Friday - The Train comes into the station

Friday June whatever, 2009

. . . Let me start right off by stating how over Cottonwood season I am?

. . . Cody left this morning for his volunteer week at U of M Vent Camp. Can I take a moment as a Dad and just tell you how proud of him I am? Every year, this kid takes a week out of his schedule to go to camp and be a counselor for kids that are on ventilators, kids that live with a machine breathing for them, kids who wouldn't ordinarily get a chance to go play in the woods, splash in a pool, (which takes 3 people, one to hold a mechanical ventilator while two hold the child in the water), have competitions with other campers, have all the experiences that other kids can have. For many of them, they have a very short life expectancy, and this may be their only chance to get out in the woods, sleep in a cabin, have a camp experience like other kids. Cody, and a number of people from where he works, all take the time to give these kids that chance and make sure that they have ready access around the clock to the medical care they need. Truth be told, it makes me cry. Go Cody, I'm proud of you son. That's the kind of thing the world needs more of.

. . . Caleb left last night to get up to the Upper Peninsula to get his truck back.. . . .and of course, right on cue, there is an ominous rumbling from under the rear end of mine. Murphy's, don't you know? Go figure.

. . . The Rev Charla down at Hawkwind, sends this link. I found it fascinating in light of what's going on the world these days, she's always been on top of how the information flows. It's a link to a website that spends some time with Drunzalo Melchizedek in an interview concerning the Mayan and Hopi prophecies and how they apply to this time. Check it out, it's worth your time. Melchizedek was able to gain some real insights and spend some time with indigenous elders that most of us never, or will never, get to. From my standpoint, with a foot in both worlds, his explanation in mathematical terms, especially the Fibonacci sequence, opened me up to some new things.
. . .And while I'm at it, let me tell you that Tarwater and Charla have been down there at Hawkwind for over 2 decades, providing a safe space and giving folks the opportunities for personal growth and transformation. They, along with Lulu are always a blast to hang out with. Charla has some new programs that she's starting up, check her out at the Blue Star Portal.
. . . As always, for great ink and rockin' good time, check Tarwater and Lulu out at the Red Queen, up in Chattanooga, TN.


. . . And another shout right here for Mary Thunder, down at Thunder Ranch, who sends along notes of encouragement to keep this going and keep on keeping on. Mary does good stuff down there, especially in helping people in recovery find a path to spirituality that works for them and speaks to them. Keep it up Mary.

. . . .This one is personally important to me. I went to wonderful high school, where I was given an opportunity to participate not just in sports and academics, but be part of the arts as well, being in high school plays, debate, forensics, the works. I think, if you're a regular reader, you know how passionate I am about music, (turn the volume knob UP on your computer if you don't know it by now, you'll figure it out pretty quickly), it's vital and important, music carries our soul as a society, and not everyone can be a musician, but they can be part of spreading it out and it's messages. Aimee sends this along, to help save 45 years of education radio after school, and I urge you to support it.

Many of you have met my sister Jenny or at least heard about her.
She's a good teacher and this is a good program. She loves her kids
and goes above and beyond for them and the radio station has always
been open for them.

California - you may not make it here, but please send an email and
share with friends. Course, you could always come for a visit, would
love to see most of you:)

Want to come with or meet me there? Let me know. This is a good
cause and community. If you can't make it, please email the
superintendent


WPHS 89.1 FM
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Warren Consolidated School Administration Building
31300 Anita
Warren, MI

Tell the Warren Consolidated School board why WPHS should stay on the
air. Are you a listener, an alumni, a current student, a parent or
just a fan of local radio? WCS is trying to shut down their student
run radio station after school- which will effectively kill the
program, eliminate the one place many kids have to go, and quiet the
voices of hundreds of future broadcasters.
Can't make it? email the superintendent
livernois@wcskids.net
or any of the board members
http://www.wcs.k12.mi.us/content/boardofed.htm
with your opinion.

Thanks
Aimee

. . . . .From the New York Times, now the real problem with the stimulus and spending packages starts to come in, and come in now, not years from now. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chair testified in front of Congress on Wednesday, “Even as we take steps to address the recession and threats to financial stability, maintaining the confidence of the financial markets requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.” This translates as a simple warning. Acting like typical Americans, like typical government officials, who don't live in the same world we do, they're experiencing the phenomenon that occurs once people realize that they have to pay for things too, they don't just fall out of the sky.

