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 |   All that remains: here in my afterlife as a 'mainstream' blogger, with what little I know. |
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The Idiotic Ideate?? Formerly: New Zenith To Hell…(all started with arc as writer here from the trials of Rising Stars to Preferred Author to WDC Quills Best Poetry Collection to the falling action I feel now that settles in a white case.) Got to hustle to preserve the best of me before fully fading on that virtual horizon glowing more brilliant with each passing day to permanent nuclear winter. if people don’t get it, I don’t need to explain it. We kill all that’s beautiful before we question it’s purpose. So many people find it easier to think in the black and the white. God forbid you get lost straying in the gray. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it…he does not become a monster.” I’ve been to the abyss and back. Not so bad. The loneliest happy person you'd ever meet, when not the saddest person who needs to be alone. In an ever-changing world, we need to handle topics at the ready. If you roll over and give in to the narrative without lending a voice of your own, you might as well hand over your civil liberties. We have voices that should connect to true conscience and spirit for honest and open discourse. Why feel so redacted? Unify on issues and put drama aside. Open minds require complete objectivity. If none need apply, question the unbendable sources for answer. If you knee-jerk react to every issue lurking out there that clutches your neck, you fall victim to your own ignorance born from a life of apathy (no doubt) in pathetic cries of injustice. Just writing what I feel without the narrative-altering mind f---ing with my head. [MY Chorus] In your house, I long to be Room by room, patiently I'll wait for you there, like a stone I'll wait for you there, alone "It amazed me how truth was often suffocated in minutes, but lies were given sufficient air to breathe indefinitely." "You are all better than you think you are, you are just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself." ![Merit Badge in Second Time Around Contest
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Congratulations on winning the Grand Overall Prize in [Link To Item #2164876] with your beautiful poem, [Link to Book Entry #933358]. This poem really moved me. Great writing!
Rachel *^*Heartv*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Second_Time_Around_Contest-2164963_14.gif)    "...lasting art is never anything more than a mathematical expression of the relations that exist between the internal and the external, the self [le moi] and the world." -Jean Metzinger I'm in love with carefully chosen words, arranged just so, audible, edible, to inhale. I attempt to post new poems and epiphanies daily with some links to what inspires. I am legally blind with a rare, genetic form of glaucoma. I'm described as "end stage" after two successful surgeries, still subject to further vision loss. Cataracts complicating matters. Writing Can get strenuous but seldom deters what yearns to emerge, despite a documented history of depression and recently diagnosed ADHD and undefinable social disorders and/or PTSD. My recent poetry:
Sometimes epiphanies about my insights on writing and life and what goes on... Making sense of life is maddening. Why do I need to know, when truth may not actually exist? Learning to accept would be a better pursuit? Flailing about in my own mediocrity, hoping to bust out. I am visible. You can put a face with a name. I would like to see other writers, too. Fiction is what you write, not who you are. Reinventing myself. I couldn't continue on the path I was on and needed a fresh start. This time around I want to put the focus on writing and the world outside of this community as it affects my life. I realize now that I have been baring my chest a bit more, as when young. fake me much more boring and unliberated than the real me. A world arriving as silent as that blossom in your garden that I told you about... |
| Assuming I'm not inclined to share any more poetry this month, an accounting of what I wrote in June: from "Epigram ‘n Aphorism Samwiches"  --"Barren Home of Fruitless Desire" "Your Beast" "Lavender Buttons" "Your Sunlight" "When Distraction Takes Hold...Suck It" "Of Your Shores" "Strength For Two (MV)" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Journey Of The Polarized Heart" ""Church" and Not What I Need" "Evaporation Point (newly edited)" from "SuperNova Afterglow: End Of Days" --"It's Not Me, It's You" "Harsh Dreams of Utopia and Winter" Poems mostly available. Some go on lockdown under revisions and more; or, if you are not a member yet and want to read just sign up for a free account on this sequestered little pond collecting internet truants. For all the links this year and previous..."Invalid Item" |
| People that call themselves winners don't realize there's a war going on Don't take into account that it's war out there? For those keeping score It's me zero versus Don't need to keep score Don't need to score #Fixed #life Acknowledging this does not mean to say give up It means play smarter Maybe, not to win but to enjoy the game itself Or find something that does reward Does give back Not in virtual honor But in virtuosity |
