Archive for April, 2008

The final day of April, and I kept my eyes peeled for any new item from which to prognosticate futures, or present meaning in my world.  It seemed a pretty dull day….the same things I had seen before in the week, when I picked up other bits of debris: the Folgers cannister caught in the arms of the blackberry thicket, a plastic bag caught in high tree branches, and a single large tennis shoe in the ditch.

It wasn’t until I turned homeward and switched sides of the road in the marsh that I found today’s last little bit of roadside sadness: the tiny body of a duckling, far from where the ducks would nest.  I thought about how it came to be here, it seemed too small to have been walking in train behind its mother and crossing the road.  And most of even the most hardened drivers are so charmed at the sight of a duck with a train of four to seven yellow ducklings that they do stop to allow them safe crossing.  Some predator, hawk or owl, or cat, must have scooped it from its nest, but dropped it for unknown reason.  So here it lay, small enough to be completely enclosed in my hand with it’s downy coat muddied and wet.  Far from home, far from rescue and aid and in this remote place with no witness to sing over its body.  Nature seems as careless of its young as mankind often proves itself to be.

This one was too simple for your roadside Sybil, the age numbers of the recent death lists from Iraq and Afghanistan rose unbidden in my mind.  For reasons unclear to me, the age “19″ unhinges my mind and heart every time.  There have been 18 year olds killed in this war, and a lot of 19 year olds.  America’s ducklings, far from home and with insufficient witnesses to their homecoming caskets.  Crushed at roadsides more remote than the marsh, bodies tossed and broken by IEDs or RPGs as surely as this tiny feathery bit of mortality.

I want them home, although the changes wrought by war will make them in some senses forever unsafe, they will be safer here than there.  I want those boys with unfledged minds and bodies home, and those girls, too.  America’s ducklings, precious and darling to the eye……..far away and in harm’s way.  I have sung enough in requiem to wring my heart dry, and yet it is not done.

In the few months since I made my site here a fund-raiser for Fisher House, I have blamed the economy, the spammers, the general no-goodniks of society for the apparent apathy to charities like Fisher House.  But on more thought, I think that here in my neighborhood, a few other things are operative.  I just need to clear my head on these, and so, all of you unfortunate readers must bear with me.  Well, or, click away of course, to something more entertaining and diverting.  Are you guilty yet?

I  live in a military rich environment—Ft. Lewis, McChord Air Base and north of us a number of Navy bases.  Seattle still falls to its collective retail knees whenever the fleet, or a single aircraft carrier, comes to port.   So, you would think they would all have a vested interest in a charity FOR military members and families, right?

Wrong.  There is this phrase: “The military looks after it’s own.”  Right.

!!Like the barracks of the 82nd Airborne Div at Ft. Bragg?  Looks after it’s own like that, you mean?  Where the state politicians are scrambling to look involved as men back from Afghanistan live in a military slum?

!!Like the old military quarters on base after base where no meaningful repairs are done because “Well, they are gonna be condemned when we get ‘em empty”….like the place my son lived in Ft. Eustis, Va that had a nine foot by twelve foot long piece of molding ceiling fall down?  Like that?

!!Like the VA Hospitals round the country lying about the number of desperate patients attempting suicide?  Like that?  Like the dozens of military medical centers so understaffed that family members stay at bedside to care for their wounded men and women sent home from the wars?  Like that?

!!Like men medical’d out but given no meaningful pension to support them in their new physically disabled life who are living on grits and eggs three times a day and hoping to not be evicted?  Like that?

Back when Reagan and Bush I talked about charity being a hundred points of light, I cringed.  Because I knew what it meant; it meant the government was going to stop keeping it’s promises to people whenever possible.  And the most vulnerable are always the military members and their families.

The military is NOT taking care of the families and service members being shot and blown to bits in the wars.  They are struggling, bravely and alone in most cases.  Places like Fisher Houses try to give them a place to stay instead of high cost motels as they go to their wounded service members.  So, get that “the service takes care of its own ” tripe out of your mind.  The service has barely enough funds to do the bare minimum and sometimes not even that.

