confusionIt’s going to be quite a depressing holiday season. It’s not something I really want to talk about. I knew it was coming but it still hurts. At least this time other parts of my life are better. I walk alone again, for a while at least.
To homeless children sleeping on the street, neon is as comforting as a night-light. Angels love colored light too. After nightfall in downtown Miami, they nibble on the NationsBank building—always drenched in a green, pink, or golden glow. “They eat light so they can fly,” eight-year-old Andre tells the children sitting on the patio of the Salvation Army’s emergency shelter on NW 38th Street. Andre explains that the angels hide in the building while they study battle maps. “There’s a lot of killing going on in Miami,” he says. “You want to fight, want to learn how to live, you got to learn the secret stories.”
This [ miaminewtimes ] is just too cool. Sad how it came into being, but the story is awesome. Like the kids in Beyond Thunderdome…
Sunday A few people went with me to see Al Gore give a speech on “Security and Freedom” at DAR Constitution hall. It was a very good speech—if you want to read it (or see it via web-cast) click here [ moveon.org ]. I’ll let the speech speak for itself. I can’t write that good. A lot of good quotes and points that need to be made—and made loudly. A great addition of reading Gore’s speech is an article in The Economist last week: Rights to Remember, by Harold Hougju Koh from Yale. You can read it here [ economist.com ]
Both Gore and Koh are talking about what is the most important issue facing the US today—and thereby the whole world (though things like war and starvation surly overshadow it in many places); the issue of freedom verse security. Many of the knee jerk anti-terrorism laws and actions of the Bush administration undermine the very foundations of our country. Though most of the things they have done are not new (most have their basis in actions taken by previous administrations during armed conflicts) they, like the actions they are based on, must be repealed. I will not trade fear of terrorism for fear of my own government. I think the government would be a more terrorizing and imminent threat.
Anyway, just read the two articles.