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August 21, 2008 The Final Word In some weird form of self-induced torment I have allowed myself to continue to watch the circus show known as the the US election beyond the torturous escapades of the Clinton camp - pain. My excuse, I wanted to see hope not only survive but perhaps even thrive. Once in a while I would even subject myself to seeing how the fair and balancing act of Fox news twists it, but for the most part, I got my disinformation through the bullshit and biased viewpoint presented on CNN. Now it is time to do myself a favor. I am not going to watch anymore. I can no longer sit and watch, as my hope is systematically dismantled before my very eyes. So this is the high road, hey John? Yeah... but I guess in this world, it turns out that it is easier and more effective to drain someone else's battery and tear them down than to charge one and lift yourself up. Hey, of course, Newton proved it with an apple, when knocking someone off a mountain, you have gravity on your side. As it turns out, only republicans can tear down a war hero and get away with it. But I have one final suggestion for the John McCain before he crashes his next plane, as far as a vice presidential choice, someone with a medical degree would probably be a wise choice. Considering how being president can age a person it will probably send a senior directly to the hospital within the first week of office. So go ahead "my friends", reelect Bush in an old suit. As I heard recently on Larry King through something Bill Maher did while interviewing a Senator, it doesn't take intelligence to get elected in the USA. Did I mention Bush, yeah... probably too many times. So drill away and as Bill Maher said on Larry King, the American people are too dumb to be governed. Or to quote the Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does." For sometime now my hope has been waning and now it is all but gone. I used to be an Artist but after months without inspiration to pickup a brush or pencil now I no longer see the point. Call it self pity if you want but I quit. The Captain has abandoned ship. Not that anyone cares. Fuck, I used to believe in something. ~ †
May 13, 2008
Pure Politics 
"Last Glance" Along with producing a couple of new drawings and getting ready for the coming summer season, I have found myself inexorably sucked into the phenomenon known as Democratic Party Primary Election Hell. I have my reasons for consciously entering this pit of fiery rhetoric, blatant lies, public pandering and manipulation. Not the least of which is observing how through the media, black becomes white and a shadow of hope is twisted into the same old fright. For me personally, the attraction to this political high drama is in how it reflects and gives indication of which direction our collective humanity is ready to take. Big changes need to be made. Most pressing is how we move ourselves and everything we want across the vast distances of our increasingly fragile planet. With oil prices going nowhere but up, it doesn't take an economic genius to see that perhaps the worst is just around the corner. That the world's demand and addiction to black gold has eclipsed peak supply. Perhaps the simple reason more oil companies don't invest in building more refineries is because they know there is no need for them. Why invest in a future that isn't there? But I suppose if there is one bright spot to the inevitable societal breakdown, as we slip down the declining oil laden slope, it is that CO2 emissions will go down along with supply. In other words, we will be able to breathe easier as we wage wars and fight over the last remaining gooey drops. I have to hand it to John McCain, he was right when he accidentally mentioned, (paraphrase) that in moving toward alternative forms of energy they won't ever have to send their troops to the Middle East again. Suppose-ed verbal slips are so telling and say so much more than all the practiced and planned empty rhetoric. Wouldn't you say? Interestingly enough that Freudian slip slid through the media without much notice, being explained away as just another example of John McCain's increasingly frequent verbal gaffs or misspeaks. Nevertheless, it's true and obvious to anyone willing to take a look, through McCain, the Bush era logic continues. The Iraq war was not over oil, it was started for peace, freedom and democratically elected governments in the Middle East. Of course, democratically elected Middle Eastern governments like Hamas are excluded from peace and freedom because they are on the terrorist watch list, along with Nelson Mandela and Cat Stevens. Despite viewpoints being pushed towards either black or white, friend or foe, rich or poor, with or against... I still see some shades of gray, or like the title of one of my latest drawings "Shades of Light", in between. 