As governments worldwide try to spend their way out of recession, many countries are finding themselves in the same situation as embattled consumers: paying higher interest rates on their rapidly expanding debt.

Increased rates could translate into hundreds of billions of dollars more in government spending for countries like the United States, Britain and Germany.

Even a single percentage point increase could cost the Treasury an additional $50 billion annually over a few years — and, eventually, an additional $170 billion annually.

This could put unprecedented pressure on other government spending, including social programs and military spending, while also sapping economic growth by forcing up rates on debt held by companies, homeowners and consumers.

. . . .But that's alright, because the real intent behind the stimulus packages was never really for jumpstarting the economy. According to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, President Obama's heinous plot behind the stimulus package monies is to "control the people."

. . . .The SEC charges are in against Angelo Mozilo, the former Countrywide CEO who is at the head of the list of felons that created the subprime bubble and then caused it's collapse. CNN Money reports that Mozilo was charged with misleading investors by telling them that Countrywide was a lender who dealt mostly in low-risk traditional mortgages, and with pocketing personally $140 million in insider trading.

. . . .These people drive me crazy. The GOP leaders, despite being extreme rightists, are apparently siding with their members who smoke dope, and are listening to the new drug czar, who of course has said that the war on drugs isn't working (News flash: It never did, and it never will, not until they have someone in the government who understands both the spiritual and medical root causes of addictive behavior). Their budget proposal trims $220 million over the next 5 years from drug war funds.

. . . .Speaking of their members who smoke dope, make sure to catch "Outrage" when it comes to a theater near you. It's a documentary about members of the far Right, Republican Party members who speak out so strongly against gay rights and gay marriage, but who are gay, and get outed in the film, not by the filmmakers but who have been outed previously.


. . . .OK, so Dick Cheney admits on Wednesday that there never was a connection between 9/11, Osama bin Laden, Al-Queada and Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and tries to blame it all squarely on Richard Clarke(???!!). Then on Thursday daughter Liz (who the fuck invited her to the party anyhow? Dick is bad enough) obviously hadn't talked to Daddy in the previous 24 hours and resurrected the claim that there was a link between Al-Queada and Iraq.

. . . And this same flag-waving group of people, who claim to be more patriotic and more American than anyone else, the GOP, turn around on Thursday, The Hill reports, and run right out of a closed-door House Intelligence briefing and start revealing what they read in classified documents.

. . . . .For a while, I really thought we were safe from hot button values issues, and little things like 10's of millions of people out of work, a broken economy, a broken auto industry, two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would save us from the endless shouting and hysteria that accompany those issues; things like racial preference in judges, abortion, gay marriage and gun control. Nope, seems people have too much time on their hands.

. . . And I hope they're happy, before leaving for the Mideast and Europe, the President left a two page briefing for his staff around his expectations and wants for health-care reform. It's essentially an amalgam of the programs that Clinton and McCain proposed while they were on the campaign trail. The Boston Globe reports that Obama told Congress he wants Americans to have a choice between public health insurance and private, and that he is open to requiring it to be mandatory.

. . . .Think the government doesn't have a big, big say in the flow of information. At first the media was doing a credible job of reporting on the spread of H1N1 (swine) flu. Everyone said "it's hysteria", and it's disappeared off the radar. Son Cody's hospital, the one where he works, has an entire wing right now that is "epidemic control" and every bed is full of H1N1 carriers, and people who are bad enough off to need hospitalization. It's spreading and getting worse. We warned about this in earlier posts, about it's 3rd or 4th circling around the globe. He now gets called while he's out at night by Infection Control from his employer whenever it turns out that during the day he was exposed to someone infected with H1N1. Scary stuff, even scarier that it's been taken of the info radar.

. . . .Again, for those who were certain that Obama is somehow going to "help" the terrorists, or as Liz Cheney said "hold hands with them", there's the Bin Laden tape delivered to Al-Jazeera in which he claimed Obama as an "enemy". There's the Ayatollah of Iraq, who spoke minutes after Obama's speech in Cairo and called him an "enemy", and the jihadist extremist reactions all over the web that call him a "wise enemy".

. . . .The same Mitt Romney, who said in 2002 that partisan politics stopped at the water's edge, well he decided to use the trip as his presidential hat-in-the-ring speech (why wait there's only 3 1/2 years to go) well, he's who blasted to President's remarks in Cairo. Well . . .and the Bush aide who called the speech "too balanced", gotta love it.

