More updates elsewhere

Well... the good news is, work has slowed down, some, and I probably won't continue to be run ragged for the next few weeks.

The bad news... well, there isn't any. Not yet. I'm not letting my guard down, yet... there've been suspicious chicken sightings... including http://www.floppytaco.com/video_clips/angrychicken.php. Thanks to all my friends who gave me warnings about the deadly danger! Did you know that chickens have been known to carry WMDs, weapons of mealtime destruction? It's got me nervous... how do they handle them without opposable thumbs?

Still... new updates on For The Dream and LongHairedWeirdo. Kind of a dual-update, on a similar topic, and demonstrating why I want to run two blogs.

This weekend is going to be a writing-kinda weekend, and I'll be posting writings that were going to be chapters of my book on the website, if all goes well. Links will follow. Be warned: these essays are viciously partisan. How? I'm not sure, but since I'm one of those goddamned-hippiecommieliberals, I figure it's going to be painted as viciously partisan by some, no matter *what* I say, so I might as well start the ball rolling myself :-).

More updates elsewhere

Well... the good news is, work has slowed down, some, and I probably won't continue to be run ragged for the next few weeks.

The bad news... well, there isn't any. Not yet. I'm not letting my guard down, yet... there've been suspicious chicken sightings... including http://www.floppytaco.com/video_clips/angrychicken.php. Thanks to all my friends who gave me warnings about the deadly danger! Did you know that chickens have been known to carry WMDs, weapons of mealtime destruction? It's got me nervous... how do they handle them without opposable thumbs?

Still... new updates on For The Dream and LongHairedWeirdo. Kind of a dual-update, on a similar topic, and demonstrating why I want to run two blogs.

This weekend is going to be a writing-kinda weekend, and I'll be posting writings that were going to be chapters of my book on the website, if all goes well. Links will follow. Be warned: these essays are viciously partisan. How? I'm not sure, but since I'm one of those goddamned-hippiecommieliberals, I figure it's going to be painted as viciously partisan by some, no matter *what* I say, so I might as well start the ball rolling myself :-).

Another one for "For The Dream"

I've got another update at http://www.forthedream.com/blogentries, but I decided to copy it here... it deserves some wider distribution.

When I was a child, I fell in love with "The Great Brain" series of books by John D. Fitzgerald. They describe a (hopefully fictional) account of John's childhood, and his older brother Tom, the namesake of the series.

Not all of the stories in the books are about Tom, however. One in particular bears a bit of relevance today.

The books are set in the turn of the 19th century (1890s to 1900s), in a small-ish town in Utah. There's a traveling Jewish peddler named Abie who voices a concern to the boys' father that he can't keep up with his travels much longer. His father suggests he set up shop in their town. Sure, it's a heavily Mormon town, but they're not prejudiced; they'll do business with anyone. After all, the Fitzgerald family is Catholic, and they do business just fine.

It's important to understand this. The town isn't a bigoted town. Abie makes regular stops there, and it'd be pretty silly to do that if he was disliked, right?

So, Abie sets up shop. It's interesting; as a child, I didn't know the stereotype of Jewish people as money-grubbing businessmen, so I didn't recognize part of the source of a rumor that flies around town of Abie having a chest full of gold coins, but the rumor does get around. Maybe that plays into what happens next.

You see, the Mormons in the town really, honestly, and truly, don't hate Jewish people... but they do prefer to do business with a fellow Mormon. Not many people end up doing business with Abie... and people start noticing he's not looking well.

In fact, he's starving to death. He's doing so little business, he can't even afford food. In the end, he starves to death right under their noses. The boys' father realizes in his grief that they let him starve because he was a Jew.

Nobody disliked him, and no one would have done anything to hurt him... but when it turns out no one can recall him getting his food from anywhere, no one asks around. When people notice him looking pale and thin, well, he's an old man. And, after all, how could he be too poor to buy food? He had that chest full of gold coins, remember?

I imagine he was a proud man who wouldn't have asked for charity - it must take a hell of a lot of pride to starve to death when there's food everywhere around you - but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that he wouldn't have been the first such person who people found a way to support, without hurting his pride. All they had to do was care enough to realize that he was dying right in front of their collective faces... but they didn't.