Now, I understand hard times.  I can barely imagine how I can afford paying for internet service some months, and I have quit buying some of the foods that used to be common on my table.  I do not go job hunting because I have been out of the market a long time and my job skills would take a bottom of the barrel job–that would ease my financial needs, but possibly STARVE the person who needed the job for desperate survival.  So yes, hard times I get.  But if you and others you know don’t want to give to a charity to help the military being chewed up and spat out; be honest about it.  Be up front on your reasons—it IS your  money and you DO get to choose what to spend it on or not and that is RIGHT.

Admit you would rather go to the movies, buy a new video game, get that $3 latte every day.   Or say you have too many bills, you feel to stretched and uncertain.  Even say you don’t know whether Fisher House is just another bilking job like so many charities.  Just please don’t tell yourself or me that it is unnecessary because “the military takes care of it’s own.”

And you know how some of us will get checks from the government soon—to presumably finance a little private shopping circus?  They SHOULD have put that money into care for these wounded men, women and families.  THEY earned it with blood and bone.  Fisher House IS where my portion of that check (if we get one) is going, although I could use new shoes and some medical appointments my insurance won’t pay for at all.  Because I am THAT angry that the government is trying to buy an election with what military members paid for in pain and suffering and death.

And for those who would say this is no way to raise funds, by scolding like a harpy?  Well, yes, honey gets more flies than than vinegar; but I am a harpy kind of woman.  I don’t want flies, I want raised consciousness and cash given not cause you have been buttered up, but because you give a damn.

I have been keeping at least slightly abreast of the news in Israel and Gaza of late.  It is fairly depressing and angering.  The long and short of it is, though Hamas has legally elected representatives, Israel refuses to work or talk to them.  Part of the reason was Hamas did not recognize the state of Israel as a legal entity.

So, Jimmy Carter, (and tho’ I am neither Christian or Catholic anymore, the man should be a saint) went to Israel to try being a peacemaker again.  Israel snubbed him badly, refusing a former US President so much as a security team.  In spite of this, he went to Gaza, over the Israeli protestations, and got Hamas to agree to recognize the state of Israel.  Not, apparently what Israel really wanted—they still won’t negotiate with Hamas.

And further, they continue to cut food shipments; Gaza is already getting far less than will sustain the population—only 2/3 of food needs are being met.  So, they are starving the residents of Gaza, as once the Germans starved the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto?  Israel, to the Palestinians they dispossessed to create the state of Israel, is behaving as badly as Germany did—-only the short step to out and out genocide remains.  And they “warned” the Gazans, even using the word “shoah”….warned them OF a “holocaust”—why didn’t the word freeze in the throat of the man saying it?
Which brings me to us, us as in U.S.  We use a similarly dangerous rhetoric to describe our enemies in this continuing  “war on terror”….dehumanizing those we battle and pursue.  They ARE people, people with grievances that we do not wish to acknowledge or address.  Much like the inhabitants of Gaza, whose issues Israel is not willing to acknowledge or address?

And yes, both the residents of Gaza and some of those we are engaging use methods that don’t appear in rule books.  But then, some of OUR methods, and Israel’s methods don’t appear in those vaunted books either.  Here is the simple thing: If you reduce people to desperation and do not treat them as humans, they will act desperately inhuman.  We create our enemies and shape them by our own choices and actions.

Seventy years or so ago, Nazi Germany began the eradication of the Jews with the shock that was “Crystal Night”…..and ever since, the cry of the Israelis and their sympathizers (including me!) has been “Never Again!”  But I was wrong in that cry, because it IS in progress again.

Those starving, dying, fighting, exploding are simply not Jews this time.  The Israelis are being shaped into duplicates of their own murdering oppressors.  As America continues to prosecute a war based on lies, what are WE being shaped into, don’t you ever wonder?

The count from the date of the full moon to the last quarter is 18; but that is US troops only; I only check and update the international names once per month (for my sanity, sorry).

