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we're all a little crazy. a little broken. a little brilliant. a little bit amazing. i'm not any different.
i aspire to be a little less broken and a little more brilliant.
this is pretty much friends-only journal. leave me a comment to get on the list.
my domain is being updated semi-regularly. go here: difficultsister.net.
i aspire to be a little less broken and a little more brilliant.
this is pretty much friends-only journal. leave me a comment to get on the list.
my domain is being updated semi-regularly. go here: difficultsister.net.
i started a community for nanowrimo...
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50kchumps
join it. invite your friends. make suggestions. more importantly write 50,000 words in 30 days.
50kchumpsjoin it. invite your friends. make suggestions. more importantly write 50,000 words in 30 days.
despite my post earlier on the tsunami catastrophe vs. hurricane katrina, this does not diminish the horror of what's gone on there and what continues to happen. none of the problematic media coverage diminishes the fact that this is still a tragedy or that they need help. now.
please watch the clip from celine dion.
please watch this clip from the oprah show.
read any number of articles on the toronto star website.
donate
donate blood to blood banks, if you can.
donate to local efforts who are shipping clothes and toiletries down south.
donate to local, grassroots organizations who are accountable to poor people and poc and providing DIRECT and immediate disaster relief: http://www.sparkplugfoundation.org/katri
team rescue one is run by sonia miller and is run in conjunction with the sonia miller and master p funds. master p is from NO. the sonia miller fund is specifically targetted to supporting women in the diasaster. the lil' romeo fund is targetted to education/youth. it appears that there was a great deal of start-up cash/donations from master p and his family and friends.
other agencies you might consider:
Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
Operation USA
i am going to consult my budget and donate what i can to team rescue one. i am also going to try to sell my interpol ticket and if i can sell it, i will donate that, too.
please watch the clip from celine dion.
please watch this clip from the oprah show.
read any number of articles on the toronto star website.
donate
donate blood to blood banks, if you can.
donate to local efforts who are shipping clothes and toiletries down south.
donate to local, grassroots organizations who are accountable to poor people and poc and providing DIRECT and immediate disaster relief: http://www.sparkplugfoundation.org/katri
team rescue one is run by sonia miller and is run in conjunction with the sonia miller and master p funds. master p is from NO. the sonia miller fund is specifically targetted to supporting women in the diasaster. the lil' romeo fund is targetted to education/youth. it appears that there was a great deal of start-up cash/donations from master p and his family and friends.
other agencies you might consider:
Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
Operation USA
i am going to consult my budget and donate what i can to team rescue one. i am also going to try to sell my interpol ticket and if i can sell it, i will donate that, too.
I POSTED THIS ON AN ITALIAN COMMUNITY... MAYBE ONE OF YOU CAN HELP ME OR KNOWS A KIND ITALIAN SPEAKER WHO CAN HELP ME?
I'm an Italian-Canadian who was raised speaking English but understanding the mish mash of various dialects that were spoken in my nonna's Italian community centre.
I'm trying to relearn Italian. I started learning with a friend of mine who committed suicide. He was a really important friend and since then I've wanted to get a tattoo to honour him and my nonno who both had really difficult lives. I imagine them both at peace right now... and I want to honour that even I miss them terribly.
I bought a mug in Italy that said "Al volo..." and we translated it together as "To the flight..." and in my mind this might be a suitable phrase to honour their death and afterlife and reaching a final peace. Can anyone help me understand if there are any subtleties to "Al volo" that make it a ridiculous phrase to use in that context? Or can you help me find a more appropriate phrase?
It's hard to know the subtleties given that I only speak to my grandparents whose English isn't good enough to translate properly and other children of immigrants whose Italian isn't good enough that I trust them enough to permanently ink that on my body.
If "al volo" is not appropriate on it's own, please offer suggestions. Is there another phrase that is more appropriate, something along the lines of "to your peace" (as in "here's to" like a toast or something similar) something along those lines... please try to refrain from making fun of me. This is really important to me.
I'm an Italian-Canadian who was raised speaking English but understanding the mish mash of various dialects that were spoken in my nonna's Italian community centre.
I'm trying to relearn Italian. I started learning with a friend of mine who committed suicide. He was a really important friend and since then I've wanted to get a tattoo to honour him and my nonno who both had really difficult lives. I imagine them both at peace right now... and I want to honour that even I miss them terribly.
I bought a mug in Italy that said "Al volo..." and we translated it together as "To the flight..." and in my mind this might be a suitable phrase to honour their death and afterlife and reaching a final peace. Can anyone help me understand if there are any subtleties to "Al volo" that make it a ridiculous phrase to use in that context? Or can you help me find a more appropriate phrase?