People ask if the slow response in New Orleans maybe had something to do with race... and many people angrily deny that race played a factor. After all, no one hates black folks (or, at least, people won't admit to doing so in polite company anymore). And, of course, as President Bush said, the Coast Guard didn't check skin color when performing rescues.

Me... I'm not going to claim that the response was slow because of race. This is a case of not attributing to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

At the same time, the information was out there to be seen, and the rescuers and resources were available. All people had to do was realize that New Orleans was dying, right in front of their collective faces... and in too many cases, they didn't.

Did race, or poverty, play a role? I don't know; I hope not, but I'm afraid it might have. I only know this: a whole bunch of people didn't have the right sense of urgency. Not enough of the right people dug in enough, and cared enough, to act on the available information.

The people in the fictional town of Adenville had to ask themselves if they really were callous enough to let a man they cared about (at least as a friendly face) starve to death in front of them. America is going to have to ask itself the same sort of question... but this time, there are a whole bunch of starving Abies out there, if we open our eyes and look for them. Let's make sure that next time, we recognize the needs of our neighbors before the disaster strikes.

Another one for "For The Dream"

I've got another update at http://www.forthedream.com/blogentries, but I decided to copy it here... it deserves some wider distribution.

When I was a child, I fell in love with "The Great Brain" series of books by John D. Fitzgerald. They describe a (hopefully fictional) account of John's childhood, and his older brother Tom, the namesake of the series.

Not all of the stories in the books are about Tom, however. One in particular bears a bit of relevance today.

The books are set in the turn of the 19th century (1890s to 1900s), in a small-ish town in Utah. There's a traveling Jewish peddler named Abie who voices a concern to the boys' father that he can't keep up with his travels much longer. His father suggests he set up shop in their town. Sure, it's a heavily Mormon town, but they're not prejudiced; they'll do business with anyone. After all, the Fitzgerald family is Catholic, and they do business just fine.

It's important to understand this. The town isn't a bigoted town. Abie makes regular stops there, and it'd be pretty silly to do that if he was disliked, right?

So, Abie sets up shop. It's interesting; as a child, I didn't know the stereotype of Jewish people as money-grubbing businessmen, so I didn't recognize part of the source of a rumor that flies around town of Abie having a chest full of gold coins, but the rumor does get around. Maybe that plays into what happens next.

You see, the Mormons in the town really, honestly, and truly, don't hate Jewish people... but they do prefer to do business with a fellow Mormon. Not many people end up doing business with Abie... and people start noticing he's not looking well.

In fact, he's starving to death. He's doing so little business, he can't even afford food. In the end, he starves to death right under their noses. The boys' father realizes in his grief that they let him starve because he was a Jew.

Nobody disliked him, and no one would have done anything to hurt him... but when it turns out no one can recall him getting his food from anywhere, no one asks around. When people notice him looking pale and thin, well, he's an old man. And, after all, how could he be too poor to buy food? He had that chest full of gold coins, remember?

I imagine he was a proud man who wouldn't have asked for charity - it must take a hell of a lot of pride to starve to death when there's food everywhere around you - but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that he wouldn't have been the first such person who people found a way to support, without hurting his pride. All they had to do was care enough to realize that he was dying right in front of their collective faces... but they didn't.

People ask if the slow response in New Orleans maybe had something to do with race... and many people angrily deny that race played a factor. After all, no one hates black folks (or, at least, people won't admit to doing so in polite company anymore). And, of course, as President Bush said, the Coast Guard didn't check skin color when performing rescues.

Me... I'm not going to claim that the response was slow because of race. This is a case of not attributing to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

At the same time, the information was out there to be seen, and the rescuers and resources were available. All people had to do was realize that New Orleans was dying, right in front of their collective faces... and in too many cases, they didn't.

Did race, or poverty, play a role? I don't know; I hope not, but I'm afraid it might have. I only know this: a whole bunch of people didn't have the right sense of urgency. Not enough of the right people dug in enough, and cared enough, to act on the available information.

The people in the fictional town of Adenville had to ask themselves if they really were callous enough to let a man they cared about (at least as a friendly face) starve to death in front of them. America is going to have to ask itself the same sort of question... but this time, there are a whole bunch of starving Abies out there, if we open our eyes and look for them. Let's make sure that next time, we recognize the needs of our neighbors before the disaster strikes.