| I write lengthy reviews that are unaffiliated. I seldom see the need to participate in group reviewing goals. Though, it might be good for encouraging writing and the feedback process. But, we can say what we want without worry of who or what we represent when we go solo and unacknowledged by others, except the true author... Review of "River’s Parallel"  "Dear Foolish Consistency  ,Just a note before you read this very long review, I learn as I go. I take things in directions I don't see before I set my fingers to keyboard. I was enlightened by your poem in the process of writing and deconstructing what I read. I will find flaws and joys in what you shared. I hope you have not given up on sharing your visions as a writer because of the underwhelming appeal of what you revealed in this little corner of the internet world. My review: I had to contemplate this poem for awhile after reading because of the statements used to build imagery and emotion of a sunrise. But what got me googling first for answers was in that second stanza. Does a sunrise look like it is setting on the water's surface? I found no proof of this reversal, leading me to conclude that the expressions used in this poem overall do not bear fruit. I think this poem does wax poetic and uses some unique expressions that when analyzed by this writer/reviewer didn't make enough sense. I note a theme of nostalgia, holding on, perseverance within some feeling of loss. When I found fault, each phrase came to bear under scrutiny, after reading: We look to the rising sun, as it sinks into its last horizon... Now, if you are implying end of days, then I might suggest a turn of that phrase to mean "before it sinks into its last horizon..." Other phraseology looked smooth and well written, but logic was forcing me to look deeper and question if these nicely constructed words just randomly flowed from the mind that did not consider their actual worth. However, I feel an idea was forming and writing is a process to fleshing out something that does have a leg to stand on. I start from the beginning: The gentle green reflection brings forth its mirrored image, a world dwelt in shadow... I puzzled over this, 'gentle green reflection.' A sunrise was being described over what I assumed was water, which is nicely alluded to indirectly with images like 'wavering in the depths' or describing a 'world born in water' later on. And here, the 'mirrored image' added to my thought something earthly is reflected in this world at sunrise. I have to assume it is an expression, not of place in the world but a place described inside the narrator. This person is dawning on something, because the rest of the stanza describes turmoil in this watery place: "Beyond our ken is a light beyond sight a realm sunk deep in the waters of our prayers, the grief of our hearts and, the blood of our veins." This internalizing is projected into a world view, an opinion of a world that surrounds a place in one's soul arriving. This is a poem that a writer is developing in real time to describe rising feelings like that sunrise, but a feeling that it will be the last. Or, that it does create a sinking feeling. But, in stanza two the first line that stopped me brought it to a halt. I had to keep reading to figure out if in summation we could get a better understanding of what is being devised here in the remaining lines: "...We contemplate our image, wavering in the depths, and see a smiling face shimmering, fading, falling, only to rise again. A world born in water, birthed from its earthly counterpart, is not a farewell, but a parallel. For every fall is risen, and every tear a smile. There is no goodbye, only now and forever." The rest of stanza two reads like a relation to people in general who feel like we can see our own selves where we should be struggling as something bright and hopeful and yet 'fading' because we are 'falling' and rising. It's like an eternal struggle of self to be more than who we are, to be accepted. We rise and fall in that deep water that holds us down. It made me wonder, do we surface? I believe some do, feel that they do. This is where the poem in analysis is gaining enough introspect from me that I can see the sum of the parts, some coalescing while others fail to make the grade. It ironically mirrors what the poet is saying about how we can shine one moment and lose that grip to fall back down. And we had that first line in stanza three that stumbled again for me, getting me to reflect back on the first line of stanza two. Does the poet go for unique expressions at the risk of sounding illogical? Does the poem make sense when held up to introspection? I feel there is enough truth within that we can overlook a few overlapping errors to observe some universal truths. We have commonalities as a world, as a writing community even. However, not all will acknowledge the struggle like the poet of this piece grapples with. I find a writer trying to divulge while still learning from the flaw in our genealogy and ideology as a race put on this planet. I can only imagine that the summation to this poem is saying the earth bears more people like us to struggle. It might not be meant to be that broad. It could also be suggesting there are two parts