. . . .Yesterday, it was noted here about David Carradine's passing, and the effect he had on me as a teenager. The Rev Charla down at Hawkwind sent this tribute along, and I find it fitting, and wonderful, and thank her for writing it and sharing it:

A KUNG-FU TRIBUTE

It might seem a bit odd, coming from a Native Healing Center, to have a grieving moment over Kung–fu and David Carradine’s death. It’s not. This man joins a list of heroes for me from way back when. He was one of the most powerful influences in my Spiritual life from the 70’s. He was like every other Medicine Man or Woman that I knew. As a struggling teenager feeling trapped in Wyoming, he became a way of seeing the world with bigger eyes. When the series Kung-Fu came out, it was a warrior favorite on the Reservation. I managed the TV station and we played his shows everyday, when we could. Kung-Fu became the wild -west Holy Man of our times. It was while watching one of his TV shows that I became pregnant with my daughter Alethea,. She was named for a character in that particular show. It was a story about a little girl who witnessed a crime and was afraid to tell anyone. Jody Foster played the little girl, and when I heard that the name Alethea meant Goddess of Truth, I hung on to that for my precious child. Alethea Dawn-Star became my own very serious, dawning of truth.

Later in life, it was because of this silly character that I took martial arts. When I was diagnosed with cancer, this man played an important role in my healing. A Medicine Man in South Dakota guided me to a real Shaolin Priest in Chattanooga, I was so excited that I had finally met a real master of the ancient ways. I studied with him throughout six years of acupuncture and Thai Chi. It was because of the Kung-Fu character that I was fascinated with the ability to cure this disease with alternative means. This last month, Dr. Wong left me, as well. Call me crazy but I feel like Dr. Wong went to make way for David, who died in Tibet.

I knew David to be an activist, a shadow master of the good guy/bad guy roles in life,. I knew him to be an inner guide- post for my own perception of Holy/Wholeness. I have always related to him as a character of our times. I craved to know him in person, and he was always on my personal “bucket-list” He symbolized balance, and the great pause clause. I cherished those times he would slow down his language and listen to the wind or the rain. He showed me power in nature. He was a symbol of right vs wrong and how the good guy always wins out. Today I am sad, because this good guy did not win. He was found hanging in his room. I don’t want to think he gave up. I want to think he died in his cause of freedom for the old ways. I HAVE to think that for my own moment of grief of lost wisdom and direction. I want my Kung-Fu moment of WINNING WITH WISDOM NOT FORCE.

Today, I feel about his death the same as I have every Medicine Man or Woman that I watched etch my life and leave. This Kung Fu master has a deep etching in my life. It guided my media career and enchanted my Spiritual Quest for more knowledge. For years, I wanted to find a Temple like his for girls and go study the magic of the old ways. When I found Dr. Wong, we shared those laughs and those GRASSHOPPER moments. In some ways, I found it with Dr. Wong. I delighted in the hours and hours each day we spent in my healing. He would bow and pause and then he allowed me a thousand questions, and always responded; “ I gotta a needle for that…” We would spar through the evening, and I would work to find my inner balance, so I too could bow and be just like that blessed Kung Fu guy; a quiet hero.

I am hoping that today there is a martial arts match of the highest form of Kung-Fu in heaven. I see these two men are bowing to one another . They look into each other’s eyes with a little Charla smile of knowing that someone honestly believed in both of them. Fact or fiction, they were guide posts in my Medicine career. I will miss them. Today with a smile with a deep knowing of truth , I stand in the proper position to reach out into the Spiritual world. I continue to seek wholeness as a way of life. I have, after-all been the most dedicated grasshopper of all!

. . . Thanks Charla, for a wonderful tribute.

. . . .Way too nice a weekend coming at people, go enjoy the day.

. . . .Some days it all just sucks, and it doesn't look like there are any solutions, but those are the days, you suck it up, strap it on and go out into the fray and put one foot in front of the other, those days pass, and it gets better.

. . . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do, seize the precious moments before they slip through your hands, this rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one gets out alive, and we don't get to dictate the terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. It's not about yesterday, or tomorrow, it's about right here, right now. This ain't no dress rehearsal, so go change yourself and change your world, the world around you will change.

The Desolation Angel
[where: Hell, Michigan 48137]