Here we go again. A man in Texas with a service dog was arrested while visiting a court house to do some research in the state archives. Daily it seems we are reading about the low road in Texas. The story above suggests there was insufficient training for police officers. What a sad story. What a disgrace. How does the Lone Star state hope to accommodate returning veterans? One wonders.
S.K.
I wonder since the Irish poet wrote of trust
If he owned a dog? I look in the biographies
But there’s no mention.
I picture the old Yeats
Half awake in the bottomless night
Hand trailing under his chair,
a wolfhound looking up.
All dogs are creatures of sound,
Which is how they love us
Hearing things unseen.
So here’s to Yeats and his dog,
And the gibbous moon
Rising at the half blind window…
S.K.
At times if you’re lucky
You find yourself reading in a dream,
And in the circle of light
A cricket appears
From inside
That unreadable poem.
S.K.
He is eating two small wings, eating without mercy
In the way of God’s creatures, eating fast,
Looking up from time to time.
I hunch into my brain, saying
I don’t want what he has.
Though I too look up
Just after saying so…
S.K.
In keeping with our avian theme (see Lance Mannion below) one can read a “lie down and prepare for your maker” laugh out loud post over at Michael Meteyer’s blog.
I’ll reveal no more save that if you’re familiar with William Butler Yeats’s famous poem “Leda and the Swan” you may have an inkling of the narrative inter-species wanderlust that’s in store at Mr. Meteyer’s blog. And that ain’t the only lust my friends.
S.K.
March is going out like a lion as wind forces snow into the corners of flower boxesand Iowa retains its grip on winter. I walked just an hour ago with my friend Gary in the falling snow as the two of us tried to distribute fliers about an upcoming school board meeting. We walked into the teeth of the wind, our eyes tearing, hands raw without gloves, traipsing through an unfamiliar neighborhood and after half an hour we were both covered with icy pelts and we could feel the pavement becoming dangerous. We barely got home in the car. Despite our contrarian and wilfull hopes we were forced to concede that its a real Iowa winter’s day. Somehow the return of winter feels like a rebuke from a mean old man. Winter is yelling at us. We’re being told to go back inside where we belong. I resent this old man. I think like all kids that someday I will run this place.
S.K.
Lance Mannion has a recent post entitled “Vultures in the Neighborhood” which I think is the best piece of writing on the slovenly wilderness since John McPhee wrote about (insert your topic here).
The vultures are moving northward because of global warming and also because the world is becoming a non-stop ribbon of cement which produces thermal updrafts that make for warm winds.
This latter fact has made me grateful that I live in Iowa where there are no warm winds and where believe it or not we still have lots of dirt roads. I may live in a “fly over” state and accordingly none of my coastal friends will ever visit me, by but by God I ain’t got no vomiting vultures taking over my yard, excreting on my car, urinating on my mailbox, carrying off the Dachshund, etc.
You think I’m exaggerating do you? Read Dr. Mannion’s thorough treatment of the matter and you too will be grateful if you live as I do in a place too rural and frosty for the vulture set.
S.K.
15 year old Brett Elder, a Michigan teenager with a developmental disability who was tasered by police has passed away. One can read the full story here.
I am keeping Brett Elder and his family in my prayers. I also pray for the police who are untrained, lacking in judgment, perhaps even hostile to people with disabilities.
Lord, hear our prayer.
As always in these matters one thinks of one’s own kids–one thinks of the golden rule–by God, may the struggling children of this nation be treated as citizens.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Here is the Episcopal Litany for Social Justice
In peace let us pray to the Lord, saying “Hear our Prayer.”
Brothers and Sisters: God commands us through Jesus Christ to love one another. In baptism, we promise to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves and to strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being.” Let us now honor those vows and pray for our nation, for wise and just leaders, and for the needs of others throughout our country and the world.
We pray for continued blessings on all peacemakers, on leaders who value peace, and on everyone who promotes nonviolent solutions to conflict. We pray for a speedy end to all violence and warfare around the world.
God of peace and gentleness,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for the strength of heart and mind to look beyond ourselves and address the needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the world; for the rural and urban poor; for the rebuilding of our communities; and for an end to the cycles of violence that threaten our future.
God of generosity and compassion,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for all nations, that they may live in unity, peace, and concord; and that all people may know justice and enjoy the perfect freedom that only God can give.
