Wisconsin Dems and liberals and progressives lost the opportunity to win six seats in the Senate last Tuesday and take the Senate back from the Repubs. We got two of the six and, to be fair, we could say we have a new friend, the Repub who got ticked off at Walker last winter and sided with the Dems on the collective bargaining front. So be it. We have a challenge like none other now to RECALL WALKER this coming January.
Keep your eyes and ears on this as well as on any and all challenges to Alberta Darling's "win" in Waukesha County. Consider calling Eric Holder's office in D.C. and demanding a Federal Investigation in to Election Fraud here in Wisconsin. Too many oddities to rest assured we didn't lose fairly.
I am closing this blog on that note. Several things have happened lately that signal to me a need to re-evaluate how I participate in change. I remain a political activist.
Blessings to anyone who read this simple, common person's blog. Thanks for all you do for our freedoms and to connect with others.
As always...
Power To All The People!
Wisconsin Needs A Moral Compass
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Catch Up After The Vote
Well, it stinks. It isn't a deal that progressives liked, not many Democrats either. And down the road where the can is rolling around, are more stinky things waiting, many of them the same ones we just watched Washington play dodge ball with for too many weeks. I joined a rally this Tuesday in my community to protest Paul Ryan's vote. Of course Mr. Ryan was the author of much of this mess, if not the single author then certainly the scribe and the town crier. He took his version of Cut, Slash and Burn to his tea party friends and what resulted was the debacle we have recently watched, the republican congress people dressed like cheer leaders for corporate money and the wealthiest of Americans.
There were about 15 people at the rally with signs about Mr. Ryan losing his balance - as when he ordered a $350 bottle of wine for dinner. (That wasn't in southern Wisconsin, our wine here costs about $8.95 for red and sometimes $10.95 for white). Someone had a sign that was elegant in its simplicity and considering the noon hour sported temperatures of 90 with a heat index of 111, simplicity was refreshing: We Live In Your District, Too. So true. How many millionaires live in this town of 60,000? In this county? Can't be too many people. But there are lots and lots of Common People who live in the county.
We stood on the corners and showed our signs. Mine said Don't Destroy Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. One woman asked me if I had read The Deal before I came down to rally. I had not. She pointed to my sign and said - "Well, we don't have to worry about those, they're safe, they aren't going to touch those now." Are we that naive? I told her I wasn't that trusting and when this Committee forms, if it looks like a small version of congress then where will we be? Back on the phones, back in the streets.
And come to think of it, we should be in the streets all the time now. We are witnessing the bold theft of whatever it was we expected and believed our Democracy was and is but will never be again. Signs?! At least those but our bodies and our actions and our voices will be required more and more.
Here are some of the things I've been reading when I sit down to the Internet.
From People for The American Way:
"We can do this ... because we must do this. The Tea Party-created debt limit crisis was yet another reminder of how high the stakes are ... and how high they continue to be. So many of you have given time, energy and money to PFAW's Recall the Right campaign to take back the Wisconsin Senate from the Far Right and turn the tide nationally against Tea Party economics. THANK YOU.
The debt deal and the crisis from which it was born reveal the dysfunction of our political culture. The right-wing Republican positions on taxation, spending and deficits -- which unfortunately have set the agenda this last year -- have absolutely nothing to do with sound economics ... and everything to do with a dogged commitment to extreme right-wing orthodoxy and making the government, at every level, subservient to powerful corporate interests."
Be sure to check out this AlterNet Hot News & Views link to Rachel Maddow talking about the upcoming Wisconsin elections and dirty politics.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?akid=7356.297081.LJc_r1&id=643623&rd=1&t=2
Also, for a breath of fresh air, watch Matt Damon school the media on teachers.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/643618/matt_damon_continues_defending_teachers%2C_makes_libertarians_look_silly/#paragraph3
It's less intense on the thermometer today. A relief. Still, I can see that dented can shining in the sun down the dusty road where it lies. I have work to do.
Power To The Common People!
