What, oh what, can an individual do to influence change in a system that is spiraling out of control and out of reach? Read "Vexing Electoral Realities," and then prepare yourself to vote on November 5th. It's your privilege, and it's your duty. Voting for change includes voting for third-party candidates and not the Democrat/Republican sides of the same coin, mirroring each other year after year, pointing out their differences and then behaving as one. Milo Clark echoes the call to the polls with an appeal to stay out of the game in "Madness," and shares the presidential speech he would like to have heard in October 2001. There are many, many ways to play the game besides warmongering.
Yet despite the articulate and emotional pleas of Senator Robert Byrd, organized protests and letter-writing campaigns, the vote for war once again, sadly, prevailed over peace and reason. With a US unilateral pre-emptive attack on Iraq looming, Deck Deckert provides an update of Mark Twain's War Prayer that puts into perspective our current madness; a sobering perspective indeed. Philip Greenspan for his part explores the power of dissent and the historical actions to suppress it in times of war, and urges participation in anti-war rallies. Remain active, he strongly advocates; work for change!
What we really need here, now, within our borders, is a real war -- not on drugs or "terrorists" but on our abhorrent energy consumption. Read our new dossier, "United States' Gargantuan Energy Appetite;" it's short and to the point with a fascinating chart from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. You'll understand how the more energy we use, the bigger the generation of waste -- we are talking truly big, huge amounts of waste. Then think again of Iraq and our policies. This dossier will be followed up with an analysis of alternative energies. You want change? Be the change...
It is then up to Michael Stowell, Milo Clark and Sandy Lulay to bring some sanity in the midst of this madness. Stowell looks at the divisiveness and delusion of religion, drugs and the struggle for power and Clark remarks that "people in general and in particular will hold tightly to their conditioning as split entities. I tell myself to just let it go and get on with the wonders of being who I am where I am." Lulay for her part muses on the disintegration of Native American culture under the White Man's rule.
Speaking of change, have you always wanted to be a writer but are not sure how to do it? Alma Hromic shares her indignation over National Novel Writing Month, in which you too can be a novelist in just 30 days and 50,000 words! Sure. And next month is National Brain Surgery Month. If you have to ask, you're not really a writer. Case in point, Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet." Finally, in our poetry corner, Sandy Lulay graces us with another gem, "Tiger," and we end with a second feline prose in the shape of Rilke's "The Panther."
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Gilles d'Aymery: Vexing Electoral Realities
With the mid-term US elections in sight the possibility of having all the branches of government in the hands of the Republicans looks like a doom-day scenario to many observers. But is it really? Does it truly make a difference? More...
Milo Clark: Madness
There is madness unique in the man animal. It makes the stuff of which history is written. Whether wrath of God in man image or Mongol hordes surging forth from the bleak steppes, whether Viking or Visigoth, mercenary or special forces; More...
Milo Clark: Other
"Other" may be anything not me. I can make other threatening. I can make other the only alternative possibility. I can make other fearful. I can make other simply other, non-threatening, I can make other just one of many who are not me. No fear needed. No fear given. More...
Deck Deckert: The War Prayer For The New Millennium
As a tongue-tied moronic puppet drags us into a war of conquest, many people think of Mark Twain's War Prayer. It's been printed and reprinted, here and everywhere, because it is still so depressingly timely. More...
Philip Greenspan: The War Against Dissenters
With an expanded war in Iraq becoming more likely the media has been flooded with analyses from commentators and reporters both here and abroad. I have read a substantial number and have not, to the best of my recollection, read any that claim that this war will be fought for any of the reasons given by the administration. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: United States' Gargantuan Energy Appetite
In 1999, the world energy consumption was 382 quadrillion (Quads) British thermal units (Btu). Out of 382 Quads the USA consumed 97, or 25.39 percent of the worldwide consumption. The USA, with a population of about 281 million inhabitants -- just about four percent of the world population -- consumes 25 percent of all the world energy and accounts for about 25 percent of the pollution of the earth ecosystem. In other words the USA has a gargantuan energy appetite. More...
Alma A. Hromic: NaNoWriMo: Now you too can be a writer!
Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved words. She read a great deal. She read some more. From the first cherished book on her bookshelves to date, she has owned, borrowed, read, reviewed, gloried in and panned thousands of books, in three different languages. More...
Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet (Letter One)
Dear Sir, Your letter arrived just a few days ago. I want to thank you for the great confidence you have placed in me. That is all I can do. I cannot discuss your verses; for any attempt at criticism would be foreign to me. More...
Sandy Lulay: Tiger
Will you dance with me
When the tiger comes...
Stay to hear it purr;
Unbound, alive, and free?
More...
Rainer Maria Rilke: The Panther
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else.
It seems to him there are a thousand bars;
and behind the bars, no world.
More...
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