Mistah Charley

FINDING A WAY PAST DESTRUCTION

2011-06-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Over at some other blog, a couple of us (big picture, deep thought kind of guys, with a tendency to overdo the modesty and helpfulness) were talking about... the economist Kenneth Boulding ... a brilliant guy ... his spouse Elise ... it is a small little blurgworld indeed.

Elise Boulding wrote, in 1995, "Fred Polak was one of the first thinkers to call attention to the atrophy of our capacity to visualize a wholly different future. His Image for the Future (1953) was written for a Europe paralyzed by the experience of World War II. According to Polak, the human capacity to create mental images of the 'totally other' - that which has never been experienced or recorded - is the key dynamic of history. At every level of awareness, from the individual to the macrosocietal, imagery is continuously generated about the not-yet. Such imagery inspires our intentions, which then move us purposefully forward. Through daily choices of action, individuals, families, enterprises, communities, and nations move toward that which they imagine to be a desirable tomorrow.

"Polak points out, however, that historically alternating waves of optimism and pessimism about reality roll through time, as do alternative views about the end of the world. Sometimes humans are seen as partners with God or Nature, other times as helpless objects of supernatural action. In Polak's reading of history, optimism about reality combined with a utopian sense of human empowerment set in motion a powerful dynamic. Utopian optimism has characterized the Western worldview of recent centuries - but not of the last few decades. In eras when pessimism combines with a sense of cosmic helplessness, the quality of human intentionality declines and, with it, the quality of imagery of the not-yet. Societies in that condition live bounded by the present, with no social dynamic for change available to them. This is our situation in the post-World War II Western world.

"My own lifetime of 75 years, and my reading of history, has shown me over and over again that no matter how bad things are, the human race has been there before - been there, and found a way past destruction. It is finding the way past destruction that makes imaging so important."

For a limited time only, through a combination of circumstances that will not be repeated, you can download without charge Elise Boulding's translation and abridgement of Polak's book, albeit with frequent minor misspellings due to the OCR process.

http://en.laprospective.fr/dyn/anglais/memoire/the-image-of-the-future.pdf

Against TPTB; Keep On Truckin'

2009-04-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Instead of TPTB [The Powers That Be], which has an ominous tone but lacks all specificity, I prefer MICFiC -

M ilitary
I ndustrial
C ongressional
Fi nancial
C orporate Media Complex

The first draft of Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address referred to the "military-industrial-congressional" complex, and I've made it more inclusive by adding the financial and corporate media wings.

Of course, from within the MICFiC (note the non-capitalized second "i" - it makes the graphic design of the acronym more interesting, as well as easier to say) it's quite clear that there are factions and struggles. However, from outside the MICFiC, the term promotes recognition of:

the aggregation of power

the use by this complex of the governing apparatus of the Republic to promote perpetual war preparations - and actual mass murder as often as possible

its purpose - to steal from the people using the tax system, and use them as raw material

its method of mind control - the mass media's constant distraction and disinformation - on one level, for one group of people, "The Price is Right" and "American Idol" - for another group of people, smooth-talking neoconservative paranoia via PBS and NPR

No one knows what will happen next - but I was impressed by something William Black (author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One) said in his April 3, 2009 interview with Bill Moyers.

There's a saying that we [who were working on the Savings and Loan crisis] took great comfort in. It's actually by the Dutch, who were fighting this impossible war for independence against what was then the most powerful nation in the world, Spain. And their motto was, "It is not necessary to hope in order to persevere."

April 11 - Assembling to Petition for a Redress of Grievances

2009-04-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

On April 11, 2009. at 2 PM, in various cities across the U.S., groups of citizens will gather in opposition to bailouts putting the people as a whole into bondage to the big banksters.

The aims of "A New Way Forward" are:

NATIONALIZE: Experts agree on the means -- Insolvent banks that are too big to fail must incur a temporary FDIC intervention - no more blank check taxpayer handouts. (see Krugman on nationalization)

REORGANIZE: Current CEOs and board members must be removed and bonuses wiped out. The financial elite must share in the cost of what they have caused. (see Simon Johnson on reorganizing)

DECENTRALIZE: Banks must be broken up and sold back to the private market with strong, new regulatory and antitrust rules in place-- new banks, managed by new people. Any bank that's "too big to fail" means that it's too big for a free market to function.

http://www.anewwayforward.org/the_idea/

Our plan: Real structural change of Wall Street

DECENTRALIZE: Any bank that's "too big to fail" means that it's too big for a free market to function. The financial corporations that caused this mess must be broken up and sold back to the private market with strong, new regulatory and antitrust rules in place -- new banks, managed by new people. An independent regulatory body must protect consumers from predatory practices.

