“Dirt” at the nursing home?

Quote from AP News:

“The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month. It marks the third consecutive yearly increase recorded for that age group by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Meanwhile, illicit drug use among young teens went down for the third consecutive year — from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.9 percent in 2005.”

Perhaps I will soon be performing the show at retirement communities and nursing homes. Perhaps I should get a place in Boca?

Five Years

I was watching PBS on September 11th, 2006. I knew that if I tuned in I would get thoughtful discussion and not talking heads screaming at each other. I would get sensetive remembrances to those who have been lost and not politicized explotive “tributes.” I would get a friend and voice to console me and not an empty headed reporter trying to rip open my wounds and anger me all over again. What I and millions others got that night was everything we have come to expect from PBS and more! Newshour had an amzing roundtable discussion led by Jim Lehrer where people actually listened to eachother and the evening culminated in a video essay by Richard Rodriguez. I was quite moved by this piece titled “5 years.” I cannot find the video but I do have the audio mp3 file. So for today I ask you to take a few minutes to listen to to the poetic recollection of the 5 year anniversary of 911 by Richard Rodriguez. Also below is a link to the Panel discussion transcripts.

Newshour with Jim Lehrer 9-11-06 show

 Five Years: No Time At All [5:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was thinking about addicts and jesus again…

Yesterday I heard someone say that they would pray for a certain person who was an addict. Pray that they would “find jesus and eternal life” and I wrote the following in a fit of coltrane induced sleeplesness.

A belief in eternal life betrays this one. If you believe that this existence is just a test or practice or precursor to another, better, longer lasting, AND MORE IMPORTANT life than this one (which by the way is the only provable and empirical life that any human has ever known) than you will act in a way that treats this life like it ultimately means nothing. If you believe there is a better life for you and yours afterwards than why put any thought or effort into making life better now. If you believe that your neighbor, the infidel, is bound for hell after this life, then it seems ultimately hypocritical that you would want him to meet his doom sooner than you meet your fate. Yet this is the dichotomy and hypocrisy that all christians and muslims and jews find themselves in. If you truly believed that your neighbor is going to hell and that perhaps your words or actions could change this you would act different. If you believed that the only thing your neighbor needed was faith like yours which came by an acceptance and knowledge of your holy book then you would want to keep them ALIVE for as long as possible to get them to read it, or learn it, or accept your savior into their hearts. And yet, the christian and muslim live their life in an opposite fashion distancing themselves from their neighbor with no regard for the collateral damage and death of the person in the next temple, state, country, or culture. Our faith sponsored countries and governments inflict or ignore the gross suffering and death of their neighbors in the name of faith, god, or a capitalism extrapolated from a holy book.

It seems rather obvious to me that if one had no conception of religion or no belief in an abstract idea of eternal life. If one believed that the present existence of birth to death as determined by the beating of the human heart was the only true and knowable definition of existence then, and only then, is an abstract idea like acting out of love possible. It seems that what most would define as a loving act is performed not for a god, guilt, or compulsion but rather genuine compassion and empathy for a fellow passenger in all too brief existence. If one lived and acted based on the notion that ‘This is all there is” the idea of the death of a fellow human being would be truly tragic and of the utmost importance. The sickness or suffering of another would be a “burden” which would awaken a guttural human emotion hardwired from the evolutionary ooze that required action to heal and ease this suffering and sickness.

Is it possible then that the most moral and loving path to walk is the one free from any religious faith or abstract spiritual pitfall? Is it possibile that the only jesus, mohammed, prophet or priest that anyone needs to meet is YOU.

comments?????

From Salt to Soy To Freedom

The other night I watched the movie Gandhi. Of the many scenes that will stick in my mind I can’t stop dwelling on the point the people of India, under British rule, were not allowed to make, distribute, and use salt produced from their own oceans and their own people. Heres the set up. 1940’s. India. About 100,000 occupying British citizens, politicians, and businessmen were dominating about 350,000,000 (not a typo….million!) Indians. England ran all the businesses, collected all the taxes, and gave very little representation to any Indian people in Parliament. Similar to the American colonies but with policies based on racism, abuse, and a more blatant aparthied tyrannical rule. Threatened by violence and feeling overwhelmed the people made small baby steps in trying to rid themselves of this oppression. Protests were held. Walk outs and strikes were somewhat effective as businesses and governments were brought to stand stills when all the people refused to work. But, in the end, the people needed food and basic sustenance and it was controlled by their oppressors. One of the biggest needs was salt. A preservative which was truly an essential to their health and lifestyle of 1940’s Indian cities like Calcutta and Bombay. The laws of the time forbade the Indian people from makin salt on their own or buying it from anyone else but England. Their most plentiful resource washing up on the shores daily was used to enslave them and feed the power and greed of others who did not even live in their own country. Gandhi eventually organizes a brilliant plan where he calls for all the people of India to go down to the ocean and make their own salt. Sell their own salt. And buy it from fellow countrymen. Over 100,000 Indians were arrested but eventually the British minority could not keep up with the native majority…And freedom eventually came. Although this is a lousy cliff’s notes of the events of those times I feel we need to hear the lessons of history and apply them to now.I can’t help but think that perhaps our future might best be shaped by learning from the salt of the sea.

