September 30 in Yellow

I should've spent the day on my front porch
sunny and warm
full Indian Summer

In line for the viewing at the funeral home in town
a couple waiting to pay their respects discuss where the most colorful drives would be
oh no, the hills would be better
that canyon is full of oak, ash turn yellow, oak just turn brown

I know, but if that ash bore comes through here, we're done
and here we planted all ash to avoid that elm disease

The maples aren't red yet and the elms are still green, but we've never seen such a yellow September
even the stupid hackberry seems to have color, instead of just being it's typical khaki

The fields have been stripped bare,
like unmade beds
their quilts of corn and oats and soybeans stored in some attic or perhaps piled on the floor in the laundry room
only a few tattered old afghans remain on the plain, beige mattresses
those are the few acres of deep green alfalfa, fringed with fluffy tufts of some exploded weeds- like the stuffing pulled out of the mattress-
I think that some of it must be pussy-willow

Yes, I do blame W.

Obama kept us from slipping into a worse depression than the 1930's but Republicans keep blaming our economy on him. They want make Obama and Democrats look like whiners for blaming it on Bush. HELLO??? Are we whiners for blaming the tides on the moon or sunburn on spending too much time outside without sunscreen?

• Massive irresponsible tax cuts for the richest 2%
• Which were not rescinded after the worst terrorist attack in history
• Which was used as an excuse for a massive, unprovoked invasion of a country totally unresponsible for those attacks
• Which raised the deficit and the debt even though it was paid for off the books
• Which put Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid in jeopardy
• Which we ARE "entitled" to because WE pay for it through payroll deductions
• MEANWHILE gross negligence and probably collusion in the name of ideological deregulation allowed massive speculation and misleading and unethical practices in the financial and mortgage sectors.

WHADDYA MEAN this is all Obama's fault? How can you possibly NOT recognize that it was the fault of George W Bush's policies and his administration?

Am I frustrated with Obama's not being able to bring about ALL the change and hope he inspired in the last election? A little, until I remember the deliberate, overt, and coordinated efforts at obstruction by Republicans. Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Rush Limbaugh made no secret that the primary goal of the right was to block the President and make him fail. Too bad that that effects ALL of us, the entire nation. How is it that this kind of choosing party over the "general welfare" and "more perfect union" not considered treasonous? 

Worst of all is how they accuse Obama of being negative and divisive when that's been THEIR propaganda strategy since at least 1988! Every time he bent over backwards, capitulated and genuflected to try to find consensus- Speaker Boehner and the radical Congeress refused to budge, instead claiming that compromise was weak and immoral.

Even if I didn't agree with, appreciate, or appreciate what President Obama's policies, accomplishments, and objectives- I'd admire him just for putting up with them.

Now what?

For some reason,
I have no idea what-
summer always makes me want to write

I resolve to
be disciplined
and inspired

I tell myself that since I can't seem to sleep anyway,
I might as well hole up in the kitchen
drinking coffee and whiskey and writing the great American novel

while my family sleeps
I might even take up cigarettes
isn't that what great writers do, while they burn the midnight oil?

but whenever I sit down at the computer
or with a pad and pen
my mind goes as blank as the page or the screen

Okay, okay, I tell myself
it doesn't have to be worthy of the Nobel prize for literature
how about a profound poem?

Nothing comes
the juices don't flow
inept, ineffectual, insecure, and most of all uninspired

Okay, okay, how about an essay or an article?
or a journal entry, how about a journal entry?
I've always said that I ought to keep a diary.

Hmmmmm...
Nope
Nada, muchas mas nada

Nix,
nine,
nought

Okay, okay don't be discouraged
why not just some kind of blog post?
If I'm lucky, I manage to tweet a tweet or update my facebook status

Today my wife's grandmother brought over a magical gift
a 1940's Royal Quiet Portable DeLuxe typewriter
A beautiful relic of a home office appliance

The keys were covered with white waxy film
dust or mold, I did not know
but I took to it like a restorationalist at a museum

lovingly I swabbed each key with a rag
dipped in vinegar and dish soap
and brought back the original hunter-green luster

There was still oil in the apparatus
and ink in the ribbon
we inserted a new sheet of crisp, white, blank computer-printer paper

My daughters curiously observed our activities
"What IS that thing?"
They honestly had no idea

"Before laptops, that was how writers wrote."
"What?" Really? How?"
"Sit down in front of it and type something."

So my daughter, filled with enthusiasm
situated herself in front of the keys, winding the paper up the the beginning
and ultimately sighed, deflated and defeated

Now what?
I don't know what to write.
Tell me about it, I know exactly how you feel

Poem for Memorial Day; How?

How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day and not cry?
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address and still support nullification and secession?
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address and be so angry and hateful toward the Federal govt. which is supposedly "of the people, by the people, and for the people?"
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address and want to deny rights and benefits to public workers like firemen, police officers, teachers, and bureaucrats who are" the people" in the government by/of/for the people?
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address and come away thinking that the "cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion" is merely patriotism or nationalism and not the principles of participatory democracy and equality?
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address and come away thinking that the "cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion" is merely patriotism or nationalism and not the freedom of religion, expression, association, and the right to petition for redress of grievences?
How can anyone read the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day and not cry?

