SportsGuy Says: America Has a Strong Moral Responsibility!

You asked what land I love the best, Iowa, tis Iowa,
The fairest State of all the west, Iowa, O! Iowa,
From yonder Mississippi’s stream
To where Missouri’s waters gleam
O! fair it is as poet’s dream, Iowa, in Iowa.

Song of Iowa words by S.H.M. Byers to the traditional melody of “O, Tannenbaum.”

Wow! Another beautiful day in the neighborhood! It is currently 52* with clear skies at 8:00 PM and all is well on a Friday night. So quiet and DARK compared to last week. There is no spotlight shining in my window in anticipation of partying rioters. Fall is winding down.

But hey, the flowers in the courtyard are still blooming! Seriously, the impatiens and marigolds and other flowers are still out there putting forth the color and it’s NOVEMBER. It’s FIFTY-TWO DEGREES FAHRENHEIT outside at eight o’clock in the evening! In WISCONSIN!

What’s with that? All together now: GLOBAL WARMING!

How much do you want to bet that the Republicans change their stance on the issue of Global Warming as more and more public opinion polls bring in results like this one in Iowa?

Poll: Iowa Sportsmen Say Global Warming Must Be Curbed

DES MOINES, Iowa, November 2, 2007 (ENS) – Three-quarters of Iowa hunters and anglers responding to a new public opinion poll say America has a strong moral responsibility to act now to limit the worst effects of global warming. The statewide poll was released Wednesday by the National Wildlife Federation.

The poll shows that of the sportsmen who say they will vote in January’s caucuses, only nine percent have decided who they will support. And 66 percent of respondents said conservation is just as important to them as gun rights issues, if not more important.

W00t! You Go Iowa!

The people have spoken; let the people be heard! To the polls everyone! To the polls!

B

It’s An Enemy to All Mankind! WAR! What Is It Good For?

(You can listen to this great song from the60s/70s protests on youtube while you read if you want. Then listen again and watch the images.)

War! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y’all

Edwin Starr

oooOOooo. In todays University of Wisconsin-Madison “The Daily Cardinal, ” I found this little gem:

Anti-war group plans Halliburton protest

By: Jenny Berg / The Daily Cardinal

The Campus Anti-war Network will protest on Bascom Hill at noon Thursday.

20070918_news_antiwarnet_storyCharlie Baker / The Daily Cardinal

The Campus Anti-war Network met Monday night to discuss and plan the upcoming protest of Halliburton’s presence at the College of Engineering Career Fair this Thursday.

The protesters will meet atop Bascom Hill at noon Thursday for a rally, and then march to the Engineering Building, where they will attempt to block the recruitment process, sitting and standing in front of the Halliburton booth.

This is no doubt tied to this September 11th announcement in “The Dallas Morning News” which has caused quite a buzz across the nation about Hunt Oils and its close ties to Halliburton not to mention speculation that Hunt apparently is betting against the current government in Baghdad having any influence on the Khurds.

Hunt Oil signs contract to explore for oil in Iraq

One risk: Deal with Kurds bypassed national government

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
By DAVE MICHAELS and ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News

Hunt Oil Co. took a leap of faith over the weekend by agreeing to become the largest U.S. energy company to explore for oil in Iraq since the war began.

If all goes well, the Dallas oil company, with its close White House ties, acquires an early foothold in an important oil patch.

“The region as a whole looks very promising,” said Jeanne Phillips, a spokeswoman for Hunt Oil, adding that the company does not yet know how much oil its concession could produce.

Hunt created a company called Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region to handle the contract. Hunt signed the deal with a partner, Impulse Energy Corp., a private Canadian company that invests in energy companies.

Or maybe he just doesn’t care who has any influence anywhere in Iraq especially not the centralized government in Baghdad. The attitude seems to be tt’s AMERICAN OIL now, damnit, we’ve shed blood for it, we’ve thoroughly fucked your country over for it, now give it to us. Here are your $24,000,000 worth of seashells. Damnit we got Manhattan for only $24 worth of those things. Inflation! Inflation! Inflation!

