DESTINY DAY as a national holiday

Justifiably or no, I've always been conflicted about the recent national holiday.

Don't get me wrong. I fully support commemorating the work of Dr Martin Luther King jr. And I believe it's only appropriate to celebrate his cultural legacy.

Incidentally, I also believe that our history books should devote some space to dealing with his blemishes, as well as his virtues. There'll be more on that particular point later.

I believe a national holiday should unify the American people. In unity, so we should wish, people commemorate their common history, and express gratitude for their common cultural legacy. As I contemplate the recent national holiday, one tiny fact becomes all too glaring. Dr Martin Luther King jr Day coincides with Confederate Day. I consider that a delicious tidbit of historical irony.

Still in all, that goes a long way towards validating why I feel conflicted.

Like a bolt out of the blue, it came to me how the conflict can be resolved. We can, INSTEAD, celebrate Destiny Day as a national holiday. The way I see it, nobody may fault a man of good will for answering the call of destiny. Thanks to thoughtful hindsight, we can all concur that the good reverend doctor was, indeed, a man of good will. And he did answer the call of destiny, as best he knew within the constraints of his character.

For my part, I believe the same could said about our first president, former general George Washington. Thanks to newly revised history books, students in high school can learn that the man had blemishes as well as virtues. He belonged to a social class that owned as slaves the forefathers of the good reverend doctor. What's more, Washington himself owned slaves. Nonetheless, his birthday was, for years, celebrated as a national holiday. Considering the spirit of the times, I would say "justifiably so".

As I envisage Destiny Day as a national holiday, the American people would commemorate the achievements of people, who struggled to enrich both our common history and our common cultural legacy. And the people I have in mind did so without the stature, conferred by high political office. The good reverend doctor was never elected to any political office.

As I envisage Destiny Day as a national holiday, the American people would remind themselves of a truly ennobling verity. Monumental tasks can be successfully undertaken by people in the most ordinary walks of life.

On his income tax returns, for instance, Dr Martin Luther King jr signed off simply as a clergyman. I cannot imagine he ever did so as "heroic standard bearer for a national holiday".

As best as each of us knows how, let us begin instituting Destiny Day as a national holiday.

sincerely yours

And here are legislators, who should be informed:

PA State Senator Lisa Baker

lbaker@pasen.gov

http://senatorbaker.com/

ph# (717) 787-7428

Senate Box 203020
Harrisburg PA 203020


Representative Chris Carney

http://carney.house.gov/

ph# (866)846-8124 (toll free)
. . .. (540)585-9988

233 Northern Blvd - ste 4
Clarks Summit PA 18411

Senator Bob Casey

http://casey.senate.gov/contact.cfm

ph# (717)231-7540

555 Walnut st - first flr
Harrisburg PA 17101

PA State Senator Roger Madigan

rmadigan@pasen.gov

http://www.senatormadigan.com/

ph# (717)787-3280

Senate Box 203023
Harrisburg PA 17120-3023

PA State Representative Sandra J Major

smajor@pahousegop.com

ph# (570)278-3374

RR 7 - Box 7186
Montrose PA 18801

PA State Representative Tina Pickett

tpickett@pahousegop.com

ph# (570)265-3124

321 Main st
Towanda PA 18848

Governor Ed Rendell

http://www.governor.state.pa.us/

ph# (570)614-2090
.......(717)787-2500
..... (570)614-2094 (fax)

Oppenheim bldg - 3rd flr
409 Lackawanna ave
Scranton PA 18503

Senator Arlen Specter

http://specter.senate.gov/

ph# (570)346-2006

310 Spruce st - 201
Scranton PA 18503

PA State Representative James Wansacz

jwansacz@pahouse.net

http://www.pahouse.com/wansacz

ph# (570)451-3110

108 South Main st
Old Forge PA 18518

Speaker Pelosi, President Nancy

okay, here's what I'm reading in the tea leaves . . . . . .

