6/7/2016 0 Comments This is Not an Elective DayToday in California it is Election Day. And this one is big as it is a Presidential Primary Election Day. We have going on in our country one of the craziest, most bizarre election campaigns going on that I can remember. Of course I think we say that every election year, but, truly this one seems to go beyond the bounds of normal to say the least. So many are angry. So many feel disenfranchised. So many have given up of our grand experiment of democracy in a republic. This is why it is so important for every citizen of the State of California, yay, even the entire country the U.S.A., to vote. If you don't vote, you give up your right to complain. Of course people still complain even if they don't vote. Exercise can be painful which is why I suppose some don't exercise their constitutional privilege of voting. But pain or not, inconvenient or not, voting is something that is incumbent upon us all to do. I love going to the polls. I know the trend is toward mail-ins and probably someday, electronic online voting. Change is good if it gets people to do their duty. But for me, walking into my polling place, marking my ballot and putting it into the ballot box just feels so good. Sometimes I wonder if my vote really matters. I'm just one person. What would it matter if I didn't vote? It would, though. Every vote counts, no matter what the cynics say. Casting my vote for a presidential candidate or our local mayor or even the grass-root propostions just feels so right. The results may not go accordingly with my vote, but at least my voice is heard, even if it is just one among 8 million of the projected votes to be cast today. I heard on NPR that voter turn-out is expected to be about 45% of registered voters. That seems so sad to me. Why even register if you are not going to vote?? Okay, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now, but I want to leave you with one more thought. This is Election Day. It is not Elective Day as so many seem to think. Voting is not elective, it is a responsibility and a right and to not vote is not participate in what is and continues to be, one of the greatest experiments ever undertaken in the history of man. Let's not let the reality show feeling of this current campaign keep us from doing what is right.
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6/6/2016 2 Comments AnniversariesThere are times I wish there was no such thing as a calendar. Calendars track time and make it convenient to make plans, dates, deadlines and the like. But they also create anniversaries. And anniversaries are reminders of past events, some happy, some sad, all not to be ignored.
Today is June 6. It is the 40th anniversary of the day I got the call that my mother had passed away before I made it to the plane to be at her beside. Today is the 13th anniversary of the day a man named Jeffery Owens was the victim of a hate crime in downtown Riverside, an event that changed the course of my life, even though I did not know him personally. On a global level, it is the anniversary of D-Day, the day in 1944 when the allied troops stormed the shores of Normandy in France, beginning the liberation of the Western Europe during WWII. My uncle was one of the men in that attack and fortunately he came home. It's funny how some dates are so chock full of memories. Like yesterday was the three month anniversary of when my friend and brother-in-law died. And it was the birthday of two friends. Tomorrow is the birthday anniversary of four people I know. Clusters. These things happen in clusters. It's like there is a magnet that draws these things together. And it's all because we keep a calendar. On second thought, I am glad we have the calendar. It keeps us on track. It keeps us mindful of the passage of time. It makes life a long diary of our events like chapters in a book. We keep turning the page, yet we look back to make sure we "read that right" before moving on. Let's hear it for the calendar. Truly, I cannot imagine life without one. Once in a while this qwerki muser writes some poetry. Sometimes he experiments with different forms. As some of you may know, I often attend a writing workshop with Inlandia Institute in Ontario. I am with a group of talented writers, many who have actually published and are known in the Inland Empire and beyond. Being with them not only affirms my own aspirations to write, but also that I might have the ability to write well.
