GLITTER (song lyrics)
don't be afraid to look pretty in gold
or of the vast disorder that surrounds you
and cannot touch your hair
Main Street will be your friend tonight
your bodyguards are in their element
there's a spaceship in your eyes
blue sky, blue sky giving way to black
and the infinite
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
A POLITE HARASSMENT OF MY LOCAL NEWSPAPER
by Luke Buckham
I did once briefly meet and shake hands with our governor, John Lynch, and he seems like a genuinely polite, gentle, concerned, reasonable and likeable person. However, I have come to believe that he is also an obstruction standing in the way of social justice (he is not the only obstruction). He has repeatedly promised to veto any bills that decriminalize marijuana, legalize gay marriage, or abolish the death penalty, and he has used his power and influence as a public figure to do this quite openly, of his own volition. I understand that he would like to be elected as many times as possible; indeed, we all long for influence, power, and respectability. It is quite human to do so. And I understand that perhaps the majority of New Hampshirites--if that's what we're called--may not be ready to accept change on the level that such legislation would demand, or to vote for anyone who would accept and promote that change from the governor's seat. I am even sympathetic to many of the opinions of my more socially conservative friends, having been raised in a very socially conservative environment myself.
But I'm also fairly sure that most of us have many friends and neighbors who peacefully and good-naturedly make love to persons of their own sex, smoke marijuana, and detest the brutal and hypocritical nature of the death penalty, which, although it is not often used in our state, does give the ability (not the right) to the state to snuff out the life of a human being who has hurt or snuffed out the life of another, as opposed to merely removing them from polite society, so that they cannot hurt or kill another one. Life sentences for particularly violent offenders are a reasonable alternative to execution, in my opinion. And those whose non-harmful lives include homosexual love, and marijuana (there are many such people), should really be allowed to live out their lives in public with the same degree of dignity, ceremony, and ease as those whose lives do not include such things.
And so I have to decided to never vote for our governer again--unless his views on these matters are startlingly reversed--though I once did, and though my vote was one of those that brought him into power in the first place. I know that wide-eyed idealism is often greeted with crushing and massive resistance. I know that many people think that pragmatism is a more reasonable and easier way to slowly and carefully bring about social change (and that many are vehemently opposed to that social change, as well).
But I also suspect that the kind of political sea-change that recently swept Barack Obama into power may someday sweep a radical into our governor's seat, and into the Oval Office as well. And perhaps someday there will no longer be a need for that governor's seat, or for the Oval Office, to exist at all. Perhaps someday a wave of loving, sympathetic anarchy (anarchism, though it usually carries a connotation of violence whenever it is mentioned in our sometimes hideously under-informed society, is at its best a political philosophy which considers compulsory government unnecessary, harmful, or undesirable) will sweep the world. It might seem impossible to most (it usually seems impossible to me, too), but mightn't we think, for a moment, of how many other things once seemed impossible?
by Luke Buckham
I did once briefly meet and shake hands with our governor, John Lynch, and he seems like a genuinely polite, gentle, concerned, reasonable and likeable person. However, I have come to believe that he is also an obstruction standing in the way of social justice (he is not the only obstruction). He has repeatedly promised to veto any bills that decriminalize marijuana, legalize gay marriage, or abolish the death penalty, and he has used his power and influence as a public figure to do this quite openly, of his own volition. I understand that he would like to be elected as many times as possible; indeed, we all long for influence, power, and respectability. It is quite human to do so. And I understand that perhaps the majority of New Hampshirites--if that's what we're called--may not be ready to accept change on the level that such legislation would demand, or to vote for anyone who would accept and promote that change from the governor's seat. I am even sympathetic to many of the opinions of my more socially conservative friends, having been raised in a very socially conservative environment myself.
But I'm also fairly sure that most of us have many friends and neighbors who peacefully and good-naturedly make love to persons of their own sex, smoke marijuana, and detest the brutal and hypocritical nature of the death penalty, which, although it is not often used in our state, does give the ability (not the right) to the state to snuff out the life of a human being who has hurt or snuffed out the life of another, as opposed to merely removing them from polite society, so that they cannot hurt or kill another one. Life sentences for particularly violent offenders are a reasonable alternative to execution, in my opinion. And those whose non-harmful lives include homosexual love, and marijuana (there are many such people), should really be allowed to live out their lives in public with the same degree of dignity, ceremony, and ease as those whose lives do not include such things.
And so I have to decided to never vote for our governer again--unless his views on these matters are startlingly reversed--though I once did, and though my vote was one of those that brought him into power in the first place. I know that wide-eyed idealism is often greeted with crushing and massive resistance. I know that many people think that pragmatism is a more reasonable and easier way to slowly and carefully bring about social change (and that many are vehemently opposed to that social change, as well).
But I also suspect that the kind of political sea-change that recently swept Barack Obama into power may someday sweep a radical into our governor's seat, and into the Oval Office as well. And perhaps someday there will no longer be a need for that governor's seat, or for the Oval Office, to exist at all. Perhaps someday a wave of loving, sympathetic anarchy (anarchism, though it usually carries a connotation of violence whenever it is mentioned in our sometimes hideously under-informed society, is at its best a political philosophy which considers compulsory government unnecessary, harmful, or undesirable) will sweep the world. It might seem impossible to most (it usually seems impossible to me, too), but mightn't we think, for a moment, of how many other things once seemed impossible?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)