The two organizations are working together to launch a radio talk show on WPVM-FM 103.5 next week.
For more than four years, members of the organization have been standing on Pack Square. They started the demonstrations on the day U.S. troops entered Iraq.
WPVM is a low-powered FM radio station broadcasting in Asheville and globally on the Internet and is run completely by volunteers and donations.
Vets Take to the Air
Unless a meteor hits the programming committee, “Veterans Voices” is scheduled to take to the air on WPVM every Wednesday at 5 pm, with Kindra Phillips (minus the gag) at the board.
Look for other new shows as the new schedule kicks in next week. Welcome to WPVM, all you new folks! This is your community radio station!
I’m a lurker at heart, commenter, a non writer a visual left brain artist type, no wonk, no lawyer. I came to the net for some semblance of truth, and/or satisfaction or vague ideas of bringing reconciliation to the divide I saw between reality and what i was told was reality. The cooked up culture war being a symptom of nothing more then the manipulation of a vast and varied continent that long ago started a dream. A dream borne from discontent with an ‘inevitable’ Empire, by men (sorry for the sexist remark here) who while privileged had the vision to move this colony to self determination and a concept that has propelled the concept of governance to heights never before established. A dream that while always contained the seeds of human evil also had a thread of human possibilities. I just can’t get over the “We the People” part. It is the thread that hooks me and saves me from despair. Where is the “We the People” part? I cannot believe that technology and marketing can kill the impetus that started this organic process towards self governance.
The divides I see are not larger then the original intent, and while some will argue intent original was always divisive not progressive, I see it, it’s called human progress. I see it daily in peoples lives, not the distortions of the dream, but in the realization that something basic is wrong here. This essay is just a reminder that the divides we share, although polarizing and personal should not overshadow the united part. Not united by our silly politics but united in progress. Lets move towards a destiny that is not defined by the forces of tyranny who assume the shape of our discontent and offer us strings of beads for our hard won birthrights. ‘We the people’ is now a global force not just our tallying of momentary gain personally, you me all of us face a reality we must shape beyond the great divide. Political reality is made by people who face fear and do not accept it. The only way out of our great divide is to remember that we the people determine reality. What do you want for the real world? If your answer is peace, prosperity, equity, justice, reach out and take it is there and you make it real.
I’m so old that the song that inspired this essay by The Band is not on You Tube. this sad version is it.
Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming, researchers reported yesterday, raising the prospect of faster sea-level rise than current estimates…
The new finding is important because the continent holds about 90 percent of Earth’s ice, and until now, large-scale ice loss there had been limited to the peninsula that juts out toward the tip of South America. In addition, researchers found that the rate of ice loss in the affected areas has accelerated over the past 10 years — as it has on most glaciers and ice sheets around the world.
“Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it’s losing more,” said Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper published online in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Elsewhere in the Antarctic, according to The Guardian, Greenpeace chases away Japan’s whalers. “Greenpeace said yesterday it had chased Japanese whalers out of hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean, disrupting the planned slaughter of almost 1,000 whales.”
Meanwhile the Bush administration continues to enable greenhouse gas emission, The Hill reports Waxman blasts EPA for missing deadline. “Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is strongly criticizing the EPA’s failure to produce documents regarding its decision to reject California’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
And at the capitalist’s tool, The Independent reports World Bank pledges to save trees… then helps cut down Amazon forest. “The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which new research has identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest.”
Update on America’s occupations . From Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reports Top Iraqi judge assassinated. “Seven gunmen in two cars blocked off a vehicle carrying Judge Amer Jawdat Al Naib, who sits on Iraq’s national appeals court, and sprayed it with machine-gun fire, killing both him and his driver, police said. The shooting happened in an area with two nearby Iraqi army checkpoints… Seven Iraqi policemen were killed and four others wounded today when they entered a booby-trapped house in Abarat Buhroz in northeastern Diyala province, police said.”
From Afghanistan, The New York Times reports Blast at Kabul hotel heard for miles. “A thunderous explosion struck a Kabul luxury hotel frequented by foreigners on Monday, and the Taliban took responsibility, calling it a coordinated suicide attack. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. The explosion struck the Serena Hotel, the only five-star hotel in Afghanistan and one that is popular among diplomats and is often used for conferences, around 6.15 p.m. local time and could be heard for up to two miles away across the city.”
