[Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge

[Warren Hayman]

Hello All,

Without jumping into the discussion of the Pledge and thus not airing 
my sidelong curiosity of wondering where the hue and cry was prior to 
9/11 and why no discussion focus was directed at the word "allegiance," 
the conflation of national and spousal vows earlier  reminded me of a 
poem by Sharon Olds some may enoy:

Topography

Sharon Olds

After we flew across the country we
got in bed, laid our bodies
delicately together, like maps laid
face to face, East to West, my
San Francisco to your New York, your
Fire Island against my Sonoma, my
New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho
bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas
burning against your Kansas your Kansas
burning against my Kansas, your Eastern
Standard Time pressing into my
Pacific Time, my Mountain Time
beating against your Central Time, your
sun rising swiftly from the right my
sun rising swiftly from the left your
moon rising slowly from the left my
moon rising slowly from the right until
all four bodies of the sky
burn above us, sealing us together,
all our cities twin cities,
all our states united, one
natiion, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


Even Idaho makes it in there! Sorry for such a long opening sentence.

Warren Hayman

On Sunday, January 22, 2006, at 11:03 PM, Phil Nisbet wrote:

> Joan
>
> The poetry is thus;
>
> Promises
>
> We make them we break them and vow to do better. Where broken promises 
> lead.
>
> By Phillip C Nixbet
>
> Do you take this woman?
>
> I took and I left for the hills
> Seeking in distant climes
> Driven by self ambitions
> To prove myself to my kind
>
> To have and to hold?
>
> She was had but not held
> She was haltered to hearth
> Tied by a chain to my will
> Her soul in that tethered condition
> Bleed itself white of its hopes
> And carried her down to perdition
>
> In sickness or health, for richer for poorer?
>
> And how would I know, was I there?
> My pay was the solo observer
> As good timing dandy came home
> Where were the smiles, just look as these 'things'
> I am giving you all that I have to give
> So surely dear woman your heart should have wings
>
> Forsaking all others?
>
> And now I taste the sylabants
> That proclaim the deeds much forsaken
> The death contemplated is passions demise
> Reds that have weathered to brownish rust
> Killers of trust in the brown of her eyes
>
> Till death do you part?
>
> I want, was a mantra, a chant in my lingua
> And wanting is all that it bought
> Now I count out the lucre expended
> And seek for the lessons it taught
> As a sad bit of paper is crumbled to dust
> And ashes to ashes, it’s ended
>
> Is there any here, who know reason?
>
>
>
>> From: Joan Opyr <joanopyr at earthlink.net>
>> To: "Phil Nisbet" <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com>
>> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge
>> Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 21:51:04 -0800
>>
>> On 22 Jan 2006, at 20:27, Phil Nisbet wrote:
>>
>>> Joan
>>>
>>> Actually, Tom and every person in the service is required to take 
>>> that oath every time they enlist, so repeating it more than once is 
>>> actually required.  And Tom did not note that as a member of any of 
>>> the major Veterans Organizations, we repeat the oath on joining and 
>>> repeat it on our annual renewing of membership as part of the 
>>> charter we have as Vets with the US Congress.
>>
>> I knew this; my father was in the Air Force and, later, the National 
>> Guard.  I also live with a career Marine, Capt. Donald R. Huskey, 
>> USMC (Ret.)  Don had a very interesting career -- he was an enlisted 
>> man who "mustanged" up.  I don't know if the Corps still makes a 
>> distinction between "regular" officers and Mustangs, but back in the 
>> day, there was separate housing for the two groups.  Also, the former 
>> thought the latter were declasse, and the latter thought the former 
>> were candy-assed.
>>
>>> I wrote a fairly good poem at one point about the lack of faith in 
>>> the real portions of marriage vows and failing to actually think 
>>> about and renew them.  I have to think that had I been wiser and 
>>> repeated them to myself, I might just have managed to be a better 
>>> husband and still married.  And that is not about chasing tail, but 
>>> about forgetting the real parts of those vows that were about 
>>> supporting through thick and thin and not being too tied up in 
>>> oneself alone.
>>>
>>> Many people proclaim that they have allegiance to the United States, 
>>> but that includes people like David Duke and a host of people who 