I want to explain how it's not only possible . . . yeah even likely . . . that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on destiny's road to becoming first woman president of the United States. And it all has to do with a guy, who makes Cap'n Ahab look faltering wuss. And I mean Special Counsel Patrick J Fitzgerald, who's now roasting the goose of some poor sapsucker, who's stuck with a kid's nickname "Scooter".

Where Special Counsel Ken Starr failed, Fitzgerald intends to succeed. One may ask just how (?) determined is this Fitzgerald. . . . well, lemme put it this way: If Fitzgerald wants to hang somebody's scalp from his belt, that somebody had better pull up www.bestdoctors.com, and then look for those physicians, who can treat abrupt scalp removal.

No doubt in my mind, that mick is gunning for "shrub" and "little dickie sunshine" simultaneously. The way succession works, if the president becomes incapacitated, the vice president succeeds. Now let's suppose both are simultaneously incapacitated. In that case, the Speaker of the House succeeds to the office of President of the United States . . .

. . . oh, by the bye, I did start the topic elsewhere, specifically,

Before I conclude I need to make a few things clear. First, nobody should ever consider me a latter-day Nostradamus. Second, I'm told I should leave myself an out, when it comes to making "startling" predictions. In which case, here's my "out", which is lifted from the teevee scifi series BABYLON 5. Predictions that come true are prophecy; those that don't are metaphor . . . ahnghgh.

Nonetheless, I'm still willing to wager five doughnuts to somebody's three. By the time New Year's Eve rolls along, a woman, whose ensemble always includes a pearl necklace, will occupy the Oval Office. . . . incidentally, I like lemon filled, boston cream and blueberry cake.

toodles

. . . ./

he who is known as sefton


"Break out the champagne" reverberated in the local and state and national headquarters for the Democratic Party, as the final tallies for the recent mid-term elections came, via the cable news channels, rolling in. The people, about to quaff the bubbly, had good reason to celebrate. Their party had taken control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As Republican survivors tried to "rally the troops", trying to dispel the gloom of defeat, knots of Democratic Party activists were presented with even more good news. Some of the tonier watering holes echoed and re-echoed with the cry, "Sommelier, decant the Lafite Rothschild".

Little did those survivors know they were digging their holes quite a bit deeper. Survivor after survivor stepped up to the media mic, and called upon their colleague Republicans to return to Reagan's principles . . . got to admit, yours truly chuckled . . . "what fools these mortals be".

At this point, I think I owe to the reader to declare the state of my soul like so. I am an adiaphoristic lapsed Roman Catholic. And that means I am theologically indifferent. Not only am I adiaphoristic in matters of spirit, I am also indifferent in matters of politics.

In that latter regard, my motto resembles that of Paladin with his "have gun, will travel". Mine's "have laptop, will travel".

For a reasonable fee, I would've cheerfully furnished those survivors with speeches that would've helped terminate their digging. Just off the top of my head, I think I would've started with an opening like so:

"Yes, we lost. And our president and commander-in-chief hit the nail on the head. We took a thumping. We lost these mid-terms for a simple reason. We lost our way in the trappings of public office. We grew deaf and blind to the plight of so many of ordinary Americans.

"Out there, there are millions of Americans, who are hurting. And they have come to believe that our party, our Republican Party doesn't give a damn. No wonder, those Americans became disenchanted. And it started off in the smallest way with the skyrocketing of gas prices.

"And just what (?) was our official response. Obediently, we went about accelerating tax cuts that were supposed to help the average consumer deal with those skyrocketing gas prices. By the way, those tax cuts, which we got enacted, did very little to help ordinary Americans.

"Oh, let's not forget Katrina. Our mass media brought into our living rooms clips of ordinary Americans begging for help. And just where (?) was our president and commander-in-chief at the time . . . at a fund raising event and entertaining the folks with some guitar picking. No wonder, so many Americans became disenchanted.

"Oh, yes, let us not forget Iraq. Docilely, we went along. Those who dared question the wisdom were attacked as being unpatriotic. No wonder, so many Americans became disenchanted.

"Here's what hurts. So many of those disenchanted Americans believed in that "Contract with America". So many of them didn't just vote, they worked to help our party, our Republican Party, take control of Congress for the sake of that contract.

