Namaya Vermont Poet: Loveletters From the Left

Obama Opium

2009-02-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been smoking opium. Returning from Australia,

and find these egregious PIG OUT PACKAGES. Not bail out packages. The nation

is high on Obama-opium. It is a wonderful new drug for the Depression. You inhale

the fumes of optimism, you become blissfully ignorant of reality, applaud corporate

socialism, agree that the rich white thieves should be given more money, and then

you become dewy-eyed when Obama gives you "Yes, we can Speech #6,000,753"

Is Obama shilling for Wall Street and the other corporate gangstas'.

Legalize pot and get the real gangstas' in prison.

In Jan 08 I asked, "Who have they selected to be our next president?"

Or is it a pathetic irony that they got a black man to clean up the rich white boy's mess?

How come all these staunch supporters of capitalism suddenly want Socialism?

Mr. Obama, who makes every liberal all squishy and warm inside

when he talks, is making so many wealthy republicans feel squishy and warm inside too.

I'm as nervous as a virgin in a Hell's Angels locker-room.

In all this talk of a new America, has anyone taken our President to task for the

PIG OUT PARTY for the Pentagon, and all the Homeland Insecurity. 25% of our GNP?

No one knows. Some say more. All the CIA, FBI, National Police, etc.. How much does it really

cost? The cost is easy to see -- Jails busting at the seem with inner city youth, schools falling

apart, two million and MORE homeless, the elderly freezing in their homes, and the insanity goes on.

Now that the party is over, is it time to ask for something more than Obama-opium?

Mr. President, did you inhale?

Spend a trillion dollars

on Homeland Insecurity,

the Military & feed Halliburton,

Bechtel, Lockheed Martin,

et.al. ?

Carte Blanche to Exxon,

$70 billion in profits

last year? Another cheer

for Capitalism!

US military outposts in

scores of countries and

fighting a two front war,

and Pakistan next up?

Feed the rusted monoliths

of General Motors, Ford,

and Chrysler?

Pork barrel for banks, a

feeding frenzy for CEOs.

Keep those fat white men

chomping in the pig trough?

Cut taxes!

Build a new America!

Wage war!

“Mr. President,

what did you inhale?”

Da’fence Department

A fence in my world

is someone who takes

stolen goods, gives

you a fraction of its

worth, and resells it.

The Department of

Da’fence stealing the

future of America,

& repackaging it as,

“Democracy for export!”

“Freedom from terror!”

“Free trade for the USA!”

“Protect our Oil!”

All wrapped in red, white

and blue.

Shilling for the big boys

of Halliburton, Bechtel,

Lockheed Martin, Exxon, etc..

America’s future

stolen & fenced by

Da’fence Department

In Praise of Uncle Joe

Uncle Joe was a hard

man to love at times.

Thirty-five million or

more deaths, but he

was a sentimentalist.

“A million deaths

a mere statistic, but

one death a tragedy.”

Though torture,

famine, imprisonment,

and poisonings were

part of his game…he

had a moral clarity in

an odd sort of way.

Which brings me to

the corporate thieves

and Gangsters who are

looting America and calling

it patriotic.

Uncle Joe would have

smiled at all these

groveling, sniveling,

whining supplicants,

told them to line up

against the wall and

shot them.

A bit dramatic, but I revel

in the moral

clarity, the cutting through

the Gordian knot of

profound bullshit

In our America, the

thieves are not lined

up against the wall,

we open the bank

and give them more

money.

Is it time to bring

back the spirit of

Uncle Joe?

O'New America

2008-11-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

O’ New America

O’new Jerusalem, beacon of light
on the hill,
filled with the promise unspoken.

O’new awakening of the sleeping
dreams,
alive with hope again.

O’New America radiant with
possibilities
aspiring for its true soul.