There were about 15 people at the rally with signs about Mr. Ryan losing his balance - as when he ordered a $350 bottle of wine for dinner. (That wasn't in southern Wisconsin, our wine here costs about $8.95 for red and sometimes $10.95 for white). Someone had a sign that was elegant in its simplicity and considering the noon hour sported temperatures of 90 with a heat index of 111, simplicity was refreshing: We Live In Your District, Too. So true. How many millionaires live in this town of 60,000? In this county? Can't be too many people. But there are lots and lots of Common People who live in the county.
We stood on the corners and showed our signs. Mine said Don't Destroy Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. One woman asked me if I had read The Deal before I came down to rally. I had not. She pointed to my sign and said - "Well, we don't have to worry about those, they're safe, they aren't going to touch those now." Are we that naive? I told her I wasn't that trusting and when this Committee forms, if it looks like a small version of congress then where will we be? Back on the phones, back in the streets.
And come to think of it, we should be in the streets all the time now. We are witnessing the bold theft of whatever it was we expected and believed our Democracy was and is but will never be again. Signs?! At least those but our bodies and our actions and our voices will be required more and more.
Here are some of the things I've been reading when I sit down to the Internet.
From People for The American Way:
"We can do this ... because we must do this. The Tea Party-created debt limit crisis was yet another reminder of how high the stakes are ... and how high they continue to be. So many of you have given time, energy and money to PFAW's Recall the Right campaign to take back the Wisconsin Senate from the Far Right and turn the tide nationally against Tea Party economics. THANK YOU.
The debt deal and the crisis from which it was born reveal the dysfunction of our political culture. The right-wing Republican positions on taxation, spending and deficits -- which unfortunately have set the agenda this last year -- have absolutely nothing to do with sound economics ... and everything to do with a dogged commitment to extreme right-wing orthodoxy and making the government, at every level, subservient to powerful corporate interests."
Be sure to check out this AlterNet Hot News & Views link to Rachel Maddow talking about the upcoming Wisconsin elections and dirty politics.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?akid=7356.297081.LJc_r1&id=643623&rd=1&t=2
Also, for a breath of fresh air, watch Matt Damon school the media on teachers.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/643618/matt_damon_continues_defending_teachers%2C_makes_libertarians_look_silly/#paragraph3
It's less intense on the thermometer today. A relief. Still, I can see that dented can shining in the sun down the dusty road where it lies. I have work to do.
Power To The Common People!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wisconsin Faces Hard Times
Just received this from Senator Chris Larson of Wisconsin's 7th District. Sen. Larson discusses what will likely happen to those of us in Wisconsin if the debt ceiling crisis is not resolved by August 2nd. Please read through Sen. Larson's carefully thought out article.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/13172ee241215bde
Scroll down to Debt Ceiling Deadline Days Away
If you haven't had the opportunity to call your representative please consider doing that today. Wherever you are, in whatever state. All of our representatives and senators need to hear from The Common People.
This also came today. Confirmation that the Walker forces are mounting a huge effort to rake in millions of dollars from right wing supporters to use in campaigns and ads against the Democratic legislators who face recall.
From the Washington Post…
“If you want to get a good sense of what’s really happening in the Wisconsin recall wars, keep an eye on the right wing money that’s now flooding into the races, in a last ditch effort to keep the state senate in Republican hands.
Club for Growth Wisconsin has dumped at least $1.5 million into the recall races..."
More of this will follow in the days ahead. More tactics to turn the tide in their favor. More money and more power.
We need to hang on to our hats, it's going to get nasty!
Power To The Common People!
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/13172ee241215bde
Scroll down to Debt Ceiling Deadline Days Away
If you haven't had the opportunity to call your representative please consider doing that today. Wherever you are, in whatever state. All of our representatives and senators need to hear from The Common People.
This also came today. Confirmation that the Walker forces are mounting a huge effort to rake in millions of dollars from right wing supporters to use in campaigns and ads against the Democratic legislators who face recall.