Sgt. Joseph A. Richard III, 27, of Lafayette, La. – Army -Iraq _IED

1st Sgt. Luke J. Mercardante, 35, of Athens, Ga. – Marine – Afghanistan – combat ops

Cpl. Kyle W. Wilks, 24, of Rogers, Ark. – Marine – Afghanistan – combat ops

Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, 29, of Magnolia, Texas – Army – Iraq -small arms fire

Spc. Benjamin K. Brosh, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colo – Iraq – Army – IED

Spc. Lance O. Eakes, 25, of Apex, N.C. -Iraq – Army – IED

Petty Officer 1st Class Cherie L. Morton, 40, of Bakersfield, Calif. – Navy -died in Bahrain, while supporting the war in Iraq – cause of death under investigation

Airman Apprentice Adrian M. Campos, (Navy) 22, of El Paso, Texas, was found dead in Dubai where he was supporting the war in Iraq – non-combat cause (??well, what was it?)

Pvt. Ronald R. Harrison, 25, of Morris Plains, N.J. – Army – Iraq – non-combat injury

Spc. Steven J. Christofferson, 20, of Cudahy, Wis – Army – Iraq – IED

Sgt. Adam J. Kohlhaas, 26, of Perryville, Mo. – Army – Iraq – IED

Marines killed, in Iraq during combat operations:

1st Lt. Matthew R. Vandergrift, 28 of Littleton, Colo.

Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, 19, of Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, 21, of Burkeville, Va.

Army men killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq:
Pfc. John T. Bishop, 22, of Gaylord, Mich.

1st Lt. Timothy W. Cunningham, 26, of College Station, Texas.

Staff Sgt. Shaun J. Whitehead, 24, of Commerce, Ga – Army – Iraq – IED

SSG Ronald C. Blystone, 34, Mo. -Army _ Iraq – Small arms fire

The picture is the most up to date one of the counter bead strands on the monument…over five thousand, one hundred now. Each bead for a man or woman from the U.S. or a Coalition nation. I have no heart for making necklets…

Ok, I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh. But reading the text on a blog of how he says he wants riots at the Democratic Convention so that a Democrat won’t be elected made my brain spin.

What kind of ASSHOLE wishes this sort of destruction and pain on his own nation in the name of partisan politics?

When even HIS semi-sentient listeners called in to protest he said he was not inciting riots but simply “dreaming” of riots. If this is his type of fantasy, let me tell you, I have one for him that involves copious amounts of black leather and a mask for me. To quote the graphic novel movie when the Spartan queen Gorgo gets her revenge upon her rapist: “This won’t be over quickly, and you WON’T enjoy it.” And no, contrary to popular impressions of me and jokes about dominatrix games; I do not enjoy inflicting pain on people or animals.

I enjoy creating reality and justice. Rush needs a firehose full of both.  When  a system is incredibly stopped up…like plumbing full of shit, the cure is flushing it out with freshets of pressurized water.  Someone needs to flush Rush a clear channel of reality.

He says of the Republicans, “There won’t be riots at our convention,” Limbaugh said of the Republican National Convention. “We don’t riot. We don’t burn our cars. We don’t burn down our houses. We don’t kill our children. We don’t do half the things the American left does.”

Gee, you know, all of my children—in spite of numerous provocations, are still alive and well. I have never burnt my car or house. I have never rioted. (Possibly because I don’t live wherever the GOP held a convention? But I will let that go for now.) Sadly, I have to say, the Democrats haven’t done much of ANYthing useful lately. But, speaking as a liberal….on that infamous left, I do have a list of things I do not do, just for Rush.