Rants: Americans Sodimized by the Red White and Blue

2008-10-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

RANTING and RAVINGS IN EARLY OCTOBER:
Americans Sodimized Again by the Red White and Blue:
John McCain and Dick Cheney’s On Going Tale as Gay Lovers
I listened to the Vice Presidential debates and the old political war horse Joe Biden and the moosekiller from Alaska was there. Moose killer (MK) was somewhat cute and perky, smiled a lot, even winked, flirty and had the contagious enthusiasm of a cheerleader. I would nominate MK as head of the local NRA in Alaska; the Nome, Alaska branch would be perfect. Talk about shooting and field dressing a beast, old Joe shot that beast of Republican lies and BS, then with the precision of an orthopedic surgeon he eviscerated and dissected the Republican Beast. For flickering moment, I felt a grain of optimism about the future of America.
Mc Cain as the candidate of change and the maverick, Old Joe called it straight. He said of McCain, “I know him and he is not a maverick,” with cool clarity Joe knocked off two minutes of why sclerotic and party sycophant McCain is anything but a maverick. It would be far more accurate to call McCain the Quintessential Republican Whore. I apologize right up front to all the fine whores I have known, being a whore when you’re upfront about it is perfectly legitimate; nevertheless, the perfidy of claiming you’re a virgin and immaculate virtue while you have slept in every bed, engaged in all kinds of kinky acrobatics and plain old buggery with oil and energy companies, and then constantly been in a daily love orgy with the Bush White House and call yourself a maverick is a bit of a puzzle. As far as we know Dick Cheney and John McCain are lovers…one wears black leather has a riding crop in one hand and a leather mask with a zipper, and the other wears a satin red g string. They take turns of course. In the Karl Rove world there is a certainty of truth in all this; after all McCain and Cheney both were black leather (Gucci) shoes and both have a predilection for pain. The rest is of course up to you. In the McCain world where truth is bent, fabricated, and illusions become reality… Sarah Palin jumps to the front of the queue.
Sarah was asked what it would be like if she was President:
Sarah Palin at the debate, perky, cute and winking to the camera and suddenly I’m having these psychotic fantasies-- Sarah Palin in the white house – guys doesn’t this give every red blooded American boy a hard on the size of the Exxon Valdez? Sure, as soon as McCain would take office, she’d have her pop gun on hand, and around every corner she would sneak up on him, “Got ya, John!” Soon he’d be spooked into a heart attack and then the Palin Presidency. Red blooded America folksy, just like us Soccer mom, holding a baby, one hand waving hallelujah to Armageddon, and the other hand call hand signal to the troops. “Drop the big one on Iran. Bombs away on North Korea! Ooops, did we miss and hit the South? History, history, we’re about the big picture! Drop another on the North and tell them that Jesus loves them too.” And then she giggles and smiles as she slaps the Staples Red Alert Button on top of the Oval Office Desk. A big neon sign recently installed on the White House says “Jesus loves you, even you Jews who are going to hell!” Damn, it makes GW look like the sissy Connecticut frat boy that he is.
I preferred the Democrats kind of kinky nonsense, cigars and all, I thought Clinton had done a fairly good job, but it still maintained and fostered the illusion of America as the last bastion of freedom and the ultimate superpower. Unfortunately, this has become even more apparent over the last 8 years. Now with the American Empire is a wheezing old alcoholic man in the emergency room, you wonder if anything will bring him back to life. More oxygen? More of the same medicine?
The American Empire as we know it, is more or less finished, maybe another twenty years of huffing and puffing, with their store of Armageddon nuclear war heads and poisons, strutting around the globe, and watching the value of the dollar shrink. Unless, we get a candidate, and Obama and Biden may be that ticket, to finally get off the addiction of the US as this sole Uber Power, fueled by oil, and avarice we may have a chance. The pattern of history rarely lies – Empires all have gone through the same cycle and this is starting to look like Rome in the year 275 – barbarians at the gate, the Senate corrupt, and the electorate bought off with Bread and Circus.
