Global
Dear Editor,
Some time during the night of January 5th, signs in the yards of several homes in our Clintonville neighborhood were destroyed by being painted with red spray paint,or ripped from the ground ,then incinerated in our driveways.Each sign that was destroyed expressed messages such as,"Pray For Peace" or,"One People-World Peace."
I would like to ask those people that participated in these bizarre acts of vandalism,why they didn't have the courage to ring my doorbell,look me in the eye,do the honorable thing and explain to me as a fellow citizen of the United States and the world,why they find notions such as world peace and tolerance for people of other cultures and beliefs so threatening and abhorrent? I would also ask them to consider the frightening analogy between their own irrational,violent acts,and those that are currently being perpetrated as acts of warfare in many parts of our contemporary world.
When reading the crime and punishment section of my local newspaper (the business pages), I’m continually reminded of the gross inequities inherent in our criminal justice system.
Virtually every day there are reports of CEOs and directors of major corporations who are charged with malfeasance, misappropriation of funds and grand larceny -- on a grand scale.
More often than not, those charged with such offenses end up making a settlement or plea agreement. Usually, those agreements result in fines and/or monetary settlement of lawsuits that don’t even begin to compensate victims of their crimes. Moreover, having agreed to huge multi-million-dollar settlements, there is usually a denial that there was any wrongdoing. To add further insult to injury, few are ever incarcerated.
Virtually every day there are reports of CEOs and directors of major corporations who are charged with malfeasance, misappropriation of funds and grand larceny -- on a grand scale.
More often than not, those charged with such offenses end up making a settlement or plea agreement. Usually, those agreements result in fines and/or monetary settlement of lawsuits that don’t even begin to compensate victims of their crimes. Moreover, having agreed to huge multi-million-dollar settlements, there is usually a denial that there was any wrongdoing. To add further insult to injury, few are ever incarcerated.
KEY WEST, Fla. -- Tough gig here. A weekend in Key West holding forth on the subject of humor with a lot of funny people. A pundit's work is never done.
Actually, being earnest about humor is deadly -- if you have to explain a joke, you kill it. Fortunately, the participants in the Key West Literary Seminar did little analysis and a lot of rock 'n' roll. Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," is also a comic essayist on occasion and was once inspired by Real Life to write the results of an interview of Madonna conducted by a Hungarian journalist. He asked questions in Hungarian, she replied in English, then it was all translated into Hungarian and then re-translated back into English.
Q: Let us cut towards the hunt: Are you a bold hussy woman that feasts on men who are tops?
A: I am working like a canine all the way around the clock.
Actually, being earnest about humor is deadly -- if you have to explain a joke, you kill it. Fortunately, the participants in the Key West Literary Seminar did little analysis and a lot of rock 'n' roll. Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," is also a comic essayist on occasion and was once inspired by Real Life to write the results of an interview of Madonna conducted by a Hungarian journalist. He asked questions in Hungarian, she replied in English, then it was all translated into Hungarian and then re-translated back into English.
Q: Let us cut towards the hunt: Are you a bold hussy woman that feasts on men who are tops?
A: I am working like a canine all the way around the clock.
In the shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., America's electoral crisis continues.
King marched across the south and the nation to guarantee all Americans, black and white, the right to vote. But in 2000 and again in 2004, that right was denied.
Now in the wake of another bitterly contested vote count, is the electoral situation improving in the spirit of Dr. King?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when briefing the Senate Democratic leadership on the day before the historic challenge to the Ohio electors, told them that in the 40 years since the Voting Rights Act, the people opposed to voting rights have simply changed parties -- from "Dixiecrats" to Republicans -- while still doing "everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of [the] poor and minorities." Jackson also told Senators Reid, Durbin and Stabenow that after President Lyndon Johnson refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pitch for voting rights in 1964 at a ceremony commemorating King's Nobel Prize award, it was a "remnant of the civil rights movement that went down to Selma" that was beaten and bloodied in a struggle that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
King marched across the south and the nation to guarantee all Americans, black and white, the right to vote. But in 2000 and again in 2004, that right was denied.
