dad's page

12
You ask why my heart is a fiery furnace?
Why I carry a flint face when my back aches?
its because I come from the twelve tribes
I withstand the arrows of adversity flung by today?s tyrant.

Yes I am one of those driven by dreams of Freedom and Justice,
I?ve been scarred several times by Power?s evil designs,
and unfortunately, Cain?s descendants carry on covered by blood
for I lisp sibilant sounds in impoverished imitation of Demosthenes.

Henry ! the imprisoned patriot, chained because of his honest heart,
Weighed down with the cruel fetters of ancient prejudices, cried out, ?Liberty!?
Its Jefferson and Madison, whose mighty pens, or our father Washington?

Repeatedly they?ve tortured me in the dark waters of Styx,
now isolated, though not alone, I defend my mother Mary,
sowing again before her feet, Gaia?s sacred seeds.

       FENCES
Since we agreed to build a fence between us
and planted hedges and grew trees to green screen us
and unleashed time devouring agents
sycophants and silence and isolation ? our concern
has not helped very much.

Leaves scurry down deserted streets,
grass creeps quietly, unkempt;
everywhere, everything is regressing.
Standing blatantly obvious, so grimly gray,
shuffling subdued would seem appropriate tonight,
and would still be allowed. For in a little while,
day will be dead and darkness will prevail.

Constructing a World, where fences
wall us apart;
to see that World rise, like a black hole,
watching while others benefit from their human traps,
becoming prosperous because of other people?s misery,
is my bleak liberty.
Refusing to participate is my will?s victory.
Enduring it, my affliction.

       SWEET DREAMS
Today, existing in a place where doctors and dentists prosper -
their children go to private schools wearing designer clothes;
their bland expressions stare vacantly down from the sides of buses,
at the legions of spiritually dead;
who arrogantly stare from the glass of passing cars,
as their reflections dwindle down the street ?
there I ? whose degenerative back represents
ruins more dilapidated than any Stonehenge ?
a sub cultural, a subversive element dwelling
in the bowels of a rotting culture (my disguise was a husband and father,
who was a poet/publisher whose electric magazine appeared on Internet)
who lives in Portland nestled in the West Hills near the convergence of two rivers
renowned for their beauty; my function,
which I?d given myself, was to serve as a catalyst,
a contemporary gadfly, to cause people to think.

Most of my work was rather bleak:
my poems expired in despair and darkness.
collapsing into an abyss on my bed.
Ensconced in the darkness that embraced me
I stared at the vast realms of nothingness:
until, I became a shooting star, a spirit traveler
embarking on the voyage,
traveling through many distant and varied spiritual planes,
whose beauty was so incredible
mere words became lost in insignificance
as I journey deep into myself
experiencing bliss in the realms of dreams;
and, I settled in my sheets,
and my head cradled on its portal pillow.

       PHOTO OF THE 21st CENTURY
Lurking behind a Januarian grin of friendship,
he hates the TV viewer, who gets their opinions every evening,
the victim of the dynamics of power; who says Amen with a wink,
and places his hand on his heart during the National anthem.
Hates being placed where one needs to think,
rather reflects about past acquaintances who ate, drank and made love ?
before being brutally murdered, or imprisoned.
Suggests sports and terrorist attacks to distract public indignation,

Shouts: Tax cuts and public safety,
but means contemporary gladiator contests and oppression instead.

Exhausted,
he groans out, sweet Jesus in his sleep;
and, considers himself to be a vampire exterminator,
while confusing Judas with Jesus.

Wraps himself in old superstitions, about demons and devils,
but, means he is associated with angels.
Clamors for a ?new? age, but believes in old fashioned tyranny,
being paranoid about chaos and where he?ll plant his feet.

Likes to surf the Internet, or with others, torment victims
with today?s P?s and Q?s (Propaganda & Prostitutes, Queers & Quacks)
The better to keep his own opinions to himself
now that he knows they?re so fatally flawed.