Now with the $700 billion pay off to Wall Street wrapped in the Red White and Blue and the promise of salvation for our economy we should feel better. I’m going to market a condom in Red White and Blue. Since so many Americans have been getting fucked in the name of patriotic slobber, it’s time we put the flag on the flag pole! None of this pussy footing around.
My rescue plan is far simpler. The bankers and head of Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, all the banks, and for good measure take these sniveling parasites of Enron and haul them along. Right down there in front of the New York Stock Exchange I’d put a row of stocks, old fashioned colonial stocks, where all these corporate malfeasants would be chained. Yes, there is a whole row of them circling the stock exchange. While the wind blows hard off the Hudson, those corporate parasites would be locked together, shivering naked, and every person who lost their pension or nest egg, could walk over throw garbage or piss on their head. If they were midgets, we would even give them a ladder so they could have a better vantage point. In the new America we are an equal opportunity society.
Obama says the next war is in Afghanistan. Barrack, wake up! Smell the fumes – the American economy is running on empty, the military is over extended, our soldiers have been on up to five rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and no matter how much of a GI JOE or Jane you are, we are all exhausted. Our National Guards who should be cleaning up the mess from the Hurricane in Texas or a hundred other national disasters. America is exhausted! Bring the soldiers home!
Barrack we have a choice: Fight for the future of America here on our soil or continue to expend national treasury and blood in Bugfuckastan. If the Pakistanis think Al Qaeda is such a big problem, there is a nation of 100 million people who can figure out for themselves is their freedom worth fighting for? Afghanistan it is a primitive tribal based society. In the 21st century the sentiment may be to save everyone, but in failed states, it isn’t worth it. Give every Afghani who wants it $5,000 resettlement package so they can move to Arizona, maybe John McCain might give them some of his houses. He believes in Afghani freedom, besides there is a dearth of Afghan restaurants in Arizona. And the Taliban, let them create their own barbaric, everyone knows their into boys, and so let them sodomize each other. The women, children, and the sane move them to Arizona – it looks just like Afghanistan.
None of this crazy pseudo democracy building nonsense is worth ONE SINGLE US AMERICAN LIFE. Not one. Iraq it was perfectly stable and perfectly insane in its own insane kind of way. The Iranians kept them in check. Saddam kept his people in line, kind of the way Joe Stalin did. In ten years someone would have shot the SOB and the country would have figured out their own destiny. Why does the US have to insert their ignorance into so many orifices in the world?
As every pundit NOW says, imagine if we had taken the wasted TRILLION dollars and invested it in the US economy and green energy? Imagine, eight years of being in a continual war against energy DEPENDENCE. We would have stopped funding Hugo Chavez and all the other oil despots.
Years ago there was a movie where the people opened the window and say, “I’m not going to take it any more.” Now that the fat cat corporations have saved their butts with this $700 billion dollar plan – it is another nail on the coffin of the American Dream.
McCain and Palin winning in November? I love Vermont, but it is time to go back to my Irish roots. Ireland a nation of 5 million is at war with no one has a health care system that works, and takes care of its citizens. I will miss MY America… a country of amazing natural beauty, from the heavy sultry blues of the Delta Mississippi, to the wide dreaming mountains of the Grand Tetons, the immense grandeur of Big Sur, Hawaii (though we did steal it from the Hawaiians) with its tropic paradise, and the bustling Jazz of NYC and my home in Vermont where in the autumn there is no more colorful place on the globe.
Obama and Biden… I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Though, I am scarcely optimistic that they can turn the Titanic America after it has struck the iceberg.
Wave that flag and lower the lifeboats!