>>> have no desire to see the Constitution or the Bill of Rights upheld. 
>>>  Many people give tribute to the flag, but refuse to stand up for 
>>> the principles that the flag itself represents.  The Pledge at least 
>>> forces some to look at what being an American is really about.  
>>> Perhaps it should include more of what you have in the Pledge you 
>>> designed for yourself and I for one would be glad if the council 
>>> started its meetings with just such a pledge.
>>
>> You and I are in complete accord on both of these points.  Marriage 
>> is not about the wedding day; it's about constantly renewing the 
>> commitment to one another.  And that is hard.  That takes practice.  
>> I'm sorry to see the Bush Administration wasting my tax dollars 
>> pushing marriage; most people want to get married.  That's not the 
>> problem.  It's actually being married that's the trick.  The gap 
>> between the fantasy and the real day-to-day is immense.  I love Jane 
>> Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but try to imagine life in the after 
>> marriage Bennett/Darcy home.  Elizabeth is still Elizabeth and Mr. 
>> Darcy is still Mr. Darcy, and, suddenly, one of the world's 
>> best-loved romances morphs into Cool Hand Luke.  "What we have here 
>> is a failure to communicate."
>>
>> This is no reflection on Melynda (though it might well be a 
>> reflection on me) but I feel an irresistible urge to quote Lord >> Byron:
>>
>> "It is easier to die for the woman you love than to live with her."
>>
>> [I hope you'll share your poem, on list or off.  I enjoyed the other 
>> poems you gave me at the Grange meeting.  For those who were unaware 
>> of this, Phil is a very accomplished poet.  I'd like to read some of 
>> his work on the radio show sometime.  How about it, Phil?  Now I've 
>> publicly exposed your deep, dark secret -- your talent for composing 
>> verse!]
>>
>>> If there is no higher power, than men have the right to tell us what 
>>> our rights are.  That means that human beings who happen to come to 
>>> power have the right to distribute rights to the people who are in 
>>> the minority.  So to me I would have to say that we would have to 
>>> invent G-d if he does not exist, because only the presence of a 
>>> higher power demands that feeble men not grab and assert control 
>>> over what our liberties should be.
>>>
>>> The G-d mentioned then is not anybody's G-d, it is the higher power 
>>> that Jefferson refered to as "their creator", which in its very 
>>> construction tells you he meant that not to be one single religions 
>>> G-d, but all the G-d's that men worship.
>>>
>>> The same goes for the generic In G-d We Trust which is a statement 
>>> that we do not put our trust in men to uphold our rights. but rather 
>>> place our trust in which ever G-d we worship and keep our powder dry 
>>> to defend our rights.
>>
>> You're right about keeping the powder dry.  Though Jefferson wrote 
>> that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, 
>> we must rely on mere men to ensure that those rights are respected 
>> and protected.  God did not see fit to intervene in Dred Scott, and I 
>> also fail to spot His fine Italian hand in the 19th Amendment or the 
>> 1964 Civil Rights Voting Act.  Though I believe in God (my God), I 
>> see that men who also claim to believe in God (their God) make power 
>> grabs, attempt to disenfranchise the opposition, and assume the right 
>> to tell us what our rights are on a regular basis, God (all gods) be 
>> damned.  Yes, the Lord is my Shepherd, but I've got a great sheep dog 
>> and an electric fence to help me keep out the wolves.  God helps 
>> those who help themselves.
>>
>> I have to admit that talk of a "higher power" makes me nervous.  Why? 
>>  Too many years attending Al-Anon meetings, at which I was assured 
>> that if my drunken relatives would just surrender their lives to a 
>> higher power -- and, for some reason, the AA people always feel 
>> obliged tell you that that higher power doesn't have to be God; it 
>> can be a Greyhound bus -- all would be well.  Phooey.  I lost count 
>> of the number of times that blasted Greyhound bus failed to help me 
>> hide the whiskey bottle or unload the shotgun before Drunken Bumpkin 
>> got hold of them.  We surrender too much to fate and the four winds 
>> and take too little responsibility.  My powder is dry, and I am 
>> always loaded for bear.  Always.
>>
>> Just a few pleasant thoughts on this pleasant Sunday evening . . .
>>
>> Joan
>>
>> Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>> www.joanopyr.com
>>
>
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