I am uber excited to see the University of Wisconsin students concerned and involved, raising their voices in chorus with other protesters all over the nation who are against this war, including the one in Washington DC the 15th of September.

ROCK ON MADISON! GO BADGERS!

PEACE…

B

Welcome Back

See the names have all changed since I been around
But the game ain’t the same since I left out
Ooh you know we need ya, ooh you know we need ya
Right here is where we need ya, right here is where we need ya
Welcome back..
Welcome back, welcome back…

Welcome Back by Mase

The UW students are back in town and the Badger football team has already won a game against Washington State 42-21 to jumpstart the season. The University will open its doors and begin educating young minds again tomorrow.

“The Daily Cardinal”, celebrating its 115th birthday this year, put out its first edition on the 27th with a brand new look. According to Jill Klosterman “The Daily Cardinal”

… balanced suggestions for a modernized look with a desire to maintain timeless appeal.

As a result, the new Daily Cardinal is classy, classic and takes our motto-“complete campus coverage”-to an entirely new level.

The lead story online is the uncertainty about whether or not all of the students eligible for WHEG grants will receive them because the state of Wisconsin has failed to pass a budget. These are low income students who typically get an average of $2,100 in grants from the state. That’s a lot of cash for a student to make up the shortfall for. There are about 75 students in Madison who will be affected but around 3,800 statewide.

Wisconsin is the only state in the union that hasn’t passed a budget this year. It’s September for crying out loud! We’re going to start keeping track of how many shopping days we have left until Christmas right soon. (Not all that many, folks, warm up those charge cards!) So why haven’t our lawmakers passed a budget? Partisan politics, bickering, and power struggles. Freaking ridiculous!

The low income students in our University of Wisconsin system are just an example of the problems this has caused. The state Medicaid system has been ordered to find a way to shave 20% off of its costs for the coming months because they have no money to pay the bills and don’t know if they will get the increase they have requested. That means fewer services like transportation to and from the doctors’ offices for low income elderly and disabled.

The city threw its annual Taste of Madison Labor Day Weekend party to welcome the students back. Taste of Madison always draws huge crowds of people to the Capitol Square and this year was no exception. There were over a 100,000 people milling about sampling the yummy goodness of Madison restaurants on Sunday. Bluphies gets my vote for the winner of unfettered decadence. Deep fried chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls! Non trans fat, of course.

The weather has cooperated and this end of summer party could not have asked for a better forecast. Sunny skies, low humidity and warm temperatures. No more deluge of rain and flash flood warnings. It’s good to see the sun for the second weekend in a row. The water level on the lakes is still high enough to warrant a no wake restriction, however. That puts a bit of a damper on the fun. No wake=no water sports.

Hopefully it will be just as nice next weekend and we won’t get anymore rain here or anywhere else in the state because next week is the Ironman Triathalon. Prefer something a little tamer? The city of Madison has historic walking tours listed on its site. The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation leads several tours in the downtown area every Saturday.

Judging by the laughter and good vibrations from State Street lasting until the wee hours of the morning this weekend the kids had a good time settling in! The city “feels right” again.

Illegal Immigration or Racism?

¡Hola, amiguitos! ¿Cómo están?
¡Hola, amiguitos! ¿Cómo están?
Hoy venimos a jugar
luego vamos a cantar
y así nos podemos saludar.

Hello, how are you my friends?
Hello, how are you my friends?

Author Unknown

It looks like the Big Boyz with their Big Toyz are going to get their job done within the scheduled time period in my neighborhood. They’ve had plenty of sunny days to be out there doing their best to keep us elderly and disabled from our daily naps with their big noisy toyz but undaunted, I just pulled my ear plugs out of the cute little wooden box I keep on my bedstand and proved I can sleep through anything!