As Wall St. corporations grew bigger and bigger until they were “too big to fail,” they also became so politically powerful that they led to distorted and unfair policies that served companies, not citizens.

Its not enough to try to patch up the current system. We demand serious reform that fixes the root problems in our political and economic system: excessive influence of banks, dangerous compensation systems, and massive consolidation. And we demand that the reform happen in an open and transparent manner.

Read more about what we want and can achieve and see our blog for more related information.

Also, see these three great economic interviews that can get you up to speed from Bill Moyers : Simon Johnson on the financial oligarchy, 2/13; William Greider on restructuring and ANWF rallies, 3/26; and William Black on financial fraud, 4/2.

http://www.anewwayforward.org/demonstrations/

_______________________________________

Amendment I to the Constitution of the United States

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Is Barack Obama a Snake in the Grass?

2008-10-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

is Obama a SHEEP in WOLVES' CLOTHING?

I can see why those of us with limited perception (i.e., everyone, approximately) might think that Obama is a member in good standing of the War Party. He talks like one. They treat him like one. He has the endorsement of Colin Powell, you betcha.

But follow me through the steps of a Gedankenexperiment. Let us suppose Obama is dedicated to gaining power by any means necessary. Clearly, the road to the White House is barred to anyone who does not welcome the embrace of the MICFiC (military industrial congressional financial corporate media complex). Let us reduce our occupation force in Iraq, says Barack - so we can put more boots on the ground with guns in their hands pointed at the inhabitants of Afghanistan. This is just what a suitable prospective Commander in Chief in Charge of Killing Foreigners would say.

But although Obama says things like this with apparent sincerity, what if he's lying to us - for our own good? What if he really is a Christian - not a Christianist, like Gov. Palin, but someone who tries to live according to the teachings of Jesus?

Recall Matthew 10:16 - the King James Version, which some believe is what Jesus would have said, if English had been invented at the time, is:

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

As Brian said, "Blessed are the cheesemakers" - which should be understood to include all those involved in the production and distribution of dairy products.

On the other hand, maybe the following verse, following the format of Lewis Carroll's The Mad Gardener's Song, is a better prediction of the future:

She thought she saw a candidate
Who'd put an end to war.
She looked again, and found it was
The Same Game as Before.
"If that's the way it goes," she said,
"Then what is voting for?"

UPDATE April 6, 2009: Current evidence suggests that President Obama is in fact in sympathy with the prevailing views of the foreign policy and financier establishments. It's hard to make predictions, especially about the future, as famed sports figure Lawrence Berra has said.

We've come to a fork in the road - should we take it?

2008-10-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

These days I go to various places for information on matters of political economy, and right now I regard RGE Monitor as a very useful source of information and commentary. It seems that the "improvement" of the Paulson "Cash for Trash" Bill during the legislative process included language which made taxpayer participation in the ownership of financial firms allowable, though not compulsory. Good. I think. Barack Obama (upon whom be peace) asked my congressperson to vote affirmatively on the measure that finally passed, and let's hope it all works out in the long run.

The big guys (finance ministers and central bankers of the G7) are meeting in DC this weekend, and the future's ahead.

I'm sending this fax to my Senators and Congressperson

2008-09-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

To put it bluntly: NO CASH FOR TRASH!

I'm against giving money to bankers for their toxic waste. This plan was devised by, and is for the benefit of, the same people who got us into this situation.

There are other alternatives. Congress needs to hold hearings and listen to economists who saw this coming – for example, Nouriel Roubini, Robert Kuttner, and Dean Baker. It may take a couple of weeks longer, but this is a time to do what is NECESSARY, not what is convenient.

The fear-based stampede that the Bush Gang is trying to provoke is a giant rip-off. Although it is merely robbery, instead of mass murder (wars of choice against nations that never harmed us), it is yet another crime. I hope to live long enough to see fair trials for the lot of them.