It's hard to know the subtleties given that I only speak to my grandparents whose English isn't good enough to translate properly and other children of immigrants whose Italian isn't good enough that I trust them enough to permanently ink that on my body.
If "al volo" is not appropriate on it's own, please offer suggestions. Is there another phrase that is more appropriate, something along the lines of "to your peace" (as in "here's to" like a toast or something similar) something along those lines... please try to refrain from making fun of me. This is really important to me.
this letter is from lloyd axworthy, a former Canadian forein minister,* is addressed to condoleeza rice.
excerpts from the lazy among you:
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.
...
If you want to have us consider your proposals and positions, present them in a proper way, through serious discussion across the table in our cabinet room, as your previous president did when he visited Ottawa. And don't embarrass our prime minister by lobbing a verbal missile at him while he sits on a public stage, with no chance to respond.
</small>* for you americans, he was elected to the legislature (think: congress) and he was than selected to be a member of the prime minister's cabinet as a minister that deals primarily with foreign affairs</small>.
excerpts from the lazy among you:
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.
...
If you want to have us consider your proposals and positions, present them in a proper way, through serious discussion across the table in our cabinet room, as your previous president did when he visited Ottawa. And don't embarrass our prime minister by lobbing a verbal missile at him while he sits on a public stage, with no chance to respond.
</small>* for you americans, he was elected to the legislature (think: congress) and he was than selected to be a member of the prime minister's cabinet as a minister that deals primarily with foreign affairs</small>.
also:
recommend someone who i should add to my lj. someone who is preferably more interesting than i am and someone who is not pro-bush/pro-war/pro-life (or homophobic).
recommend someone who i should add to my lj. someone who is preferably more interesting than i am and someone who is not pro-bush/pro-war/pro-life (or homophobic).
i never thought a speech like this would be made by prime minister paul martin in the canadian house of commons arguing in FAVOUR of letting same sex couples marry, but it makes me happy nonetheless. i wish i could have seen or heard the whole thing in it's entirety.
this is my favourite part:
The Charter is a living document, the heartbeat of our Constitution. It is also a proclamation. It declares that as Canadians, we live under a progressive and inclusive set of fundamental beliefs about the value of the individual. It declares that we all are lessened when any one of us is denied a fundamental right.
We cannot exalt the Charter as a fundamental aspect of our national character and then use the notwithstanding clause to reject the protections that it would extend. Our rights must be eternal, not subject to political whim.
To those who value the Charter yet oppose the protection of rights for same-sex couples, I ask you: If a prime minister and a national government are willing to take away the rights of one group, what is to say they will stop at that? If the Charter is not there today to protect the rights of one minority, then how can we as a nation of minorities ever hope, ever believe, ever trust that it will be there to protect us tomorrow?
My responsibility as Prime Minister, my duty to Canada and to Canadians, is to defend the Charter in its entirety. Not to pick and choose the rights that our laws shall protect and those that are to be ignored. Not to decree those who shall be equal and those who shall not. My duty is to protect the Charter, as some in this House will not.
Let us never forget that one of the reasons that Canada is such a vibrant nation, so diverse, so rich in the many cultures and races of the world, is that immigrants who come here – as was the case with the ancestors of many of us in this chamber – feel free and are free to practice their religion, follow their faith, live as they want to live. No homogenous system of beliefs is imposed on them.
When we as a nation protect minority rights, we are protecting our multicultural nature. We are reinforcing the Canada we value. We are saying, proudly and unflinchingly, that defending rights – not just those that happen to apply to us, not just that everyone approves of, but all fundamental rights – is at the very soul of what it means to be a Canadian.
( the full text: let us step forward )
this is my favourite part:
The Charter is a living document, the heartbeat of our Constitution. It is also a proclamation. It declares that as Canadians, we live under a progressive and inclusive set of fundamental beliefs about the value of the individual. It declares that we all are lessened when any one of us is denied a fundamental right.
We cannot exalt the Charter as a fundamental aspect of our national character and then use the notwithstanding clause to reject the protections that it would extend. Our rights must be eternal, not subject to political whim.
To those who value the Charter yet oppose the protection of rights for same-sex couples, I ask you: If a prime minister and a national government are willing to take away the rights of one group, what is to say they will stop at that? If the Charter is not there today to protect the rights of one minority, then how can we as a nation of minorities ever hope, ever believe, ever trust that it will be there to protect us tomorrow?