This is a poem I wrote this afternoon and submitted to the workshop members for critiquing this coming Wednesday. I was reading the Sunday paper and different lines kept striking me as interesting or fun. So I thought, perhaps I should see if I can cobble them together into a poem that actually makes a bit of statement of the current state of the world. Just for fun...but who knows where it might go from here?? Let me know what you think! Please note: The brackets indicate my words as inserted. All other words and phrases are lifted directly from either the LA Times or the Riverside Press Enterprise. **** Mixing Travel and Business A Cobbled Poem From Sunday Newspaper Scans {Being} authentic in Jakarta Modern buildings rise around the old core. Vacationing? Protect your money. Protect your plastic. Distrupted Starting over With the start-up culture {where} You are introduced to a blur of Ashleys, Amandas, Brittanys and Courtneys. Dogs roam the hallways. And you are expected to sit on a big rubber ball, Orange of course. {In Jakarta} a living statue will menace you For a small gratuity. Cuisine at street stalls reflect a mix of cultures. {As I scan} other writers have more eclectic inspirations and End up with a hard to corral jumble. {Sea-going tourists in} statement-making clothing Doesn’t do justice to watching gray whales as they spy-hop And open their mouths to have their tongues scratched. {Or in other places} finding the good in the Black Hills and Badlands, ...delighted to find the best parts were still the way I Remembered them. Gorgeous scenery, Heart stopping wildlife, Laid-back, friendly people… You’ll never forget the face, a colossal monument to Crazy Horse. Will the work ever be complete? {Moving on to the business section to scan:} How new president may affect market. An expert predicts how stocks would perform under a President Trump or President Clinton. {Speculative reality spoils the fun}. Once in a while this qwerki muser writes some poetry. Sometimes he experiments with different forms. As some of you may know, I often attend a writing workshop with Inlandia Institute in Ontario. I am with a group of talented writers, many who have actually published and are known in the Inland Empire and beyond. Being with them not only affirms my own aspirations to write, but also that I might have the ability to write well. This is a poem I wrote this afternoon and submitted to the workshop members for critiquing this coming Wednesday. I was reading the Sunday paper and different lines kept striking me as interesting or fun. So I thought, perhaps I should see if I can cobble them together into a poem that actually makes a bit of statement of the current state of the world. Just for fun...but who knows where it might go from here?? Let me know what you think! Please note: The brackets indicate my words as inserted. All other words and phrases are lifted directly from either the LA Times or the Riverside Press Enterprise. **** Mixing Travel and Business A Cobbled Poem From Sunday Newspaper Scans {Being} authentic in Jakarta Modern buildings rise around the old core. Vacationing? Protect your money. Protect your plastic. Distrupted Starting over With the start-up culture {where} You are introduced to a blur of Ashleys, Amandas, Brittanys and Courtneys. Dogs roam the hallways. And you are expected to sit on a big rubber ball, Orange of course. {In Jakarta} a living statue will menace you For a small gratuity. Cuisine at street stalls reflect a mix of cultures. {As I scan} other writers have more eclectic inspirations and End up with a hard to corral jumble. {Sea-going tourists in} statement-making clothing Doesn’t do justice to watching gray whales as they spy-hop And open their mouths to have their tongues scratched. {Or in other places} finding the good in the Black Hills and Badlands, ...delighted to find the best parts were still the way I Remembered them. Gorgeous scenery, Heart stopping wildlife, Laid-back, friendly people… You’ll never forget the face, a colossal monument to Crazy Horse. Will the work ever be complete? {Moving on to the business section to scan:} How new president may affect market. An expert predicts how stocks would perform under a President Trump or President Clinton. {Speculative reality spoils the fun}. 6/3/2016 1 Comment What It Be LikeDo you ever have times when you think what it would be like if...? Doesn't matter what the it is, but what if it were like this or that, just different, better, maybe a bit more like... Like what? What, I wonder, could be different than how it is just now since the it it is, it what we kinda brought into our reality by the choices me have made along the way.
Hmmm. Later this month it will be seven years since I retired from full time work with a government agency. That job I always blamed for being the reason I wasn't experiencing the its of life I thought I wanted to be experiencing. I couldn't because, well, I was working full time and it was too enervating to let me do much else. What a crock that turned out to be. Here it is many moons later and I am still just sticking my toe in the illusionary illusive waters of creativity and self actualization. Say what? I guess what I am saying is that I didn't imagine it would be like this, but somehow different. Thus the musing what it be like. What would it be like if I really were doing the things I keep telling myself I really want to do with my life? A better question might be, if I really wanted to do those things, wouldn't I be doing them? Ouch. I think as I have oft said to myself and even to some who would listen, it really is because I choose to do other things that support this fundamental belief I grew up with that our lives our not really our own. But that, too, is a crock. What we are is what we be because of what we thought and what we chose along the way. Hmmm. But, as I like to remind myself, and others, there is always a chance to choose again and to choose differently. And there you have. Something to think about and to muse on. But don't let it keep you awake. Sleep is where a lot of this works itself out. And that's what it be like. |
Rob McMurray,
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