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Showing posts from December, 2017

Last Day

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This is the day we take stock.  Depending on where you are on the graph of longevity, you focus on the past more than the present or perhaps the present and future are the privileged view. We adore change when it might bring positivity, in our view.  But with the beginning of 2018 comes the chance to re-set.  For many, seeing 2017 go away can't come soon enough. It's only the feeling that we can begin again, with fewer mistakes and more alert than before, but it is something. Something needed. Something welcomed. In our commercial culture, we'll be mugged by all the advertisements for weight-loss and ancestry, newer, bigger sales, and the latest models of everything from cars to phones. It's what we do. Many folks will marvel at just being able to be...here...again. It's been that kind of a year. But for the uninitiated, the inexperienced, the folks who would rather not look back, they'll still have to be wary of what it is that just might be gaining

Existension

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Dawn is only a few hours away The airport is no movement empty I sit in the dark Hearing only “Early Morning Rain” in my head Got the lyrics down now My plane is on time and I’m to let myself onto the tarmac Shopping mall door slides open Braniff Air taxis up from the mist Flight attendant appears from behind silver door Yellow and brown hot pants at 2:29 am I’m in and on and belted Four stops before Chicago 3 now Witchita is snowed in In 3 months I'll appear before my draft board For now, a window seat next to a returning vet we smile hello, nod and then sit back, Our paths cross in the frozen wind

Slouching Again

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I recently watched the new documentary about the creation of Rolling Stone magazine.  Like the music and community it documents, Rolling Stone has survived and flourished for decades.  Aside from the many behind the scenes film and video clips, and the stunning photography the film employs, what resonated most with me was a comment by the founder of this iconic publication.  Jann Wenner was talking about some of the young, unpublished writers that were assigned various pieces early on.  In one case, he took a young journalist aside after he'd written a noteworthy piece.  No, he didn't offer constructive criticism or even express disappointment in the piece.  Conversely, he liked the piece and recognized the obvious talent in his young charge.  What Wenner did was grab a book off of his shelf and tell the inexperienced writer to go home and read it and then use his considerable talent and write like that.  The book was Slouching Toward Bethlehem, by Joan Didion. That book, a co

Morally Bankrupt

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So there he was, smack dab in the state of Mississippi delivering a speech on the occasion of the opening of the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.  He read his prepared (by someone else) remarks as my insides did a slow burn.  This was a showcase for hypocrisy 101. What occurred to me is that this is how it must feel to live in a dictatorship.  For the current occupant of the White House to talk about the courage of people like Medgar Evers, the Freedom Riders, and the 3 young Civil Rights Workers brutally murdered,  it was repulsive.  This is a man who believes and sustains the worst stereotypes.  This is a man whose party has rescinded the Voting Rights Act that many of those enshrined in the new museum devoted their lives to achieve. Two of the events that stand out most in my memory of growing up as the struggle for Civil Rights was blossoming in the 1960s are the funeral of the 3 civil rights workers and the 1963 March on Washington.  I wonder where the current President was on