From the Washington Post…
“If you want to get a good sense of what’s really happening in the Wisconsin recall wars, keep an eye on the right wing money that’s now flooding into the races, in a last ditch effort to keep the state senate in Republican hands.
Club for Growth Wisconsin has dumped at least $1.5 million into the recall races..."
More of this will follow in the days ahead. More tactics to turn the tide in their favor. More money and more power.
We need to hang on to our hats, it's going to get nasty!
Power To The Common People!
The Ring of Power
It's raining, it's pouring and all the old men are snoring in Washington, I guess. At least there seems to be nothing in the way of movement today. Except I heard that John McCain enlisted the world of the Lord of the Rings in his attempt to shame his fellow rethuglians in to coming to the table. Apparently he referred to the tea party folks as hobbits with plans to return to Middle Earth after they defeat Mordor. Not to be outdone they fired back that obviously McCain had been corrupted by the power of the ring!
Funny but lame.
Years ago as we were driving back during a snowstorm after protesting the first Gulf War, my thirteen year old son asked me if the U.S. was the Rebel Alliance. I said, no, we weren't the rebels, indeed we were the Empire. It's still an apt metaphor but so would calling the tea party fanatics The Forces of Mordor be apt. I think Mr. McCain got things a little mixed up. The tea party people aren't Hobbits. I think they're a bit closer to Orcs who work for Mordor.
And who has been corrupted by the power of the ring?! Please. The tea party and other ultra-conservative republicans have surely been taken by the power of money and power. If that isn't the Ring I would be at a loss to find another such fitting example.
We want so badly to name ourselves the Rebel Alliance, the simple, loving Hobbits. We want to be Frodo on a quest, Luke Skywalker hunting down the Force. We want, as John McCain did, to envision ourselves, even in difficult times, as the Good Guys, the people with the white hats. We're John Wayne, not the black-hatted gunslinger.
I hesitated a moment before I answered my son that cold night racing through the Pennsylvania mountains. There was a part of me that didn't want to tell the truth as if doing that, saying it out loud, would make what his father and I knew to be true, much more horribly real. But it was real. It is still real. We are the Empire, we are Mordor and we bear a huge responsibility to our children and grandchildren to tell them the truth. If we are to discover our way out of the forest we must face the reality. Then we can gather the courage of Fordo and Samwise and perhaps then we can get on the path to destroying the Ring of Money & Power.
Because we know in our hearts that "men are so easily seduced by (that) power".
Simple Power of The Commons To All People!
Funny but lame.
Years ago as we were driving back during a snowstorm after protesting the first Gulf War, my thirteen year old son asked me if the U.S. was the Rebel Alliance. I said, no, we weren't the rebels, indeed we were the Empire. It's still an apt metaphor but so would calling the tea party fanatics The Forces of Mordor be apt. I think Mr. McCain got things a little mixed up. The tea party people aren't Hobbits. I think they're a bit closer to Orcs who work for Mordor.
And who has been corrupted by the power of the ring?! Please. The tea party and other ultra-conservative republicans have surely been taken by the power of money and power. If that isn't the Ring I would be at a loss to find another such fitting example.
We want so badly to name ourselves the Rebel Alliance, the simple, loving Hobbits. We want to be Frodo on a quest, Luke Skywalker hunting down the Force. We want, as John McCain did, to envision ourselves, even in difficult times, as the Good Guys, the people with the white hats. We're John Wayne, not the black-hatted gunslinger.
I hesitated a moment before I answered my son that cold night racing through the Pennsylvania mountains. There was a part of me that didn't want to tell the truth as if doing that, saying it out loud, would make what his father and I knew to be true, much more horribly real. But it was real. It is still real. We are the Empire, we are Mordor and we bear a huge responsibility to our children and grandchildren to tell them the truth. If we are to discover our way out of the forest we must face the reality. Then we can gather the courage of Fordo and Samwise and perhaps then we can get on the path to destroying the Ring of Money & Power.
Because we know in our hearts that "men are so easily seduced by (that) power".