to us. The parts this narrative wrestles with might be as simple as id and ego. The remainder of the poem discovers we are infinitely trapped to never really change in a process that seems like birth, death and resurrection. It could follow a biblical theme, but I don't think that was the attempt. I think religion is universal and has inspired most of the stories and cannot be separated from these simple, but revealing truths. I'll sum it up. Wherever you go, there you are. It's more than that, but that is the basis. As a writer, I came to this writing community like taking a leap of faith into its waters. I floundered, learned to swim. But, was I doing it right? Like the poem suggests, during this epic battle to find worth (in my case through writing in this forsaken community), we seldom surface. I seldom find I am shining. It is my struggle to break surface, emerge from the water and connect with that sun on the setting horizon. I feel anchored in the depths. Who or what is holding me down? That might be another question to ask of the writer. Do we hold ourselves down, or are we made to eternally struggle because we do not have some kind of super power to actually achieve. I think it might be the former. But, in this writing community there is another element that shuns idealism and the belief that one can move on from this realm into a larger perspective. Someone or something is holding our head under water. Fortunately, there are other domains and parallel universes in the internet construct. Unfortunately, we ascribe our worth to those we allow rule over us in this realm. I went beyond the scope of this poem in analyzing it with my comparative. I saw an opportunity personally to show others this poem has worth where many others don't even come close. But, a poem like this is forgotten, overlooked and sinks to the depths of time because no one noticed, was not incentivized to pay attention, or did not have the ability to comprehend, overcome the poem's shortcomings to see it's real value. I'm rating this poem five stars for it's potential. It can observationally be corrected, though I think it is cast in stone for time because this community does not value writers with scope for great potential in writing. It would rather manipulate the few that could fit into the domain's short-sighted goal to be self-reliant with the fear that acknowledging good writing over bad is not good for business. Delusional dreamers are greater than writers who figure out they don't need this place. Sorry again for using this poem as a tool to figure out as I review how this poem fits in a current spectrum that I call my world. There is enough in this review to see what I have discovered and what the poet could take away as feedback. There is a larger picture within a smaller world view about how we need to acknowledge one another as people and be treated with equal respect. We have this commonality within us that should bond us and make us stronger as a community without the manipulation and division within, sacrificing our personal ethos for some 'greater good' as it may be falsely ascribed. Brian Circumpolar Reviewer  (a review so long, I can't go back over it to edit, sorry)This review is not a middle finger to the man. It is a statement of beliefs from circumstantial evidence compounding over a decade of exposure to a separatist world falsely presented to manipulate well-meaning writers (especially the introspective ones) with ideals and intentions to purpose their words. If anyone is offended, they certainly need a little introspection -- valuate whether they have unfairly judged others in support of a hollow 'cause' in this exclusive world. It is a plea to respect writing first and foremost and stop milking a cow."  I didn't even acknowledge the poem's title in my review.I do not write jibberish. I think you can acknowledge, but through indifference or tired of the same theme repeated... I have some new theories on this. It takes time away to develop introspective thought. |
| Write 500 times: If I'm not kind, I have been evil. Or: If I have not been kind, I must be evil. Or: Do not suggest someone else is bad, because then you are evil. Or: Be direct, or someone will mischaracterize your comments to mean you have said something evil. Are we ready for Propaganda 201? Words from my mouth taste bitter I did not want them there I did not want to have them form from thoughts gathering I want to believe in utopia, with a kind and gentle people who encourage and want to hear words from my mouth forming thoughts like beautiful flowers, hopefully not thorny rosebuds. yet, I would bleed for you if that is what you want to see until I am bled dry, as the dry air changes and petals flutter from my head to lawn reveal beauty lost to the collected ground. Pink, they melt and slide below the green blades to gather at my buried feet like winter slippers before I die to grow anew, sleep to dream and not utter again to you, until I recycle through another harsh season. Even in your pearly frost, I bear fruit. |