Shades of Light A bit of neutral gray common ground might not be as exciting or ratings friendly as a knock down, drag out, bitter battle to the end, but it is most likely where true peace exists. Hopefully someday we will find it there patiently waiting for us to recognize it, but for now it seems the polarization of forces must first play itself out on the US political stage. It's all things obvious and the symbolism is in stark contrast. I look at the present President compared with my hope for the future one and it is literally black and white. Smart and stupid, positive and negative, hope and fear, decent and disturbed. The comparisons are glaringly obvious and add to the list one of Obama's finer qualities, the ability to turn negatives into positives. His speech on race was a case in point, and emerged out of negatives thrown his way. But what impressed me most about it was when I heard Michelle Obama say, it was the best speech he had written to date. Compare that to the present head of the nation who can barely hold a book right side up, let alone write his own material. "The Axis of Evil" along with the rest of his recited diatribe through too many State of the Unions Addresses were always someone else's creation. It seems (albeit twisted, for it allowed a clown to stay in office for not four but eight years) the Universe has a sense of humor. Hopefully the final twist of humor is, it's the black candidate who carries the positive charge, has the smarts and is not the one we whiteys should fear. Imagine that. Now all we need to hope for is that Lennon was right, that "the people have the power" to make this shift in polarities and consciousness possible. Regardless of my tenuous hopes, my darker moments persist. The dark suspicions that it's all rigged by powers beyond the people. That it's not about a black man never being allowed to be President of the United States but that a conscious, intellectually qualified decent person will not serve the best interests of greed and the powers that be. These suspicions, although based on past observations, seem fear driven at best and no matter how naive my last hopes of a brighter future for my daughter may seem to some, I choose to hold onto them until the final vote is in. Speaking of the final vote, according to the Clinton campaign, it's not in yet. That the numbers add up for the Clintons in a way which could only steal the nomination away from Obama and the people who voted for him, is of no concern to them. To crush this hope for something different expressed by the record numbers of people registering, is irrelevant to those who's major interest seems to be to win. The longer this goes on the more the old political divide and conquer techniques are deployed. It's gotten to the point where the Democratic Primary is starting to look more like the General Election with Hillary taking on the role of Republican. She's even said that if the primary was Republican she would have already won. As I watched The Daily Show morph a logo laden Nascar pant suited Clinton into a laser eyed Bush demon I laughed, not only because it was particularly funny but because it had the ring of truth to it. I guess most good comedy does... Have a ring of truth... With Clinton's posturing and willingness to "obliterate Iran" without mention of the countless innocents who would perish like so many collaterally damaged Iraqis, it's hard to tell the difference. Question. What good is it, when in order to win the game you adopt the tactics of your adversary? It does no good in the long run and it sounds strangely familiar to how the Bushites render alleged terrorists. An eye for an eye, as Gandhi said, makes the whole world go blind. What I understand of that eye for an eye thing is, it's not unlike the other Christian tenet of turning the other cheek. It means if someone takes your eye give him the other one if they want it so badly. By that reinterpretation, the words take on a different meaning, pointing to truths beyond this physical reality. What's the alternative? Tit for tat? In the end creating an endless downward societal spiral driven by short sighted fear with no vision of the future or the heaven they all in-sin-u-ate to believe in. An eternal perspective is the place people of spiritual concern speak from. You know... give them both your eyes because inside you know there is more to this old life than what we see from this physical perspective. And not only that, but tit for tat and short term gain will only leave our children hungry in the physical hell we are presently creating for them. Something has to change and it seems time, with every passing moment, is not on our side. I've always been a strong proponent of the tenet that actions speak louder than words. That in order to get a true picture of someone and what they represent, it is better to watch how they behave, rather than believe what they say. And as I have watched this Primary Election go on and on, one thing seems to be clear. Observing how the respective candidates run their campaigns says far more about them than what goes