Simple Power of The Commons To All People!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Rant the Republicans
I just want to throw a tantrum. I want to flop on the floor and pound my fists, scream and holler. I want someone to hear me! It isn't that I haven't ranted before but boy do I ever need a rant right now.
The rethuglians have simply gone around the bend. Here in Wisconsin and in Washington. In Wisconsin doors are slamming on DMVs in the state - only in Democratic neighborhoods mind you - and opening in republican strongholds to shift the weight in the next recall effort. We all know this shabby game based on the truth that when Democrats vote in numbers the election goes to them, when they stay home the election goes to the repubs - unless, of course, the repubs lie and cheat and buy votes and make people wait in line for hours upon hours and rig the voting machines, etc ad nauseam ala Florida in both presidential elections when King Bush Jr. "won".
Earlier in the month we were treated to fake candidates the repubs were running in an effort to draw votes away from the recalls. That didn't work. We The People were too smart for cardboard scarecrows. Now we are being abused in neighborhoods where there are 'just too many uppity, recall-voting Democrats'. So Walker et al waltz in and shut down the DMVs so voters can't get the ID everyone now needs or they can't vote. Then they drive to another neighborhood where there are gobs of conservative voters and open a brand new, shiny DMV right down the block so those poor tea-party folks don't have to be bothered to go too far to vote. And by the way, this disgusting ploy came right on the heels of redistricting which scribbled all over the map and has the potential for disrupting the ease with which citizens are able to vote.
Fair? Hell no! Illegal? I surely wish it were so but we have no laws on the books to prevent this sneaky, under-handed, low, dirty manner of doing what apparently is our Governor's business. Do not forget, though, who pulls Walker's puppet strings. Charles and David Koch and all the sub-Koch's who are currently filling Scottie's coffers with "donations". He wants to make sure he has money to ward off the recall effort when it comes his way. That, of course, means citizen action!
And Washington?! Each day I get out my dot-to-dot coloring book and make damn positive I am connecting the dots with bright colors. Like this: Scott Walker is connected to the Koch Money which is connected to the WalMart Money which is connected to the DeVos Money. All that money is connected to people like Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Michelle Bachman, and all the rest of the tea party elites. This money is connected to oil, gas, guns, power and greed. That connection is deep in many states now and deep in Washington where it is stalling any way through our serious debt crisis.
I use some softer colors to connect another set of dots. Like these: People with disabilities do not often have money, sometimes no family. They are connected to nursing homes, day care centers, group homes which are connected to a combination of state, county and/or federal money. Elderly people are connected to this same money which is connected to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security which is connected right now by thin, stressed threads to the same money Eric Cantor, John Boehner and the tea party retuhglians are connected to - except - this coloring book's pages are more like a stack of papers with the Boehner's and the Cantor's and the Bachman's and the tea party at the top with the money and the disabled, the veterans, the elderly and the ill at the bottom trying to hang on to the pale strand that might break and leave them without money.
All the money then would be in the hands of the wealthy, of course.
What will happen to the men and women my friend works with? She's a nurse and works at a facility which takes profoundly mentally and physically handicapped adults and older children. These people have no family. None. They have come through the system over years and ended up here. One gentleman has a body two feet long, no arms and no legs. His head is twice the size it should be. He is 55 years old. He has no one to care for him. He is in this facility because he has no one to take him in and attend to his difficult, round the clock needs. My friend tells me funds are being cut for these people's care. Nurses and CNA's are being let go. What will happen to the residents if the facility shuts down? Will they be transferred? To where? Will they be - what?!
Is this how we see ourselves as a country? Is this what we wish to model for our children? See, kids, this is how we treat one another. Forget what the Christians tell you about loving one another - that's a bother. Focus on the money - that's what the tea party does.
Concealed guns, fake candidates, closing DMVs so you can win, economical brinksmanship, stalling, lying, cheating. I am so disgusted in the republican party and their new owners, the tea baggers, I could scream.
I believe in the Power of the People - we must respond to this coup!
