Olycop has opined that the dems are gearing up to take his guns away which is laughable, but it does raise the question what should the dems be proposing?

The 1994 watershed election that brought us a republican congress was powered in part by their contract with America.  Their list of ten things they would address - (interesting that the one they flopped on was the term limits, probably never a good idea, but especially so if it means a republican ends up losing a job, I guess)

So, what contract should the dems be putting forward? 

Here's a short list:

• Leave Norm and Olycop's guns alone
• Election reform - everywhere there is a paper ballot for recount purposes
• Redirect all funding for new nuclear devices to public education.  We stop building and designing new nukes because we signed the non-proliferation treaty and it's time that we stand by our treaty obligations
• The US goes to the UN with an apology for creating a disaster in Afghanistan and Iraq and turn these "budding democracies" over to the UN for protection and demilitarization.  The US to pay for the costs because as Colin Powell said about Iraq, you break it, you own it.
  
• No new funding to the Pentagon until Donald Rumsfeld is gone - and the only future government position for him should be Ambassador to Iraq or maybe The Hague in Old Europe.  Best replacement for Rummy?  Colin Powell.
  
• The development of a plan to make the US energy independent and reduce our global warming emissions below the Kyoto protocols within ten years
• Luxury tax on any that gets less than 30 mpg to at least partially fund the energy independence
  

What else should be on the list?  A chicken in every pot?  No feces or needles in the streets and parks?  Opera Girl has to read that bible, not just pose with it for the camera?

The discussion about guns, the bible and total war have led to a pretty extensive discussion of faith.  And here I am, a simple fool.   A person of limited understanding and ability, who has nonetheless been overcome by a religious conversion experience.  God clearly has a somewhat wicked sense of humor to allow a person like me to become a born-again.  I really believe it would have been easier for both me and God if I had remained more buddhist, but that ship sailed years and years ago.

So, here I am, Lord.  It is I, Lord.  A child of the sixties, a person with a passing acquaintance with Timothy Leary's neuroscience studies and I end up a born again.  There's nothing like getting to be the butt of one of your own jokes.


Here is what a great man, Nelson Mandela, felt he had to include in his inauguration speech.  I think the original quote is from Marianne Williamson. 

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

So, I take that to heart and I hope it's true.  Our greatest fear may well be that we are powerful beyond measure.  It's a serious business to start wondering what did the Creator (or Darwin's marvelous genetic mystery, you can parse that all you want) have in mind when my genes got spliced together? 

This poem/tune is from Suzzy and Maggie Roche's wonderful album Zero Church, Words written by Bill Barbeau, who was a marine scout dog handler in Vietnam and is now a firefighter in Somerville, MA:

A Prayer

This is to the being I know as God

God please help me to be a better human being.

As a young man, I killed a lot of people for no good reason!
What became no good reason!

I would love to blame someone else, anyone else for how I feel about what I did, the killing.

What I thought I had to do to survive to be a good American like my dad.

I must have had other choices
I know I had other choices

Forgive me

I will try to do good things to my fellow human beings like nursing,
Fighting fires and save lives. It's what I know.

Until you call for me, or whatever way you use to make this pain end.
God; you can take me anytime!

Marylea and I have been talking with the Roches about making a stop in Olympia on their west coast travels to do a benefit concert to support Beyond Hiroshima, the group behind the Oly Nuke-Free Ordinance.  We couldn't get it scheduled for their tour in December (they will be in Portland and Seattle - don't miss them, they are wonderful).  Hoping to have them sing to us in fall of 2007.

Port of Olympia Commission Accepts Applications for Upcoming Vacancy Qualified applicants are being sought by the Port of Olympia Commission to fill the position currently held by Commissioner Steve Pottle.

Pottle announced in July that he would be resigning his Commission post to take a job as Manager of Economic Development for Snohomish County. His resignation will be effective October 10, 2006. As required by state law, the selection of a new Commissioner to serve until the end of 2007 will be conducted in public. The appointee will be required by state law to run for election in 2007.

Port Commission Recruitment Process
* Commission Meeting Schedule & Televised Dates
* Next Port Commission Meeting Agenda * Past Commission Meeting Minutes
* Public Records Policy
 Comprehensive Plan, May 1995
* Comprehensive Plan (Executive Summary)
* Links to External Agencies
* Port History * IDRB Bonds
* Contact the Port of Olympia Commission

Untitled by Jelaluddin Rumi
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
      Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
      Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
      where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
      Don't go back to sleep.

Norm has stated:  "I'm liberal on a few issues....or at least liberal of right" 

I am not real clear where liberal of right falls, maybe to the left of Genghis Khan (who I saw loitering downtown earlier today, if I am not mistaken), but from my position  to the west of authoritarian, I am trying to coax it out of Norm. 

He is playing it pretty cautious so far, but has indicated that his liberal tendencies are not in the area of women's suffrage.  I think we need a distraction, so I figure maybe a guessing game is in order and Norm gets to name the winner who will receive a jug'o'suds courtesy me at the Broho at a date to be named later.

I am thinking that Norm's liberal weakness might be that he believes that interracial marriage should be legal.  (you got a thing for Condi, Norm?)

The floor is open, make your guesses.

"Can I draw you a beer Norm ?"
"No, I know what they look like. Just pour me one."

Ok, we're on!   As long as we have the City Council wondering if we should be able to sit on the sidewalk downtown or stand around in a public space or wander aimlessly in the urban area, why don't we go for the whole enchilada and ban the carrying or possession of any firearms or knives or baseball bats in the downtown area. Let's make the downtown truly safe.

Why just do away with the first amendment?  I think we can get at least two with each new ordinance. 

What say you?

So, the questions keep coming up.  What kind of community do we want to co-exist in. Should we subsume our unique perspective, wishes, and work to create a beloved community into some kind of civic club where moderates like Norm can laugh at the left and right as we try to find common ground? 

I don't think so.  I think the community is vibrant and real if we all speak our minds and are true to our hearts.  If we speak the truth as we know it and we take up the work that our hearts find meaningful. 

A path with heart is not necessarily a four lane highway where we all compromise, where we park the bikes and the SUVs, and all agree to drive sensible subcompacts. 

When Death Comes Mary Oliver

From New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108-2892, ISBN 0 870 6819 5).

  When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse 

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 by Reuters World has 10-Year Window to Act on Climate Warming - NASA Expert by Mary Milliken  

SACRAMENTO, California - A leading U.S. climate researcher said on Wednesday the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a weather catastrophe.

JAMES HANSEN
Head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
NASA scientist James Hansen, widely considered the doyen of American climate researchers, said governments must adopt an alternative scenario to keep carbon dioxide emission growth in check and limit the increase in global temperatures to 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).