| 48 of last 64 reviews were for newbies over about a month's time. Not one newbie returned a review. I'm not sure what that is, but I remember returning reviews when I first started. Not complaining, just saying. I think if this community is to thrive, I hope new members are reciprocating. I can think of a few new members that I've given more than one review to. Not even getting friends from these review interactions. This is new, because I'm giving some of my best reviews. Usually, I form new associations out of this. I do think I traded some emails with some people on the Covid19 pandemic over a month ago, but that faded. Not going to overanalyze it. Just note and move on. Maybe, stop reviewing newbies. |
| Metaphors: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” – William Shakespeare “I am the good shepherd…and I lay down my life for the sheep.” – The Bible, John 10:14-15 “All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.” – Khalil Gibran “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust “And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” – Walt Whitman “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” – George Orwell “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” – Emily Dickinson “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” – William Wordsworth Why good metaphors? How to turn stale language into smart metaphors... How to craft original metaphors beyond 'his love was an ocean.' Where a simile directly compares something to another thing by saying 'his love was as deep as an ocean,' you just imply it the other way. Cliché language usually derives from stuff that's already been uttered and so greatly reknown it's lost it's trademark in essence by being used in every day expressions that could go as far back as to Shakespeare's day. You want to get away from that and find unique expressions of your own to call metaphors in what you write. This way, you develop your own style. Readers will get a feel for who you are and what you like when you describe. Could call this class from metaphors to expressionism. How to paint a picture with poetic words. Start with: I'll write you sonnets, if you witness Vacuous, hollow words contained Restrained by structure Ever toiling to find meaning Or Run amok in a field of words Harvesting life's little treasures Unkempt, sprawling, falling out Of pants pockets before I shove In your tall glass with my water "Flowers" "Alone With My Lioness" 6.20.20 |
| You should know this, 101 regarding grammar: by Sandy Chung and Geoff Pullum What Is Grammar? People often think of grammar as a matter of arbitrary pronouncements (defining 'good' and 'bad' language), usually negative ones like “There is no such word as ain't” or “Never end a sentence with a preposition.” Linguists are not very interested in this sort of bossiness (sometimes called prescriptivism). For linguists, grammar is simply the collection of principles defining how to put together a sentence. One sometimes hears people say that such-and-such a language 'has no grammar', but that is not true of any language. Every language has restrictions on how words must be arranged to construct a sentence. Such restrictions are principles of syntax. Every language has about as much syntax as any other language. For example, all languages have principles for constructing sentences that ask questions needing a yes or no answer, e.g. Can you hear me?, questions inviting some other kind of answer, e.g. What did you see?, sentences that express commands, e.g. Eat your potatoes!, and sentences that make assertions, e.g. Whales eat plankton. Word Order The syntactic principles of a language may insist on some order of words or may allow several options. For instance, English sentences normally must have words in the order Subject-VerbObject. In Whales eat plankton, 'whales' is the subject, 'eat' is the verb, and 'plankton' is the object. Japanese sentences allow the words to occur in several possible orders, but the normal arrangement (when no special emphasis is intended) is Subject-Object-Verb. Irish sentences standardly have words in the order Verb-Subject-Object. Even when a language allows several orders of phrases in the sentence, the choice among them is systematically regulated. For example, there might be a requirement that the first phrase refer to the thing you're talking about, or that whatever the first phrase is, the second must be the main clause verb. Not only does every language have syntax, but similar syntactic principles are found over and over again in languages. Word order is strikingly similar in English, Swahili, and Thai (which are utterly unrelated); sentences in Irish are remarkably parallel to those in Maori, Maasai, and ancient Egyptian (also unrelated); and so on. Word Structure However, there is another aspect of grammar in which languages differ more radically, namely in morphology, the principles governing the structure of words. Languages do not all employ morphology to a similar extent. In fact they differ dramatically in the extent to which they allow words to be built out of other words or smaller elements. The English word undeniability is a complex noun formed from the adjective 'undeniable', which is formed from the adjective 'deniable', which is formed from the verb 'deny'. Some languages (like German, Nootka, and Eskimo) permit much more complex word-building than English; others (like Chinese, Ewe, and Vietnamese) permit considerably less. Languages also differ greatly in the extent to which words vary their