Unctuously parading religion, he reads J. S. Mill in private.
His cynical expression watches buildings bombed by manipulated fanatics.
His natural habitat: the grim ruins of a gray devouring city.
In his pocket, a souvenir of a dead child: murdered in a previous Operation.

       EARTHLY NIGHT
Earthly night, shadows descended and deepened,
and darkness expanded filling all the empty spaces,
at times I was happy
among the blind and implacable race of simple souls.

And, I saw a man being born,
bruised and battered over my wife?s breasts;
and, arriving altered
from spiritual planes of unspeakable beauty,
consigned to Earth,
his tiny fists tightly gripping ? life.
His eyes squinting, and his mind reeling.

Every sound and object in the room
was permeated with love
and interwoven with life ?
everything?s existence assumed an absolute value.

Her hands were cold as outer space,
and, her enormous solemn eyes
took on a haggard quality.

Also, present were other nocturnal creatures,
with iridescent violet eyes and several small golden heads,
who watched while this being was born ?

she was exhausted,
in the vast nexus bed,
where at dawn I heard your arrival
announced by the beating wings of doves.

Then, the sky rained leaves
on the Earth?s supple body:
while water ran joyously
to the gleaming sea.

Father, standing here
I grieve not knowing -
growing up alone.

And, now I return to tell you
that my immortal pledge
has been fulfilled.

   A CONTEMPORARY CHRISTMAS CAROL
On the deck overlooking the garden,
I stand. It?s been a cold, wet day
one where heaven was weeping
in bleak November. During the steady rain
drops dangled, suspended in a cold sweat,
on each solemn stalk, each sharp thorn,
from the absorbing earth, a blue haze
mixes with the wind swept mists
caught in a dark web like a fantastic preying mantis.

Suddenly, startled from solitude,
Skin crawling with goose flesh,
I see what seems to be a ghost
Condensing from the evening vapors.

A fur-frozen stammer
is the best I can produce,
?Wwhat iis iit llike over ththere??

But, my ghost disdains to reply,
As it sadly stands staring silent as a statue.
Growing bolder, my stutter deserting
I begin inundating it, with a whole host of questions:
Which wonder of wonders it started to answer.

?Is there justice??
   ?Yes, there are many forms of justice.?
?Is there more than this universe??
?Just as there are many worlds, there are many universes that spirits sojourn to. Some spirit spheres are like yours where futures are foolishly mortgaged and destinies determined in spite of free will.?
?Are you happy??
   ?No, but there are some who seem to be so blessed.?
?Are you free??
?Yes, but some are imprisoned in their freedom. And, in some universe it?s like your world where the carious forms of dominance grow in darkness.?
?What of love??
?Some universes fear love. In others there are free spaces, where spirits float without fear. Ultimately, everything is God?s manifestation of love.?
?And, what of wisdom?
   ?There is no greater wisdom than the human heart.?

And with that the dead spirit disappeared
fading into the dark.

   A LATE CALL
?Hello??

No answer!

?Hello,? my voice echoes.
?Who is this??

?Death!?

?Do our relationships stop,
in the prison yard of sleep??

?Yes!?

?Why doesn?t the alarm sound??

?It hesitates while
the rose petal is kissed by frost!?

?Isn?t that obscure??

?The instant of spiritual death
is when time is murdered
by eternity!?

?Isn?t that obscure??

?Sleep and Death
are now being routinely violated!?

       DAYS END
At days end when death comes calling
what will you have to offer ? Him?

I intend to place before my distinguished quest
a table heaped for a feast,

I will serve, in cut glass decanters and crystal chalices,
four fine wines, each a delight to the senses.

Music will accompany our evening meal,
a symphony bitter-sweet and lyrical, and inlaid in silver silence.

Each of these kind and gracious dishes,
Spring mornings and summer afternoons, fall evenings and winter nights,

representing my life and will be placed before him,
when darkness descends at days end,

and death comes knocking at my door.