Cop Named Joe

2008-03-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

A COP NAMED JOE

In a small Vermont town there was a cop there by the name of Joe and four years ago he became chief of police. He said, “About 80% of our cops are good, it is the 20% we have problems with, but as chief I am going to see if I can do something about that.” He went through the department and put together a list of the cops that had a long history of attitude problems and those cops he put on a short leash. One cop said at a staff meeting, “Joe, we’re the cops and we run this town. You know if there is a spic or one them colored boys that come around we know what to do.”

Joe spoke up, “That attitude no longer works here. It’s a different day and I’m the chief. If you got an ax to grind, we can get you help, but only if you’re willing to change. From now one the word is – Respect; regardless, if the citizen is rich, poor, or whatever color.”

A few cops left, a few of the big mouths become quieter. Every cop knew that something different was going on. This was made really clear when be hired a Dominican Sergeant from a neighboring city and an African American Lieutenant from Hartford. But all of that good work appeared as if it was going to go out the window. One night there was a guy in a church who was going to kill himself. Three cops burst in to the room. One cop realized that it was a scared and frightened guy and returned his gun to his holster. The other two were hot headed cops who had a long history of being abusive and at a distance of about 12 feet they shot this guy dead. The guy was only threatening to kill himself and yet they shot him dead.

Joe had a couple of daughters and as a parent he imagined what it would be like if one of his girls who had been killed. Most chiefs would have dummied down, issued a statement that their men had acted correctly, and pretended that everything is fine. Joe went to that man’s funeral services. At the end of the service he stood up, “I know some of you would rather I wasn’t here, as the Chief of Police of my town I want you to know that I am sorry for this man’s death. I don’t know what had happened, but I will do everything in my power to find out the real story.” Everyone was astonished by his courage and honesty.

In the following weeks he met with all the local citizens’ groups to talk about the shooting. Instead of denying it and pretending it was that fellow’s fault, he addressed the problem head on. When the town tried to stop the grand jury investigation Joe said, “I want the grand jury. If my men did something wrong they need to be held accountable. If they were innocent, then they will be exonerated. Otherwise, they’ll walk around with the shame of having killed a man for no reason.”

The courts found the two cops guilt of involuntary manslaughter and they served time for this. Most towns would have fired the Chief of Police, but because Joe was open, honest, willing to listen to the citizens of his town, they came out and supported his continued tenure. Best of all, the town avoided a protracted and expensive lawsuit. In a neighboring town, they had a similar issue, and the Chief brazenly lied his way through the problem, and in doing so alienated everyone in town.

Joe said, “If I wasn’t honest about this and the problems we have had in the Police Department no one would trust us. We’re not perfect, but we’re learning.” Joe even championed an Independent Civilian Police Review Board despite opposition from the Selectboard, “I know most of the police don’t like the idea, but if I want my department to be transparent and open to the public, then I need to put my action where my mouth is.”

“There are a lot of things in policing I don’t know about, but there are people in the community who have terrific ideas how to improve service and policing. If I get the community to work with us on the issue of bias, drugs, good neighbor relations, and so forth it means my department doesn’t have to work so hard.”

A Chief of Police and a cop named Joe. Just, imagine.

2008-01-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

AS A WHITE GUY Does RACISM AFFECT MY LIFE?

I’m a White middle class middle-aged man with more than a few dollars in the bank. I see the police and can wave at them and drive safely on by. If I reach into my coat pocket for my wallet and identification I will probably not get shot with forty bullets. I can shout out my magic protective words, “Don’t shoot me, I’m White. Put on some James Brown, see I can’t dance!” Oops, did I just fall into a stereotype? So, as a White guy does racism affect my life?

Being White and of European descent I don’t worry that I’ll be mistaken for a brown Muslim named Mohammed, strip searched, and undergo a rectal probe at the airport. However, given Timothy McVeigh’s role in blowing up the Federal buildings in Oklahoma it would seem reasonable that White guys should equally be suspect and the US should have launched an invasion on Scotland. (Though it is still puzzling to me why fifteen Saudis attacked the World Trade Center Towers and the US invaded Iraq and not Saudi Arabia: A case of the US being geographically challenged?)

When I apply for work and they look at my credentials or college education employers will not wonder if I was successful because of affirmative action. The employer may assume I did it on my own merit or at the least perhaps if I did attend an Ivy League school, it was because I was smart or in the case of GW from a wealthy and well connected family. If I was from that well connected family a gentleman’s C grades will do.

When I go into a grocery store and decide not to use a shopping cart and stuff a few things in my pockets; generally, it is assumed that I was in a rush and the management doesn’t call the police. Because I am a White middle aged man who is not walking around in raggedy clothes mumbling to myself (most times) it’s assumed that I’m harmless, a little careless in not using a cart, but not a significant problem. If I was Black or Hispanic, how long would it take before the police are called?

