deliver me some evil
give me something i can fight
tackle
wrestle
wrangle
bite
give me demons in a cage
full of poison
full of rage
don’t need odds of fifty fifty
forty sixty? dandy
nifty
let one thing be understood
they are awful
i am good
if i win
what joy I’ll feel
if I lose it’s no
big
deal
long as i have fought
with valor
play that dirge
by gustav
mahler
dig my grave
and bow your head
say you’re sorry that I’m dead
play some taps
at setting sun
and
forget
the bad
i’ve
done
hey Gramps–how do birds fly?
well, watch em, Tim. they flap their wings, and when they do, they grab some air and push it down, so they go up.
okay, then, how do planes fly? their wings don’t flap…
Tim, the planes have wings that are curved on the top side and flat underneath. so the air over the wing, when the plane is going fast, goes faster than the air underneath. but it’s the same amount of air, just stretched, and so the air pressure above the wing is less, so the plane is sucked upward.
then how do rockets fly? they don’t have any wings at all.
you ask good questions, kid. well, rockets have these little rooms called fuel chambers. and the stuff in the chambers is lit up and when it burns it expands and goes out these things called thrusters and the tops of the chambers get pushed hard, just like if you pooted hard enough it would lift you out of the chair.
(Gramps and Tim giggle and then laugh)
(They hear the yelling of Tim’s parents having an argument on the other side of the house and they stop laughing)
Gramps, Mama is talking about leaving Daddy.
i know, son. (Gramps puts an arm around Tim)
why do they fight all the time?
well, Tim, i don’t know for sure, but i think part of it is your dad has a mean boss and then when he comes home from work he takes it out on your mom. and your mom wants to get out more and do.more with her life but your dad doesn’t want her to. so it’s a lot like that rocket and that plane and that bird. A lot of pushing and pulling. a lot of…
pressure?
yeah, Tim. smart grandson i have here.
(pause)
hey, Grandpa, you okay?
It’s no coincidence that Conflict, Afflict and Inflict are cousins.
You–YOU–have a big fight ahead of you, no question. YOU choose what you are fighting for. YOU choose the rules of engagement–one choice may be to adapt the rules of engagement of whom you have chosen to follow. And YOU choose the degree of intensity to bring to the fight. Given all this, and given the justness of your cause, I wish you well. I hope you win your fight.
In his famous novel 1984 George Orwell imagined the countries of the world reduced to three. They were named Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania. They were in perpetual conflict. Two of them would gang up against the third, and seemingly win, but then a different two would form an alliance against the new third country, ad infinitum. All conflict benefited the real movers and shakers of the world. Their machine turned misery into wealth and power. No one knew who these very powerful, very wealthy people were.
Part of the perpetual shame of being a citizen of the United States is that the United States benefits enormously from conflict. Huge corporations euphemistically named “Defense Contractors” work with the military to create more effective means of ending lives. Little research and development is devoted to defense; much is devoted to offense.
The current President, when a candidate for the office, when asked how he would handle a certain collective that has been described as a “Terrorist Group,” replied, and this is as exact a quotation as my memory provides, “I’d bomb the shit out of them.” As President, he has caused to happen a certain amount of bombing that has resulted in the deaths of noncombatants. These deaths are euphemistically called “Collateral Damage.”
In the movie VICE, based on the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney, there is a scene that occurs during the Nixon presidency. Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are near a closed door to a room where Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger are discussing their plans to carpet-bomb Cambodia. Somehow Cheney and Rumsfeld knew this. Years later, Cheney would be instrumental in compelling the US to invade Iraq, while the “Defense Contractor” Halliburton, which formerly employed Cheney as Chief Executive Officer, benefited from enormous, no-bid, cost-plus contractual work. For further information please run an Internet search on “sailboat fuel.”
Part of human nature is a desperate need to feel like one of the “good guys.” “Good guys” cannot exist without “bad guys.” In my lifetime, according to my ever-evolving government, the “bad guys” have included ex-Nazis, organized crime, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Ku Klux Klan, Communists, North Vietnam, “Red” China, the U.S.S.R., the Palestinian Liberation Organization (“P.L.O.”), Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Iran, Iraq, Daniel Noriega, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, ISIS and/or ISOL, Saddam Hussein…Moammar Ghaddafi…Osama bin Laden…so many more. Ironically, many of these enemies were created by the zealous efforts of the US Government to effect regime change, ostensibly for the good of the world.
The way to avoid Pushback is for the initial Push not to have occurred in the first place.
The words to the acrostic:
Post this suspect’s APB
Unto dog comes tick & flea
Shave it burn it write it: Bic
Have a prospect take a pick
One with Clay, Image and Text 