shape according to their function in the sentence. In English you have to choose different pronouns ('they' versus 'them') for Subject and Object (though there is no choice to be made with nouns, as in Whales eat plankton). In Latin, the shapes of both pronouns and nouns vary when they are used as subjects or objects; but in Chinese, no words vary in shape like this. Although we have identified some differences between syntax and morphology, to some extent it is a matter for ongoing research to decide what counts as morphology and what counts as syntax. The answer can change as discoveries are made and theories improved. For instance, most people—in fact, most grammarians—probably say that 'wouldn't' is two words: 'would' followed by an informal pronunciation of 'not'. But if we treat 'wouldn't' as one word, then we can explain why it is treated as one word in the yes/no question Wouldn't it hurt? Notice that we don't say Would not it hurt? for Would it not hurt?, or Would have he cared? for Would he have cared? In each case, the bad versions have two words before the subject. The syntactic principle for English yes/no questions is that the auxiliary verb occurs before the subject. If this is correct, by the way, then 'ain't' certainly is a word in English, and we know what kind: It's an auxiliary verb (the evidence: We hear questions like Ain't that right?). English teachers disapprove of 'ain't' (naturally enough, since it is found almost entirely in casual conversation, never in formal written English, which is what English teachers are mostly concerned to teach). But linguists are generally not interested in issuing pronouncements about what should be permitted or what should be called what. Their aim is simply to find out what language (including spoken language) is like. Even if you learned all the words of Navajo, and how they are pronounced, you would not be able to speak Navajo until you also learned the principles of Navajo grammar. There must be principles of Navajo grammar that are different from those of other languages (because speakers of other languages cannot understand Navajo), but there may also be principles of universal grammar, the same for all languages. Linguists cannot at present give a full statement of all the principles of grammar for any particular language, or a statement of all the principles of universal grammar. Finding out what they are is a central aim of modern linguistics. https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/grammar But, how apply it to poetry? Perhaps, lamely. https://magmapoetry.com/poetry-and-the-joys-of-syntax/ |
| (Advanced Peek) As yet to be fully realized and edited: George Floyd was a drug user? https://www.newsweek.com/george-floyd-was-fentanyl-medical-examiner-says-experts... I had to Google cause of death and understand what fentanyl is and learn from my wife its used in combination with methamphetamines (also listed in coroner's report). She knew this before me (not a sharer) and I was floored. I was checking to see if the officer held responsible for Floyd's death has spoken or entered a plea. Chauvin's lips are sealed. I want to understand how he could not see what was happening to the victim. The Floyd family had their own autopsy done but do not mention drugs in their report. Chauvin should fry for what he did. But, this complicates my sympathy for Floyd, a man who has sparked a long-needed movement that now memorializes his untimely death with strangely awkward sit downs mimicking the last nine minutes of his life. How must the family feel about this, above the violence and riots? Can we assume whether Floyd was above the law, contributing erroneously to his own demise? Is defense council going to raise this issue? Dangerous court days ahead. I think the nation would not accept a plea deal, but the family should. And, could tell a nation they do it out of respect of memory of their loved one. It diminishes for me the unified movement, by not acknowledging Floyd's weakness. Outrage for murderous police brutality, deserved. But, tempered when you consider everything that could fuel an ugly court case. I need to empathize with Mr. Floyd, if indeed he had a drug dependency. And, that's before a trial that could daringly reveal two conflicting autopsy reports. Very sensitive this issue of drugs complicating heart failure, which he knew he struggled with. Fentanyl killed Michael Jackson, too. And on a related matter: I agree that taking a knee is NOT about the flag. I believe SITTING (that first time in 2016) during the national anthem was about getting benched (losing one's starting job). "(Colin Kaepernick) The former Super Bowl starting quarterback's decision to go public (about stand on systematic racism in America) comes while he is fighting for his football life with the (San Francisco) 49ers, who drafted him in the second round in 2011. He lost his starting job last season after being one of the most promising players in the NFL during his run under former coach Jim Harbaugh. Over the past few months, his relationship with management has turned sour. He requested a trade last spring, which never came. He also has spent most of the offseason rehabilitating from operations to his left (non-throwing) shoulder, his hand and knee. His recovery left him unable to fully compete with Blaine Gabbert for months and has him seemingly in a bind to regain his starting job." 8/26/2016 https://www.nfl.com/news/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-an... Colin still has good intentions. The NFL should have never shunned him. I learn shunning is a common practice among those who want to diminish another for whatever reasons. |