Here’s an aspect of drought and recession in the Southeast that I hadn’t thought about before. According to the Los Angeles Times, Drought is a hard time for horses. “In many parts of the United States, horse owners are struggling to feed their animals after a severe drought doubled — even tripled — the cost of hay. The drought has exacerbated a glut in the low end of the horse market, brought on by years of over-breeding and the recent economic downturn. Horses that once cost $500 are selling for $50.” An estimated 9 million horses were owned by Americans in 2005, “up from an estimate of 6 million horses in the mid-1990s… About 34% of horse owners have a household income of less than $50,000”.
Lastly, The Guardian reports Tibet under strain as visitors surpass locals. “The number of tourists who visited Tibet last year soared by 60%, outnumbering the people who live there and putting further pressure on Tibet’s overwhelmed roads, palaces and monasteries. Four million tourists visited the thinly populated Himalayan region of 2.8 million people in 2007, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday. ‘This is the first time that the number of tourist arrivals exceeded the total population,’ said Matt Whitticase, of the Free Tibet Campaign. ‘Tourism is obviously a pillar of China’s western development strategy but it is putting unacceptable strains on Tibet’s fragile environment.'”
Excuse me, that title should read a brief non-factual, totally opinionated and not very flattering history of White People. That, however, seemed a little less catchy. But indeed, this is MY history of white folks. These are some of the factoids and impressions I have received throughout my life about White People, factoids and impressions that have shaped my understanding of this world. Factoids and impressions that may or may not be 100% accurate or true, but quite a few (but by no means all) of which were taught to me as ‘history’…..by White People. Factoids and impressions, thus, that are not completely veritable. Factoids and impressions that are definitely chockablock with irony and snark. I have been on a lifelong quest to understand this crazy mixed up world…and I like to think, outside of the context of who is on my side or who I should root for or defend. Perhaps part of my value as an observer and commenter on these issues is that I have not been as indoctrinated into our current society quite as completely as most folks….but have also lived in it my whole life, and so have a different, if skewed, perspective.
The purpose of this psuedo-history? Know thyself. I think we would all agree that there are some changes that we as a world need to make and certainly that we as a culture, that we as White People, need to make. To do that, we have to be able to look in the mirror. And our culture, just as every other culture, is so ingrained and part of us that we need to look in that mirror from as many different angles as possible. This (most likely sporadic) series is my angle. Please keep in mind that I make NO claims to accuracy, especially in the more scientific aspects. Please also keep in mind that I am…as nearly always…willing to admit that I am dead wrong. Especially when confronted with actual evidence of my wrongishness!
If the (mainly white) scientists with their wild and very much scientifically proven theories on “evolution” are to be believed, White People migrated from Africa back at the dawn of man, eventually settling in…..the places white people come from. The Caucasian mountains and….Tumbridge Wells…and eventually…Dayton. WHY did they migrate? Was it…the neighbors? Did they choose to migrate due to some deep and basic difference with those around them? Or ….were they cast out? Or did they just have the wanderlust that has caused humankind to populate the entire planet…or was it on their neighbors insistence? Who were these folks and how did they become…white?
Either way, it wasn’t because of skin color…since if we believe the science boffins, their unique coloring did not exist yet, but was an adaptation to their new surroundings, when they eventually reached their more northern destinations. This brings up the whole question of race….the whole question of race being….what is it?
Something caused these particular people to band together and migrate together and end up in the same place and settle down together and…adapt their skin color together. What was that bond? Was it ‘racial’… or societal …or familial? We don’t know. But we do know that some folks, after leaving Africa, developed ‘white’ skin tones or ‘red’ skin tones or ‘yellow’ skin tones or ‘brown’ skin tones….and thus ‘race’ was born.