My responsibility as Prime Minister, my duty to Canada and to Canadians, is to defend the Charter in its entirety. Not to pick and choose the rights that our laws shall protect and those that are to be ignored. Not to decree those who shall be equal and those who shall not. My duty is to protect the Charter, as some in this House will not.
Let us never forget that one of the reasons that Canada is such a vibrant nation, so diverse, so rich in the many cultures and races of the world, is that immigrants who come here – as was the case with the ancestors of many of us in this chamber – feel free and are free to practice their religion, follow their faith, live as they want to live. No homogenous system of beliefs is imposed on them.
When we as a nation protect minority rights, we are protecting our multicultural nature. We are reinforcing the Canada we value. We are saying, proudly and unflinchingly, that defending rights – not just those that happen to apply to us, not just that everyone approves of, but all fundamental rights – is at the very soul of what it means to be a Canadian.
( the full text: let us step forward )
just when you think the world is becoming a less fucked up place for queers...
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/0
damn.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/0
damn.
people are so funny.
by daphne gottlieb, march 23, 2003
to be distributed freely
No Poetry After Auschwitz
said Adorno, but there are still
poems, in a mark of arrogance or hope,
maybe both.
This is not a poem
it is a rock
through a window--
it is a smash
and run--
it is a broken capitalism machine
150 miles
from Baghdad.
The television is on at the law firm.
There is no business as usual.
The building is surrounded by fences
and riot cops
who are fighting the crime
of free speech, free assembly.
Yesterday they dragged a woman by her hair.
Today, last night, three days ago,
the Anarchists covered their faces
hid Molotov cocktails in the bushes.
On our way to the protest, my friend tells me,
I am not covering my face.
It seems its one of the fundamental freedoms left.
I have a bandana in my pocket
just in case.
I am trying to find ways
to stem my own anger,
my body a grenade rolling in the street
teeth clenched, handing out flowers
stolen from the lobby of a law firm
to the motorists we delay, thanking them
for their patience
while the U.S. bombs
the fuck out of another country
it has already starved to death.
I am trying to find reasons not
to smash things. Last night an American soldier
threw three grenades into commanders tents.
They say he acted out of resentment.
I understand resentment
I believe in nonviolence
I stick my hands in my pockets
to make sure
I don't pick up a rock
2.
one we are the people
Two A Little Bit Louder Now
Three Who Are Going
FOUR TO STOP THIS WAR
There are protestors in white
armed with saxophones, drums,
dance training
Show me what democracy looks like?
THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY
LOOKS LIKE
The protesters in white have forgotten
the difference between protest
and performance,
the difference between comrades
and audience.
They will make the evening news.
3.
In New York
ground zero kids tell me
the cop psyop wagon broadcast:
"The march is now over.
Please leave the area
in an orderly fashion."
New York stood in front of the truck,
got a bullhorn
and started shouting
"THE WAR IS NOW OVER.
PLEASE LEAVE IRAQ
IN AN ORDERLY FASHION"
In Chicago,
they are dancing in the streets
to block traffic.
This resistance
will not be joyless.
Outside the Federal Building,
a mobile generator
on a bike-drawn cart,
huge speakers
blare NOT IN MY NAME
a marching band plays War Pigs
the DJs fist is in the air
a Dixieland band plays
Down by the Riverside
and we dance in the street
4.
Yes, remember
Rachel Corrie
killed by a bulldozer
but she put her own body
on the line
using her own privilege,
her own choice. How many
have died with nothing
but their geography to blame?
How many names will we never
hear because they
had brown skin, not white?
Because of lines they
never drew and could not
get outside of? Because
they
are not
ours?
5.
Whose streets?
OUR STREETS.
Whose streets?
6.
The rich restaurateur who is
a San Francisco Supervisor
says, We will prosecute
protestors to the fullest
extent of the law. Write
the legal aid phone number
on your forearm. Listen
for the order to disperse.
Go limp.
Do not fight the cops.
Watch your back.
7.
It is terrifying how quickly
Free Palestine
becomes
End the Occupation
becomes
Kill the Jews
8.
At work, the secretaries
are watching with shock and awe.
I want to know
if there's a body count.
12, they tell me.
Iraqis? Really?
Oh no, they say, sipping coffee,
eating salads, fries.
That's Americans.
That's the only number
we've heard.
That's the only number.
9.
Whose streets?
OUR STREETS!
Whose streets?
Thursday, we shut down the Federal Building.
We shut down Bechtel. We blitzed Halliburton.