On top of a hill

On the one hand, the steeple of the old white country church rises above bean and corn fields like a lighthouse on a rock above the beating waves.

Meanwhile, occupants of the churchyard bear silent witness to the families gathered under the eaves on Sundays like chicks gathered under a hens wings.

On a Green Sea

Wind whispers through pines
Humble, unobtrusive, yet full and constant and massive, like the ocean surf.

Rolling prairie hills and heavy air and low clouds further play out the maritime feel.

But the song of the red winged back bird, while mournful has a hope and affection that no gull or albatross ever offer.

Outstanding Interview

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arne Duncan
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

I give Stewart an A+ for understanding how damaging NCLB & Race to the Top have been to education!

The Power of Words

Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior wrote that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" in 1963.

Just last week Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan said that "A terrorist attack on any of us is an attack on all of us."

I shared both quotes with my Civics class, but one eighth grader wrote on the board under Dr. King's words that  "no one gets this." I asked if they'd like me to discuss it with them and the same student said, "no, we don't care either."

That made me thing of Jimmy Buffett's famous line, "Is it ignorance, or apathy? I don't know and I don't care."

I care, God knows I care, but God only knows how I'm supposed to teach eighth graders how to care.

So I took King's words,

Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE

and I paired them with James Madison's words-

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[Disunity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Unity] EVERYWHERE

[Turmoil] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Tranquility] EVERYWHERE

[Insecurity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Security] EVERYWHERE

Or would that have sounded better with [Offense] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Defense] EVERYWHERE?

[Suffering] ANYWHERE is a threat to [the General Welfare] EVERYWHERE!

Now THERE'S one that probably makes "rugged individualists" absolutely cringe, but AREN'T I my brother's keeper?

And of course,

[Tyranny] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Liberty] EVERYWHERE

So isn't it true?

Don't you CARE?

Don't you realize? Don't you know?

That "Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE!"

Is justice really blind?

Have you ever heard, "No Justice, No Peace!"?

Did you know, what Cornell West says?

He says that “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

Merrium and Webster say that "public" means 

"exposed to general view : 

open, well-known, prominentc : 

perceptible, material..."

and 

"of, relating to, or affecting ALL the people."

Did you know?

Do you care?

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" 

Amos 5:24

Who Are We Dealing With Here?

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail in New Hampshire 2012
In his column in this week’s Newsweek, former Clinton adviser and CNN commentator Paul Begala (whom I always thought was the model for Josh Lyman’s character on ‘West Wing’) absolutely hit the nail on the head when he explained the Republican party’s never-ending stampede to the right.

“The story of the Republican Party in the last half century is a nearly unbroken march to the right. Nixonwas more conservative than Eisenhower. Goldwater was more conservative than Nixon. Reagan was more conservative than Goldwater. Gingrich was more conservative than Reagan. And George W. Bush was more conservative than Newt.”

I for one, once thought of myself as a centrist, perhaps even a somewhat conservative Democrat. I supported deficit hawks like Paul Tsongas and Paul Simon in the 80′s and imagined my self a working-class, Midwestern Gebhardt-Democrat, but felt pushed further and further left by the extremist positions and outrageous abuses of the “Neo-Conservatives” during the last Bush administration.

A quick look at the current field of Republican candidates confirms that our rivals on the right have pretty much gone off the rails on a crazy train.

Front-Runner Mitt Romney obviously wouldn’t get the Occupy Wall Street crowd, as a bonifide billionaire who refuses to make his tax records public. This the same reason that a lot of Tea Party Republicans may not trust him (even though they’ll take money from Kansas oil billionaires like the Kock brothers). Meanwhile some Republicans SAY they don’t trust him because he “flip-flops. (also known as telling voters what he thinks they want to hear, which politicians have done as long as there’s been politics). Die hard conservatives, of course, can’t forgive him for having been a moderate governor of a liberal state. As I’m sure you’ve heard a million times already, he used to be pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and pro-health care reform.

Evangelicals (right-wing religious fundamentalists) don’t like him because he’s Mormon- As a former Arizonan, I can tell you that the LDS establishment can have a way of amassing, defending and wielding social and political influence that could rival any ethnic, religious, or immigrant group in history. Whether there’s anything any more insidious or conspiratorial I’m not sure. Whether or not being apprehensive about Romney’s Mormonism constitutes the same kind of religious bigotry that Know Nothings’ anti-catholicism did in another time, I’m also not sure.

If Rick Santorum doesn’t revive Protestant prejudices of Catholics, I’m not sure what would. He certainly makes me think about an old Monte Python number called “Every Sperm is Sacred.” Do you realize that he’s not just pro-life, he’s rabidly anti-contraception? I can respect someone who opposes abortion because they genuinely want to protect unborn babies (though I have issues with rape and incest that Santorum leaves no room for), but I just don’t get attacking birth control. For one thing, preventing pregnancies also prevents abortions. As a devout believer myself, not to mention a devoted monogamist, I appreciate more than most secularists that he thinks that people shouldn’t be having sex as casually as watching TV or poking each other on facebook. Be that as it may, not everyone in married committed relationships wants to have 12 kids and I say if some of the secular hedonists and nymphomaniacs out there want to prevent either unplanned pregnancies and/or sexually transmitted diseases, by God, we outta let ‘em.

