(no subject)

tamiroff posted about his sighting of wild parrots in Brooklyn, prompting me to go skim the Brooklyn Parrots blog. I skimmed some of the posts there, saddened by the War on Parrots waged by power companies, and then moved on to War on Geese: http://www.brooklynparrots.com/2005/06/canada-geese-vs-wooden-dogs.html

This post is unintentionally hilarious at this moment, because there's a really well placed ad for dog silhouettes to keep geese away above the photo documentary of the complete ineffectiveness.

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The Rage is Not About Health Care Op-Ed piece, with its conclusion that the Republican leadership's apparent fear of taking on the Tea Party rhetoric is "the strongest possible indicator that the rest of us have reason to fear them too," taps my sickened feelings about politics in this country.[1] I don't know how the author means "fear" -- i don't want to cower anywhere. But the undercurrent of violence that the Southern Poverty Law Center tracks is on an upswing:

The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.

A good example is the upcoming Second Amendment March in Washington, D.C. ....

What may be most noteworthy about the march, however, is its date — April 19. That is the date of the first shots fired at Lexington in the Revolutionary War. And it is also the anniversary of the fiery end of the government siege in Waco and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

It's hard to know how much of my mental reaction to these reports is overwrought, and how much is based on extrapolating the actions of Eric Robert Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh, and Terry Nichols. I note that the news reports i link to for he Second Amendment March derisively dismiss the "fearmongering" of the SPLC.

I think i'm done with this for this morning.

[1] The sentence "Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill...." bugs me because demographics are the measure of the change not the manifestation or incarnation of the change.

(no subject)

In Meeting today, thinking about how people can celebrate change and transformation on one hand and be terrified and reactionary on the other -- seeing the pattern of behavior in the story of a crucifixion two thousand years ago during a celebration of change, seeing the pattern in individuals who can celebrate how they change and grow but are threatened or feal disrespected when others grow in a different way -- i asked what can be done? And the answer that to be heard you must lisen, to be cread for you must care for others came to me and seemed very satisfying.

But i wonder now -- i can listen to others who are different, but i don't know if i can listen to those so angry and full of hate.

[goes off and thinks]

I suppose i have listened to my mother when she was ready to share her anger and pain and bitterness. I listened, i tried not to absorb the poisons, but i listened beyond her words. And it was a turning point for us. It's true, too, she hears me more now.

But there's something different about the reactionary rhetoric. It's not someone speaking their truth. It's manipulative rhetoric or -- is it fair to say it's parroting? Or am i just rationalizing my avoidance of something that seems so counter productive, so energy sapping.....