Gina, our activities director, told me the management here at the Three Threes had only two days notice that the city was going to start this project. That’s why they had a whole slew of people crawling all over this complex washing windows a week before the jackhammers came in and created so much dust you couldn’t even tell that those nice girls had come in and made my windows all nice and shiny.

Speaking of the window washers they were all Hispanic and out of thirty or so I’ll bet only five of them spoke English well enough to carry on a conversation. It occurred to me to wonder if they were illegal immigrants.

When all the Mexican hordes come to invade us and take away the vegetables in all of our truck farms and cart it all south, will someone wake me? I am so sick of hearing about/reading about this illegal immigration BS from the perspective that the people working in these jobs are the criminals. Why don’t people ever complain about the real criminals in this legal issue–the employers who hire people they don’t bother to document as legal citizens or having a legal visa. The employers who advertise that they have jobs available her in the USA.

My son took a job once at a large laundry/uniform supplier here in town that he believed knowingly hired illegal immigrants. He hated that job which was totally misrepresented to him in the first place. He was completely over qualified for it and what they had him doing most of the time was dangerous scut work. He said that the vast majority of the people who worked there didn’t speak a word of English. One of the reasons he got hired was his ability to speak Spanish. All of their management and technical staff were required to speak enough Spanish to communicate with the rest of the employees.

He quit after two weeks and several second degree burns on his arms because he found a much better job that would be a better use for his technical skills and level of education but he also quit because he knew that the company was operating illegally. He didn’t know how to report it though and he didn’t want to get the poor people who were working so hard to better their lives in trouble.

A year later I read that the company had been cited for not complying with the regulations for checking employee’s identities to determine if they were legally allowed to work in this country. They were also cited for minimum wage violations and overtime violations. This is a huge class action suit.

In my opinion, we can’t stop the flow of illegal immigration if there are going to be employers willing to hire these people and help them get false documents. Anti-immigration people are always going on about how the illegal aliens are stealing jobs from Americans but this is not true. It is the criminal employers who are stealing the jobs from Americans by hiring people who are willing to work at slave wages. Seriously, do you really believe they don’t know these people are in this country illegally? Do you really believe they think they could get away with paying Ameircan citizens those kinds of wages?

I don’t even understand why there can’t be a free flow of people across the borders. Anti-Immigration people act as if there is no way to put an end to the so-called abuses of the welfare system they are always pointing out as such a hazard. Let the Mexicans move freely across the borders and compete for the jobs and there will be welfare fraud. Personally I think that is probably greatly exaggerated but IF it is true then plug those holes. Wisconsin has done that with domestic abuse of the problems and other states can do it too.

Frankly, I think this big to-do over illegal immigration is more a fear of whites becoming a minority in this country and it is racism in its worst form because it can be hidden behind other words and other issues. Just like the English as the only language allowed in the US issue is really a racial prejudice issue.

We need to identify what these issues are really abas a society because calling them something else doesn’t fool the Hispanic people. They know and they are watching and getting angrier and angrier. Some day soon Caucasians are going to be the minority race in this country and we are going to have to accept that and deal with it. Maybe this hyped up push to close our southern border is really a reflection of the fear of knowing that you reap what you sow.

B

Six Months Before Iowa

In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

So…Hillary Rodham Clinton is way ahead in the “Newsweek” poll (conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on 8/1) that show her getting 44% of the vote versus 23% going to Barack Obama and 14% going to John Edwards. The voters in Iowa are more fickle. According to a “Washington Post-ABC News” poll the top three candidates are virtually tied with Obama having a slight edge at 27% over Clinton and Edwards who each have 26%.