Continued next page ? Rumor Mill

               RUMOR MILL
I.Foreign Affairs: To almost engage in three wars in three years is a record of incompetence and failure never before equaled in American history.

The Rumor Mill believes that U.S. foreign affairs are a deliberate disaster designed to aid the Right Wing?s factional interests. First, it distracts the public from its continuing economic woes. We?ve had over two years of depression without any end in sight. Second, the specialized economic activity war represents benefits the industrial military complex, at the expense of the rest of the nation?s economy. The exact same thing transpired during and after the Vietnam War, it resulted in our temporary loss of World economic domination to Japan. Third, America?s industrial military hype is no longer a viable economic scam in today?s Global economy, and, the radical right factional interests intend to replace its lost profits by eliminating Social Security and Medicare and replacing them with the radical right?s inferior privatized alternatives.
The Republicans are hoping to escape negative political fall out by claiming these excellent and essential programs are no longer affordable. They are counting on the public forgetting it is the Republican?s huge tax cuts for the rich coupled with their expensive foreign entanglements that have deliberately resulted in these incompetent insolvent fiscal developments. Amazingly, the Republicans are planning to privatize these programs in spite of Wall Streets dismal performance during the past two years, where most of our country?s Senior Citizens have lost over half of their retirement. In fact Rumor Mill thinks that the Republican efforts to down size government is a Republican public relations effort designed to transform our American government, from one that represents a Democratic form of government (with programs by the people for all the people, which Social Security and Medicare do) and, replace it with a tyranny dominated by special money interests, which are designed to make money for a narrow spectrum of society.
The Rumor Mill thinks that three wars in three years is a record of failure and incompetence unprecedented in American History. Please consider the particulars. In the Afghanistan show we were asked to believe that a government whose effective power base was one tribe could conduct a war against the World?s greatest military power for two long years, at the end of which the principal villain escaped. How can one Afghanistan tribe without any assets fight the United States for two years? How can a terrorist organization, who had repeatedly attacked the United States of America, be so lax in security that a lone boy from California can take a commercial flight to Pakistan and just show up at a terrorist training base and be accepted with no questions asked? How was it that he was accepted and made privy to secret detailed planning on the September 11 terrorist attacks? How is it possible that this boy from California was able to obtain previous knowledge of the terrorist attacks before the American Intelligence Community at the very same terrorist base that was established during the Reagon and Bush administration, by the American radical right who owned, operated and funded it continuously for over two decades?
A terrorist group with that kind of record would have been watched! For mid-east terrorists, who have been infiltrated from their inception until today, to conduct such a large operation, with such a lax security, without either the radical right or the American Intelligence Community knowing about it would have been impossible. Why wasn?t the U.S. government notified (see previous issues) and something done?
Legitimate foreign policy promotes regional stability, as a means of promoting all U.S. economic interests both at home and abroad. Because modern war is so devastatingly expensive, it is resorted to only after every other option has failed. Pres. George Bush Jr. and the Republicans? incompetence have over-extended U.S. military commitments to the point where we are faced with the deplorable prospect of an already hemorrhaging U.S. economy being bled by two more wars. The last two years have already proven that remote regional conflicts do not serve to stimulate economies, in fact it?s proven just the opposite, regional wars function as drains which deplete our economy.
Consider the legitimate conduct of military operations. Before WWII Japan did not publicly announce its intention to bomb Pearl Harbor. Neither did Germany announce that it intended to invade Poland, or Blitzkrieg France. The reason is simple, it would have resulted in alerting the enemy. And, greater damage and destruction to their troops would have been the inevitable effect.