in or out of their mouths. Most times I've noticed that the only negatives thrown from the Obama side are usually in response to some negative comment thrown his way. The interesting thing which transpires then is, he usually gets accused of being the negative one and not living up to the standards he has set for himself. I've seen this phenomenon happen within my own life and perhaps in that fact alone, I find a certain kinship with Obama. I guess it has to do with the law of gravity, it's easier to knock one down than to lift yourself up. Another example of this truth is present in a CNN exit poll taken from the latest primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. This poll seems to come up time and again and what it states is that almost half of those who support Clinton would vote for McCain and not vote for Obama or anyone else in the General Election. The same is not true (or at least the percentage is much lower) for Obama supporters, if Clinton should be the nominee. And what truly disturbs me about this is that the talking heads of Newsland never seem to connect this with how the respective campaigns have been run. Clinton's campaign has been largely supported on bringing down her "opponent" so is it any wonder her supporters should feel this way? Seems obvious to me. And now as a last ditch effort we are going to go for the old divisive black and white ploy, "hard working white Americans". As opposed to what? The excuse when the comment was held to question is, she was quoting someone else's article but then again, she chose to quote it. Or perhaps we can bring back First Lady Clinton's initial argument of having previous Whitehouse experience while dodging bullets and bras on the tarmac. There's another who had previous Whitehouse experience and it didn't seem to make him any better of a Commander in Chief. Nope, four (or was it 12, seeing his father was VP of eight) years of being First Boy didn't seem to make George any wiser or more qualified for the top job. ~ So there you go and what of Reverend Wright in all this? Does anyone really want to hear my take on this one? Probably not, but I'm going to delve into it anyway. With free speech being a highly held principle and God given right, you don't want to say that people are bitter or God damn America. Never mind saying that, "the chickens are coming home to roost". For all the fuss and talking points this raised for media ratings, it's strange to me how someone else using their right to free speech can be held against another. Free speech seems to cost a lot if you are actually brave (or is that dumb or crazy) enough to use it. This is especially true, in the post 911 "with or against us" era of Bush patriotism. And there are more ways than one to skin a cat. It seems you no longer need to use a bullet in the "Information Age". A You Tube video (and it doesn't even have to be of you doing the nasty) might just do the trick. It's cheap, anonymous and you don't have to hide on the grassy knoll or hire and kill a patsy to cover your tracks. Am I of a conspiratorial mind? Well just look around, something's going on. And anyway... since when did questioning the motives and methods of our governments and the powerful become a crazy conspiracy theory unto itself? Makes one wonder. Well... conspiracies aside (or perhaps not), this is my take on Reverend Wright. The damage was done when the God damn America You Tube video transgressed it's way to the boob tube. Playing it over and over again, the talking heads who found it fertile ground for planting their personal opinions relished it in redundancy. But you know what? For all their jaded misinterpreted views expressed, I think they failed to see the real Reverend and underestimated his sense of foresight and media insight. What were some of those opinions? That he was some kind of crazy conspiracy theorist? Or maybe just an angry lunatic fringe black racist preacher of hate? How about an egomaniac merely using Obama as a stump to spout out his outlandish ideas? Maybe I'm prejudiced but when I happened to catch the Reverend live at the Press Club I didn't get that from him. In fact, I thought he was kind of funny. But for anyone to come up with the notion and seriously think that he would intentionally want to destroy the chances of someone from his congregation to be the first black President ever elected, now that's what I call crazy. But more often than not, crazy was how the Reverend was painted and simply by association, Obama paid the price. Contrary to the digital elders displayed on my television I am of a different opinion. My theory is, the Reverend foresaw that his continued association with Obama (however distant) was going to eventually cost him the Presidency. Even after the speech on race delivered by Obama, the nonsense persisted. Denounce the words, didn't denounce the man, didn't leave the church, I would have got up and left blah blah blah... no end in sight. Like an oil well on fire the flames raged on, threatening to consume what will be one of the proudest moments in not only African American