In Iowa “Though Clinton is seen by Iowa voters as the strongest leader and most electable candidate, her rivals get higher marks for likeability, (sic)  the Post reported.” Hillary is going to have to get out there and press some palms in the corn fields in the next six months. Do some schmoozing and kiss a lot of babies. I wonder how she’ll play at the church socials with the chicken and home made biscuits and noodles crowd…

According to Fox News out of Milwaukee (I know but it was the most up to date poll I could find.  What’re you gonna do?)  Wisconsin Polls show Hilary out in front with 39.5% of the voters committed to her, Barack trailing with 24.8% and John with a dismal 10.5%.  We like Al Gore here in Wisconsin and there are 13% of us who are going to write him in whether he wants to be president or not.  Let’s all go hug a tree! ;^>

The Democrats are going to have to take a lesson from the Republicans and stop trying to appeal primarily to the rational mind according to Drew Westen. in his book “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.” Hillary should understand this since Bill Clinton was a mastermind at it. In fact, I read an interview about Bill becoming the ‘first gentleman’ and whether or not he’d be giving tea parties for other heads of states wives. He said of course he would be willing to do whatever Hillary wanted him to do as her spouse.

The thought of him taking on that role tickled me so much I realized that even though I don’t like Hillary all that much I’d like to have Bill as the first ‘first husband’ in the White Houe so much that I might just vote for her to accomplish that.  Then there are the Vice President rumors.  What if whoever got the Presidential nomination named Bill Clinton as his running mate.  Could it be done?

Well, according to this article in the “Washington Post it’s clearly a possibility.  ”

Clinton could be vice president because he is only barred from being elected president a third time, not from serving as president. That’s the argument of Scott E. Gant, a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Washington, and Bruce G. Peabody, an assistant professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey…”In preventing individuals from being elected to the presidency more than twice, the amendment does not preclude a former president from again assuming the presidency by means other than election, including succession from the vice presidency,” they wrote. “If this view is correct, then Clinton is not ‘constitutionally ineligible to the office of president,’ and is not barred by the 12th Amendment from being elected vice president.”

Of course more than likely the Republicans would tie any attempt by Hillary or any other Democrat to take Bill Clinton as their running mate up in a constitutional challenge that would destroy the campaign and might lead to a delay in the actual election or cause the results to be nullified if the Democratic nominee  and running mate Bill Clinton were found to be an unlawful set of candidates.  I doubt if anyone would dare to take the risk in such an important election.

Hillary should play up the fact that she’s bringing Bill and his expertise along.  Subtly of course.  Mustn’t portray herself as the little woman too weak to manage on her own, flying in on her husband’s coat tails.   Just pointing out what an asset she’s got at her side. With Bill in the White House as the First Husband, he will be the Co-Vice President defacto.  What a team they would make. As it gets closer to election time I imagine he’ll be hitting the campaign trail for her and her ratings will probably soar due to his ability to draw people in..

Obama better start picking up the pace here and wowing people a little more than he has been. He can’t just rely on a campaign style he borrowed from Jimmy Carter to carry him through. I mean he’s a nice enough guy but his inexperience is showing and that’s going to pop him in the arse in more ways than one.  I’m not sure I would even want him for a Vice President at this point.

I absolutely adore Dennis Kucinich and always have since I met him in 1992. There is a man of passion and zeal.  He’s about as liberal as you can get and when you hear him speak it’s like listening to an old time Tent Revival Preacher.  He really makes you believe in the Democratic party and the ideals that they stand for.  But he only gets 1-3% of the vote, primarily because he is too liberal.   I’d love to see him named as Vice President but if not they should hire Kucinich to campaign for whoever is nominated (if he’d do it) and I think they’d see some real results.

Edwards couldn’t get my vote if he stood on his head and ate soup and I can’t even tell you exactly why. I just don’t like him. I just never have.  Al Gore is too happy doing what he is doing.  I wouldn’t want to disturb the zen connection he has found in life working to make this world a better place.  We need men like him fighting that fight and I don’t think he’d make a good president fighting the battles the next president is going to have to fight.