I can walk into a local bank and cash a check without an ID. They will not ask me for four pieces of ID, even though I might have had a bank account there for years. I will not have the bank guard calling for back up because I get in an argument with a teller over an error in my bank account. As a White middle aged middle class professional, I know she will defer to her manager, and we will resolve this.

If I move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. I don’t need to ask my friend to find an apartment. I can let the grass grow on my front lawn, have the hedges a bit shabby and the neighbors will think “He’s still a bit of a hippy.” But if my name was Gonzales would the neighbors think, “Those damn Hispanics – one moves into the neighborhood and look what happens.” It is the hundreds of small clues during the course of day that says, “You’re different. You’re not quite like us.” If there is a fistfight at the school do they assume the Black or Hispanic youngster is the aggressor?

When an African American friend of mine comes to town, do I need to give them a heads up about our local police department’s history of racial profiling or bias. If he is stopped does he need to do his Black thing?

“Yes, sir officer. I know it looks suspicious being a six foot tall black man wearing a suit and tie waiting on the street corner for my wife. No, I wasn’t casing the store for a robber. Yes, officer I have identification. Yes officer, observe my hands as they are going into my pocket. No, I don’t have a gun or a shiv.”

Do people of color and various ethnicities feel safe and welcome coming into town? Will they spend their money for shopping? Will they buy second homes here? Will they invest their talents as lawyer, carpenter, artist or poet? Will the richness of many diverse cultures that have strengthened our collective national cultures be welcomed and become an asset to our community?

Does racism affect me in my life? On the surface it doesn’t. As a White middle-aged man, living in a predominantly White community, racism can be a ghosted shadow drifting invisibly by. However, racism/ bias/ discrimination, is the sure and slow corrosive acid that that eats away at the fabric of a community. It says there is an “us and them.” It is another wall in the community that divides neighbors, differenced solely based on ethnicity or color.

In Praise of Global Warming

2007-10-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

Thursday, December 13, 2007

In PRaise of Global Warming

IN PRAISE OF GLOBAL WARMING

"It isn't pollution that’s harming the environment,

it's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." G.W.BUSH

I love Vermont in the warm weather and if this spell of warm-to-chilly weather would continue for another six months I'd be quite happy. Although I would like to think of myself as politically au courant and progressive in my views, I am afraid that my current evolving philosophy will jar many of my colleagues on the left. Simply, I think there are some significant merits in global warming that people fail to fully appreciate.

First of all, there appear to be as many people with Seasonal Affective Disorder in Vermont as there are cows. Considering that there are more cows in Vermont than there are people, this leads me to believe we have a virtual epidemic. What is SAD caused by? The lack of sun and warm days. Of course there are bright sunny days in winter, but it does not compare to the kind of a day where the sun is shining and it is a nice moderate 64 degrees. You may have sun, but the cold still tells you it is winter. Therefore, no matter how bright a winter day is, you still have the SAD issue. You are also less likely to go outdoors in the sunshine when it is 10 degrees outside.

It is not only a health, but an economic issue as well. The multi-million dollar budget for snow removal, salting, and springtime road maintenance should make anyone stop in their tracks and seriously question the merits of winter. When you really look beyond the quaint image of Vermont winter snow, you will realize how lovely, but absurd is the notion of a winter snowstorm. Where do we want snow? It belongs on top of a mountain. But it's not any fun to ski with layers of bulky clothes or with your toes freezing. Of course not. This brilliance of global warming! The gazillion tons of plastics that we use can be recycled as miles of piles of beautiful white synthetic snow. And, it’s as soft as lamb’s wool to fall on. Best of all, it is easy to maintain and you can ski on it year-round. When you don't want it around anymore, simply vacuum it up, neat and tidy. Snow in Vermont? Please, what an antediluvian concept. Vermont and America in the new global warming era offer exciting possibilities never fully imagined before.