The rethuglians have simply gone around the bend. Here in Wisconsin and in Washington. In Wisconsin doors are slamming on DMVs in the state - only in Democratic neighborhoods mind you - and opening in republican strongholds to shift the weight in the next recall effort. We all know this shabby game based on the truth that when Democrats vote in numbers the election goes to them, when they stay home the election goes to the repubs - unless, of course, the repubs lie and cheat and buy votes and make people wait in line for hours upon hours and rig the voting machines, etc ad nauseam ala Florida in both presidential elections when King Bush Jr. "won".
Earlier in the month we were treated to fake candidates the repubs were running in an effort to draw votes away from the recalls. That didn't work. We The People were too smart for cardboard scarecrows. Now we are being abused in neighborhoods where there are 'just too many uppity, recall-voting Democrats'. So Walker et al waltz in and shut down the DMVs so voters can't get the ID everyone now needs or they can't vote. Then they drive to another neighborhood where there are gobs of conservative voters and open a brand new, shiny DMV right down the block so those poor tea-party folks don't have to be bothered to go too far to vote. And by the way, this disgusting ploy came right on the heels of redistricting which scribbled all over the map and has the potential for disrupting the ease with which citizens are able to vote.
Fair? Hell no! Illegal? I surely wish it were so but we have no laws on the books to prevent this sneaky, under-handed, low, dirty manner of doing what apparently is our Governor's business. Do not forget, though, who pulls Walker's puppet strings. Charles and David Koch and all the sub-Koch's who are currently filling Scottie's coffers with "donations". He wants to make sure he has money to ward off the recall effort when it comes his way. That, of course, means citizen action!
And Washington?! Each day I get out my dot-to-dot coloring book and make damn positive I am connecting the dots with bright colors. Like this: Scott Walker is connected to the Koch Money which is connected to the WalMart Money which is connected to the DeVos Money. All that money is connected to people like Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Michelle Bachman, and all the rest of the tea party elites. This money is connected to oil, gas, guns, power and greed. That connection is deep in many states now and deep in Washington where it is stalling any way through our serious debt crisis.
I use some softer colors to connect another set of dots. Like these: People with disabilities do not often have money, sometimes no family. They are connected to nursing homes, day care centers, group homes which are connected to a combination of state, county and/or federal money. Elderly people are connected to this same money which is connected to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security which is connected right now by thin, stressed threads to the same money Eric Cantor, John Boehner and the tea party retuhglians are connected to - except - this coloring book's pages are more like a stack of papers with the Boehner's and the Cantor's and the Bachman's and the tea party at the top with the money and the disabled, the veterans, the elderly and the ill at the bottom trying to hang on to the pale strand that might break and leave them without money.
All the money then would be in the hands of the wealthy, of course.
What will happen to the men and women my friend works with? She's a nurse and works at a facility which takes profoundly mentally and physically handicapped adults and older children. These people have no family. None. They have come through the system over years and ended up here. One gentleman has a body two feet long, no arms and no legs. His head is twice the size it should be. He is 55 years old. He has no one to care for him. He is in this facility because he has no one to take him in and attend to his difficult, round the clock needs. My friend tells me funds are being cut for these people's care. Nurses and CNA's are being let go. What will happen to the residents if the facility shuts down? Will they be transferred? To where? Will they be - what?!
Is this how we see ourselves as a country? Is this what we wish to model for our children? See, kids, this is how we treat one another. Forget what the Christians tell you about loving one another - that's a bother. Focus on the money - that's what the tea party does.
Concealed guns, fake candidates, closing DMVs so you can win, economical brinksmanship, stalling, lying, cheating. I am so disgusted in the republican party and their new owners, the tea baggers, I could scream.
I believe in the Power of the People - we must respond to this coup!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The Devil Went Down to Wisconsin
I've heard tell that some people can fiddle the devil out of hell and back down again. In Wisconsin we might just have heard a strain of that kind of music. About the time the cold was getting so deep that we thought it'd never go away and the ice on the lakes was still hard and we knew, we did, that the fish were fast asleep at the bottom.