To be honest with you I don’t have a good feeling about any of the current contenders.  Democrat or Republican.  None of them really inspire the kind of confidence in me that I need to feel during these trying times.  I want to know that the next person who sits in the Oval office will be someone with nerves of steel who isn’t xenophobic and has a calm thoughful temperment that doesn’t flare up into acting on anger.  I want someone who isn’t a fundamentalist religious fantatic.  I want someone who really cares about the people who elected him or her.  I want fundamental changes in this country not just business as usual.

B

How to Create an Angry American

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell (1903 – 1950)

This compelling montage  can be found on YouTube:  How to Create an Angry American.

There are petitions to sign there.  Stand up and be counted.

B

What if Bush Vetos the Withdrawal Bill?

Well, what if he does? Everyone is all excited and pre-occupied by this question. Like it makes any difference. We aren’t getting out of this mess before the elections in 2008 even if he doesn’t Then we can do whatever in hell we want without that sock puppet affecting the issue one way or another anyway.

Another 14 months one way or another really isn’t going to make one hell of a lot of difference. It’s going to take that long to argue about how we are going to withdraw our troops. Doesn’t anyone remember Vietnam? Nixon? sheesh…

What we really want is to hold Bush accountable. Nobody is going to hold Bush accountable except history unless we spank his ass with an impeachment for lying to us. Maybe this is the build up to getting serious about THAT. If he won’t listen to what everyone is saying about getting the hell out then we’ll all start yelling LOUDER about

Why in hell did you take us there in the first place? Why did you lie to us you Jerk?

Instead of just muttering into our collars about it.

Maybe if we took to the streets and started carrying signs around stating our positions about the matter. Maybe if we weren’t all so afraid of our telephones being bugged and our names being on lists and that damn Patriot Act.

Maybe we should talk about that Patriot Act and civil protest and what it would mean if we said HELL NO, THIS IS NOT RIGHT and then said our name. Maybe that would mean something.

Maybe if more of us would do that we’d get somewhere besides shafted.

Barbara Gavin-Lewellyn

Madison, WI

Going Swimming In the Duckpond Again Real Soon.

Now get the guns, the drugs, From my generati I’y ll take the fall, the saints, across the nation.
And it’s the sex, the gods, the freaks, the frauds.
They’re messin’ with me, Come on, come on, come on.
Let’s get it on!Move to the music,
Play that fucking music,
Move it to the music, yeah! (Get it on)
Move to my music,
Play that fucking music,
Live through my music, yeah!

The Union Under Ground Across the Nation

Gosh this must be some kind of record for me! Two posts before 10am!

Well I guess I couldn’t think of anything to say for awhile after passing the ammunition. I was too busy waiting for The Feds to use the Patriot Act and come sweep me up in their web.

OK, I really don’t believe I’m all that big a deal to the Feds. I’m just one little Grammy who has said rude things about Georgie Porgy. He hasn’t even got the guts to kiss any girls and make them cry but that’s neither here nor there, this is about the Patriot Act. I dare them. Double dare. I want something radical to happen damnit. I’m tired of this stinking inertia.

Enough of that, this Blog entry is supposed to be about baseball! Now that we’ve had the “bombs bursting in air” celebration (or at least I have. Enough with the firecrackers People!), it’s time to go to another baseball game and so we are. The whole family is going this time. My son had such a good time that he reserved tickets for my daughter’s family, himself and my nephew and me at The Duckpond next Friday. That’s going to be 6 of us in the stands cheering on The Mallards! What fun!

I get the Daily Dugout from the Mallards and on Friday the 20th it’s William “The Refrigerator” Perry Night. The Mallards will be playing in football suits. WTF? <shaking my head> It’s all about the fans folks and we will do anything to please the fans and get ’em into the stands. C’mon, it will be fun!

Perry is an ex Chicago Bears football player for or those of you not familiar with football lore. An extremely large one who was extremely popular and very successful Also a very nice guy. I’m not particularly a fan of football but that is sacrilege in Wisconsin and Nebraska so you sort of learn these things by osmosis since everyone around you worships at the shrine of the Saturday, Sunday and Monday night football game dujour on the TV. Except I was under the impression he played for the Green Bay Packers. Maybe we just wish he did. Whatever. He’s coming to Wisconsin on the 20th, bring a football and maybe get it autographed for a large sum of money.

