This, to me, isn't about anything as petty as a red or a blue state, shallow things created by the media to increase the distances between us. My brain chases my heart around, and ultimately they end up over in the corner somewhere, in the dark. Sad. Crushing sadness for everyone involved.
It's a sadness, indeed, to know the state of the world - and to feel the tears upon your face, feeling helpless and alone - wishing for nothing more than this:
Nanci Griffith. Twenty years of helping me stay human in a world that tears apart every human heart. Thank you, Ma'am. I can't thank you enough.
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Nanci GriffithComments
Thanks for the info. It's just astounding and nauseating. I wanted to clarify, as someone had asked me (in person) why I called that 'not an anti-war' blog: Memorial Day is about the little guys, the privates and whoevers and their families, as far as I am concerned. As a liberal fag, I am not supposed to care about THE MILITARY. But I do. I have pictures saved on this PC of couples embracing and sobbing as one of them leaves for Iraq, and have read stories again and again how that particular woman will lose custody of her child to the guy who was a BAD MAN - due to her being shipped out. We all heard about the condition of the VA Hospitals. I am disgusted and sickened by he leaders of our country and the leaders of our military because they didn't(and seemingly don't)give a damn about these kids and they send them off to die and/or get hurt very badly -- on the basis of well-documented LIES. The young dude or the chick in the uniform with USA patched on it? Let me take a step back, some 20 years ago: If I was physically able to be in the armed services (I'm not), and not a blazing/really can't hide it dyke, I would have joined the military just to get out of the hell I was stuck in as a teenager. 3 hots and a cot, it aint prison, you're a teenager, some structure, a chance for the GI Bill for college while you get trained in actual skills? Thank Bea Arthur I wasn't acceptable to the military. Thank you. Maybe this is why I collected so many books on World War 2. Because every since then, it's all seemed really shady to me. (I can't get Korea, but maybe it's because I want to be Kim Jong Illin'. Blame Stone and Parker.) Vietnam? Yeah, that was on the news when I was a kid: wow! There was actual reporting then, too. Then Reagan's nasty little Nicaragua, Grenada; onto Desert Storm 1 and the soldiers coming back sick and being ignored in their illness? On and on. These kids in uniform, regardless of their political stance at the moment, have my heart. Memorial Day is for them, living or dead, wounded or out still out there pointing a gun at someone that may or may not be the enemy. And Memorial Day is for their families too. I still think at least once a week, that not only should be the Bush girls go over and be grunts, not only should Cheney's dyke daughter go over and see what it's like to leave your baby behind, but that I should just go myself. My life is no more important than anyone else's and frankly: I don't see much change in this war or in the air. When I was a manager at Amoeba last year, running the front counter, a few of the cashiers were like, "I wanna ditch tomorrow and go to the anti-war march!" My response? "How about some of you brilliant young minds go march off to college and become lawyers and really change the world?" Hell, I wish I has that kind of smarts. TANGENT! Anyway, Phineas, thank you for your addition. I have a lot of respect for people who aren't afraid to say what is the what. Was it Bush or Cheney that just called it a genocide over in Iraq? Um, is there no oil in Rwanda, Darfur? Amoeba books on CD, call and see if it's available: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda: Books: Philip Gourevitch by Philip Gourevitch.
nanci rules. i am going to go look up all her stuff on youtube now! thanks!
As of today, 3728 "coalition" deaths, according to CNN. 65 - 70 THOUSAND civilian deaths. On April 26, 2007 the anonymous blogger who wrote Baghdad Burning (since 2003) decided to leave Iraq. She has yet to post an updates. Read any passage from her blog: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/