We currently find ourselves enslaved in modern day America. One percent of the people in this country own fifty percent of the wealth. The biggest profits reported by any companies over the past few years have been those of the oil companies. Gas prices have DOUBLED in that same time and yet if the price was truly based on market oil prices how could the profit margin be as high as the cost of the product. What a set up and scam. Ten years of unprecedented wealth under democratic rule but during that time the so called environmental party did little to curb sales of huge SUVs and further production of alternative fuels. The next administration comes in and gives TAX BREAKS for small businessmen buying HUMMERS (Seriously) and even larger tax breaks for the larger corporations. Meanwhile as the two parties theatrically squawk and jockey for power, the majority of people in this country now spend 100-150 dollars a week to fill up thier vehicles to go to work. And our president says “The American People are addicted to oil.” Does he say that with a frown and a tear or a smile and a wink. Meanwhile we spend 400 billion dollars of our money (remeber the government takes 30-40 percent of your money) on killing people in a part of the world to set up a safe staging area for us to get more oil. Lets not bullsh*t eachother. There are millions of people oppressed by tyranny and terrorism around the world and a dozen or so more evil intentioned facist dictators than Iraq and Saddam or even Afghanistan and Bin Laden…We are there quite simply because of oil. We dress it up with a yellow ribbon and a bumber sticker and a picture of a plane on 9-11 but lets not bullsh*t anymore. Lets tell the 3000 families of those who died and 20,000 families of those who come home with no arms or legs…That we really appreciate all they have done so that I can drive my car. Thank you to the 150,000 people overseas who died. Appreciate it. If it wasnt for you my neighbor would not be able to drive her Ford excursion to Curves and pick up her two children at Gymboree. Thank you. We really appreciate it.
Alas, my sarcasm may fall on deaf ears for a while but I do have hope.

As gandhi looked out at the sea and was enlightened I too have seen the future. I have seen not the sea but a field. Not salt but soy. Millions of miles of farmland in this country. Land which the government is paying farmers to either not cultivate or subsidizing it for high fructose corn syrup. Millions of miles. Did you know that that land could grow other plants? Did you know that the Soy plant could not only be used for food but fuel? Did you know that the oil from soy and other vegetables could run in an engine? The man who invented the diesel engine almost 100 years ago ran his engine on vegetable oil! Did you know that in Europe almost 40 percent of passenger vehicles are diesel? They are not loud and dirty and they get up to 50 miles a gallon and they can run on vegetable oil!
Yet only 5-8 percent of vehicles in the US are diesel. The majority of our trucking industry runs on diesel however. Think about that. If the people who are MOST concerned with making and saving money in transportation use diesel what does that tell you. Diesel engines get longer engine life and better gas mileage for their owners so its natural that shipping companies would use diesel. And current environmental standards have reduced low sulfur emissions fron diesel to less than 5 ppm. ( The old standard was 500!) So why do only 5 percent of passenger vehicles run on diesel? I DON”T KNOW! but I think the answer looks something like this

As I looked out at the sea of cornfields in Iowa and Illinois this year I was inspired. But after seeing gandhi I am convinced! The ONLY way things will change is if the american people start “making their own salt” by making their own fuel. If just half of our shipping industry switched to Biodiesel think of the impact on the market. If just half of our passenger vehicles were running on biodiesel think of the impact. We would no longer be dependant on the middle east. We would no longer have to be a bully in the middle east. Many of the very reasons that so many terrorists hate us would disappear. We would no longer be blowing up thier backyard to pay for the fuel in the lawnmowers in our backyards! We would save billions of dollars in money spent on wars. With just the price of the iraq war for one year I’m pretty sure we could make sure that every kid could go to college in the US. If people stopped buying gasoline vehicles and started buying biodiesel the economy would soar with new designs, infrastructure, and job developmet. Farmers would be valued as heroes and pencil pushin number crunching suits in offices would again be perceived as the “Melvins” and “Mr. Potters” that they are:-)

The working class majority could work for OUR future instead of someone elses. They could fill up their tank, put the kids through college, and work with pride. We could tell the oppressors we don’t need your oil. We don’t want to sacrafice our children for you anymore. We will not let you manipulate us into hating an imaginary enemy for your politcal power and greed. As my dad used to say…”Tell ‘em to go sh*t in hat.” If the American people rise up and do what the Indian people did 60 years ago it would literally change the world in about 7-10 years. I have started on this journey to the sea and invite you to do the same. Below is a picture of my car that gets 40-45 mpg and has given me 40,000 miles this past year. I would estimate that about 35,000 of those miles were with it running on a B20 blend of biodiesel. Made from Soy and Made In America! Made in the glorious midwest. The land of my birth and the home of good honest plain speaking people who still say “please”, “thank-you” , and call their elders “sir” or “mam.” The land of Lincoln. The land where some kids brillaint minds often go untapped and they use their science to build meth-labs out on the prairie. Can these fields of unused farms long since dead and plowed over be regrown. 5 years ago when writing the show “Dirt” and beginning on a journey that would take me to schools to talk to kids about drugs I felt a little overwhelmed and intimidated. I was reminded of the passage in Ezekiel 38.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

I felt God say to me do not worry. Just get on that stage and speak and new life will rise up. This morning I again see that valley and that prairie. I see rusty silos and meth labs. I see a broken branch with blood that keeps dripping. I see the valley and with this blog and with my actions I speak unto it and feel God ask me: “Can these dry bones live?” Only you know lord. only you.

I AM THE PEOPLE, THE MOB BY CARL SANDBURG

I AM the people–the mob–the crowd–the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And
then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have. And I
forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then–I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool–then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob–the crowd–the mass–will arrive then.

Sunday. A New Page.

I have just added a new page dealing with issues of faith and humanism. To the right are supplemental pages. Click on the one that says “Religion & Humanism.” The first entry on the page is an interview I heard with Sam Harris. It really got me. I found it through a newsweek article I read here. Some good Sunday reading. Enjoy.