"And in the years following, we made a mockery of "Contract with America". No wonder, so many Americans became disenchanted."

* * * oh, just to let visitors know, I can compose other speeches to help . . . io fatiga per qui me pagga * * *

=====> As the immediately following graphic is presented right now, visitors may find it difficult to read the text. If so, they need only click directly on the graphic to enlarge it for better legibility . . . oh, and the same goes for the other textual graphics <=======

Here's what made me giggle. From what I can discern, the publisher in question is wasting his time and his money.

Oh, just for the heck of it, I'm going to speculate a little bit about Taxachusetts Senator John Kerry's "botched joke".

For about two days after that incident, the Republican ATTACK (!) MACHINE went all out castigating the offending senator. Allegedly, he suggested that military personnel, serving in Iraq, are endowed with less than stellar eye cues.

Well, here's the thing, for two days closely preceding those crucial mid-term elections, the Republican ATTACK (!) MACHINE made sure that the 24-hour cable news channels were continually reminding the voting public about Iraq.


Even as that reminding was going on, Republican strategists wanted desperately to avoid bringing Iraq to the attention of the voting public.


The way things worked, the unconditionally loyal Republican constituents bought into the allegations about the good senator's rather farfetched suggestion.

On the other hand, the conditionally loyal Republican constituents were inclined to give Taxachusetts Senator John Kerry some benefit of the doubt.

And as for the other types of voters, they were inclined to give him the total benefit of the doubt, and get incited by the continual reminding about Iraq to vote their disapproval of President Bush and his team. That incitement also motivated quite a few of the CONDITIONALLY loyal Republican voters.

* * * Did (?) the good senator deliberately feed, so to speak, the Republican ATTACK (!) MACHINE a "poisoned apple"!



. . . ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, this post shall end up as a pastiche of comments and speculation and brief essays . . . eventually, I will express my regrets for my earlier enthusiasm for Patrick Fitzgerald . . . darn (!) that human nature . . . no doubt about it, I allowed hope to checkmate circumspection . . . and I will own up to more checkmated hope, via Representative Jack Murtha and Senator Russ Feingold . . . ya'know, I wouldn't mind seeing a member of the chosen people take up residence in the White House . . .

* * * * * * * * * * * * *



hatever presidential ambitions New York Senator Clinton may be harboring, fate has begun thwarting same . . . oh, yeah, the same can be said for the junior Illinois senator.



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ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, eventually I'll justify the title for this post. For now, however, I'm in a mood to, well, pan the Republican Party for either vociferously exploiting or silently tolerating the "Confederate Battle Banner" wedge issue.

One may easily conjecture the Republican leadership in the states of the former Confederacy thought themselves pretty sharp in championing the display of that banner.

Temporarily, no doubt, Republican candidates benefitted. Habitually loyal Republican constituents still voted for them, whereas quite a number of nominally Democratic voters also voted for them.

In the end, it was a horrendous mistake. By adopting as their cause célèbre the display of the Confederate Battle Banner, symbolically, they were renouncing their own heritage. After all, President Lincoln, in whose honor Republicans celebrate with a dinner every year, labored mightily to keep that flag from becoming the emblem of an established nation. In a sense, the Republicans adopted as their own the cause of Jefferson Davis, who had labored mightily in opposition.

As for Republicans, who reside in states outside the defeated Confederacy, well, they were, to say the least, complicit. From what I gathered from the major news media, at the height of the controversy, absolutely none of those later Republicans objected.

Symbolically, a large half of the Republican was repudiating their own heritage, whereas the other went along in silent complicity.

At this point, the reader is asked to review the text that includes "lafite Rothshild", and then contemplate this remark. After a political party repudiates their own noble heritage, how (?) can anyone with decent sensibility credit that party with devotion to principle!

As a certain assassinated president once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."




Just for the heck of of it, I'm inserting this final jab at Islam here. And it goes like so:






TALK ABOUT IRONY!






























TALK ABOUT IRONY!



























. . . watch this space . . . lots more to come