We shut down the Bay Bridge.
I say we because I watched it on TV.
I say we because I was there.
I say we as I write this in sunny San Francisco
on a fully loaded computer
smoking multinational corporate cigarettes,
before I eat breakfast,
after I've slept adequately
in a warm house
full of love.
I am waiting for
text messages from the antiwar bloc
to show up on my cell phone.
10.
Lighting candles, signing petitions
blocking intersections, chanting,
walking until my feet are blistered
shouting until my throat is raw
I'm trying so hard to change things
but I cant even get the blood off my hands.
to be distributed freely
No Poetry After Auschwitz
said Adorno, but there are still
poems, in a mark of arrogance or hope,
maybe both.
This is not a poem
it is a rock
through a window--
it is a smash
and run--
it is a broken capitalism machine
150 miles
from Baghdad.
The television is on at the law firm.
There is no business as usual.
The building is surrounded by fences
and riot cops
who are fighting the crime
of free speech, free assembly.
Yesterday they dragged a woman by her hair.
Today, last night, three days ago,
the Anarchists covered their faces
hid Molotov cocktails in the bushes.
On our way to the protest, my friend tells me,
I am not covering my face.
It seems its one of the fundamental freedoms left.
I have a bandana in my pocket
just in case.
I am trying to find ways
to stem my own anger,
my body a grenade rolling in the street
teeth clenched, handing out flowers
stolen from the lobby of a law firm
to the motorists we delay, thanking them
for their patience
while the U.S. bombs
the fuck out of another country
it has already starved to death.
I am trying to find reasons not
to smash things. Last night an American soldier
threw three grenades into commanders tents.
They say he acted out of resentment.
I understand resentment
I believe in nonviolence
I stick my hands in my pockets
to make sure
I don't pick up a rock
2.
one we are the people
Two A Little Bit Louder Now
Three Who Are Going
FOUR TO STOP THIS WAR
There are protestors in white
armed with saxophones, drums,
dance training
Show me what democracy looks like?
THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY
LOOKS LIKE
The protesters in white have forgotten
the difference between protest
and performance,
the difference between comrades
and audience.
They will make the evening news.
3.
In New York
ground zero kids tell me
the cop psyop wagon broadcast:
"The march is now over.
Please leave the area
in an orderly fashion."
New York stood in front of the truck,
got a bullhorn
and started shouting
"THE WAR IS NOW OVER.
PLEASE LEAVE IRAQ
IN AN ORDERLY FASHION"
In Chicago,
they are dancing in the streets
to block traffic.
This resistance
will not be joyless.
Outside the Federal Building,
a mobile generator
on a bike-drawn cart,
huge speakers
blare NOT IN MY NAME
a marching band plays War Pigs
the DJs fist is in the air
a Dixieland band plays
Down by the Riverside
and we dance in the street
4.
Yes, remember
Rachel Corrie
killed by a bulldozer
but she put her own body
on the line
using her own privilege,
her own choice. How many
have died with nothing
but their geography to blame?
How many names will we never
hear because they
had brown skin, not white?
Because of lines they
never drew and could not
get outside of? Because
they
are not
ours?
5.
Whose streets?
OUR STREETS.
Whose streets?
6.
The rich restaurateur who is
a San Francisco Supervisor
says, We will prosecute
protestors to the fullest
extent of the law. Write
the legal aid phone number
on your forearm. Listen
for the order to disperse.
Go limp.
Do not fight the cops.
Watch your back.
7.
It is terrifying how quickly
Free Palestine
becomes
End the Occupation
becomes
Kill the Jews
8.
At work, the secretaries
are watching with shock and awe.
I want to know
if there's a body count.
12, they tell me.
Iraqis? Really?
Oh no, they say, sipping coffee,
eating salads, fries.
That's Americans.
That's the only number
we've heard.
That's the only number.
9.
Whose streets?
OUR STREETS!
Whose streets?
Thursday, we shut down the Federal Building.
We shut down Bechtel. We blitzed Halliburton.
We shut down the Bay Bridge.
I say we because I watched it on TV.
I say we because I was there.
I say we as I write this in sunny San Francisco
on a fully loaded computer
smoking multinational corporate cigarettes,
before I eat breakfast,
after I've slept adequately
in a warm house
full of love.
I am waiting for
text messages from the antiwar bloc
to show up on my cell phone.
10.
Lighting candles, signing petitions
blocking intersections, chanting,
walking until my feet are blistered
shouting until my throat is raw
I'm trying so hard to change things
but I cant even get the blood off my hands.
