I keep seeing you coming here, over and over again.

I cannot tell you what that means. The names I know, over and over.

I cannot know how to talk about this, other than to say; “I notice, I notice!”

I sit in my half-assed chair, and I write and I watch and I listen to the best songs.

And I watch your names as they appear and I say “Hey!”

There are the people, we are not invisible.

And of course we do not need to be overriding here. But it’s so hard to be invisible so thank you!

for helping us not be invisible here!

Thank you for your coming over

and getting your shoes on and being the friends

of the peoples

who are kind of vague and weary at times

and at other times sort of confused

but always really, really wanting

to be the peoples

all together now

all together now.

thanks.

miep

Prisoners’ Rights

NYT editorial

September 23, 2009

In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to the bad conditions – including the desperate overcrowding – that prevail today. The law must be fixed.

In the name of clamping down on frivolous lawsuits, the Prison Reform Litigation Act barred prisoners from suing prisons and jails unless they could show that they had suffered a physical injury. Prison officials have used this requirement to block lawsuits challenging all sorts of horrific conditions, including sexual abuse.

If you haven’t checked out fafblog, do. I loves me some fafblog. Those people understand about Chinese spam.

http://fafblog.blogspot.com/

Now, back to more serious stuff. Well no, that’s not right Fafnir is very serious. Go read fafblog. I mean it.

Now, back to the power.

We are the power, the kind gentle power.

The life power, that acknowledges how critical it is to step back from violence.

Yes, we must yell, when it gets that bad.

But mostly we must recreate the world. That’s the only job that makes any difference. We all have to get to get together and recreate the world.

Docudharma people, daily kos people, wild wild left people.

All of us. Everyone everywhere. We have to recreate how we see it, how we work with each other, everything. We have to recreate the world.

People who get into working with this, constitute the future of what we consider to be humanity.

Those who don’t? So sad. Chinese spam.

And now I’m back to fafblog. Fafnir loves them some Chinese spam.

Every time I run into a blog that is all about being hysterically rude and prime funny, I think: “There is hope. There is hope.”

Go read fafblog, peoples. Those people rock.

Youtubes from people who might be your neighbors. Hell, might be your friends.

This guy isn’t a half bad musician. I like the giant playing cards on the walls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marianne Faithful! Sunny Goodge Street! Turn down volume a bit! Scratchy! Great background instrumental music! Awesome!

This is really nice. It’s not what you think. Keep listening.

This is part I. I’m still working on this.

I gather we can do a couple a day here?

mro

This is a story about a guy I used to do business with, when I worked at a cooperatively owned organic/health food store in Los Angeles many years back. We had a lot of neat customers, but he was one of the most striking. We called him “The Voice.”

Respite in the Redwoods: Homeless vets find help in the redwoods of Boulder Creek

by Bruce Newman

San Jose Mercury News

September 20, 2009

In times of war, frontline troops occasionally are ordered to retreat to a place of relative safety — known in military jargon as a “stand down” — where soldiers can rest and receive medical attention before returning to combat.

But for nearly 200 homeless veterans bivouacked among the redwoods at Boulder Creek this weekend, the South Bay Stand Down provided a welcome respite from the daily combat they face on the streets.

Face of homeless changing as more kinds of people seek help

Kristi Heim

Seattle Times

September 17, 2009

When you’re homeless your feet take a beating. That was the simple fact behind the idea to provide a foot washing service.

…

One man’s feet were so frost bitten from last winter that it hurt too much to brush them with a towel. Another man asked a volunteer to recite the little piggy nursery rhyme on his toes. A third said it was the first time another human being had touched him in months.

Camp Runamuck; a Glimpse of the East Providence Homeless Community

Truthout

September 9, 2009

Katie is 19 and would only give her first name. She wears a bright-colored t-shirt and a mini skirt that would make any teen’s father crazy. Her tattooed belly and pierced lip are strangely elegant. She is a pretty girl who lives in Camp Runamuck with her boyfriend.

“I’ll never be a materialistic person again in my life. I will not be greedy,” she says. “You can put 100 people together, blacks and whites, gays, drug addicts who are completely different, but we all get along because we’re stuck in the same position. We all get bit by bugs.”