In a recent essay at www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20156-an-open-letter-to-you, William Rivers Pitt expresses an extreme helplessness at some recent events in the news which are representative of some of the major problems in modern American society.
The Democratic politician who smashes all the worldly belongings of people who live on the street because he hates homeless people; the video game based upon the Sandy Hook tragedy which was banned post-haste while nothing was done about the causes of the initial tragedy; and the young, 99 percent-er who died of a treatable ailment because of the inability to get health insurance.
Details can be pursued through the hyperlink above.
There's not much to add. And I certainly could not add anything that would be as eloquent as what Mr. Pitt has composed. I do feel the need to quote this particular portion though:
". . . I hope it is not a hollow room, a hollow country, a hollow soul I speak to, because these three stories happen all the time, and every day. This is where you live, and this is who you are. If you have a conscience, it makes you feel dirty in your heart.
We are responsible for this. We are all part of this thing that is dismantling our basic humanity brick by brick.
". . . teach your children well. . . "(Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). . .
CHUCK!. . .
November 22, 2013 6:00 am • By CHUCK MUTH
On this coming Thanksgiving holiday, I would be eternally grateful if our government-run education camps would teach the next generation of Americans the true story of Plymouth Rock rather than the romanticized fairy tale version.
Ten years ago I read for the first time Matthew Givens’ column titled, “Thanksgiving: America’s Lesson on Why Socialism Doesn’t Work.” And I’ve been reading it to my home schooled kids every Thanksgiving ever since.
“When the colonists first landed” at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Givens wrote, “they signed something called the Mayflower Compact. Most of us have heard this document praised as an early social contract helping different people live together. What most of us never learned was that it was also an experiment in socialism.”
An experiment that went horribly wrong, big time.
The Mayflower Compact required that all the colonists donate all the benefits derived from their work — farming, fishing, clothing, etc. — into the “common stock” and only take out what they actually needed. You know: From each according to ability; to each according to need.
Well, as the story was told by then-Gov. William Bradford, the young men of the colony became unhappy campers about being forced to “spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children.” And since the non-producers got the same amount of goodies from the common stock as producers, the producers simply stopped producing.
As such, “the amount of food produced was never adequate.” Thus the inadequate harvests of 1621 and 1622 did, in fact, lead to famine, malnutrition and starvation among the Pilgrims.
But it wasn’t the Indians teaching them how to farm that ultimately rescued the colonists from their plight. What did? Old-fashioned American capitalism!
“In 1623,” Givens explains, “Bradford ‘gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit.”
The result?
“By 1624, the colony was producing so much food that it began exporting corn.”
Vunderbar!
“Thanksgiving,” Givens concludes, “far from being the simple and uninspiring story of a group of people learning how to farm, is actually a celebration of what has made America itself great.
It is the story of people working together by working for themselves first, and in so doing, improving the standard of living for everyone.”
Amen and hallelujah!
So as you sit around the Thanksgiving table this year with family and friends munching on turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, pause to reflect on the true meaning of this quintessential American holiday just as we should pause to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas each year; that socialism is bad, even when slick-talking community organizers from Chicago try to peddle it as “fairness.”
If only we could dispense with every bad situation in our own lives as easily as Newhart, Cranston et al. . . (remember Bobby's dream in Dallas). . .
(from http://www.today.com/entertainment/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-malcolm-dream-2D11603773)
For those who didn't care for the actual dark and bloody "Bad" finale, picture this: Cranston (as "Malcolm's" dad Hal) wakes up in bed next to his wife Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) from "the scariest dream." Huddling under his covers, he whimpers to her that he'd dreamed he was a meth dealer whose companions included a man who looked "like the guy from 'The Shield'" (Dean Norris' Hank Schrader) and "a man child" (Aaron Paul's Jesse) "who always looked like he was wearing his older brother's clothes" and used "the b-word a lot." The faux ending sequence is a nod to "Newhart's" 1990 series finale, in which Bob Newhart woke up in bed next to his "The Bob Newhart Show" wife (Suzanne Pleshette) and declared he'd had a dream that essentially rendered "Newhart" as a long, confusing nightmare. Meanwhile, back in the "Bad" clip (which Sony Pictures had pulled from YouTube citing copyright infringement, but can currently be seen here), Lois is dubious of Hal's fears. "I knew this was going to happen, you grow a beard and suddenly you think you're Osama bin Laden," she says.
(from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/pope-francis-mafia-target-corruption)
". . . Prosecutor says pope's attempt to bring transparency to Vatican is making mobsters agitated. Pope Francis's crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy's all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned.
Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria's shadowy 'Ndrangheta mafia, said on Wednesday that Francis's attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates "nervous and agitated".
He told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano: "Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.
"If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn't hesitate. I don't know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous."
Francis, who has called for "a poor church", has backed reform at the Vatican's bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits. This week police impounded a luxury hotel on Rome's Janiculum hill – formerly a monastery – which the 'Ndrangheta allegedly purchased from a religious order.
In a fiery sermon on Monday, Francis railed against corruption and quoted the bible's advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. . ."
You’re living your ninth life time is running out
The blood of the lamb has dried and lost its clout
If you show no mercy, no mercy will be your
You’re dated and done for the dot’s on your door
On day one they marked you, put you on the list
Embroidered a burning red letter on your bib
You move with caution, the trap’s laced with lure
You’re dated and done, there’s a dot on your door
Cowards die a thousand times, the brave die only once
If ignorance is bliss, may your joy be out to lunch
If you were meant to hang in life then you will never drown
Dodging the left, the right one brings you to the ground
You’re using the right words, getting the response
Newton was right, you’re life’s a renaissance
Your impedimenta pile up on the floor
You’re locked in this room, There’s a dot on your door
Kissing your mother, digging in the dirt
Hoping something of your life will take root and give birth
The vine seeks the light, branches reaching through the clouds
Where love will prune and crown you, relieve you of your shroud
Bread & Circuses Bistro
27 E. Chesapeake Avenue
Towson, MD 21286
410-337-5282
http://bandcbistro.com/
Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak are OHO
Also visit http://www.ohomusic.com
Dot On Your Door
by John P. Graboski
(Oho [Jay Graboski, David Reeve, Ray Jozwiak]
rehearsal recording June 2013)
