Christian Health and Economic Stimulus

Rep. Danny K. Davis of my district whom represents me in the House of Representatives has an earmark in the upcoming stimulus bill. It is 1.3 million dollars for a christian medical center. Now it sounds good on the outside, if your not me I suppose. I think about the fact that it is a "christian" health center. Separation of church and state should prevent stimulus money for our economy going towards something with such a blatant religious base. Why are we using money to create jobs for people in the medical field whom I never thought there was a problem finding jobs in the first place. There are so many opportunities for people going into the medical field in Illinois. This makes me wonder if Davis rode into office through health care dollars. I could think of a lot of other things that 1.3 mil dollars could go toward which would benefit the demographic of the unemployed much more. I don't believe this project will do much for our economy.
If anyone has watched the news lately they see the new "war at home" with the Mexican drug cartels. This is a result of our countries narrow minded action in the "war on drugs". Drug use has been demonized in America even though the deadly use of alcohol and tobacco is rampant. Our prisons are full of non-violent drug crimes costing American people millions a year. Imagine a world where you had the right to consume what you choose without threat of the strong armed government. I think drug related crime and violence would dissipate overnight. What is there left to fight over if there is no underground drug problem. Drugs are never going to go away. People don't change because of the legality of a substance. Your life is yours and if you are not hurting other people then you should have the right to do as you choose. The government lets us corrode our livers and blacken our lungs and make money off of it. They imprison people on the basis of laws started in a time when the world was afraid of everything. It is said the war on drugs was started because Nixon didn't want people protesting the Vietnam war. So a crackdown on drug users to him was a crackdown on the opposition.
MDMA also known as Exstacy is now being used to treat people with treatment resistant PTSD. The drug was originally a prescription drug used for counseling between couples. Some kids started abusing it as kids tend to do with anything just look at alcohol related deaths in teens. Therefore to protect people they took away something that could be a valuable tool in therapy. Now it is a nother substance demonized as well. Mushrooms, another evil substance is now being proven to help with spirituality, and gives a sense of completeness, something I believe we all lack. Regardless of your views we have a constitution which states that anything not outlined in the constitution is decided by the states and the people. The war on drugs is in direct defiance of that, and is used as a political tool by politicians and pundits.

crash

I am the darkness. I am the shadows cast by fire on your bedroom wall. I am those memories. I am those pictures in that box. I slip an slither through your mind impossible to catch. I can't be pointed at. I can't be removed. I am the dreams that keep you awake and afraid at night. I am the tightness in the chest, the constricted throat. I am your shame, you guilt, and your cowardice. I am your empty bank account. I am the craving for escape. I'm the drug, the drink, and the sex that gets you by. I am the anger that rises when you see anyone who might trigger something inside you. I am the hate, and the disgust for the meaningless world created by simplicity and technology. I am the adrenaline that pumps without want or need. I am the anxiety that creeps. I am the pain that can't be killed. I am emptiness in your core, I make you want to hurt your self and create a means for the emptiness to escape. I am upturned noses and grimacing face. I am the deaf one that can certainly hear, but I just don't because I don't care. I am the end.

Hail to the Chief

I watched Obama speak at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina today. It made me wonder what my service would have been like if I had the confidence that soldiers now must have in our government. I felt like a weapon being used by tyrants during my service. I do not support Obama but I think I would feel a lot better about what I was doing with him as my commander in chief. Something about a businessman from Texas with multiple failed ventures and hazy military service history makes you doubt the intentions and direction of the government.
When they said there was going to be a pullout in Aug. 2010, I was momentarily excited. Then they said 50,000 troops would remain and forces are still being increased in Afghanistan. Somehow I do not feel that these soldiers need to remain. Islamic extremism and terrorism are cancerous, and contagious. It is bound to spread, but our gone friends and family can never be replaced. You can not stabalize that which has no flat surface for stabalization. There is a reason we have a seperation of church and state here, and it is because religion is not bound to reality. When you have a society that only has religion to believe in you are doomed to never have true liberty.
John McCain tells us that we need to take care not to withdrawal too soon as our acheivements will be reversed. I don't believe the things we have done in either country will stand regardless if we were there for a hundred more years. Until the people have real schools seperated from religion, honest people coming forth to take the reigns of responsibility, and an Army with a sense of dignity and pride, there is no chance of progeress. American has no morals for any other country to follow anymore. We teach greed, we teach egotism. In this country we can't even take care of ourselves. Our government runs rampant with no guidance from the people. The system is corrupt, the people have become docile, and our hearts are broken as we walk down the streets in the shrouds of media, and life. We don't care anymore. Nature offers no guidance to the rapers of the planet. I don't even think evolution can instill us with a sense of self worth in a world that does not need us.

In Other News
I created a Contemporary sculpture today. I filled bland clothes with sheets and towels and made it look like a homeless person. I placed it outside of a subway stop in downtown. I made a sign and it was a poem called Solitude:

Solitude

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

LAUGH, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of it's own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

It was a good time and I actually talked with a few homeless fellows who were some of the few that read the whole thing. I'm working on a blog about combating PTSD naturally so look for it very soon, also on Wednesday Chicago NPR will be playing a portion of my songs from the vet art project in a story on the event. Be sure to check it out here.

Treating the symptoms of war

The Vet Art Projects New Artwork presentation has finished. My journey and creative expression has not. I am proud of what I'm doing. I feel like life has a direction and there is a need for this cog in the machine. Although my view and beliefs of life and the system we live in are dark, dismal, and full of anger, I find comfort in the work that I do and the interesting people I meet. It makes me wonder with this many fantastic caring people who are doing amazing things, how our country even became what it is now. We are a country that freaks out if personal space is invaded, yet we let our government invade countries, peoples homes, and almost every facet of our lives. Look at your hands, because they are stained with the blood of dead civilians, enemies, and soldiers protecting you. If you choose not to take a stand and help to end this war you are enabling the people who want to invade, kill, and destroy. So many of us want to avoid confrontation in our lives, why not let our country take that stance. Are we too proud to end something most of us know little to nothing about. If I spun a globe would one in ten Americans even know where Iraq or Afghanistan were? Probably not. There is one thing we all have though, an opinoin of beauty. If I can make images in peoples heads to show them the evils of war and the beauty of peace maybe I can make a change. I will fill in a small gap. There are millions so there have to be a lot more artists to help me. We will fill the gaps between what we see on the news or in movies. What the military advertisements tell us or the left wing/right wing so called talk "news" hosts guide us to believe. You want an end to soldiers pain suffering and suicide. You want to treat post traumatic stress disorder? Then start with the root of the problem, war. I listened to Dr. John Fisher tonight tell a group of us about his journey in dealing with his ptsd and all I could think about was how he was right. The military, the VA, and doctors in general are treating the syptoms of PTSD and not getting to the root. We as a society are not getting to the root! We need to embrace our pain and let it become a part of us so it can spread and the feeling that war is wrong and devastating is shared among us as a society. Don't wait til your children, brothers, uncles, or cousins get drawn into the endeavors of beaurocratic despotists before you act to prevent the loss of more souls. In time all systems fail. War can not be the only means of solution in our country.