Our next president's one-sentence stump speech

2007-12-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

Atrios has performed this very valuable service of data distillation:

Obama: The system sucks, but I'm so awesome that it'll melt away before me.

Edwards: The system sucks, and we're gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it.

Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.

I'm not sure who will be our next president, but of these three people quoted, I agree with Edwards.

Part of "fighting like hell" would be fair trials, employing all the Anglo-American traditional procedural protections for the accused, of the Bush/Cheney Gang of traitors and mass murderers.

The notion that has been floated recently of a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", along South African lines, seems fundamentally mistaken to me. South Africa had gone through an irreversible transformation, and white minority rule would never return. Our situation is very different. Immunity and impunity are powerful statements - they say - you can do this again and again and get away with it. So far they have. Scooter Libby's sentence was commuted. Eliot Abrams is back in the government. This is the MICFiC in action. As long as they can get away with it, they'll keep it up.

The thieves, traitors, and mass murderers who run this country now are entitled to receive fair trials. "We the People" need to give them fair trials.

It's A Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story

2007-12-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Although allegedly this is the movie's "suppressed ending", I wrote it myself, admittedly influenced by the Saturday Night Live sketch in which they went over to Potter's house and beat him up.

Coincidentally, the Bible quote with which I notionally end the film - "therefore choose life" - was also in Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize speech yesterday.

The challenge we all face is that of continuing to choose life, even while recognizing that we live in Pottersville, not Bedford Falls.

It's A Wonderful Life - The Final Scene

Potter's personal health care attendant (the man who pushes his wheelchair) bursts into the party at George and Mary Bailey's house. The mood, which had been festive (just a moment before, we saw the arrest warrant being torn apart and thrown on the pile of contributions from "so many friends") changes immediately, as the tale of Potter's purloining of the disappeared bank deposit is told. At first incredulous, the people become increasingly angry as the depth of depravity of the twisted, misanthropic millionaire becomes clear.

Next we see the crowd carrying torches as they approach Potter's mansion - it is like the evil twin of the house that George, Mary, and their kids have filled with love - equally large, but almost all in darkness, and without any sort of holiday decoration, neither Christmas tree, menorah, or solstice wreath. Ernie drives up in his cab, and siphons some gasoline from the tank into a large metal can. We see him and Potter's former health care attendant splashing the gasoline at the entrances of the house, including the wheelchair ramp. Uncle Billy ignites the flammable liquid by throwing his torch into it, and the rest of the crowd follows suit. The volunteer fire department arrives, but Burt the cop keeps them from coming up the long drive.

Inside the house, through the windows, we see Potter desperately going from room to room, trying to escape, but it is useless. Uncle Billy watches with grim satisfaction, and we see the flames of the house reflected in his glasses as he mutters "So long, you old so and so."

We recognize other members of the crowd - the same individuals we saw in the "Pottersville bar" scene - and, like then, there are no women or other members of the Bailey family present, except for Uncle Billy.

Clarence the angel, no longer in civilian clothes, but rather in his magnificent new robe and wings, watches sadly from treetop level. The camera pulls back and we see the house beginning to collapse as the flames leap higher. The final scene pans upward from the burning house to the starry sky, and we see in Gothic letters the following Biblical quote: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life" (Deut. 30:19).

I see dead people - but I'm not the only one

2007-11-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

The following is an excerpt from an ongoing correspondence with someone whose age and experiences differ significantly from mine:

a close personal cyberfriend writes:

i know that for many boomers of a certain age vietnam
and military war/peace are the defining issues of
their lives. but for me it will always be AIDS, and
the treatment of women and gay people, the culturally
enforced hatred of them for simply existing. not for
having bad or stupid ideas or creeds. just for daring
to exist at all and for not knowing their place as
subhuman objects. and for letting them die in droves
as punishment.

i'm not being hyperbolic when i say that there were
long stretches in the 80s when i attended several
funerals every week. week after week for years on end.
when, in that interview, james speaks about his
emotions at the vietnam memorial, realizing that (at
that already very early date) more americans had
already died of AIDS than had died in the entire
vietnam war i nod my head and feel that horrible
truth.

my politics are completely shaped by that experience
(or were till 911 which dovetails with those issues,)
in much the same way that many boomers politics were
shaped by vietnam.

it's why i can never have any respect for people who
follow creeds that inculcate that hatred and
subjugation. why i will never be quiet or polite about
my raw return hatred for the people who propagate it.
whether it's fred phelps or some turbaned freak it
matters not to me. their hate is the same hate. and it
is why, perhaps, i get less worked up about overt
military war. because i lived thru a war, by another
name. long before 911. where more than half of the
people i knew were killed. where we didn't lose one or
two brave young boys from whatever town, but lost half
the population of my town, or my part of town anyway.
where they were made to die for being themselves. for
loving other people.