My Gramma on my Daddy’s side was as big a fan as any of the rest of the family. It’s an illness that settled in after church and Sunday dinne sometime in the early 60s, I tell ya’. I think I escaped it’s feverish grip because I was in the kithcen washing dishes. Hot soapy water will still protect you against a lot of nasty bugs. Make your kids do the dishes. Frequently. Male and female children.

I nterestingly enough I could not get my son to play organized sports when he was a child. I tried to push baseball, basketball (my favorite sport because I can actually see the ball and understand what they are trying to do with it) and football at him. Nope, he would have nothing to do with them. I really tried to push football onto him because football has this cult like significance in my family. All of my brothers played. It was a rite of passage into manhood.

He actually spent about four weeks pretending to go to practices while he spent time in the local swamp hunting frogs to sell at the local science supply shop that sold them to high school labs so he could play video games. I found out when I went to their first game and he was no where to be found.

It’s all because I made him do the danmed dishes in the spirit of male and female equality. But you know what, all of my brothers have problems with their knees these days and they blame it on playing football. Somebody should have made them do the dishes the poor souls.

My son is an intellectual with inclinations towards art and music. He played hacky sack and chess. He was his father’s son.  His father did the dishes.   I did not have a clue what to do with him except love him and let him be who he was and make him do the dishes.   I did not know how to raise a son whose testosterone was not sending him raging after balls other boys possessed with the urge to keep it and push him face down in the dirt if he took it away from him.

He was a pacifist. I had to teach him how to fight because he got chased home so often by little monsters calling him chicken because he had no desire to engage them in combat that he was miserable. It wasn’t that he couldn’t beat the holy crap out of them, he didn’t want to. He was bigger and much stronger than all of his tormenters.

I made him beat the crap out of one of them–the biggest, nosiest one until he drew blood after 4 years of this shit just to prove to them he could and then sent them all home with instructions to pass the word. It wasn’t much of a fight since the other kid had no idea how to protect his nose from a right roundhouse nor his solar plexus from a left hook. He was in pretty bad shape when his friends picked him up and dragged him away.

He scared me because he was different than the men I was accustomed to but thrilled me at the same time. I knew I had done something right and I knew I had picked excellent DNA for my man-child. But how to mold it properly? It gave me nightmares.

Hacky sack was good. It kept him occupied. I bought him a lot of hacky-sacks. I crocheted hacky sacks. I allowed hacky sack playing in the house. I bought Dungeons and Dragons and books on chess. I taught him and his sister and all of their friends how to play poker.

And oddly enough we watched professional wrestling on television together. He loved it. Back in the day, my Father had dragged my family to professional wrestling bouts and oddly enough I liked it too. I had a collection of autographs from those days that would have been worth a fortune if my idiot Mother hadn’t thrown them away. But that’s another bitch.

My son and I and his friends would gather around the television and watch professional wrestling and just like my father did, I would point out the ballet of professional wrestlings’ choreographed the bouts so that no one REALLY gets hurt. Horribly awfully ugly hurt I mean.  Broken back hurt.  And just like me, those boys were totally fascinated with it and the athleticism of finely tuned bodies that dates back to The Roman Coliseum. That is how I managed to be a mother *and* father and pass on fatherly lore that I learned from my own father to a son that I really didn’t know how to raise. Bless you Daddy.

But weren’t we talking about baseball? I’m really looking forward to next Friday. ;^) I got this fever from my ex Larry. Times like this I wish I could ask him to join us. I sure would like to see his reaction to baseball played in football uniforms. <snort> He’d enjoy himself. I’d enjoy him and so would the family. Too bad breaking up is so damn hard to do. But thanks Larry, you’ve given my family and me something new and wonderful and goofy to share on pretty summer evenings. Maybe we’ll get dignified and take a trip to Wrigley Field some day some day.

