There is a story that I frequently remember, when my life is moving slower than I would like.
Jermaine Jackson tells this story, and I heard him tell it around the time I was doing work in ‘write it down, and make it happen.’
Michael Jackson wrote a note to himself that read, “I will record the best-selling album of all time,” and he placed this on his bathroom mirror, where he read it every morning.
With time, Michael eventually released that album. “Thriller” remains to this day the best selling album of all time, the closest runners up lagging behind by over 45,000,000 albums. No other recording artist or groups comes close.
“Indian music is like a river or stream that has come down to us through time, bringing nurture to man’s soul. From the past masters, this music flowed to my father and through him to me. I want to keep this stream flowing. I don’t want it to die. It must spread all over the world.”
I start up in the north
I grow from special seed
I sprinkle it with sensibility
From French and Hungarian snow
I linger in the sprouting
Until my engine’s full.
Then I move across the sea
To European bliss
To language of poets
As I cut the cord of home
I kiss my mother’s mother
Look to the horizon.
Wide eyed, new ground
Humbled by my new surroundings . . .
I am a citizen of the planet
My president is Kwan Yin
My frontier is on an airplane
My prison’s homes for rehabilitating.
Then I fly back to my nest
I fly back with my nuclear
But everything is different
So I wait
My yearn for home is broadened
Patriotism expanded
By callings from beyond.
So I pack my things
Nothing precious
All things sacred.
I am a citizen of the planet
My laws are all of attraction
My punishments are consequences
Separating from source the original sin.
I am a citizen of the planet
Democracy’s kids are sovereign
Where the teachers are the sages
And pedestals filled with every parent.
And so the next few years are blurry
The next decade’s a flurry
Of smells and tastes unknown
Threads sewn straight through this fabric
Through fields of every color
One culture to another.
And I come alive
And I get giddy
And I am taken and globally naturalized.
I am a citizen of the planet
From simple roots through high vision
I am guarded by the angels
And my body guides the direction I go in.
I am a citizen of the planet
My favorite pastime edge stretching
Besotten with human condition
These ideals are born from my deepest within.
Quan Yin: Anonymous, 14th Century Japanese Painting
I really don’t care too much about what’s on the Boob Tube (the reference to mindlessness and its joining to the female anatomy noted once again), for the double standards employed are beyond ridiculous. Not really worth commenting on, as only the truly oblivious can be oblivious.
For example, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowel [sic] merits outrage and lawsuits, but every single hour we have erectile dysfunction ads that parents must explain to their kids.
“Mommy (and or) Daddy what is erectile dysfunction?”
“Why must a penis be ‘erect’?”
“Why is a pill necessary if it is natural and about love?”
Oh, please say it ain’t so, a black woman flashing a bit of flesh is a moral outrage, a sullying of the national psyche . . . but white men talking about their need for a pill to get it up, well that’s just honky dory (racial nod intended).
But my beef for today is about those damn Brinks Home Security ads.
All of these bits of ‘home security’ advertising tripe employ the most obvious stereotypes.
Most of the ads follow a formula:
Woman alone.
Or woman alone with kids.
Or young woman alone.
(Though a newer advert does portray a married, i.e., man and woman, couple, so I guess they’ve had complaints.)
Masked man dressed in black comes in to do harm to woman.
She’s scared to death, her fear reminiscent of a horror flick, though presumably she knows that she has the Brinks Security system installed. But I guess the unexpected always gets the best of her pretty little head.
Wait! The Brinks Home Security man inevitably and immediately calls to tell her “I am here, and help is on the way.”
Security. The day is saved.
The Brinks man is of course a relatively good looking white male, without exception.
Indeed, the entire behind the scenes security staff flashed near the end seems solely comprised of white men, those bastions of security and well-being.
Oh god, it is just so painful to watch.
That such nonsense generates sales is mind boggling . . . and I hear that Brinks has really poor home security, too. (The keypad featured at the ad’s end is presumably one of the most outdated on the market, or so I’ve been told.)
I credit Brinks for at least having the savvy to have white men dressed in black portray the intruders, and not simply black men (or Latinos) dressed in jeans and a tee.
G-d bless them. The advertising geeks know how to play an audience.
Photo courtesy from the CSE department, University of Michigan. Taken from Poe Field, Princeton.
At precisely 2:12 p.m. est on June 7th, the moon goes full.
The June full moon is also known as the ‘Full Strawberry Moon,’ for according to the Farmer’s Almanac, “the Algonquin tribes knew this moon as a time to gather ripening strawberries. It is also known as the Rose Moon and the Hot Moon.”
As it is the beginning of June, the sun is in the constellation of Gemini, so the full moon is in the opposing constellation, Sagittarius. If you’re sensitive to the moon’s effects, expect to feel a little crazed until it moves out of direct opposition, and the effects dissipate, probably early Tuesday morning.
Until then, nurture your inner lunatic and smile.
We’re about two weeks away from the Summer Solstice, the year’s longest day, and the official beginning of summer.
“On 19 May 2009, Amnesty International held a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London calling for the commutation of Troy Davis’ death sentence. We recorded people’s messages of solidarity, which we are sending to Troy and his family.”