I remember the sounds in the halls of the Capitol. During the day they were sweet and strong, those voices of Common People singing and chanting and laughing and shouting. Yes, that was sweet music, it made me feel happy to be there, joyful in my heart even though my toes ached and the winds stung my cheeks.
But, in the night, some nights, the music turned dark and dangerous and things happened behind doors when that music played. Whoever was fiddling then smoked the strings and the feet of those who met at dimly lit, walnut smooth desks, danced so feverish that the news in the morning came as though years had passed, it was that astounding. Deals were made, calls went out, interviews were given and many, many lies were told during that winter just passed. The Common People lost their promises, their jobs and their rights to ask for better pay and good working conditions.
And when the spring brought green to the muddy ruts around the Capitol and the sky took on a deeper blue, the fiddler was still in some room somewhere in that building. He was still fiddling so the men who made deals and told lies could keep dancing those crazy steps. They danced so hard they passed laws against the safety of the People! They made guns from their dancing and they laughed like maniacs as they scribbled the words - Concealed Carry. It was madness I tell you!
There's more than one fiddler. I know that now 'cause I am no longer a young one. I've seen some things. There's a fiddler playing in each and every office and Capitol that has those crazy, mad dancers who vote for guns and cuts and have red eyes that burn through decency and compassion. Their feet are swollen, painful and maybe even bleeding but they can't stop dancing, they can't stop taking from the Common People.
The Fiddler provides the music for terrible things. Why, you ask, would anyone want to dance to this music? Because the fiddler and his master make promises. If you can dance fast enough and long enough and wild enough and your dancing brings in more money and more power and more of everything, then you will be able some day to stop dancing and reap your reward.
But I know some things. That never happens. Never. It's a joke.
Power To The Common People!
p.s. The fiddling is loud today - can you hear it? The mad dancers are closing driver's stations in heavily democratic areas so those voters cannot get their state IDs and opening stations in predominately rethuglian areas. Someone has seen what's happening and is breaking the story. Thank goodness for people who hear different music!
I remember the sounds in the halls of the Capitol. During the day they were sweet and strong, those voices of Common People singing and chanting and laughing and shouting. Yes, that was sweet music, it made me feel happy to be there, joyful in my heart even though my toes ached and the winds stung my cheeks.
But, in the night, some nights, the music turned dark and dangerous and things happened behind doors when that music played. Whoever was fiddling then smoked the strings and the feet of those who met at dimly lit, walnut smooth desks, danced so feverish that the news in the morning came as though years had passed, it was that astounding. Deals were made, calls went out, interviews were given and many, many lies were told during that winter just passed. The Common People lost their promises, their jobs and their rights to ask for better pay and good working conditions.
And when the spring brought green to the muddy ruts around the Capitol and the sky took on a deeper blue, the fiddler was still in some room somewhere in that building. He was still fiddling so the men who made deals and told lies could keep dancing those crazy steps. They danced so hard they passed laws against the safety of the People! They made guns from their dancing and they laughed like maniacs as they scribbled the words - Concealed Carry. It was madness I tell you!
There's more than one fiddler. I know that now 'cause I am no longer a young one. I've seen some things. There's a fiddler playing in each and every office and Capitol that has those crazy, mad dancers who vote for guns and cuts and have red eyes that burn through decency and compassion. Their feet are swollen, painful and maybe even bleeding but they can't stop dancing, they can't stop taking from the Common People.
The Fiddler provides the music for terrible things. Why, you ask, would anyone want to dance to this music? Because the fiddler and his master make promises. If you can dance fast enough and long enough and wild enough and your dancing brings in more money and more power and more of everything, then you will be able some day to stop dancing and reap your reward.
But I know some things. That never happens. Never. It's a joke.
Power To The Common People!
p.s. The fiddling is loud today - can you hear it? The mad dancers are closing driver's stations in heavily democratic areas so those voters cannot get their state IDs and opening stations in predominately rethuglian areas. Someone has seen what's happening and is breaking the story. Thank goodness for people who hear different music!
