lonely is a man with wisdom

i saw ralph nader speak at boston university last night. a tad hitchcock angrier than usual, nader hit all the right notes. he implored the students to become engaged citizens. his biting wit seemed to fly above their heads however. at one point, he spoke to the very real possibility of the reinstitution of the draft as something that should obviously concern the students. he told us that this time, the draft will come "without gender discrimination." i smirked, drawing a confused stare from a fellow audience member. there was no reaction that i could discern. nader's point was a powerful one. a world where all of us have an equal right to kill doesn't do much for those under the bombs. it brings to mind the celebration of forgotten black korean war veterans at umass boston several years back. these men wanted "credit" for what they had done. i suggested the symposium be entitled "we killed people too." at least i got a couple of laughs.
another of nader's high points came when he strongly reminded the audience that this administration has committed the most significant international crime; namely, a war of aggression. but, as he told us, "we were too busy watching american idol to do anything about it." (dolittle was robbed) this time, i at least heard myself laughing.
i commend nader for soldiering on. he still has much to say, but his audience sadly seems to be shrinking. in a school of tens of thousands, only a couple of hundred people came to hear him. he is one of the great men of our time, and yet, continues to be pounded over his 2000 push for the presidency. was nader's campaign in 2000 the nadir of his career? i say nay, dear. it was an energetic campaign that helped bring millions of young idealists into electoral politics, and it exposed people to a plethora of ideas that would have been silenced by the traditional political parties. it was the best progressive third party run for presidential power since henry wallace's run in 1948. wallace's character was also brutally assassinated. to learn more about wallace, read frank (a liberal) kofsky's book on his run for the presidency.
nader has nothing to apologize for. rather, it is we, the american people, who should be apologizing to him for not voting him into office. furthermore, we should apologize for the smears against his character by those who call themselves progressives. people like gitlin and alterman should beg forgiveness for the gutless attacks they have directed against nader.
in an age of reaction, nader dared to be progressive. we should honor his work by building a better society and not settling for this two party dictatorship that does the bidding of corporate and military power, and not the people.

thoughts: i am tired of 6 year old girls with cell phones. if families have that much money that their brat children can have cell phones, they should be donating their money to those who don't have a roof over their heads, much less a phone.

the american people are a fearful, ignorant, apathetic bunch of selfish assholes. try getting a movement for change going with those beliefs.

i work and work and work. and at the end of the month, i have lost money. it doesn't seem fair, does it? if you are not rich in this country, or at least, comfortably middle class (remember them?) your life is a circular trip to nowhere consisting of work, paying bills, and bitching. i need the latter of these activities, but i could do without the other two.

near downtown boston, their is a holocaust memorial. funny, but i didn't see any indian names.

work's greatest crime? it gets in the way of my (our) doing nothing. you show me a man doing nothing, and i'll show you someone who is not dropping bombs on people.

motivation is overrated. hitler was motivated.

that moment when you really have to pee and you go is one of the great feelings you can have, ain't it? i also like a good shit on a fall day. i realize i am treading on controversial turf here, but a good shit is a happening. come on, admit it!

suicide is underrated. it takes courage to kill yourself and end this farce known as life.

suicide bombers are not cowards. they know they can't hang with us in a conventional military sense, so they are doing what they have to do. when an algerian general was asked by a french journalist "why do you hide bombs in baby carriages," he replied "you give us your planes and we will give you our baby carriages." since we are probably not shipping a supply of b-2 bombers with cluster bombs and napalm to al qaeda anytime soon, this kind of thing will probably continue. if we want it to end, perhaps we should stop terrorizing the planet, pay reparations, and apologize for our genocidal actions. (is their a candidate running saying these things?) just a thought.

somewhere over the rainbow, i can see judy running through a garland of flowers. (an old time pun for the faithful.) i have a long faith hill to climb, but i haven't given up my elmo hope cd yet.

hang in, my reader(s?) it can't get any worse.

can it?