I don’t start bloody foreign wars for phony reasons, sending other folks’ children to die for lies.
I don’t stack the Supreme Court with venal short-sighted fools who will help corporate fatcats loot the country.
I don’t create false “news” to propagandize the nation into compliance.
I don’t listen to phone calls, read emails not addressed to me, and arrest 15 year olds for writing speculative fiction for English classes.
I do not give big tax cuts to the top 2 or 3% of the nation’s rich folks while pretending it will help the rest of the nation.
I do not cut vital programs to pay for the fucking war! I don’t use the Constitution as a piece of toliet paper.
I don’t call everyone who disagrees with me by the name “traitor”….even though, on a bit of thought, I could make the case BETTER than they do. Since THEY are the one ones shredding the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
I don’t conduct a “back door draft” by forcing volunteer military members to stay beyond their enlistment.
I don’t send Navy and Air Force personnel untrained in land warfare into harm’s way just to have sufficient ‘warm bodies’ on the ground.
I don’t talk about supporting the troops, while cutting money to the Veterans’ Administration.
I don’t talk about honoring veterans and their families while allowing minions under me to undercut them even registering to vote!
I don’t fire military officers for telling the truth about war, and keep only yes men and liars—right down to the shrinks who hide the number of attempted suicides in VA hospitals.

I could do this all day, couldn’t I? And all that without serious thought, really just knee jerk, not looking back over favorite blogs and news items.

The sad part is, all the things Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk, like Ann Coulter, advocate are horridly unAmerican activities. THEY act like McCarthy come again, and the rest of us take the high moral road and get stomped upon. WE cannot lower ourselves to their level of tactics; but responsible and reasonable Americans need to fight the rhetoric of viciousness and lies with truth. And as I said above, for Rush & Co. that would be worse than me in black boots with a whip. Lash them all with reality……

As even a tiny blogger, obviously in the course of much online reading, I have run across the idea of America undergoing a proto-fascist set of behaviors that include glorification of the military and all things militaristic. I have seen article after article about how the various police organizations act more and more like SWAT is the only “real” cop job. And it is fairly alarming. But, being the silly starry-eyed idealist with a true enduring optimism about the under-actualized potential in human beings, I told myself we just need a leader that emphasizes CIVILization instead of militarization; that and some participation of the enraged engaged populace would put much right with a swiftness!

Until this morning that is; this morning my mind got off the phone and ran, crying like a little girl, to hide under my mental bed.

Who made that dread phone call to me to send me whimpering? Did Homeland Security finally question me (but not Rush Limbaugh) about my metaphors of violence regarding the crop of idiots in charge? No. Did the FBI perhaps dial me up to ask about my connections to possible Muslim charities because I give money to Doctors Without Borders or some such schlock? No.

The call came from my Comcast Cable provider with regards to a complaint we made about an abortive service call yesterday afternoon. I will not bore you with that afternoon’s provocation—one phrase suffices: ballbusting imbeciles!

No, it was the way the Comcast Rep identified herself that sent my mind into low orbit around Pluto. “Hello, am I speaking to Mrs. T? “(ignore that I go by neither Mrs. or the name T)

“Good morning, this is ______ from Comcast, I am with the ESCALATION DEPARTMENT.”

I figured my ear was on the fritz, she MUST have said “installation department, right? “Excuse me, did you say ‘escalation’?” Cheery voiced, “Yes Mrs. T, Escalation Department.”

Wow. Ok, those who say we are not only flirting, but doing a hot tango with fascism may have a point. Because when my damned cable company has to label a customer service division with a term like “Escalation Department” something is certainly going over the waterfall in the brain-ware section! And the incredible difficulty of the following long conversation did not give me any particular cause for hope, either. I hung up, and rapidly returned to my profane default characterization of Comcast’s ability to service their customers.  And maybe they should change the name to “Bombast Cable”?
I am so very glad it is Friday. I need a weekend of hard outdoor labor to get rid of some of the incredible tension in my shoulders….and a better than average excuse to have a cold beer at the end of the day.

How does Earth Day have diddly to do with a blog dedicated to the war and the fallen?  Well, not only can I cheat at will, but there is a connection if you read “Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond.  Some demented mental harpy in my head, doubtless the result of too little sleep, is shaking camo-patterned pom poms and shouting “One, two, three, four, tell me what we’re fighting for?!”

And that is the crux of it—some of you will answer “Liberty” or “To Protect America” but the cynics like me will say “Oil and power.”  Oil, of course, in our fossil fuel driven world, IS power.  And it is in ever shorter supply, which brings us to Diamond’s book.  It is Diamond’s contention that it is environmental issues which cause societies ancient AND modern to fail and collapse….and scarcity of vital supplies like oil obviously can play a part in that scenario.