Supposedly there is no measurable genetic difference between the races, so what is race, just skin color? Just a surface adaptation to different climates? That makes sense to me, people are people in my experience, and outside of cultural differences, I have not in my nearly fifty years of ‘research,’ noticed a noticeable difference among my fellow humans based on skin color…or ‘race.’ I grew up with people named Tim Wong and Diana Goldfarb and Tony Palapes and Juanita Sanchez and Alonzo Jefferson in the….upon reflection and comparison….INCREDIBLY diverse and egalitarian world of the San Francisco Public School system of the 1960’s and ’70’s. I spent time in their homes and got to know their parents..and again, aside from cultural differences, did not observe any differentiating characteristics based on ‘race.’ They were people. Just like all other people. Just like me.
And growing up with that experience has certainly ‘colored’ the way I look at my fellow humans. They are indeed humans first, and representatives of whatever race they may be a distant second.
As I grew up and lost my innocence and was acculturated, that did change. As the sixties and seventies progressed and race became a huge issue….or to be more accurate…as I grew out of childhood and adolescence and grew to perceive that race was indeed a HUGE issue, my perceptions changed. But that early experience was always with me and always influenced the way I thought and, to be self-flattering, I believe it has helped me to cut through much of the prejudice and propaganda about….’race.’
And after all these years, after all this ‘research,’ I must admit that I have BECOME prejudiced against a specific ‘race.’
White people.
You see I do not have a very high opinion of what has come to be called the white ‘race’…yes…I freely admit it…I am a racist! I am prejudiced against the White ‘race’…not individuals of the white race you understand, but the race as a whole. Shucks, some of my best friends are white! I am, in the terms of the discussion on race…that have been dictated by White people, btw, what an extreme critic might call…a self hating Whitey.
Okay to be completely accurate…I am prejudiced against the culture that the White ‘race’ has developed.
I like to think that that condition is somewhat predicated on facts. After all it was white people who set about colonizing and “conquering” the world. Sure, others may have had the same idea, people of other races have always made war, and always amused themselves and passed the time by trying to kill their neighbors. There is no doubt that human beings have always had that urge within them, and have been acting on it and honing their Kill Your Neighbor skills since that very same dawn of man. One might say that to some extent I am also a self-hating human being for that very reason!
The one thing though that is completely factual and not based on my prejudices is….that white people were the ones who have perfected it. It is after all, right there in the history books. The Chinese did conquer and subjugate, well for lack of a better word, China. And evidently Japan (though that would come back to bite them in the ass later) and Africans have conquered various bits of….Africa. The Moors had a very successful European tourism plan for many centuries, centered around Spain. But no other race displayed the white race’s diligence, attention to detail, innovative creativity and just plain stick-to-itiveness when it comes to traveling the world, meeting interesting people…and killing them.
That is where my prejudice comes from. That is what I am seeking to understand so that I can…in my small way, change things. Hopefully, both my prejudice…and the reality it is reacting to. I want us to NOT be races. I want us to be ONE race….the Human Race. Not only is that, in my view, a desirable thing…..but, in order to ‘save the planet’ from global warming and to deliver it from thousands of years of continual warfare, an absolutely essential thing.
Part 2 to follow….later.
But perhaps to help you all understand where I am coming from, here is a video that reflects my views on what could be said to be the ultimate achievement of the white ‘race’…the settlement and establishment of the United States of America by….White People.
PS. I am having satellite trouble today, so if I am late or slow in responding to comments, please forgive me! I am not trying to dodge any controversy that this may create!
Nothing special, just the urge to scribble out something of modest interest as I sit this morning on my dharma bum. A conversation, an article worth reading, some stereotypical liberal thoughts on recent events. A short divertissement, half a can of diet pepsi, part of a chocolate chip cookie.
First, the conversation. Went on a date yesterday with a fascinating gentleman (no, it’s not that kind of blog entry). He’s from central Africa. About fifty, NGO guy. “When I was a little boy” he said, “my father taught me how to hunt. It was all forest. Now it is the Sahara.” I have been thinking about that since. It is of course one thing to hear something on a stage, or see pictures, or even to visit (which I have not). It is another thing entirely to hear it as personal experience, over coffee, from someone you like. “Now it is the Sahara.” He thinks the estimates of a billion refugees as a result of climate change is, perhaps, low. “Every day you got up and hunted for what you were going to eat that day.” A great many people live that way. When the forest is gone, there is nothing to eat, of course. Nothing at all. And the Sahara is bigger today than it was yesterday, or the day before.
