Democracy by Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
Weekend Update 2004-11-08
On Saturday, Stephanie and I drove to Cincinnati early in the morning for a figure skating competition that Stephanie was competing in. She won a fourth, third and first place medal in her three competitions. I got to meet several members of her former synchro skating team and other friends of hers, which was really cool. She knows some really nice people. On Saturday afternoon, we spend time recovering from the trip (she was worn out, and I’ve been fighting a cold).
On Sunday, we did some work around her house, including cleaning out her garage, hanging all her gardening tools in the garage, weeding, and replacing outdoor lights. We also checked and worked on all her storm windows. We’re pretty close to being done with seasonal work at both our houses. At hers, we need to rake and mow, and put her planting pots away. At my house I have to put away the hose, rake & mow, put stuff in the basement, and do some more insulation work.
First stages of the Draft are now in motion
If you think it’s not coming, you’re crazy. This guy has been out of the army 13 years… and he’s being called back.
David M. Miyasato enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1987, served three years of active duty during the first Gulf War and received an honorable discharge in 1991. He remained on inactive status for five more years, until 1996. Since then, the Kaua’i resident has married, started an Auto Sun tint business and this year, he and his wife had their first child.
But in September, Miyasato received a letter from the Army recalling him to active duty and directing him to report to a military facility in South Carolina on Tuesday.
“I was shocked,” Miyasato said yesterday. “I never expected to see something like that after being out of the service for 13 years.”
Miyasato is now suing the Secretary of the Army, asking a court to prevent the Army from ordering him to active duty. He is also asking for a court judgment declaring that he fulfilled all his obligations to the military.
Protesting election, young man kills himself at Ground Zero
A 25 year-old man from Georgia, distraught that George Bush was re-elected, took his own life at Ground Zero in New York over the weekend.
Finally! I was able to fix my blogger templates
Sometime back in May, blogger stopped supporting my archive index page, and they failed to tell me about it. So since then, my archive pages haven’t been updating. I noticed the problem two weeks ago, and since then have been struggling with blogger help to figure out how to solve the problem.
I finally got it to publish and update correctly, so all of my archives are accessible. Yeah!
Ohio paper notes voting machine mistake
According to the Beacon Journal: A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct. Franklin County’s unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president. Damschroder said he received some calls Thursday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board’s Web site.
And some strangeness in Florida as well:
- Franklin County. 77.3% of voters registered Dems. Only 15.9% registered Reps. 58.5% of the votes reported for Bush
- Holmes County. 72.7% of voters registered Dems. Only 21.3% registered Reps. 77% of the votes reported for Bush
- Calhoun County. 82.4% of voters registered Dems. Only 11.9% registered Reps. 63.4% of the votes reported for Bush
Words of Comfort in our time of mourning.
Some words of wisdom from the geniuses at the excellent cartoon site “Get your war on.” Of course, this is only the case if you consider the word “motherfucker” a word of wisdom. Heh.