| If you have a disability and laid off from your job as a result of this pandemic, it sucks to be you. That is, if you collect SSDI from the government, also. You probably heard the federal CARES Act was going to drop an additional $600 a week in your lap. But, because you live in Wisconsin, the state said ‘none for you.’ Sure, people who can’t claim a disability like you can get at least a hundred bucks a week from state unemployment, plus another $600 bump from CARES. So, that’s $700 weekly, about 28-hundred monthly. And what do you get? Zero. But, you have that cushy SSDI that amounts to about, what? Half that? I’ll bet you’re extra lucky if you have dependents. How is it, post COVID-19 for you? Can you go out in public without greater fear than the others? Among those who defiantly won’t wear a mask? Are you able to travel? Require assistance? Use public busing? And where do you go to meet these maskless villains who don’t know you live with a handicap? Make it hard to conveniently shop in these stores like war-torn battlefields for the last of some necessities? Do you get those supplies all home safely through whatever means of transpiration? Okay, you’re supplied, you're hunkered down. Fears of inflation? Fears of trips to hospital? Can you know what the future holds? Will your employer ever call you back? Do you consider no job will be waiting for you when this is over? Who will take you on with your special needs? Who will train you? What security do you have? A monthly check from the federal government? You don’t want to beg for help. You don’t want to be a charity case. You learn 48 of 50 states give people with a disability a shot at additional federal assistance in these times. And you think, why isn’t Wisconsin and it’s Governor doing something to lift this restriction? If you don’t get an at bat, you don’t get a stat. Right? Baseball had these odd rules for negating plate appearances. It equates to when jobs reports come out. Right? No state is going to tout how many claims were rejected. If you’ve been denied, the jobless rate goes down. A law has diminished you, negated you. Impressive Governor, Wisconsin, you tromped on about 175,000 workers so you can look good. Who gets hurt? In 2013, when this legislation to block ‘double-dipping’ was enacted, a certain Governor was cutting all kinds of stuff to make the budget float. Questionable, the way they went about it? Somebody benefits. And those nasty, no-account-for disabled workers can’t ‘double-dip’ now. Didn’t see coronavirus coming? Do politicians care? Ahem. Scott Walker. You’re the double dipper. WISCONSIN, look sharp. I’m talking to you. Are you collecting unemployment insurance from those that employ the handicapped? Where does that money go? Do I have to dig and find out? Rebate to employers who hire disabled? What?? But, the feds earmarked money to distribute to the laid off. Did you get that extra portion for EVERY worker? Or, were the handicapped conveniently left out? Hmm. This is systematic. Disabled Lives Matter. I’m coining it. They struggle. They have special needs -- the feds recognized that through a serious vetting process that may have involved attorneys. Where are the lawyers now? Litigators? No. They don’t want to take on your law. Wisconsin agencies/programs to assist this handicapped sector just recite the 2013 law and back off. No help there. Bunch of sycophants. You got a sector of the workforce cornered, demeaned, nullified. And the CARES Act is just a huge taunt to people who dared make ends meet and find security. And the world goes on lock down and they are systematically treated like lazy, worthless people whose lives DON’T matter. Yeah. You got a law. Nice going. Get your act together legislators. You have not breathed one word publicly on this subject. Go ahead. Hide behind the headlines. I know I will get calls from concerned citizens after reading this. I would rather you call, write or email your legislators to rescind the 2013 law immediately. Tell them what matters. Tony Evers: E-mail: EversInfo@wisconsin.gov Phone: 608-266-1212 Senate Bill (SB) 200 passed the Wisconsin Senate on June 11, 2013 by a 17-15 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor of it and all Democrats against. |
