Deja Vu

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Fun

"The Pirate Song" by my favourite Beatle...

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Ricky Teagues

Ricky Teagues © Patrick T. Power

I waited at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets for the light to change when a man approached me from behind and stuck a Street Sheet newspaper in front of me and asked me for a dollar.

I told him I'd buy one if he let me take his photograph and he responded that he charged "five bucks for pictures." I chuckled and so began my conversation with Ricky Teagues, street poet.

We crossed the street and Ricky told me that he'd been living as a street poet for the past eleven years... I guess it's always difficult to know when people are giving me a line, but I went with it. He told me he'd been published in a number of papers and magazines, and then showed me a collection of his poems printed (copied, more likely) onto 8½" x 11" parchment stock and folded into quarter-sheets. Each "booklet" contained four poems and a couple of poorly rendered (printing-wise) illustrations.

As I looked at one of the booklets, Ricky began reciting one of his poems (coincidentally from the booklet I was looking at at the moment).

DWELLING WITHIN YOURSELF The center of love that you find in your mind, The peace of life that you have that leaves you to find yourself. Within to be or not To see yourself is to be in the right. From the id and to the superego To be the positive person you are and feeling is to be in the right. Delightful charm appears to open your mind full of light as the morning between the warm sun. To enter and fasten the embrace of the hair of the passing star. The smile that pleases a rainbow. © Ricky Teagues

I gave him another couple dollars for one of the booklets to give to my son, then another when I asked again to take his photograph. He asked to pose by the this light pole as, he said, he refers to it in one of his poems.

Dealing with street people is not something I'm particularly comfortable with... I don't know that there are many people who are, but as someone who tries to be compassionate toward the plight of others, it's not always easy – especially when it occurs on such a regular a basis as it did while I was in San Francisco.

On every occasion but this one, my response to panhandlers was, "I'm sorry"...

In this case, I felt more comfortable and willing giving a little cash (despite my not-so-wealthy standing) – not so much because I was getting something out of the transaction, but because Ricky seemed to me to be doing more than simply panhandling; that his life as a street poet created "value" for the world.

Perhaps that's a crass way of looking at things... perhaps it's insensitive... perhaps I'm a hypocrite. I don't know. Would it be any easier for me to give handouts if I were wealthy? That's hard to say as I've never been on that end of the spectrum either. I'd like to think I would be more generous with both my time and money as regards beggars, but there is a possibility that I'd have the tendency, still, to shy away.

A few days ago, I walked into downtown East Lansing with my son for lunch at a local deli. After withdrawing some cash from an ATM, we made our way towards our destination, and along the way, we passed a man carrying a plastic shopping bag and looking a bit haggard.

We were several paces in front of him when he called out to us, saying something about helping him find something to eat. I turned back and to my right and told him, "I'm sorry."

Zachary shot me a look that I couldn't decipher... one that I've not asked him about yet. I was overcome, however, with the feeling that I'd just let my son down, not to mention yet another human being.

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Irony

© Patrick T. Power

A recent letter to my home town paper ranted about the New York Times' decision to run a story about the Bush administration's activities with regards to monitoring banking transactions (purportedly in search of terrorists) — a program (SWIFT) which has hardly been keep a secret for the past several years.

I find it ironic that words such as "morally reprehensible" were used, especially when one stops to consider that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice lied — yes, knowingly and willingly lied — to the American people as a matter of precipitating war on a sovereign nation, and murdering — yes, murdering — over 2500 of our fine servicepeople and tens of thousands of Iraqis in the process.

I find it interesting, too, that -- during the whole Hurricane Katrina debacle -- not once did we see an indignant President Bush stand at a podium and rant about the less-than-stellar job his administration was doing in New Orleans and elsewhere. Not once! He offered only excuses and words of praise for "good job, Brownie." Not once did he show disgust over the fact that people were losing their homes (possibly permanently) or dying. Oh, but he did speak out against looting! That was courageous!

Yes... let's show our indignance about a newspaper finally getting around to doing its job and exposing this administration for what it truly is — the worst, most vile, cunning administration this country has ever seen. We the people of the United States of America are this administration's last concern.

In the words of my late father: Puh-thetic!

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Yet Again!

Our lawmakers deal with the most important pressing issues of our day!

Film ratings!

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Bush Bump

I read with interest a recent TIME poll in which it states that "Bush's handling of the war on terror saw a slight gain in support, from 44% to 45%." (Of course, his numbers in just about every other dwell in the low- to mid-30% range!)

The only "handling" of the so-called "War On Terror" that the miserable failure does, is to sit back and hope that his folly of a war in Iraq doesn't lead to another attack on these shores.

It is beyond me how 45% of any group of people can approve of anything this absolute failure of a president has done. Can someone please tell me what this sham of a president has actually done to improve the lives of the American people? (Fat-cat crony-ist Republican gubernatorial candidates need not respond. I know that your pockets are better-lined these days.)

Worst. President. Ever.

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.