B

When You Walk Through a Storm, Hold Your Head Up High…

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968)

It was a beautiful day in my neighborhood today. A beautiful day to stage a protest march. A group of Asian people were out in surprising numbers today walking up Mifflin Street to the Federal Courthouse, around the block and then back down Dayton Street to Broom Street so they could turn around and do it all over again. This parade of people of Asian descent streamed past the windows of the lobby of the Three Threes for a solid five minutes off and on throughout the day. Some of them were bearing plain signs that carried simple direct messages.

It was a beautiful summer day to be out on the streets walking for these modestly dressed people. Most of them were wearing neat and brilliantly white blouses and shirts and black skirts and slacks. A few were dressed in their native costumes from the country the immigrated from. The sun was not too hot and the breezes were pleasant. There are flowers blooming in the beds on the Capitol lawn and the people in our fair city would surely be receptive to their cause today of all days if any day.

These protesters would nod enthusiastically and smile widely if anyone showed agreement with their cause but they did not hoot and holler. They would move politely to one side if anyone needed to pass on the sidewalk, saying excuse me, quietly but mostly they marched with silent dignity hour after hour as they have day after day after day since it has become warm enough to be outside without coats and hats and gloves. They have become a familiar presence in my neighborhood. I have become familiar with their cause.

I have been and am impressed. I am reminded of Martin Luther King’s and Ghandi’s urging to pursue civil protest with quiet dignity. I was reminded of Rosa Parks who simply refused to move to the back of the bus. Their quiet diffidence speaks volumes.

And what is it these people want? Well later in the afternoon I was surprised to hear the sound of speeches coming over loud speakers and the chanting of young (male) voices. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get away from my laundry to make the hop, skip and jump up to the square to see what was up. Damn laundry. But surely the news would tell me.

I just got done listening to channel 27’s 6:30 news report. Nothing. I checked Channel 3 and channel 15’s websites. Nothing. I checked The Capital Times Site, supposedly our liberal print newspaper. Nothing. I checked the Isthmus Daily Page. Nothing. OK, fair enough it was late in the day so maybe none of them had advance notice and couldn’t file a story that late in the day. Gee, I could be breaking the news here. <heh>

Who are they and what do they want? Well it’s all tied into this story about the school that was named after a Hmong Vietnam War Hero until it wasn’t. General Vang Pao‘s name was chosen from amongst 41 names submitted to the Madison School Board in April of 2007 and the matter was given due consideration and voted upon. It has become a touchstone of controversy ever since.

Vang Pao is Hmong and the Hmong are from Laos and Cambodia. During the Vietnam War the Hmong gave covert aide and assistance to the American Army and at the end of of our involvement in Vietnam they were literally chased out of their homeland into refugee camps. Eventually many of them were resettled in the United States. A good many of them settled in Wisconsin and have become good citizens. Outstanding citizens. One of them, General Vang’s son, serves on Madison’s school Board.

Much as our country has mixed emotions about Vietnam, we have mixed emotions about our involvement with the Hmong peoples. Many say we owe them a debt of gratitude. Many say they are war criminals. This is true in Wisconsin and definitely true in Madison where so much discussion about the right or wrong of our involvement in Vietnam took place. Apparently we’re still arguing about it.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor McCoy claims that Van Pao is a war criminal and committed crimes against humanity in Cambodia during the Vietnam era.  He was under the command of the United States Army at the time.   MrMcoy was no doubt a protester during the Vietnam war and considers the US Army and government  war criminals.  But the Hmong are not as powerful as the US government.

My personal opinion lie somewhere in between.  I protested against the Vietnam war when it was going on.  However,  I think that we owe the Hmong people something for having involved them in our political struggles. I am not inclined to judge a man like Vang Pao harshly when I know very well that our own government was doing things that would be considered criminal if they were dragged out into the light of day. I’ve talked to too many Vietnam Veterans who have shared their secrets with me.