Liberal comedians have had a field day insinuating that Santorum’s homophobia and his pastel sweater vests suggest that the Senator himself is repressing some latent tendencies, but again, I think we need to respect his right to believe differently that we do. While Jesus Himself never mentions homosexuality in the Bible, both Moses and Saint Paul do. I don’t mean to excuse or condone Santorum’s tendency to obsess about gay marriage, I just think that rather than attacking religious beliefs or even social attitudes, Democrats need to focus on the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the constitution. Whether your religious passions are aroused by the very thought of gay sex, like Senator Santorum, or whether it leaves you cold, we must all agree that ALL Americans are all entitled to due process and equal treatment under the laws of the land- that is as conservative as you can get as far as I’m concerned.

Then there’s Newt. Ah Newt. I think it’s ironic that he indignantly claimed to have maintained a positive campaign here in Iowa and was shocked, SHOCKED that Super PACs supporting Mitt Romney would stoop to demonizing his character and maligning his record in so many TV ads. I also think it was poetic justice.

I think it was ironic that his rivals all painted him as the Washington insider and someone who had been willing to work with Democrats, potentially compromising himself to get things done. Especially since this was the man who took the Reagan/Bush rhetoric about reversing 40 years of Liberal programs and turned it into a “revolution” to undo a hundred years of Progressive protections and advancements. The very guy who as Speaker of the House, gloated over the ridiculously petty and partisan impeachment of one of the most popular and effective presidents in recent time, Bill Clinton. The same guy who was one of the first to issue actual talking-points memos to keep his party members on message and in lock step- and in many of those memos taught Republicans how to manipulate language so as to make their opponents not just sound like they were in disagreement, or even incorrect, but to deliberately make them sound immoral- the guy who paved the way for all the radio and TV demagogues and gubernatorial despots of the last 14 years- THIS guy, responsible for so much of our polarization and incivility, this guy was actually referred to as part of the “liberal Republican establishment!” I not only think that’s ironic, I also think it’s poetic justice.

Do I even BOTHER saying anything about Texas Governor Rick Perry? When he first entered the race, I was indignant about the fact that he’s advocated Texas seceding from the Union. I thought that alone was too outrageous for him to be taken seriously. Certainly I’ve been appalled by his cynical abuse of religion to appeal to the basest instincts of Iowa voters. Most glaringly his performances in debates and at campaign events at best reveals him to be an inept imitation of George W. Bush or worst a pathetic addict of some sort.

Should we bother talking about Ron Paul? When you hear him talk about Iraq, you almost think he must be a democrat. When you hear him talk about the war on drugs, you wonder if he hasn’t been hanging out with Woody Harrelson and Willy Nelson. How could any Republican take him seriously? Perhaps Liberals and Libertarians have more in common than just a root word. But then he starts talking about Wall Street- here is where you’d think that the Tea Party and OWS could find common ground. Why bail out jerks who are just going to give each other a big bonus? It is at this point when you could fall under his charm, but then he starts talking about eliminating pretty much every thing about the Federal government that protects anyone or provides any structure or regulation to anything and you remember that this guy lives on what we all used to call “the fringe,” before the Republicans moved us all dangerously close to the precipice that the fringe isn’t even on any known maps anymore. Now anyone who’s done any digging at all has heard about how his newsletters have had their share of white supremacist and racist ideology in them. Hopefully whatever eccentric charm you saw in him is tarnished.

Yep. I’d say that if somehow God magically eliminated President Obama and the Democratic Party from the face of the Earth, so that I had no choice but to vote for a Republican, I’d have to go with former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman. Of course, you know why Republicans don’t like him, right? Not because he’s Mormon. Not because he was ambassador to China. Because he was willing to serve as an ambassador to China FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA!

Crawford County Caucus Information

Little Charter Oak Iowa, population 530, has over 144 registered Democrats only two of whom attended last night’s party caucus in the Denison High School cafeteria.

County Chairman Larry Peterson welcomed participants from all over Crawford County. Democrats watched the live message from President Barrack Obama and a recorded one from former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. Vilsack has been touring all 39 counties in Iowa’s new 4th Congressional District in hopes of unseating Tea Party demagogue Steve King. Vilsack emphasized Iowa values like civility, responsibility, and respect.

Crawford County Dems also had the chance to meet Denison native Kasey Friedrichsen, who is running for Iowa House District 18 as well as County Sheriff Sheriff Jim Steinkuhler and County Auditor Terri Martins.

Attendees were given the opportunity to submit proposals for the state party platform, volunteer to help support campaigns, and serve as delegates to conventions.

Petersen invited Central Committee members to a meeting at his home 7:00 PM, Tuesday January 10.

The Crawford County Democratic Party Convention will be held Saturday, March 10.

The District 4 Convention will be April 28 and the State Democratic Convention is planned for June 16.