God of liberty and freedom,
Hear our prayer.
We pray that the Holy Spirit may embrace the most vulnerable members of our society; we pray also for an end to the growing disparity between the rich and poor; and for the grace and courage to strive for economic justice.
God of all gifts and blessings,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for an end to prejudice throughout our country and the world; that we will respect all people as precious children of God; and that racism, sexism, and all other forms of discrimination will be forever banished from our hearts, our society, and our laws.
God of fellowship and equality,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for a reverence of creation; that we will have the tools and the will to conserve it; that we will use its bountiful resources in the service of others; and that we will become better stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.
God of nature and the universe,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for all immigrants, refugees, and pilgrims from around the world, that they may be welcomed in our midst and be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.
God of outcasts and wanderers,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for the sick, the aged and the infirm; for those with physical or mental disabilities; especially (St. John’s Prayer list), that all may have access to proper health care; and that God’s loving embrace may be felt by all who suffer.
God of comfort and healing,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for all prisoners and captives; that a spirit of forgiveness may replace vengeance and retribution; and that we, with all the destitute, lonely, and oppressed, may be restored to the fullness of God’s grace.
God of absolution and mercy,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for all children and families, and particularly for the orphaned, neglected, abused, and those who live in fear of violence or disease; that they may be relieved and protected.
God of children and families,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for the reconciliation of all people, and for the Church throughout the world, that it may be an instrument of your healing love. We pray for (Anglican Cycle, Diocesan Cycle, St. John’s Ministries Cycle of Prayer).
God of outreach and restoration,
Hear our prayer.
We pray for all who have died especially ____________, all and for who have died as a result of violence, war, disease or famine, especially those who died because of human blindness, neglect, or hardness of heart.
God of eternal life and resurrecting love,
Hear our prayer.
Almighty God, you have promised to hear what we ask in the name of your Son. Watch over our country now and in the days ahead, guide our leaders in all knowledge and truth and make your ways known among all people. In the passion of debate give them a quiet spirit; in the complexities of the issues give them courageous hearts. Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN.
S.K.
The excerpt below is courtesy of Inclusion Daily Express:
Obama Nominates Kathy Martinez To Employment Post
(Diversity, Inc.)
March 26, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt] Internationally recognized disability-rights leader Kathy Martinez was nominated for assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) by President Barack Obama on March 20.
Martinez, who has been blind since birth, specializes in employment, asset building, independent living, international development, and diversity and gender issues from her work as executive director of the World Institute on Disability (WID). Her impressive résumé includes Proyecto Visión, WID’s National Technical Assistance Center to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities in the United States, and Access to Assets, an asset-building project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities.
“As a Latina who is blind, I have first-person experience with the low expectations and assumptions of the majority culture,” Martinez says. “I have seen many disabled Latinos live down to these diminished expectations. They become overwhelmed by isolation, are disconnected from the service-delivery system and don’t have disabled Latino professionals to look up to or network with. Unfortunately, even those who do access resources often are not receiving appropriate service.”
Entire article:
Obama Nominates ODEP Asst. Secretary Kathy Martinez
http://www.diversityinc.com/public/5565print.cfm
S.K.
I live in a prairie town and at night one can hear the freight trains running eastward from Kansas across Iowa their long mournful whistles calling over the fields. Hunched in bed I think of Huddie Ledbetter, otherwise known as “Leadbelly”–murderer and blues singer and song writer who wrote the most famous railroad song of them all, “The Rock Island Line”. The Rock Island Line is out there, just beyond my bedroom window where the Iowa wind is moaning and the engineer pulls his whistle in three long blasts as Leadbelly said he always would:
I Got cows.
I got corn.
I got meal.
And then he pulls five long blasts:
I got whole live stock.
And the sound of that freight train in the night and the spirited, playful talking blues of Leadbelly roll me gently in my bed, the engineer is still out there bragging about his transported bounty that’s coasting into Chicago and then ever east. I think of how we’re a vast country and how we’re down on our luck and that the songs are first local before they become anthems. Ghosts in the night are calling out the names of things that will feed people far away and god damn it if there isn’t a moody poetry echoing in the Iowa fields and damn it all if Leadbelly could be here he would know it instantly. And then because I get to make the story I say Leadbelly is here.
And another train that’s coming from the east calls back in greeting as Leadbelly said it does:
I thank you.
I thank you.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 