| Irony: the movement to support police, fire and military post-911, Today, the coronavirus scourge that had us honoring healthcare workers for their bravery is in the shadows of a defund police movement meant to rile rather than unify a nation on the ills of police brutality and the cries of racism. Whether it was the blue light illuminating a porch stoop or blue hearts displayed in our windows, what I feel growing out of this is an attempt to shame and fool people into believing humanity is not being served: https://nypost.com/2020/06/06/the-movement-to-defund-police-is-based-on-nothing-... Stop reading just the headlines and ask questions -- why we are inundated in an election year with so much stuff that you want to shrink from the very presence of triggering words? Answers aren't necessarily being offered. Plenty of accusations made. No true leader can rise above this to lead us to some promise land. America functions. It's not perfect. We have freedoms. We risk losing what we have if we cannot understand the need for proper civil discourse. Read the provided article. Mind you, it comes with a bias, but some serious evidence that you are being put in a position to question something that actually serves us better than you've been lead to believe. Also, related to Minnesota: https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/editorial-why-the-defundpolice-movement-does... Stay informed, even if you feel you don't have a voice. Just, don't get led around by your nose. You have eyes and ears. Extra reading, because I'm so tired of the ignorance right down to a 15-year-old proclaimed transgender I love who tried lecture me about all things on the spectrum but did not know difference between confederate flag and communist (both I condemn): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lets-get-it-right-bigotry-is-not-racism_b_57eddcd... I think if you feed anything called truth on a plate, people will partake and maybe rave about it. Ignorance is real. I have a right to be sick and done with it. And, if someone educated uses information to mislead, I have a little bit more contempt for you. I see you. And what happened to George Floyd publicly is sad and perplexing. But, imagine living in a true, racist environment your whole life In a sundown town in Texas. As one man describes at a rally for Black Lives Matter honoring Floyd in a small Texas town, he ducked bottles and jumped away from cars rolling over curbs... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texasmonthly.com/news/black-lives-matter-vidor/... Racism does exist in much scarier places. It takes bravery ever day to be true to who you are, no matter where. Final Thought: Perhaps, the defund movement is sponsored by those who want to scrap the constitution. Careful, it could mean totalarianism and not your beloved socialism. |
| I guess we're all struggling to say the right thing. There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Collectively, the white majority is either ignorant, complacent, afraid or feels their voice is unwanted or doesn't matter. I think white shame got lumped in there and that is on our forefathers who founded this country. Let's not forget this an election year and politicians are really stirring it up. The elected lay it in our lap so we will vote for them. whether Republican or Democrat; but what change has been made? These politicians don't mend fences, they keep race separated so this division will stand between their aisles. if black and white stood arm in arm and told Washington you will not divide us, what would they do? I'm white. I don't favor racism. But, by keeping us from agreeing as a nation what type of leadership we want, we'll always feel helpless to join together. Integrating races/culture in our country is hard to do without a bold leader to unify. Look what's happened to religion in our country. I rooted for Rev. Jesse Jackson. I thought he could do it. Fleeting at best. We're stuck as a nation, repressed. So, we find distraction when we feel our voice is just one and doesn't matter. and then, we don't vote. That's as best I can put it. |
| How it goes down...Reddit Style: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/guevu6/shots_fired_in_green_bay... Shots Fired! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_Against_the_Machine_%28album%29 |
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In the Falkland Islands, internet is very limited and very expensive. The place I'm currently staying only lets me use it in the middle of the night, so when I have to get up at 3 am to check my texts (no cell service to the US here unless I'm on the internet) or WdC, I don't do nearly as much as I used to. 
I currently have 2 very long emails I still need to get to from several days ago. Anyway, I miss everyone, but I also miss sleep, so there's that. 
Have you spoken to the doctor about your vision problems lately? I know there are special glasses for it because I have to wear them to read much ever since the brain injury. It's part of why I now only listen to audiobooks instead of reading regular books. It took 8 years for anyone to diagnose it because I have a brain injury and while one might think it would be obvious to me that I see double, it wasn't. Partly, my brain does a fair job of compensating. But also, partly, you use your brain to realize and understand that the 2 images you constantly see are double vision and something you should mention to your eye doctor. Since my brain was damaged, even basic things like that can escape me. 
I never once thought to mention it, even with annual eye exams in the Army and an exam every 2 years at the VA. Though, in my defense, since it happens in something like 41% of people with a brain injury, it should have been discovered by an eye doctor much sooner. 
I know doing that activity is a CRAP TON of work. But you made a difference in lives, not just his, but for all the people he's reviewed since. 
Well done! 
