, even when youre stressed out and at the end of your rope, life can be pretty good, you know? :)

An excellent article

I should so be working right now…but I’m distracted and I stumbled across this op-ed piece on the New York Times site.

I don’t always agree with what Bob Herbert has to say, but he’s usually a good writer. I just read his article linked below, and even though I try never to link New York Times articles because you have to register to read them, I had to link this one. Read it. Really. It’s a good ‘un. I emailed him about it, thanking him for being one of the rare members of the press who actually calls things the way they are.

Registration is free, and if you look over there to your right, amidst the various links is a link for something called Bug Me Not. It’s your loyal friend in the fight against unnecessary website nosiness!

I’m being chipper here, but let me tell you something: since Cindy Sheehan set up her vigil outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, I have been getting sicker by the day. It’s come to the point now where I despise this administration and all it stands for so deeply that some days all I want to do is stay in bed with my head under a pillow and not come out until January 21, 2009.

I am sickened by the American people. I am ashamed of being an American. I am stunned and outraged and flabbergasted by the fact that we are not only doing nothing to change what’s going on, but that we dont even appear to be thinking about it on any level at all, except perhaps to pause and call people like Cindy Sheehan and anyone else who dares to question anything at all names and accuse them of being unAmerican traitors.

What is happening in this country is so patently surreal, so totally unfathomable to me, that I feel like I’m losing my mind. I feel like I’ve stumbled into an alternate universe where evil is the status quo and everyone has a diabolical little black pointy beard, and I’m the only one who is appalled by what they consider normal.

How did we get to this place? How can we have survived so long making such poor choices, and supporting such evil people? Why do we allow this to continue? What is going to become of us?

How am I going to live like this, on the insane edge of a bottomless chasm? I can barely hold myself together now, as it is. If things are just going to get worse…will I find the energy to keep fighting in spite of the madness closing in all around me? Where?

I have to get back to work.

Blood Runs Red, Not Blue - New York Times

Edit: Eerie. This is today’s quote from my random quote generator up there. Douglas Adams said:

If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

No, it’s not good news. But what else can I do? The only other alternative is to shut up and take it…or worse, give up everything I have always stood for and join the hawks. Neither option is anything something I could ever do and still be able to look at myself in the mirror every day.

You know, Douglas Adams speaks to me directly at odd, unexpected times, and always with a really creepy kind of relevance. He thought there was no life after death. I’m here to tell you that he’s full of shit, and furthermore, he loves fucking with me like this, that son of a bitch.

Balls Up From Beginning To End

Back when this happened at the end of July, I blogged it. At the time, although I questioned why they needed to kill this man, as he’d been subdued before he was shot, I also said that I wasn’t censuring the London police as harshly as I censure the LAPD.

Well, that’s all changed now. Turns out these fuckers were lying through their teeth. Either the LAPD has jumped the pond, or the London PD is studying how we do things here in Lost Angelpants, because this shit could have been taken out of one of our own headlines. I had held England up to a much higher standard. It would appear that I was most grievously mistaken in my assumption that the cops in London are a better sort of human being than the cops in LA. I am not happy that my little delusional bubble has been burst, and that I have been so wrong all this time.

(wait, I can explain…)

Human beings sicken me.

Loathesome and disgusting. Fucking disgusting.

CNN.com - Panic ensues in rush for cheap laptops - Aug 16, 2005

YES! YES! YES!

WOOOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO! :D

Judge Says CBGB’s Can’t Be Evicted

Yon »

Based on Fluidity

Theme Redesigned by Kaushal Sheth; re-redesigned by Perilous. Moo!