It’s a stew here, as promised. Just read a great article in NYT mag, courtesy a salon link. The NYT article I just read was in some ways the syllabus of a survey class, but it was still thought provoking (if one is inclined to be provoked.) The author takes a quick tour of moral reasoning across cultures. One quote stuck with me…
In a large Web survey, Haidt found that liberals put a lopsided moral weight on harm and fairness while playing down group loyalty, authority and purity. Conservatives instead place a moderately high weight on all five.
Makes sense…if true, it explains a bit why conservatives (and I’d count Hill, and Bill, as such) do better with triangulation. But what I liked the article for was a throwaway paragraph on the difference between moral rationalization, and moral reasoning. I don’t particularly like where the author went…like all things that touch on social psych, too long a consideration makes it depressingly easy to decide the house monkeys are vapid monsters, all. And the difference between rationalization and reasoning is often a matter of reaching what is true…so it’s a hard conversation to have, for sure. But so many things I read online (and a few I write) are based on “I feel this, therefore this must be true” — blazing moral fury, or smug assumptions, as the persuasive force. Whether or not rationalization and reasoning can be teased out from the world, I do not know — but they are glaringly obvious in persuasive writing, as forms of appeal.
And, eh, the last ingredient of the stew. The lights on the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, turned off at dawn so George Bush could see sunrise properly over the battlements, from his room at the King David. Pictures of the robe presented to him — with his name and title embroidered in real gold thread. His visit to Bethlehem, and Ramallah. One’s first reaction — if you’re like me — is ewwww. Holy crap. Mount Scopius has seen emperors, prefects, paladins and princes pass below it, and clearly people have not forgotten the necessity of flattering monsters. But my second reaction is what a huge and terrible show of power this was. The most hated man in the world can go to a place where people are so miserable they blow themselves up, and piously pray at the birthplace of his messiah, and have a little chat with Abbas in Ramallah, and no one touches a hair on his head. That is power, terrifying power. Rather like Versailles, it proclaims one thing, in this case a pageant of peace and change, but the intrinsic message is ‘Oderint dum metuant’ — let them hate, as long as they fear. Western heads of state — hell, most Knesset members — would hesitate to casually cross the green line today.
Anyway, thanks for reading. You can finish the diet coke now!
This has not been a good couple of days for someone trying to decide which Dem to back in the primaries. Senator Obama has come out with a less-than-progressive stimulus package to stave off the impending recession. Krugman critiques it here — hestal has a diary on Krugman here.
I was pondering Krugman’s column last night, and looking at other articles on Obama’s stimulus ideas . . . not encouraging. I was also reflecting on something Clinton said on Meet the Press on Sunday. That’s what I want to focus on, here.
There has been some commentary on Senator Clinton’s Meet the Press appearance on Sunday, but I haven’t seen any that address what strikes me as the most troubling moment in the Russert-Clinton exchange. After praising Obama for his 2002 stance against the AUMF, Clinton tries to jujitsu Obama’s 2002 speech into a liability:
If he [Obama] was against the war in 2002, he should’ve strongly spoke out in 2004. He should’ve followed what he said in his speech, which was that he would not vote for funding in ’05, ’06 and ’07. That is inconsistent with what he is now running his campaign on. The story of his campaign is premised on that speech.
On page 3 of the MTP transcript, Clinton tries to combine a criticism of Obama’s history on the Iraq war, with a defense of her own history:
MR. RUSSERT: But you voted for all the funding for the war.
SEN. CLINTON: I did. I never–I’m not premising my campaign on something different.
MR. RUSSERT: And then until ’06 was against the timetable.
SEN. CLINTON: But I did what I–my principle concern has always been doing what I thought was best for our country and what I thought was best for our troops. I’m not here saying anything different than that. I’m not giving you a story line that does not hold up…
MR. RUSSERT: But did he have better…
SEN. CLINTON: …under the facts and the times we were in.
MR. RUSSERT: Did he have better judgment in October of 2002?
SEN. CLINTON: You know, look, judgment is not a single snapshot. Judgment is what you do across the course of your life and your career.
