Sleepybear

What in my user data brought this ad up?

I’m certainly not tired of hippies….

Around the time I was entering the 5^th grade the movie “Radio Flyer” came to the Home Box Office, my brother and I immediately became hooked. We watched this movie countless times and I can’t quite put my finger on what drew us in. The story is rooted around two brothers who live in an abusive household. The step-father is particularly awful to the younger brother so the boys hatch a plan, based upon a local myth, to turn their Radio Flyer wagon into an airplane.  The final scene in which the Radio Flyer rolls down a hill, up the roof of a barn and soars up into the sky is truly moving and worthy a few tears, but the scene I always come back to in my memories involves a buffalo.  Towards the beginning of the movie the boys’ mother is driving them across country, to find a new life and start anew, somewhere around Kansas, they come across a sign for a Wild West show with real live buffalo. As they get closer and closer the boys get more and more excited only to arrive and find an old cowboy with a single buffalo enclosed in a pen.

Mikey (the older brother) : “Do you think he’s the only buffalo left in the world?”

Mom: “Maybe he is”

Mikey: “Oh gosh Mom, he looks lonely.”

(The Buffalo moves towards them)

Mom: “I’m sure he is.”

Bobby (the younger brother) : “Mom, what’s gonna happen to him? It’s so sad.”

Mikey: “Why?”

Mom: “I dunno Mikey, I guess that’s what happens when you’re alone. There’s lots more to see, c’mon.”

The camera zooms in on the buffalo and I shit you not a single tear falls from the animal’s right eye. It’s simply a heartbreaking moment; you feel terrible for everyone: the mom, the boys, the old man but especially the buffalo. The magical crying buffalo re-occurs throughout the movie as a spiritual guide for the boys as they create their magical Radio Flyer. He is their inspiration to fly off into the unknown.

I guess maybe we were simply attracted to this movie because the younger brother’s name was Bobby, just like my younger brother, but I think it was the buffalo. We grew up where the buffalo roam, whose silhouette is emblazoned on our state flag. The flagrant symbolism wasn’t lost on us. The animal spirit of Wisdom and Strength who had nearly gone extinct was somehow tied to our culture and the myth of the American West.

Last month I took my boyfriend to my home state where we visited the great Yellowstone herds of buffalo, which have not yet lost their power over me. Why did they still seem so sad? Was it their stoic faces? Were we anthropomorphizing our guilt on their blank stares? We have been so unkind.  When whites first started introducing horses and guns to the plains Indians in the 1500s their numbers began to decline from the millions that once ruled the continent. By the time of the iron horse shooting buffalo from a moving train became a popular pastime (the record being 120 bison shot in 40 minutes). Who could forget Buffalo Bill, who has a town named after him in Wyoming, conscripted to kill as many as he could and within two years had killed at least 4,000. Then came the Indian Wars where the US Army decided that the best way to defeat the Indians was to destroy their main source of food and began exterminating the creatures en masse.  The action of our ancestors has rendered the American Buffalo the spirit animal of the west. A spirit who now represents our sin of expansion and progress.

 In the buffalo we see all the horrors of Manifest Destiny, the destruction caused by our immigration across the continent and the decimation of the American Indian. The largest mammal of an entire continent practically wiped out for sport, power and influence. The west still retains its expansiveness—even  now—and to see a large herd of gigantic animals stretch across the endless plains mirrored by an infinite sky reminds us of how the west was ‘won’ and where it got us, as the old REM song goes.  While watching the herds and their babies fatten up for the ensuing winter I thought of Bobby and Mikey, escaping their own destruction with the help of this wise old spirit of the plains. I wished, in that moment, to do right by that Buffalo spirit to heed his warning and the story of his past and to fly away from this sad history in a radio flyer of my own.

From this week’s Advocate.

Wisconsin Gays Face Fine, Jail Time for Marrying in California

If the California Ballot measured is denied I hope some brave souls get themselves arrested in Wisconsin. They would become the ‘Gay’ Lovings, add a face to the cause, and take the case to the Supreme Court.  But then again, only if a few more fair-minded judges joined the court.

If you have a couple extra bucks, why not send it to Equality California? You’ll be able to tell you’re grandkids you were a civil rights leader.

His excy. Nathaniel Green, Esq., major general of the American Army, 1781

My neigboorhood in Brooklyn is named for this man. Well, I guess technically it’s named for the the Revolutionary War Fort, which was lost and won, that is now called Fort Greene Park. I’m reading a remarkable book by William Least Heat-Moon called “Blue Highways.” It’s a travel book from the early 80’s and in the second part the author visits the Start Fort near Ninety-Six, SC. He recounts his experience there:

” ‘What’s Star Fort?’ Durham (A man the author has met at the site) gave the history. Indians for hundreds of years used a long trail that ran from the Appalachian foothills to the sea at Charleston. Hernando de Soto very likely came up the path as well as everyone else going to or leaving the Up country: traders, soldiers, settlers. Incensed by the Declaration of Independence, Loyalists wrote a Declaration of Dependence, and clashes between patriots and Tories broke out along the trail.

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Sometimes it’s pretty funny:

This guy is hilarious, but not for the reasons he intends.

I’m not sure why I haven’t heard about this before today:

Here’s some entry videos:

I just crapped my pants I’m so excited.

This is the first in series of position posts I plan to make for the election.

I don’t really trust reporters (except for Gwen Iffill) but I do want to understand what McCain and Obama are actually proposing outside of all the spin and positioning. Luckily for me, I live in a period of human history where I can look up every word they’ve said publically through magical inter-tubes.  

I’ve pared down their most recent economic speeches and siphoned off the key words and phrases they repeat and emphasize, because they paint a much better picture of where they stand than the picture the for-profit media paints. 

Disclaimer: John McCain’s speech was about half as long as the Obama speech.  An absolute comparison may not be entirely fair; however, based upon a superficial look at the words they have chosen to use repeatedly you can gain a genuine idea of where they stand on the economy.

“Americans are having a tough time. But we’ve been through worse, and beaten longer odds. Even in these difficult days, we must believe in ourselves. Nothing is inevitable in America. We’ve always been the captains of our fate. All you’ve ever asked of government is that it stand on your side, not in your way. I intend to do just that: to stand on your side; to help business and not government create jobs; to fight for your future and not the personal ambitions of politicians and bureaucrats.”

John McCain 7-7-08, Denver, Colorado

“But today, for far too many Americans, this dream is slipping away. Wall Street has been gripped by increasing gloom over the last nine months. But for many American families, the economy has effectively been in recession for the past seven years. We have just come through the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that was not accompanied by a growth in incomes for typical families. Americans are working harder for less. Costs are rising, and it’s not clear that we’ll leave a legacy of opportunity to our children and grandchildren.”

Barrack Obama 5-27-08, New York City

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Teddy’s son, Quentin Roosevelt, sits with Roswell Pinckney, son of White House Steward Henry Pickney.  June 17, 1902.

Waylon Jennings, 1966