============================================

my reply:

i admit it, there is no question that for me vietnam and war/peace is a defining issue of my life - the Vietnam war was not a bug that was fixed, it was a manifestation of a persistent feature, seemingly hard-wired into the system - a feature that is activated again and again - the Spanish-American War, the Reagan-era wars against the people of Central America (paid for by the US, using money Oliver North got by selling stolen weapons to Iran, although mainly fought by local hirelings), Panama, Iraq I, Iraq II, etc. etc.

my bachelor's degree was in political science at MIT - some of the professors in that department were making big bucks (for polisci professors) consulting for the so-called Department of Defense on things like the "strategic hamlet" program - the last couple years i was there armed guards searched our briefcases and backpacks as we went into the building (there had been a small-scale bombing at someone's office overnight - by extremists, or by agents provocateurs - who knows?)

i'm not arguing that the suffering produced by yankee imperialism is more - or less - than that caused by the HIV pandemic - the 20th century was full of dramatic and exciting experiences, and there's no shortage of corpses to count - but one difference i see is that AIDS is caused by a virus, although clearly worsened by the way people mistreat each other

whereas war (what is it good for? business, my boy - it's real good for business - and for keeping and increasing political power) is a purely social phenomenon (one could say 'man-made' - although there is plenty of female participation in the norm-inculcating processes that promote mass murder)

may the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any - and assist us in the long process of guided self-observation said to bring such souls into existence - and stand beside us and guide us through the Night with the Light from Above [speaking metaphorically]

What makes an action "moral" or "immoral"?

2007-11-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

It's whether or not somebody gets hurt, right? And whether there's fairness and reciprocity ("The Golden Rule", in more recent centuries formulated as Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative, and personified in Charles Kingsley's 19th century novel The Water-Babies as Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby) - that's what counts, don't you think?

Well, yes, I agree with you on this, but a lot of people regard some other considerations as very important in evaluating whether something is right or wrong.

Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist on the faculty of the University of Virginia, has found that liberals tend to rely mostly on the two questions I first stated - the first is "consequentialist", the second "deontological". However, conservatives also use other "innate, intuitive ethical systems" to decide if something is "immoral" or not. At "The Moral Foundations Home Page" it is put this way:

Moral Foundations Theory proposes that five innate psychological systems form the foundation of "intuitive ethics." Each culture constructs its particular morality as a set of virtues, values, and ideas based on or related to these five foundations (as well as to many other non-moral aspects of the evolved mind). The current American culture war can be seen as arising from the fact that liberals try to create a morality relying almost exclusively on the Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity foundations; conservatives, especially religious conservatives, use all five foundations, including Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. In every sample we have examined (including samples in the US, UK and Western Europe), political conservatism correlates negatively with endorsement of the Harm and Fairness foundations, and positively with endorsement of the Ingroup, Authority, and Purity foundations.

I've just started reading Haidt's book The Happiness Hypothesis (a few chapters of which are available for free download on the web) and am finding it very interesting.

MICFiC - an acronym every child should know

2007-11-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

I'm formally suggesting an easy-to-say acronym for the ruling class. The phrase "the military-industrial complex" was featured in Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address, which in a humane and reasonable America (in the future? in an alternative universe? in one's dreams?) will have the prominence it deserves. Wikipedia tells us

The first public use of the term was by the Union of Democratic Control, formed by Sir Charles Trevelyan in the United Kingdom on 5 August 1914. Point Four of their pacifist manifesto declared:

4. National armaments should be limited by mutual agreement, and the pressures of the military-industrial complex regulated by the nationalisation of armaments firms and control over the arms trade. -- page 144, DeGroot, Gerard J. Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War, London & New York: Longman, 1996.