As any well informed and truly progressive environmentalist knows – global warming will not only have an impact on Vermont, it will spread from sea to rising sea. Shorelines will erode and sea levels will rise. The old inefficient shoreline moves away, and now we have a brand new vista. It seems absurd to spend billions of dollars pouring sand and rocks to stabilize the shorelines. No, let Mother Nature do her thing, to a point. Of course there will be some homes that may find themselves a few hundred yards out in the water – but imagine the possibilities! Diving off your front porch into the ocean! That kind of real estate would have to be at a premium – it would even make Trump salivate. We would be able to open a new market for beachfront property. That is the problem with the environmentalist and the radical Green Party folks. They only look at the narrow point of view.

I've often thought that was the main problem with Vermont. We don't have any oceanfront property. I could stop sneaking out during the winter and can stay put right here. I'd have the best of all worlds. I'd have warm winters and beachfront property, and never leave home. Furthermore, all those negative oceanic ions would be so perfectly therapeutic

I love hugging trees as much as the next guy, but we need to balance tree hugging with the larger picture. That isn't gonna change. No, sir. "Conservation," as Dick Cheney said, "is an idea of personal virtue." And there is nothing wrong with personal virtue, but wake up and smell the air. We are a fossil burning, fuel guzzling, industrially powered and consumer-based society. I'm sure if the founding fathers had had a little more foresight, they would have written it into the constitution: "An inalienable right to life, liberty, consumerism, and the pursuit of happiness."

Eventually, as any idiot can tell you, we will run out of oil. Maybe it will be fifty years or a hundred years from now? Who knows? Will conservation squeak out a few more years? Maybe. So what is next?. Eventually whatever comes down the pike – hydrogen, helium – we will have the corner on that market. For now, bring on the SUV tanks! A robust auto industry equals a dynamic industrial base. Do we want those puny, effeminate European cars? The larger and more virile the car, the more natural resources are needed, which in turn stimulates the economy. When we run out of natural resources, we can create synthetic resources. With all the trash we've generated over the past one hundred years of the Industrial Evolution I'm sure we can make resources that would make Mother Nature green with envy.

Everybody works and everybody profits – that is as American as Mom and apple pie. Mom would be happy too. The next time Mom is at the mall and a terrorist threatens to abduct her, she can run him over with her SUV. Then all we'll need to do is to teach her how to park the beast. You see, these monstrous gas-thirsty beasts not only fuel (so to speak) the growth of auto companies and therefore the economy – they protect our moms as well. It can't get more perfect than that. I might even buy Mom an assault rifle to go with her new truck.

Pollution control? Absolutely! I am not one of those libertarian nuts, but both sides have to get a little more creative in their thinking. We don't want the smoke, we want the heat. Unfortunately, the thing we have failed to remember is that global warming is not new. If you think industrial power plants generate heat, can you imagine a world of dinosaurs? Can you imagine the amount of flatulence that each one of these creatures generated? No wonder the world was warmer then. I personally wouldn't want to be swimming in a world of dinosaur farts; however, for millions of years they did fine, albeit a little odiferous. Complain about an oversized SUV? Tiny compared to those creatures and their effluence.

The real issue is keeping the larger picture in mind – global warming – not turning the whole place into equatorial Africa, but a nice mild level where we can do away with these disastrous and devastating winters. The American farm belt shut down for winter? No, more! The manifest destiny of the modern industrial society is to rule over nature, not to be ruled by it. The benefits are enormous. Imagine year-round farming, and the profits it would generate. Industrial Chicago would never again be shut down by a snow storm. Keep the industry in the heart of America.

There are numerous advantages to Global Warming that the Greens and those so-called progressives fail to fully embrace. Can you imagine the temerity of a group of people who want to restrict drilling in the remote regions of Alaska? The nature of species is to die off. If the creature is hardy enough to survive a little progress, then it and all of its furry friends are welcome to jump on the wagon to the New Millennium. Progress means prosperity and prosperity means America. The air might be a little hazy and the breathing might be a little constricted might be a little tight, but hey, it's part of the evolutionary roll.

While my thinking may be ahead of the curve, the merits of global warming cannot be taken lightly. That is the problem of contemporary society and the doomsayers: They only embrace the narrow and negative point of view.

Can anyone in his or her right mind argue with this?