What is King George Jr. doing, when he announces over a month beforehand that here come our troops! First, we have to pay for the troops being placed and housed overseas. Second, the enemy knows where and when we are to attack and can more effectively prepare its defenses. Third, the outcome of this idiocy will be more soldiers being injured and killed. Fourth, we will experience much greater costs. Finally, it will serve to make the U.S. more hated and the target for every extremist and fanatic in the Middle East. Brilliant!
What the American public is watching is a theatrical production, complete with exotic location and heathen enemy. Hopefully, we?ll retain the movie rights to recoup some of our expenses. The Rumor Mill believes the pretenses for this war are nonsense. Mr. Powell says Iraq aspires for dominance in the region and has used chemical weapons. A fact he should know about, because he was chief of staff when U.S. policy, under Reagon and Bush Jr.?s dad, used Iraq as the dominant regional power in the oil rich Near East replacing Iran, when the Shah?s government collapsed, as a result of the insurrection of the fundamentalist Shiite Muslims. Iraq functioned, at our instigation, as our surrogate fighting an unpopular 10-year war against Iran.   During those 10 years, Iraq repeatedly used chemical weapons developed with the full knowledge and cooperation of the United States. Republican Presidential administrations repeatedly provided Iraq with essential military intelligence from spy satellites about Iran troop deployments and movements so that Iraq could effectively use the chemical weapons.
Rumor Mill does not know if the U.S. supplied the chemical weapons, or if we just supplied the technical support to develop the weapons, or both. Iraq has not used chemical weapons since the war with Iran, even though it was losing a phony war against Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and the Emirate to name just a few of its overwhelming number of enemies. If they were in the supposedly desperate situation of losing a war and did not use those weapons - even against Israel ? how likely is it that they will use them today? What sense is there in criticizing Iraq for behaving as we have instructed them? Iraq is the biggest power in the region because we made them the biggest regional power in pursuit of American policy, a policy over a half a century old. They have chemical weapons, which they used at our instigation in our behalf. And, now we pretend to criticize them for it! Finally, if it?s the name of scientists that is wanted, then check their University class lists, compare it with students who?ve studied abroad, and cross check those individuals for military training and assignments. How difficult can that be?
Rumor Mill thinks it?s an expensive fraud. Our closest ally in the region for the last 25 years (with the exception of the last eight years under a Democratic Pres.) next to Saudi Arabia and Israel has been Iraq. Remember, Iraq the ally who fought a very unpopular war for 10 years for us. And, least we forget, Pres. Bush Sr. fought a fraudulent military production (war) with Iraq at great public expense, in an effort to get Pres. Bush re-elected and to provide domestic political support for Pres. Hussein in Iraq: and, then Bush and the Republicans tried to pay for Iraq?s war debt with agricultural loans through a bank in Rome. Iraq?s agricultural is very minor, it produces oil. See previous issues.
Recently Bush Jr. and the Republicans have been clamoring to fight North Korea. Why? They have no economy. How could North Korea possibly seriously consider trying to invade S. Korea, when they are co-operating on economic development. And, why would N. Korea want to bomb Japan with a nuclear weapon? N. Korea is a country that is in a state of economic collapse. People are starving. They have had nuclear weapons for years, and if we don?t attack them those weapons are useless to them. Talk about needless U.S. expenses. A war with N. Korea can end only one way: disaster! Rumor Mill means for the U.S. We will win and then get stuck with the war?s bills. Next, we will be responsible for trying to develop N. Korea, one of the poorest regions on the face of the Earth!!! Again, brilliant!
Bush and the Republicans would bankrupt us with three stupid wars. Then, after incurring the expense of three wars we will have to occupy three more countries. Finally, we will be stuck having to develop two extremely poor countries, and repairing any damages to a third. This is to be done, mind you, while Pres. Bush Jr. and the Republicans are running the largest budget deficits in the history of the Nation, and authoring the World?s largest debt. And, now they want to engage in more fraud with Iraq and another war in N. Korea. If war represents a failure in foreign affairs then we have never witnessed such widespread failure before. It is as if Pres. Bush Jr. and the Republicans were deliberately trying to spend us into bankruptcy, so they could pretend we would have to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