The Hmong, including Vang Pao, maybe especially Vang Pao, were caught up in the events of history and they made hard choices that had to be made. Maybe not all of them were the ideal choices but let he who is without sin blah, blah, blah…

In a strange twist of fate, General Vang Pao was arrested on June 5th and charged with plotting to overthrow the Communist Government in Laos. Our own government assisted in the investigation against him and is cooperating with the Laotian government. As the worm turns…

The persistence and dignity, of these people who gave so much to our country during the Vietnam war has touched me. Many people don’t know why the Hmong people are in the United States. But these people who were walking miles through my neighborhood on such a beautiful day were there so we won’t forget. Apparently Hmong people across the United States are gathering to make their presence felt.
B

Praise God and Pass the Ammunition

Over at Delphi Forum’s Poll Vault we’ve been having an interesting discussion about the most dangerous idea in religion is prompted by an article in the Atlantic Journal-Constitution titled “Faith and Values: What’s the Most Dangerous Idea In Religion: Violence in the name of God; follow our rules or else; my religion is right; converting others to your religion; or a tribal view of God.

Interestingly enough on July 2nd a Madison Bloggerwriting in Fearful Symmetries gave a review of Jesus Camp, which touches on all of these issues, in my opinion, although he didn’t label it as such and he also mentioned the Georgia Governor’s call for prayer for rain this week, which was also disscussed at the Poll Vault.   My friend MerlinsDad is from Atlanta and started both of these discussions.

We’re both secular humanists and atheists. I describe myself as more of an agnostic atheist because I don’t completely discount the possibility that there is a god. I highly doubt it and I certainly don’t believe in any of the gods I’ve been introduced to up to this point but there is always the possibility there might be a creative power greater than nature. Merlin might actually feel the same but we really haven’t discussed it all that closely. The odd thing here is that we discovered that we grew up going to the same strange little fundamentalist sect that originated in the Ohio Valley in the 1800s. Our several great Grandparents ago might even have known each other back in Illinois before mine went west and his headed east.

What’s different is that , I consider myself a recovering fundamentalist. I have ISSUES and Merlin doesn’tTo further the coinkydinks in this little series the featured Blog on WordPress today was “Don’t ask me to read your Holy Book.” in a Blog titled deconversion. Sooo I feel compelled, almost directed by the powers that be (HA!) to write about how a small town girl raised in THE Christian Church on the plains of Nebraska, baptized in the Little Blue River by full immersion at the Pible (actually I don’t know that it was spelled that way but that’s the way it was pronounced. I don’t recall ever seeing it written out though I must have.) Bible Church Camp who ended up a full fledged atheist feels about the question “What is the most dangerous idea in religion?”

My answer would be the notion of the tribal God. The belief that we are the chosen people who have been put here on earth specifically to do God’s will. This idea promotes the adoption and abuses of all the other ideas. It lends itself to the dehumanization of people who are not a member of your specific tribe or who are not willing to become a member of your tribe through the adoption of your religious beliefs and the worship your God.

It’s ever so much easier to kill people who are not members of your tribe. People you have dismissed as less worthy of your empathy and respect. People you have already deemed damned to eternal perdition because they have not made the right choices in deities. People your God would call an enemy

Unfortunately I believe that most if not all of American Christian churches teach this if not outright from the pulpit on Sunday morning then certainly by implication. Try reading the Old Testament of the Bible all the way through. There is plenty of blood and gore about the enemies of the Lord and don’t give me any guff about that merely being history. It’s only history when it isn’t pretty.

But then most other religions. have this tribal view of their Gods because after all they were invented by tribal men and women who needed a way to explain their world view. What was going on in their lives. Why things were the way they were. Where did they come from and where were they going.

So now all the tribes are really big and we have instant communication and nuclear bombs. And oil. No wait, the Muslims have the oil. We want it. Do you see where I’m going with this?

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