He lists five criteria for judging whether a society is in trouble, the things that can tip a nation small or mighty over the edge into oblivion, or conversely pull it back from the precipice :

(1) Environmental damage

(2) Climate Change

(3) Hostile Neighbors

(4) Friendly Trade Partners

(5) Societal response to environmental Problems

The majority of the book is spent examining older cultures and detailing how they failed with archeology and  history providing the substance of his argument.  Among them are Easter Island, the Anasazi, the Maya, Viking Iceland & Greenland.  He then examines modern societies that are on the edge of, or actually sliding down the bloody cliff-face of failure: Rwanda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and you feel yourself sliding into a humanitarian horror show.

He discusses China, the “lurching giant” poised to take center stage on the world play while setting in motion wheels of her own destruction.  Australia is his next enlightening example of a first world nation hanging on by the fingernails; but very instructive as it has lessons for America and Europe far beyond what we learn by speculation upon the Maya and furthermore, unable to dismiss (as we do Africa) based on racism and Euro-centric bias.

By now, he has pounded you into a state of “Do we have any vodka left?” But the final three chapters are almost the best ones of the book.  He analyzes why societies, even modern well educated ones, make disastrous choices:

(1) Failure to anticipate the issue

(2) Failure to recognize the issue

(3) Rational bad behavior (can we say ‘greed’ children?)

(4) Disastrous values (the Rapture will fix EVERYthing anyhow–among others)

My favorite chapter was the next one(15), where he presents examples of big business like oil, hard rock mining, timber and fishing doing it both ‘business as usual’ wrongly and doing it rightly.  It is the most encouraging part of the book and encourages rational choices that can make a difference.  The final chapter(16), in some ways is the hardest to read, however, because he enumerates an even dozen huge environmental issues facing the world.  And he says even if we solved eleven of them tomorrow, that big number 12 could bite us in the rear like Jaws and bring us down.  And he painstakingly revealed the interconnections between the dozen crisis level issues, making it apparent you must take them all on at once.

I like Diamond’s work, but I do find him a bit disingenuous  from time to time—a map, for instance in the final chapters, one labeled “Political Trouble Spots of the Modern World” and the other, “Environmental Trouble Spots of the Modern World.”  On both, the same countries are highlighted.  And yet, China, America, the Balkan countries and Iraq are on neither map?  Please, Mr. Diamond…..some of us actually DO keep up on world events.

I was also disturbed, as a constant student of history, when he admiringly described how the 16th century shogun of Japan halted the deforestation of his nation.  Tokugawa was a tyrant, who was able to stop deforestation by killing anyone violating the order to cut no wood unless licensed.  Obviously more peasants did without housing materials and fuel than samurai!  And later, he reveals that while Japan proudly points to proportionally huge swaths of forest in their small country; this is possible because they “mine” the shrinking forests of Australia for as little as $7 per TON.

In fact, most of his environmental “success” stories seem to me to be at the expense of some OTHER country’s raped environment and peoples.  I feel he was trying so hard not to point angry blaming fingers that he never says clearly enough (for me, anyway), “Stop being a bunch of NIMBY ninconpoops and realize that the whole planet is ONE BACK YARD, one Commons we must share, one very limited edition home-world.

It is still one of the most comprehensive and well analyzed books on how we are screwing ourselves out of a livable planet.  Read it.  Weep, scream, and make changes.   Mr. Diamond is not a ranting finger pointer like me, he credits his readers with having the sense to see the neon writing on history’s wall.  He should read his own book, perhaps….specially the section on irrational behavior!  This decade, we are fighting a war for oil.  How long, before we go to war for water and food?

And a last note: kudos to Chevron Oil for the most single inspiring bit in the book!  And no, I won’t tell you—get the book and find it yourself!

As promised, each moon phase list of those whose families are in Mourning; these are the dead thru 19 April.