               RUMOR MILL
II.DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Closer to home, the Rumor Mill has heard whispers that imply the radical right are responsible for another family?s slaughter at the Oregon coast. Last time it was a subliminally destabilized dad who murdered his wife and children and then fled to Mexico. A pattern of behavior that has been repeated far to often, in an effort by the radical right to gain influence in Mexico and in the U.S. with Hispanic citizens, and thus fragment their vote, which has historically been Democratic, because the Republicans offer nothing in terms of social, which promote low cost housing, health care, legal aid, and educational programs for the Hispanic communities.
After watching a whole series of violent crimes committed on the coast, where the perpetrators then fled south into Mexico, we sadly watched while this father seems to have fled north. But, the pattern continues unrelenting, with an escalation in the heinous acts of violence, which the radical right?s previous violence has repeatedly fallen into, a pattern that neatly meets the needs of their propaganda model. These violent crimes on the coast started with a series of random acts of violence in execution style slayings of male victims, which were designed to catch the public?s attention due to the public?s perceived vulnerability to this type of crime. Any one could be a victim. Then, the violence became family affairs, with the father killing spouse and children. Now we have hopefully culminated this cycle of what seems to be right wing violence with the murder of a pregnant woman and three young children.
The Rumor Mill wishes its hypothesis were wrong but how is it all the murders chose to flee? And, how can a series of criminals all decide to flee to the same place? Why are all these crimes escalating, again? Does this sound like random events? Unfortunately, we have seen this pattern all to often before. If this murder is the work of the radical right terrorist organization, then the pay off was at least $5,000 for the parents, and if one were to include the three children then the total becomes $12,500 excluding the unborn child. If they get to include the fetus then their pay off would have been $15,000. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year???

III.MENTAL HEALTH

The Rumor Mill is angry at the propaganda machine for what it believes is its roll in lying to the public on the effects of government spending cuts. It was pointed out how 28 people died unnatural deaths who were supposedly mentally ill. The propaganda machine blamed a lack of ability to commit people as the primary cause.
However, if you look at the Republicans? conduct, which controlled the legislature during the time frame in question, one realizes that they slashed funding for the social service programs in question. In mental health there was not adequate funds for the programs that were responsible for helping these people. It was never mentioned who was responsible for the huge spending cuts that resulted in these deaths. The omissions created a distortion in the news making it seem like it was the Democratic party?s fault, who at the time controlled the governor? office. The consequence of the Propaganda Machine?s misinformation is that the Republicans are making further funding cuts, which are currently forcing the new Governor into more major spending cuts in social services, public safety and other essential services provided by government. How do they get by with this? It?s because the trusting public never is told the truth. If we had spending levels that resulted in 24 deaths, how many more deaths will these new cuts generate? The propaganda machine?s function is to systematically lie to the public in a combination of three ways: omissions, distortions and overt lies. In this instance they omitted key information, which in turn deliberately distorted the story and left the public with a false impression. This is but one effect of Republican efforts to transform government into a means of making money for the exclusive benefit of a few, which is symptomatic of the transformation of our previously Democratic form of government in to a tyranny.
The death of Democracy has been truly tragic. In this instance the Rumor Mill thinks it interesting to note that if both of the two individuals mentioned who died were either sub-culturals or manifested sub-cultural behavioral characteristics, which the psychological profile provided seemed to indicate, it is likely that they would have been targeted by the radical right. Consider what would have happened if the radical right?s efforts to find a dwindling population to target brought them into contact with vulnerable people with serious psychological disorders. The poor targeted people would be mentally tortured and tormented in an effort to destroy them. Some would go on the radical right wacko lists for timely destabilization for politically motivated violence.   The results to the others would be (are) predictably disastrous. The radical right would get their bounties, while the American families involved would get grief. What is hard to swallow is the radical right?s self serving deceit, hypocritically condemning what has a very high probability of being the fruits of their labors.