MR. RUSSERT: A vote for war is a very important vote.
SEN. CLINTON: Well, you know, Tim, we can have this Jesuitical argument about what exactly was meant. You know, when Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution, said it was not a vote for war, when I was told directly by the White House in response to my question, “if you are given this authority, will you put the inspectors in and permit them to finish their job,” I was told that’s exactly what we intended to do. Now, I think it’s important to take a look at the entire context here. If Senator Obama’s going to get credit for his speech and his position against the war, then he deserves to be asked what happened in ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06 and ’07. I voted for the authorization…
MR. RUSSERT: I asked him those very questions…
SEN. CLINTON: And his answer was very political.
MR. RUSSERT: …in November. [Russert’s point being that Obama addressed those concerns.]
SEN. CLINTON: I mean, his whole point is that he doesn’t make political decisions.
This is not good, people. A straight-up reading the phrase “Authorization to Use Military Force” is “Jesuitical”. It is foolish to hope that anyone doesn’t make “political decisions” on matters of war. All of Clinton’s own votes can be interpreted as consistent, because “Chuck Hagel” and the White House assured her what the AUMF “meant”.
This is Clinton’s critique of Obama, mind you.
This can only be understood as an attempt to drag Obama down into an confused muddle in which no politician in the race counts as a strong liberal on the Iraq war, in which no stance means anything, and in which everyone looks just as bad Clinton herself. After all, she never promised anything in the first place. This is why we’re supposed to vote for Clinton.
For someone like me who has previously considered Edwards’s candicacy problematic, the past couple of days have constituted a very good reason to give him another look.
my idiot self posted this in realtime yesterday instead of auto-publishing for this morning…so here’s your MONDAY nfl round-up…and my sincerest apologies.
LONDON – John Mbugua, 56, a taxi driver in Mombasa, Kenya, woke himself at 3 a.m. the day of the Iowa caucuses and flipped on CNN. He said he watched for hours, not understanding precisely what or where Iowa was but thrilled about the victory of Barack Obama, the first U.S. presidential contender with Kenyan roots.
“I have never been interested in the elections before,” said Mbugua, who also got up at 4 a.m. to watch the New Hampshire primary results. “But now everybody is watching. Everybody feels that Kenya has a stake in the outcome of the U.S. election.”
From Mombasa’s sandy shores on the Indian Ocean to the hot tubs of Reykjavik, Iceland, the U.S. primaries are creating unprecedented interest and excitement in a global audience that normally doesn’t tune in until the general election in November.
USA
Clinton and Obama Spar Over Remark About Dr. King
Escalating their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama engaged in a war of words on Sunday over Mrs. Clinton’s recent remark about the role that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played in securing civil rights laws in the 1960s.
Mrs. Clinton made the remark last Monday as part of her latest political argument that Mr. Obama was an eloquent speaker but not a proven force for change, a description she is applying to herself.
A Dark Addiction
Miners Caught in Western Va.’s Spiraling Rates of Painkiller Abuse
The crowd is gathering early in the dirt parking lot outside the Clinch Valley Treatment Center, the only methadone clinic within 80 miles. Third in line, Jeff Trapp smokes Winstons in his pickup, watching the cars turn off the highway and settle behind him, tires crunching on cold gravel, headlights glaring. It is 2:45 a.m., and Trapp has been awake for two hours. The clinic does not start dosing until 5.
Like Trapp, many of the patients who filled the lot one recent morning have jobs at far-off mines that start at 6 or 7. They sleep upright in their vehicles, slumped against the steering wheel, dressed for work in steel-toed black boots and coveralls lined with orange reflective strips. Dark rings circle their eyes where the previous day’s coal dust didn’t wash off.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will begin discussions on what are regarded as the core issues in the peace process when they meet on Monday.
These include the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, refugees, security and water resources.
The negotiations will be led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
On Sunday, two Palestinian militants died in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
· Gulf media highlight uncritical support of Israel
Ian Black, Middle East editor
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian
President George Bush yesterday ratcheted up US rhetoric over Iran, lambasting it as “the world’s leading sponsor of state terror”, and urging America’s closest Arab allies to confront it “before it is too late”.
