Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Open Letter to Rep. Anthony Weiner

Rep. Weiner, Ant'ny, Paisan.
Thank you for showing how you felt some days ago on the House floor. I've read your explanation here.  I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that those republicans that supported the bill should have used their allotted time for debate to argue the positive points of the legislation in an attempt to sway their colleagues. I also hope that your democratic colleagues in both the House and Senate and Mr. Obama will follow your example and show their true feelings.

What makes me angry about the fact that the republicans let this bill die is that this is party leading a rail against a proposed Mosque being built on Ground Zero.  How can you be upset by this and not want to help the responders to 9/11.  Regardless of the type of building built on Ground Zero, the souls we lost that morning won't come back to physical form.  So frankly, it doesn't matter if a mosque is built there or not.  I don't think conceding that spot of territory to a mosque allows the terrorists to win.  Now, it may be a poor decision to allow the specific group wanting to build the mosque to do so.  I don't know anything about the group and therefore will not comment on it. 

There may be more thoughts on this subject.

Monday, August 9, 2010

almost a year

Went to bed and didn't see
why every day turns out to be
a little bit more like Bukowski.
And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read.
But God who'd wanna be?
God who'd wanna be such an asshole?
- Modest Mouse “Bukowski”

If you haven’t read Bukowski and/or don’t know of him I suggest you check him out.  In any case, Bukowski’s head stone simply reads “Don’t Try.”  When I first heard this I took it to mean that Bukowski didn’t think people should try to enjoy life or improve their station because as he (I assumed) thought life was shit.  According to Bukowski, you were who you were; you’d never change so just do what you have to do to get through it (life).  It took me some time to realize that Bukowski didn’t mean don’t try in the hopeless sense, but rather in the Yoda sense (there is no try, only do).  So I’ve decided that I’m going to write without trying to write.  I don’t care if a reader doesn’t like what I write, piss off.  I also don’t care if no one reads this.  Although, I’m sure my lovely wife will and will continue to promote my blog on her blog.

In that vein, I offer this poem.

A Buddha
Buddha was a Buddha
Ryan White was a Buddha
Joe Strummer was a Buddhapunkrockwarlord
Ginsberg was a Buddha
Kerouac was a boooodah (read: Hotei)
Bird and Coltrane were Buddhas
Father Myke was a Buddha
Merton was a Buddha  
Roshi Loori was a Buddha
Roshi Aitken was a Buddha (God rest him)
4 young girls in Birmingham were Buddhas
Memphis 3 are Buddhas (God save them)
Cubby Selby was a Buddha
Gramps was a Buddha