Down and out semi poet who is down and out in the Low Country of South Carolina after living in Atlanta which is not to be confused with the south, the old south or the new south. Atlanta was a global metropolis with all the pluses and minuses that comes with that. The low country, low because it is low, 8 feet above sea level, is not Podunk but once you get to Podunk, turn left. I try to chronicle a small part of all that through my daily haiku for you.
A Friday statement from the US senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said the Trump administration had “finally relented” to his demand to afford Ábrego García due process.
“This is not about the man,” said Van Hollen, who visited Ábrego García in El Salvador in April. “It’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.”
“It’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.”
Remember Dr. King’s “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
In the same article the Attorney General of the United States said, This is what American justice looks like …
I find no comfort thinking the the Attorney General of the United States of America would not have been able to pass Mr. Reagan’s 12th Grade Government class at Grand Rapids Creston Highschool.
Not that that disqualifies her from office in this administration.
but I shall stay the way I am because I … I do not give a damn
OBSERVATION
If I don’t drive around the park, I’m pretty sure to make my mark. If I’m in bed each night by ten, I may get back my looks again, If I abstain from fun and such, I’ll probably amount to much, But I shall stay the way I am, Because I do not give a damn.
As printed in Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker This material may be protected by copyright.
as long as rights are defended, foundations of freedom are secure
In an interview by Kingsley Martin, published in the New Statesman on January 7, 1939, Winston Churchill said:
The essential aspects of democracy are the freedom of the individual, within the framework of laws passed by Parliament, to order his life as he pleases, and the uniform enforcement of tribunals independent of the executive.
The laws are based on Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, the Petition of Right and others.
Without this foundation there can be no freedom or civilisation, anyone being at the mercy of officials and liable to be spied upon and betrayed even in his own home.
As long as these rights are defended, the foundations of freedom are secure.
Mr. Churchill was responding to a question asking if there were any contradictions in a drive to rearm in defense of democracy.
The question was asked as democracy in Great Britain was threatened by the rise of Nazi Germany.
Today we ask the question as the threat is within.
I am not sure that Mr. Churchill could have handled such a thing.
I know I have trouble.
As long as these rights are defended, the foundations of freedom are secure.
Without this foundation there can be no freedom or civilisation, anyone … ANYONE … being at the mercy of officials and liable to be spied upon and betrayed even in his own home.
he made the Lord seem … so real … after a long pause he just said amen
Re-reading … well, listening to the audio book as I drive to work, the book Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns, I was again struck by the bit of dialogue between the hero, Will Tweedy (Yes, this is where I got Boy! Howdy!) and his Grandpa when Will has a near death experience after being run over (he lay low in the tracks) by a train.
Ms. Burn’s writes, picking up the story here where Will has told his Grandpa what happened – (The dialect is rural Georgia, to the east of Atlanta of the early 1900’s):
With the way he took it so casual, and the relief of getting it told, I felt like I’d been stuck back together. But one thing worried me. “Grandpa, you think I’m alive tonight cause it was God’s will?”
“Naw, you livin’ cause you had the good sense to fall down ‘twixt them tracks.”
“Maybe God gave me the idea.”
“You can believe thet, son, if’n you think it was God’s idea for you to be up on thet there trestle in the first place. What God give you was a brain. Hit’s His will for you to use it—p’tickler when a train’s comin’.”
Resting my chin in my hand, I thought about that while Grandpa finished up his pie. I felt awful tired. “Sir, do you think it was God’s will for Bluford Jackson to get lockjaw and die?”
Grandpa spoke kindly. “The Lord don’t make firecrackers, son. Hit’s jest too bad pore Blu didn’t be more careful when he was shootin’m off.”
“You don’t think God wills any of the things that happen to us?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?”
“Mama and Papa think He does.”
Grandpa licked some meringue off his fork while he pondered.
Finally he said, “Life bullies us, son, but God don’t.
He had good reasons for fixin’ it where if’n you git too sick or too hurt to live, why, you can die, same as a sick chicken.
I’ve knowed a few really sick chickens to git well, and lots a-folks git well thet nobody ever thought to see out a-bed agin cept in a coffin.
Still and all, common sense tells you this much: everwhat makes a wheel run over a track will make it run over a boy if’n he’s in the way.
If’n you’d a-got kilt, it’d mean you jest didn’t move fast enough, like a rabbit that gits caught by a hound dog.
You think God favors the dog over the rabbit, son?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t neither. When it comes to prayin’, we got it all over the other animals, but we ain’t no different when it comes to livin’ and dyin’.
If’n you give God the credit when somebody don’t die, you go’n blame Him when they do die?
Call it His will? Ever noticed we git well all the time and don’t die but once’t?
Thet has to mean God always wants us to live if’n we can.
Hit ain’t never His will for us to die—cept in the big sense.
In the sense He was smart enough not to make life eternal on this here earth, with people and bees and elephants and dogs piled up in squirmin’ mounds like Loma’s dang cats tryin’ to keep warm in the wintertime.
Does all this make any sense, Will Tweedy?”
They’s a heap more to God’s will than death, disappointment, and like thet.
Hit’s God’s will for us to be good and do good, love one another, be forgivin’….”
He laughed. “I reckon I ain’t very forgivin’, son.
I can forgive a fool, but I ain’t inner-rested in coddlin’ hypocrites.
Well anyhow, folks who think God’s will jest has to do with sufferin’ and dyin’, they done missed the whole point.”
Grandpa had made the Lord seem so real, I wouldn’t of been surprised if he’d said good night to Him. But after a long pause he just said a-men.
Finally he said, “Life bullies us, son, but God don’t.
Well anyhow, folks who think God’s will jest has to do with sufferin’ and dyin’, they done missed the whole point.”
know they’re dishonest almost always think there’s a good reason for it
From the movie, The Big Chill where Michael and Sam discuss life comes this bit of dialogue.
Michael: Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Sam Weber: Why is it what you just said strikes me as a massive rationalization?
Michael: Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They’re more important than sex.
Sam Weber: Ah, come on. Nothing’s more important than sex.
Michael: Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?
I first saw this movie 40 years in Ann Arbor at a special screening for film students at the University of Michigan.
I got invited through the luck of just being there.
It was the line on rationalization that I was searching for.
Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations.
It stuck in my mind as I seek to explain folks who I know who support the current guy in office.
I tell my wife that for many, its playing the lottery and for the state of their career, they rationalize that if they can get close to this guy, maybe … just maybe when he dies, he might remember them in his will with a nice tip.
You know, like Charles Foster Kane and Jed Leland.
Anyone for where they are in life, cozying up to the that guy is about they best bet they can make for their future financial security so the rationalization that they are selling out their integrity of the present can be justified.
Then I came across the line leading up to the rationalization statement.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Read that again, slowly and out loud.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person.
I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing;
they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it.
They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Now ask yourself.
How can folks support that guy in office?
Ask them.
They will tell you they are doing the right thing and they have a good reason for it.
No Haiku For You 