Eisenhower's speech in draft form had the phrase "the military-industrial-congressional complex", but he took "congressional" out after objections from those who thought it might offend important people (as it would have, of course. I've restored that word, and added a couple of others for comprehensiveness.

MICFiC

M ilitary
I ndustrial
C ongressional
Fi nancial
C orporate Media Complex

The second "i" in MICFiC is not capitalized, which makes it a bit more interesting if it should ever come to the "graphic design" stage, as well as facilitating easy pronunciation -

mick-fick

I wondered if I could come up with an aphoristic explanation, and decided that the elevator version is:

The MICFiC is a conspiracy to use, abuse, and confuse the people, to "milk, shear, and slaughter the sheeple", figuratively speaking - except the "slaughter" is literal.

Re-elect Gore 2008

2007-10-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

You can get the button from buzzflash.com

some of us who hope he will run are mailing him two pennies (our "two cents worth"), together with a note indicating real support will be provided if he accepts the challenge and runs for president.

Office of the Honorable Al Gore,
2100 West End Avenue, Suite 620,
Nashville, TN 37203.

If you Google "Draft Gore" you will find other things you can do.

Open letter to Every Congressman & Senator

2007-10-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

OUT OF IRAQ – WHATEVER IT TAKES – 2009 IS TOO LATE

Does it take cutting off the funds?

As I understand the Constitution, only Congress can authorize expenditures. No money for the war, no war. Bush can veto appropriation bills by himself, but he cannot pass them. So cut off the funds.

Does it take removing Bush and Cheney?

Apparently some think that Congress’s power of the purse is not enough to end the war, as long as the Bush/Cheney regime controls the Executive Branch. If that’s the case, then Congress should use its Constitutionally-mandated power to end the Bush/Cheney regime. You swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It seems clear that the Bush/Cheney regime (aggressive war based on lies; blatant and repeated violation of laws; torture; political corruption of the administration of justice; etc. etc. etc.) is not just too incompetent to continue in office – they are by intent, not just in effect, enemies of our Constitution.

If Bush and Cheney continue in office, they will probably attack Iran

The Bush/Cheney regime and their collaborators in the so-called “main stream” media (for example, David Ignatius’s Washington Post column of Oct. 7) are obviously preparing the public relations ground for this right now. Can any rational person doubt that such a course would be even more calamitous than the present war?

Do your duty

Every day this useless occupation goes on it kills people, and permanently maims more – many Americans and many more Iraqis (citizens of a country, by the way, THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 9/11 ATTACK). End the occupation NOW. Many human lives, and the future of our country, depend on it.

Revised Blogger Personal Statement

2007-10-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

"This is the future. You've got to live it, or live with it." Since the Firesign Theatre pointed this out, decades ago, its truthiness has only intensified - as Bob Dylan advised, "let us not talk falsely now, the hour's getting late."

I would like to live in a country that has a decent respect for the opinions of mankind(as Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence), that cultivates just and amicable feelings towards all other nations (Washington), that listens to the better angels of our nature (Lincoln), and that takes seriously Eisenhower's warnings about the military-industrial-congressional complex.

I have an "Out of Iraq" sign up at my house, and hope the Bush Gang receives fair trials (with all the constitutionally mandated protections they wish to abolish for others) and punishment as decreed by law. ["You may think that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." - John Lennon]

As someone at the Nova Scotia Archives told a cousin of mine once, "We're all related - even the Chinese." I think so too.

May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.

conspiracy theories - some go too far, some not far enough

2005-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

just a few words on paranoia -

a paranoid's worldview sees the hand of an enemy in events, which he perceives as intentional acts designed to harm him

obviously, it is possible to be too paranoid, and to overinterpret the coherence of historical events and see connections that aren't really there - and to blame many events on a vast conspiracy - the jews, the illuminati, the communists, the jesuits , the "greys"

on the other hand, it is also possible to miss the coherence that is really there - to be oblivious or to have "false consciousness"

it's not easy to know what's really going on, and everyone applies a bayesian approach - we evaluate the probability of new information being accurate based on what we already believe

i try to stick to the middle way - to be appropriately suspicious - the goldilocks principle - neither too much nor too little

as i'm sure most of us here recognize, there really ARE conspiracies - a relatively large number, some working together, some at cross-purposes

at "all spin zone"recently there's been a discussion of the "paranoid shift" - a change of weltanschauung when a person begins to believe that some of the events of recent history really are connected in ways that have been concealed (recall that bush's first choice to chair the 9/11 commission - a commission he hadn't wanted in the first place - was henry kissinger)

woody allen said we stand at a crossroads - one way leads to despair, the other to total destruction - let us hope we make the right choice

Let's not give up on our fellow 'mericans

2004-06-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Shall we give up on our fellow 'mericans?