but American history. I'm not black or even American for that matter, but this guy Obama makes me feel proud just to be a human again. How can this be bad? It's not. So if you're a preacher who in years past unknowingly lit the fuse to Obama's possible demise, what do you do? Lets see, you could try Public Television to make your case and hopefully douse the flames. Nope, the all knowing pundits still think you're crazy and by the way public television doesn't count. This may have been an attempt to test the waters and see how the media would spin it but somehow I don't think so. I think Reverend Wright knew what he had to do when he started the media show beginning with PBS. As most people are aware, by his third TV performance he had taken it over the top adding fuel to the fire, reigniting a media fire storm, leaving Obama no choice but to denounce, reject and basically disown him. I believe this was a conscious action taken on the part of Reverend Wright. As it was happening, I along with the rest of the scratching heads were left wondering... now why would he do that, the controversy appeared to be dying out, until he poured gas all over it. Then I thought about it some more, but from a different perspective. And I remembered Stef asking me (while we were watching "There will be Blood"), why they were pushing barrels loaded with dynamite towards an oil well fire. Doesn't seem to make sense when you see it, but that's how they put oil fires out. The explosion consumes all the oxygen and voila, no more fire. This is what I believe the Reverend did when he gave the media what they wanted and in consequence, what Obama needed... No choice but to renounce him completely. If you take the time to contemplate it from an eternal perspective, putting the final nail into a tattered reputation on the public stage would be a small price to pay. Even forsaking and being denounced by the future President of the United States would be a small price to pay, just so long as he assumes the role. I think the Reverend played the clown because he sees something bigger than himself. What appears on the surface to be a massive ego, in actuality, is an unreserved lack thereof. You don't have to be Ned Flanders to ask the question, what would Jesus do? I imagine when Reverend Wright asked that question, what came back was... self-sacrifice. So he put himself up on the media altar like a lamb for the slaughter. And I would hazard to guess, they did just what he knew they would. They're a hungry bunch and they don't call it a media circus for nothing. Now you may say, "Petrus, this sounds kind of far fetched and a stretch at best". "You're giving this guy too much credit." And I can feel in this writing, that I am going up against an accepted tidal flood in trying to explain my point of view. "The case has been made and it's obvious, this guy is off his fucking rocker. Didn't you see him? Didn't you hear what he said? He said the government was responsible for the Aids virus. Putting out fire with gasoline is just crazy talk Petrus and maybe you should just go join his church." Irony is, I would most likely be accepted for who I am if I had the inclination, which I don't. In fact, having been raised Catholic I don't put much stock in religion but I do believe in the continuing Spirit of Man. And I just feel the need to give credit where credit is due. The proof is in the aftereffect. A day after his final appearance, Obama unequivocally denounces Reverend Wright. Following that, neither McCain nor Clinton had anything negative left to say on the matter. Within a week, all that was left for most of the talking heads were lame comments like, "Will he make a return engagement?" or "When will Reverend Wright respond to Obama's denouncement?" They were hoping, for as I've said, they are a hungry bunch and the Reverend controversy had become their main course, lunch and dinner. That in itself is a sad statement when news of dead Iraqis is now relegated to the ticker tape. But in answer to the question, "Will he make a return?" I don't gamble but I'm willing to bet the house, the boat and car that we will never hear from or of Reverend Wright ever again. Exceptions being, perhaps a footnote or two. And that's just the way he wanted it. The spinners were spun, the charge was set and the fire extinguished. Thank you very much. ~ And I do thank him. Now can they please elect a decent President? One we can all be proud of. A President who inspires more than just cynicism and painful late night laughs. A President who can not only read but also write. A President who cares for his children's future beyond how a Presidential wedding might boost his record low ratings. A President and leader who reflects back to me, who I know myself to be. Not one who reinforces my doubts in the inherent goodness of man. But a President who through the example set by his former Minister understands and practices the art of self-sacrifice for the good of the people. Sometimes irony can be sweet. Questions. When did it happen that being for the common good became a political cliché? Are