Giving the only formal speech of his seven-country Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates, the president accused Tehran of backing Shia groups in Iraq, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
South Africa’s police chief and the head of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, stepped down from both jobs at the weekend after prosecutors said they intend to charge him with bribery and defeating the ends of justice over his “generally corrupt relationship” with a convicted drug trafficker who is on trial for murder.
Selebi told the international police agency he was stepping down “in the best interests of Interpol and out of respect for the global law enforcement community” amid further revelations about the charges he is to face.
International human rights campaigners have accused Kenya’s police of carrying out an unofficial “shoot to kill” policy during post-election violence which has killed at least 575 people.
The statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) came as the United States and the European Union released their strongest comments yet on the flawed presidential election. Both said it would not be “business as usual” in Kenya until the political impasse was resolved, which diplomats say is a veiled threat of sanctions.
US assistant secretary of state Jendayi Frazer said vote rigging had “made it impossible to determine with certainty the final result”.
· Kremlin ‘using extremism law to silence critics’
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian
A group of women whose relatives were killed in the Beslan school siege are to go on trial in Russia today after they accused President Vladimir Putin of complicity in the deaths.
The Voice of Beslan group has been charged with “extremism” over an appeal to politicians in Europe and the US which implied that Putin assisted terrorists.
The prosecution was launched under legislation introduced last year which civil rights activists warned could be used to attack critics of the Kremlin.
Britain and its Nato allies considered organising a coup in Italy in 1976 to prevent the Communist Party from coming to power, Foreign Office papers reveal.
The documents, made public after 30 years, were unearthed by an Italian researcher in the government archives at Kew, Surrey. In 1976, the Cold War was still raging, Henry Kissinger was the US Secretary of State and Italy’s political situation was a shambles.
After 30 years of domination by the corrupt Christian Democrat party (DC), the country was ready for change. The Partito Comunista Italiana (PCI), led by the moderate Enrico Berlinguer, was the only political force which seemed to offer it. In an election scheduled for 20 June 1976, there was a strong chance it would beat the Christian Democrats into second place and lead a coalition
With glossy hair, sparkling eyes and a clinging dress in turquoise silk, the model floats along the catwalk amid a blaze of swirling lights, dance beats and the click of cameras.
So far, so fashion. But this is no ordinary catwalk show: the model is a white poodle, one of 20 dogs making their catwalk debut in Japan’s first ” human-canine” fashion show.
The dog industry is booming in Japan. The economy may be sluggish but that has failed to dent an expanding pet industry worth more than a trillion yen (£4.7bn) a year. The number of dogs has doubled to more than 13 million in the past decade – there are actually fewer children under 12 in Japan. From dog yoga classes and dog sunglasses to dog gourmet restaurants and dog aromatherapy spas, there are few aspects of human life that have not been extended to include canines.
From Beijing to Washington, the sigh of relief was almost audible when the Nationalist Party of the late Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek triumphed in weekend elections in Taiwan.
In droves, voters sent out the message that they wanted to see a cooling of the political rhetoric from their leaders that has enraged China and made their island among the hottest possible flashpoints for war in Asia.
The main opposition Nationalist Party, which fled to the island when Chiang lost a civil war in China to the Communists in 1949, thrashed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the legislative elections.
BOGOTA, Colombia – Recently released Colombian hostage Clara Rojas was reunited Sunday with her 3-year-old son, who was fathered by one of her guerrilla captors but taken away from her months after he was born.
Rojas gave birth to Emmanuel in 2004, but the guerrillas separated her from the child when he was 8 months old. A peasant delivered him to Colombian social services, which – unaware of his true identity – placed him in the foster home in the capital, Bogota, where he has been for the past two years.
Accompanied by her aging mother and brother, Rojas returned to Bogota on Sunday nearly six years after she was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and held captive in the jungle.
The muses are ancient. The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them. Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward. In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.
It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse. Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets. Others have been suggested throughout the centuries. I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts. And maybe there should be many more.
Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
I know you have talent. What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent. I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I’m a pretty darn good cook. 🙂
Let your talent bloom. You can share it here. Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.
Won’t you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making? And be excellent to one another!