Update: “On May 20, twenty-seven former judges and prosecutors from across the political spectrum filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis.”
Click here for details, and for links to both the amicus brief and the original writ of habeas corpus.
After attending Harvard for what seems like a millennium, I discovered this past week that we have a DVD and video library full of treasures to be checked out for free.
Free being the keyword.
Oh, she’s a sharp one alright.
On this discovery, I made haste to peruse the offerings. Keep reading →
I have said similar as Charlie Brooker to friends.
Male and female.
I’ve even touted legislation for the past years years that I call “affirmative action voting.” It’s a kind of compromise between those who believe in “voter testing” and actually having womyn’s voices and lives represented in the law of the land.
For something like a hundred years, womyn were denied the right to vote, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were literally laughed out of Congress (read: white men) when they first presented the Constitutional amendment giving womyn the right to vote to that ‘noble body’ (read: male body, writ into the law).
Over forty years later, after the death of both womyn, the amendment written by Ms. Stanton was finally ratified.
As a corrective to those years, I’ve proposed “affirmative action voting.” This voting test requires a physician’s statement of biological gender. Have a penis? Sorry, outta luck for a few decades. (And guess what, size won’t make a bit of difference.) Take a number and wait your turn.
Silly?
No sillier than the presumptions that governed this country for over a hundred years, and it is in fact the precise standard that was applied in denying the womyn the right to vote.
Perhaps not so silly as it sounds. Or perhaps it is only silly if a womyn proposes the standard be applied to men.
I think it more than fair to employ a little affirmative action voting for a few decades, making everything the way it should be, evening things up a bit, giving the little ladies the reigns for a few years.
Let’s see what happens after a decade or two.
I am so glad Charlie Brooker wrote this column.
So much better coming from a man.
Honesty, you gotta love it.
Though I doubt many American men are ready for this strong a dose of it. Honesty, that is. G-d bless them, it’s a hard habit to develop, and there is certainly little in this testosterone driven culture compelling to behave so.
I read this week about Mia Farrow’s hunger strike for the people of
Darfur, a little after the fact as life has prevented me from being involved with too much other than the day to day.
As many of you know, the genocide in Darfur has been an important issue to me, well beyond the few entries on this blog, the needless slaughtering of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of over two million while the world turns a blind eye unconscionable to this writer.
So in my little corner here, I’ve highlighted articles by Nicholas Kristof, and at times promoted Ms. Farrow’s blog and photos to raise awareness, as well as the things I can do behind the screen, in the world.
Here is where the two come together in an unusual way. Keep reading →
“Indian music is like a river or stream that has come down to us through time, bringing nurture to man’s soul. From the past masters, this music flowed to my father and through him to me. I want to keep this stream flowing. I don’t want it to die. It must spread all over the world.” 
Honesty, You Gotta Love It . . .
June 1, 2009 · 10 Comments
I have said similar as Charlie Brooker to friends.
Male and female.
I’ve even touted legislation for the past years years that I call “affirmative action voting.” It’s a kind of compromise between those who believe in “voter testing” and actually having womyn’s voices and lives represented in the law of the land.
For something like a hundred years, womyn were denied the right to vote, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were literally laughed out of Congress (read: white men) when they first presented the Constitutional amendment giving womyn the right to vote to that ‘noble body’ (read: male body, writ into the law).
Over forty years later, after the death of both womyn, the amendment written by Ms. Stanton was finally ratified.
As a corrective to those years, I’ve proposed “affirmative action voting.” This voting test requires a physician’s statement of biological gender. Have a penis? Sorry, outta luck for a few decades. (And guess what, size won’t make a bit of difference.) Take a number and wait your turn.
Silly?
No sillier than the presumptions that governed this country for over a hundred years, and it is in fact the precise standard that was applied in denying the womyn the right to vote.
Perhaps not so silly as it sounds. Or perhaps it is only silly if a womyn proposes the standard be applied to men.
I think it more than fair to employ a little affirmative action voting for a few decades, making everything the way it should be, evening things up a bit, giving the little ladies the reigns for a few years.
Let’s see what happens after a decade or two.
I am so glad Charlie Brooker wrote this column.
So much better coming from a man.
Honesty, you gotta love it.
Though I doubt many American men are ready for this strong a dose of it. Honesty, that is. G-d bless them, it’s a hard habit to develop, and there is certainly little in this testosterone driven culture compelling to behave so.
This week’s must read opinion, because instead of bantering about the specifics, let’s start getting a good look at the forest amid the trees.
Gaurdian Commentary: Charlie Brooker Calls On Women To Rule The World.
→ 10 CommentsCategories: Advocacy · Behavior · Columnists · Courage · Economy · Empowerment · Equality · Gender · Gender and Identity · Global Economy · Global Warming · Hermanity · Hope · Identity · Ignorance · Learning · Legal Theory · Men · Old Baggage · Politics · Popular Culture · Power · Psychology · Redemption · The Guardian · Women · Women's Subordination · Womyn · Writers · Writing
Tagged: Advocacy, Commentary, Gender, Hope, Imagination, Men, Political Commentary, Power, Reality, Save the Planet, The World, Truth, Women