After all, they elected Reagan (and also Nixon) twice, and although we cannot accuse them of electing Chimpy, approximately half support the Cheney Administration. What if Kurt Vonnegut is right when he asserts “I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable”.

But surely the twentieth century, which all of us are time travelers from, gives us examples of surprising changes. When I was a child Negroes (as we called them) were prevented from living within the city limits of the town where I went to high school - while racism persists, things are substantially different now. Germany's role in world politics and relationship to the Jewish people has been transformed since World War II. I supposed that the apartheid regime in South Africa would end in a bloodbath - surprisingly, no.

There's a Hasidic saying, "no person is so bright that they don't have one speck of darkness, nor so dark that they don't have one spark of light". Krishna tells us in the Gita that divine and demonic tendencies are mixed in human nature. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream - that dream being that America would live up to its dream. As Paul McCartney put it, "there is still a chance that they may see" - not all of them, of course, but maybe enough to make a significant difference.

Secretary of State Powell is similar to his predecessor Kissinger

2004-06-03T03:57:00.000-07:00

According to the proprietor of The Whiskey Bar, at www.billmon.org:

As far as I can tell, Colin Powell is one of the most cynical liars to ever serve in the U.S. government - who's still alive, I mean. And when Henry Kissinger finally kicks the bucket, he'll have the title.

I think Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al actually believed a lot of the stories they were telling. But Powell has never bought into ANY of the administration's fantasies. And yet he's been perfectly willing to go out and sell them in public, over and over and over again. And in the process, he's told some of the most outrageous lies of any of them.

Maybe he thinks it's his duty. Or maybe he's just a sociopath like Bush. I don't know. But it's been quite a performance.

Letter to America from Compassionate Canadian Authoress

2004-05-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

"The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn't dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; and in the country's hour of greatest peril, he would return. You too have great spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience. Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them."

Margaret Atwood, writing in The Nation
issue of April 14, 2003
entire piece here

Aunt Caroline Dye, the "gypsy" in the St. Louis Blues

2004-05-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

from an article in Southern Quarterly, 1969, by John Quincy Wolf:

According to another story, Aunt Caroline showed powers of prophecy when she was a child. Born into a family of slaves, she had the knack of making predictions that somehow came true and of making lucky guesses that attracted attention on the plantation. But no one thought much about her until Thanksgiving Day, 1865. The master of the plantation had a brother, Charley, who had been reported killed in the War in '61. On Thanksgiving morning, 1865, when the table was set for the big dinner at which the family would celebrate its reunion, Caroline, then about ten years old, told the women of the house hold that they hadn't set enough plates. They counted and the mistress assured Caroline that the number was correct. But the child remonstrated: "You ain' got a place for Mistah Charley." She was reminded that Uncle Charley had been killed four years ago. Yet she still maintained that "he's coming to dinner today."

The family had just started eating when they heard footsteps in the hall, and a very tired Uncle Charley walked into the room. He said that he had been severely wounded in '61, taken prisoner, and kept in a prison hospital until after Appomattox. He had written letters but they had evidently been destroyed at the prison or lost in transit. The family thought he might have been in the neighborhood for several days before Thanksgiving and that Caroline had learned of his arrival. But he assured them that he came straight from the prison and had spent the preceding night twenty-five miles away.

The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, Lyon College

it a great life (always look on the bright side)

2004-05-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

it a great life
rat a tat tat
enjoy yourself and
like it like that

groove widda riddum
boppin down da block
move your hands & feet
as you go hip-hop

energy movin
your flesh & bones
this is your life
this is your home

smile at your neighbor
smile at the sky
life is a blessing
why ask why

something good happen
maybe soon
maybe next week
maybe next June

don't use a weapon
let go of strife
enjoy yourself
it a great life