Monday, July 25, 2011
In Need of A Sacred Clown
Raven, Brer Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, Aunt Nancy, Iktomi, The Three Stooges, Hermes, Whiskey Jack and Coyote.
Those names sound familiar? They are titles for the Sacred Clown, the persona in many different forms who holds a mirror up for us, who teases and prods us to see our foibles for what they are. The Trickster burps and farts in public, sets us up to take a fall, acts in outrageous ways - often sexually explicit. He or she is a thief, a glutton and the most accomplished author of endless lies.
The gift of the Trickster is to demonstrate for us the absurdity of our behaviors, to make fun of those sacred cows we dare not giggle about. Often the Trickster tales give us a refreshing vision of Common People raised up and the wealthy laid low - tables turned for a time to allow the little guy to win. In many traditional cultures the Sacred Clown is an integral part of ceremony. It is his job to be wild and crazy, unruly, disruptive like a naughty school boy who makes everybody laugh. The task of the Trickster, the Coyote is to mock the status quo and while dancing in front of us to offer very serious commentary on the times.
I submit we are in need of more Sacred Clowns, more people who can get out a huge mirror for us so we can see what is happening. We need more Tricksters to make fun of this rampant fundamentalism that is holding our government hostage while August 3rd races towards us. We need Wile E. to get hit by a falling boulder and at the bottom of the ravine to hold out a sign saying - "Oops, I didn't see that coming..."
We are in great need of this energy, risky as it is to call it in, to dance in front of us with outlandish clothes on - suits, ties, heels - and little name tags - Wall Street Excess, WalMart, DeVos, Koch Boys, Wealthy Elite. We need to make fun of that in a serious way and allow the Sacred Clown to show us how much we have become in thrall to this dangerous right wing ideology. We need this Clown more than we have ever needed it to poke us, wake us up, teach us some hard lessons and demonstrate what trickery, narcissism, Christian fundamentalism, cheating and lying, and making off with the country's goods really looks like.
Because I am not positive that we get it yet.
Power To All The Common People!
Those names sound familiar? They are titles for the Sacred Clown, the persona in many different forms who holds a mirror up for us, who teases and prods us to see our foibles for what they are. The Trickster burps and farts in public, sets us up to take a fall, acts in outrageous ways - often sexually explicit. He or she is a thief, a glutton and the most accomplished author of endless lies.
The gift of the Trickster is to demonstrate for us the absurdity of our behaviors, to make fun of those sacred cows we dare not giggle about. Often the Trickster tales give us a refreshing vision of Common People raised up and the wealthy laid low - tables turned for a time to allow the little guy to win. In many traditional cultures the Sacred Clown is an integral part of ceremony. It is his job to be wild and crazy, unruly, disruptive like a naughty school boy who makes everybody laugh. The task of the Trickster, the Coyote is to mock the status quo and while dancing in front of us to offer very serious commentary on the times.
I submit we are in need of more Sacred Clowns, more people who can get out a huge mirror for us so we can see what is happening. We need more Tricksters to make fun of this rampant fundamentalism that is holding our government hostage while August 3rd races towards us. We need Wile E. to get hit by a falling boulder and at the bottom of the ravine to hold out a sign saying - "Oops, I didn't see that coming..."
We are in great need of this energy, risky as it is to call it in, to dance in front of us with outlandish clothes on - suits, ties, heels - and little name tags - Wall Street Excess, WalMart, DeVos, Koch Boys, Wealthy Elite. We need to make fun of that in a serious way and allow the Sacred Clown to show us how much we have become in thrall to this dangerous right wing ideology. We need this Clown more than we have ever needed it to poke us, wake us up, teach us some hard lessons and demonstrate what trickery, narcissism, Christian fundamentalism, cheating and lying, and making off with the country's goods really looks like.
Because I am not positive that we get it yet.
Power To All The Common People!
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