Spc. William E. Allmon, 25, of Ardmore, Okla., – Army – Iraq -IED

Spc. Arturo Huerta-Cruz, 23, of Clearwater, Fla. – Army – Iraq – IED

Cpl. Richard J. Nelson, 23, of Racine, Wis. – Marine – Iraq -combat ops

Lance Cpl. Dean D. Opicka, 29, of Waukesha, Wis. – Marine – Iraq – combat ops

Sgt. Jesse A. Ault, 28, of Dublin, Va. – Army – IED

Sgt. Shaun P. Tousha, 30, of Hull, Texas, – Army – IED

Spc. Jeremiah C. Hughes, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla. – Army – non-combat incident

Staff Sgt. Jeffery L. Hartley, 25, of Hempstead, Texas, – Army – IED

Tech. Sgt Anthony L. Capra, 31, of Hanford, Calif. – Air Force – IED

Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, of Saint Paul, Minn. – Army – non-combat incident

Just for fun, because tomorrow is Earth Day, lets have a semi-comic diversion, shall we?

I walk my dog, Jayne, most days of the week.  And my Earth Day honoring decision this year is to have my son and husband construct a cart for the big dog-lummox to tow behind him a couple times a week so I can pick up trash and recyclables without trying to juggle a bag AND controlling the Hairy Beast.  But, in the meanwhile, usually, I pick up objects such as can be hand carried home.  I often wonder about how those objects got to the roadside I walk.  We live in a once-rural area now being converted to housing, acre by acre—but it still has a country quality about it.  So without further ado, since I am one of those nasty, evil (according to Rome—probably a devil worshipper!) pagans, I give you the “roadside divination.”

Here is the way to play, and I encourage you all to try this at least once, just for fun and possibly for surprises!   You pick up a found object(or objects) as you walk along your own local road and try to use it as a divination tool.  The example will be my mornings “find.”

In the space of about 20 feet, I picked up three little booze bottles—Southern Comfort bottles, the tiny ones like airplanes and motel mini-bars stock.  So what does Madame Labrys see?

(1) Some low-class asshat is littering my road!

(2) Whoaaaa…some asshat is tossing back shots while driving on my road!

(3) Some wussy assbrat can’t toss back anything better than this alcoholic cough syrup–Southern frickin’ Comfort?!

I’m not getting properly oooky-spooky about this, am I?

Oh, fine, alllllllll righty then.  Hail, Hekate Enodia—show me what this means?? (Her first three answers are STILL above!)

Three, three bottles–three is the number of resolution, resolving the inherent conflict of “2″ with a synthesis.   So, for whom is some resolution ahead–the drinking driver?  Me, the finder?  My troubled nation?

Plastic bottles–the very original definition of plastic was malleable, changeable.  Change on the way, then, to take us to resolution?

SOUTHERN Comfort–south, the direction of the element “fire” in Western esoteric thought.  Fire is the element in alchemy which is the agent of transmutation, again change upon the wind?  The element fire also has ancient linkage to solar religion, and the triumph of light over darkness and the destruction of evil.  But, one must ask the specific nature of fire—anyone who has seen a house afire knows it can be destructive as well as useful .  Is it fire on an earth-axis, related to energy, heat and eroticism?  Or is it fire on air-axis, tying into mysticism and purification?  On the one hand, it can mean transcending the human condition; but on the other it can imply a wish to annihilation.

Which do our three bottles connote?  From the source, the idiot drinking while driving, one would assume the earth-fire connection, heading to destruction.  But, is this changed by my finding—by my will to do something that corrects?  Did I elevate the meaning of the “fire” of these emptied “fire-waters” by my act?

This brings me to the question of me as the finder.  I am the Labyrinth keeper and former military.  We call empty alcohol bottles at this house “dead soldiers.”  Perhaps my picking up three empty bottles merely means that there will be three literal dead soldiers added to my list from the wars, and perhaps from the southern states?

And as always, when I come back to that, the game ends.  Nonetheless, I will try to play this one out the rest of the month of April as I wait for my dog-cart’s completion.  Further exercises of this will not be posted here, but at http://labrys6.livejournal.com.