we going to be inspired by our Bush era cynicism and miss the real thing when it's staring us in the face? "If it sounds to good to be true, it most likely is." "Politicians, they're all the same." "Snake oil salesmen." Have credos like these become our call to disaster by justifying apathy? Don't get me wrong, I haven't been waiting for nor do I expect or want a daddy to magically fix everything. I have a father and he taught me the essence of how to do most things for myself. But wouldn't it be a nice change to have a leader in that country of influence who inspires? That in itself would make a world of difference and be a good place to start. Of course Obama gets criticized for that, "being merely inspirational". But as an artist, I know all to well how hard it is to simply inspire myself, let alone those in my immediate vicinity. I would say that possessing that ability and the capacity to hold onto it, while dodging media driven political sniper fire, is no small feat. So Obama gets my vote, even if it is just a vote of confidence. I hope that the thought is still what counts because short of putting this writing out there, my thoughts, spiritual and emotional support are all I have to add to the gifting blanket. And if perchance he should disappoint or God forbid, McCain or Clinton become the next President, what is there to lose in hope but hope itself. A small sacrifice. We've passed a peak, we're at a crossroads, storms are brewing, wildfires are raging, waters are rising and the collective shit is truly about to hit the proverbial fan. How's that for a loaded list of clichés of doom? I wish I could just right it all off as cliché, but I don't have the time to waste. It's not enough to ignore the mass manipulation medium of our age. I suppose if we all stopped watching, that might be a good thing, but the genie is out of the bottle and like the nuclear bomb she's way too fat to go back. Most of the poorest people of the world, those living on the shoreline who will be affected by rising waters and climate change, don't even own a TV. Whether we like it or not, how it is being used is having an effect on all of us whether we watch it or not. And it might be more effective if we just look at it from a different angle or perspective, seeing through what is being presented. The transparency of spin is fairly clear in one of the more recent exchanges. McCain says, "the leader of Hamas likes Obama." Which clearly plays on terroristic fear since Hamas is considered such. Obama's response, "John McCain is losing his bearings." Clearly a naval navigation metaphor pointing to McCain's shift in directional bearings with regard to running a clean campaign. McCain camp counter response runs something like this. "Losing his bearings..." refers to bearings as in mechanical bearings which are little balls which turn into marbles, hence... what Obama said was, McCain is old and losing his marbles. In turn accusing Obama of not living up to the ethics he has set for himself. I guess they run on the assumption that like their fearless leader George Bush, the majority of Americans are still stupid. Not so sweet irony, for if they elect McCain they will be proven right... again. For some reason The Who keeps running through my brain, "We won't be fooled again!" ~ But what do I know? My first thought when I watched the second plane hit the twin of the building already burning was... could a government do this to their own people? The resulting actions taken over the years since, largely based and justified by this tragedy, only add to my initial suspicion. Without 911, Iraq would not have happened. Ironically, I think the Nazis used this method of manipulation of the masses. Presidential term limits being what they are, you only have four to eight years at best to turn things around for you and your friends favor. Do you really think the people raking in dough off oil, coal, natural gas and every other controlled commodity want to see electric cars powered by solar collectors on the roof of your house? Where's the perpetual return? As Afghanistan has born true theres money in them there hills of poppies and the heroin junky is the valuable commodity. True energy independence bears no long term fruit for the pusher man. And the oil boys seem tickled pick with profit as real alternatives have been actively and intentionally suppressed. While war, instability and dwindling supply continue to send the price of a barrel ever skyward. Yee Haw! ~
~ "We're
living in a strange time
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"Strange Boat",
By Mike Scott & Anthony Thistlethwaite ~ There's always hope for more and more to hope for. ~ Obama Speech Transcript and Video Who Killed the Electric Car? Documentary ~ Note: To reach other entries of the past just use the Index on the right by choosing the date, a flyout title will also appear to help in your inquiry. Or click here for Page 7 of the Journal. ~ |
Except for individual private use, all rights reserved Copyright © 2008 by Petrus H. Boots
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