pantoum's Diaryland Diary

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ANOTHER YEAR OF APOCALYPTICAL EVENTS FINALLY ENDS, OR, ON TO THE HOLY WARS, BROWNIE!

283.

I like a president who kind of does something, don�t you? The kind of logic behind that kind of official statement makes about as much sense as the Family Research Council and other conservative groups� response to the new human papillomavirus vaccine.

This new medical discovery means that we can virtually eliminate cervical cancer by giving every twelve-year-old girl this vaccine, yet socially conservative groups oppose this action because they see it as an incentive for premarital sex. Yet they called themselves pro-life. . . .

Jeebuuuuuuuuus. Join the goddamn twenty-first century already.

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Okay. A poem for the new year. I hope yours is filled with love and hope and creativity and passion and good health and prosperity and music.

LUTE MUSIC

by Kenneth Rexroth

The Earth will be going on a long time
Before it finally freezes;
Men will be on it; they will take names,
Give their deeds reasons.
We will be here only
As chemical constituents�
A small franchise indeed.
Right now we have lives,
Corpuscles, Ambitions, Caresses,
Like everybody had once�

Here at the year's end, at the feast
Of birth, let us bring to each other
The gifts brought once west through deserts�
The precious metal of our mingled hair,
The frankincense of enraptured arms and legs,
The myrrh of desperate, invincible kisses�
Let us celebrate the daily
Recurrent nativity of love,
The endless epiphany of our fluent selves,
While the earth rolls away under us
Into unknown snows and summers,
Into untraveled spaces of the stars.

Since that wonderful poem was written by Kenneth Rexroth (a poet who, according to Writer�s Almanac, once sold pamphlets promising a cure for constipation), I suppose I should include a link to some jazz music here, but you�ll just have to find that new Miles Davis compilation on your own because I�m far too busy pondering the fact that three poor counties in my state are apparently competing for a five-thousand-ton-per-day solid waste dump that will turn our down-east region into the fourth largest waste dump in the nation. It sucks to be poor (and stinks too).

Today, I�ve been thinking about how Christmas used to be a powerful enough holiday to call a halt to war. Did you know that, in World War I, German troops stopped fighting on Christmas Eve and decorated their trenches and sang carols instead? That the British soldiers in the opposing trenches joined in and the war stood idle as they exchanged whiskey and cigars and sang and played soccer together.

I wonder how many of those soldiers recognized the soldier he�d celebrated with before killing him, if he recalled that firm bass voice singing into the night? And what does the fact that we have abolished this traditional holiday truce say about us?

�

So while I was sipping mulled wine and not even thinking about my New York Times electronic subscription last week, a jury ruled that Wal-Mart must pay $172 million to employees because the chain failed to provide meal breaks to nearly 116,000 hourly workers (who, let�s face it, probably purchased their uneaten lunches at Sam�s Club anyway, thus giving the Waltons even more money). Meanwhile, word leaked out that our government has been conducting secret radiation searches in the homes and businesses and mosques of Muslim Americans (can you say guilt by association?).

Here�s a response from the Council on American-Islamic Relations: �This disturbing revelation, coupled with recent reports of domestic surveillance without warrant, could lead to the perception that we are no longer a nation ruled by law, but instead one in which fear trumps constitutional rights. All Americans should be very concerned about the apparent trend toward a two-tiered system of justice, with full rights for most citizens, and another diminished set of rights for Muslims� . . . or Quakers. or queers. or liberals. or . . . hmm. Remember when the then-attorney general said that all environmentalists are Communists that our country will weed out one by one by any means necessary?

Damn tree huggers fucking up our social security system. Kind of.

So I�ve been asking myself just what it means that King Bush the Latter is flaunting the fact that he so flagrantly broke the law. He must actually believe that he is above it. (And he must be.) Or is this a desperate, measured response from a desperate puppet criminal who got caught red-handed? Will distracted citizens fall for this cowboy preening or compare tramping all over the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution to getting a blow job from a willing intern in scope and impeach the monkey?

And �tis the season to note an anniversary: And so it was that, on Christmas Eve 1992, in the same country where monkey-boy now reigns, King Bush the Former (who is not often confused with wise men) kept watch over his thousand points of light by night and lo! Used one to pardon former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five other neocons for their criminal activity in the Iran-Contra scandal.

(Your illegal actions will still be noted in the history books though, boys.)

And a hopeful bit of news: at least 1,500 people attended a Christmas Eve mass held by an excommunicated St. Louis priest despite warnings from their archibishop that doing so would be a mortal sin (the definition of which sure has become pedestrian of late). And Merriam-Webster Online reports that these are the most looked-up words from 2005:

10. inept,

9. levee,

8. conclave,

7. pandemic,

6. tsunami,

5. insipid,

4. filibuster,

3. contempt,

2. refugee�and the word most people needed defined:

1. integrity.

Yeah. Where was that integrity this past year?

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Finally, something to keep in mind. At the first light of the new year, Buddhists all over the world will begin reciting prayers and meditating for peace. Maybe that�ll help. I mean, you know, all we are saying is give peace a chance, right?

So I�ll close with something to consider as we lube ourselves up for our slide into a new year. Do you think there�s any correlation between the surprising success of that unbelievably anthropomorphizing penguin movie that gave us nature lite, feel-good, warm-and-fuzzy style� (let's send the director to that Grizzly Bear documentary for a little cinematic balance!)�and how stunned we all felt as the many apocalyptical natural events of the past year wiped out so many of us mere humans?

SANG IN SHOWER: Summertime, and the Living is Easy (don�t ask me why �cause it sure ain�t summer here)

2:52 p.m. - 2005-12-30

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