floodlit sky
the wrecking ball swings
in and out of darkness
opened door
the darkness lengthens
into a kitten
city dawn–
window washers
rise on their scaffold
Barry George from The Heron’s Nest (Vol. 3, 2001)
from dagosan:
the hush of Sunday morning
under new snow —
tires spin and spin
[Jan. 30, 2005]
As we enter February 2005, nobody can say whether the Iraq elections “Iraq flag”
are a “success.” It is far better to hope that the elections will lead to a stable government
that brings peace, freedom and security to all its people (and peoples), than to point
out all the ways this process falls short of an acceptable model for choosing a
government. We can’t let disagreement with Pres. George W. Bush cause us to hope
Iraq remains in chaos. Iraq may end 2005 with a government that is far from any our
Administration would choose. The American public, pundits and politicians will have
plently of time thereafter to decide whether either American policy in Iraq or the state of
Iraq society and government can be deemed a success.
update (7 P.M.): Prof. Ann Althouse has remarks I want to echo: “What profound
admiration so many of us in America feel for the brave people of Iraq! They remind
us of the beauty of the liberties we take for granted and the courage that we are so
rarely called upon to show. ” (which is a sad lead in to the blurb immediately below)
According to a preview in today’s USA Weekend magazine, a new Knight Foundation
survey found that “The majority of high school students assign little or no value to the rights
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment: freedom of the press, speech and religion.”
(For complete results, starting Monday, go to firstamendmentfuture.org.) Here are some
specific — and worrisome — results:
73% of students take their First Amendment rights for granted or don’t know how
they feel about them.
21% think musicians should not be allowed to sing songs that may offend others.
74% believe people should not be allowed to burn the American flag.
36% think newspapers should not be allowed to publish without government
approval.”
to ban jargon that creates walls, rather than bridges.” (We agree: Can We Talk About “Virtual” English?) But, can we get our favorite Scold to join us in the small gesture of adding those two little letters “we” back to the ugly stub of a word “blog”? (See Does Blog Jargon Turn Off Outsiders? and, A (We)blog by Any Other Name)
Wearing her Editor’s hat at Law Technology News,