Now in the wake of another bitterly contested vote count, is the electoral situation improving in the spirit of Dr. King?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when briefing the Senate Democratic leadership on the day before the historic challenge to the Ohio electors, told them that in the 40 years since the Voting Rights Act, the people opposed to voting rights have simply changed parties -- from "Dixiecrats" to Republicans -- while still doing "everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of [the] poor and minorities." Jackson also told Senators Reid, Durbin and Stabenow that after President Lyndon Johnson refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pitch for voting rights in 1964 at a ceremony commemorating King's Nobel Prize award, it was a "remnant of the civil rights movement that went down to Selma" that was beaten and bloodied in a struggle that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
COLUMBUS, OHIO -- The above title was the stage banner for the enthusiastic, hopeful rally at the Columbus, Ohio, Capitol Theater on January 3, 2005. It described what has motivated countless citizens since November 2, 2004. As in the Ukraine, exit polls showed that we were dealing with a stolen national election. JOHN KERRY HAD WON OHIO, AND THE PRESIDENCY, but George Bush had been declared the winner. What a travesty!
Supported by worldwide contributions (monetary and otherwise), dedicated individuals had systematically documented blatant voter disenfranchisement, fraud, theft, and multiple other illegalities. Such explained the differences between Ohio’s initial, unchanged Exit Polls (which showed Kerry winning) and Ohio’s falsely Certified Vote Count (which declared him losing).
Supported by worldwide contributions (monetary and otherwise), dedicated individuals had systematically documented blatant voter disenfranchisement, fraud, theft, and multiple other illegalities. Such explained the differences between Ohio’s initial, unchanged Exit Polls (which showed Kerry winning) and Ohio’s falsely Certified Vote Count (which declared him losing).
In the days and few weeks immediately following the election last year, the
media pronounced gloom and doom for the Democratic Party and its constituents,
such as gay rights advocates. Journalists and media outlets of the left and the
right, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and Newsweek,
among most others, announced that the Democrats were down and out, and that the
evangelical Christians and the Republicans were the rising power. They divided
the country into red states and blue states, and offered up glossy maps to show
that most states were red and therefore Republican strongholds.
In the bizarro world that President Bush lives in, it pays—literally—to be a
miserable failure, a criminal and a corporate con man. Those are just some
of the characteristics of the dastardly men and women who were tapped
recently to fill the vacancies in Bush’s second-term cabinet.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
You never lost faith. You believed that it was possible for all of us to live in a world of peace and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in God. I had enormous respect for MLK despite that fact. For at that time, I didn't believe in God, I only believed in miracles. I thought a miracle was about to happen and that I would live in a world of peace and justice in my lifetime. It was 1967.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
At the gay rights rally on January 15, 2005, held in front of the Ohio Statehouse, Lynn Bowman, speaking for the Human Rights Campaign, told 80 Ohio gays to “get over it.”
Bowman knows of what she speaks when she conveys HRC views on the 11 states that passed anti-gay legislation last November. She serves on HRC’s Board of Governors, as the Regional Co-Chair for the Northern Region of the US, and on HRC’s Steering Committee. She relayed the apparent sentiments of HRC leadership with shockingly direct abuse.
Had I made some quantum leap into a parallel universe? Was I listening to the rhetoric of the rabid right, “I have three words for you: Get over it. Two more: You lost.” being heaped on us by our gay “leaders”? Does HRC think abuse will win new donors? Apparently so.
Single-Issue Politics Is Dead
Bowman knows of what she speaks when she conveys HRC views on the 11 states that passed anti-gay legislation last November. She serves on HRC’s Board of Governors, as the Regional Co-Chair for the Northern Region of the US, and on HRC’s Steering Committee. She relayed the apparent sentiments of HRC leadership with shockingly direct abuse.
Had I made some quantum leap into a parallel universe? Was I listening to the rhetoric of the rabid right, “I have three words for you: Get over it. Two more: You lost.” being heaped on us by our gay “leaders”? Does HRC think abuse will win new donors? Apparently so.
Single-Issue Politics Is Dead
The President is attacking the programs for Senior Citizens as if they are members of fundamentalist members of a Terrorist War run by the aging! Is there an attack of the “Oldies” (these would be the Grups in Star Track series) threatening on our young American way of life? They have become these ruddy complexion, wiry, tenacious, aggressive tribes with the intent of capturing the wealth of the working American for the support of their common idle pleasure. Like a tsunami or hurricane, or tornado, or locus plague they slash across the economic landscape absorbing everything in site. But we are told that our administration will save you. They will tie up our resources to deny them their vicious greedy objective.