Peg Mullen & The General

Norman Schwarzkopv passed away yesterday.  We all know him as the larger than life General who commanded Desert Storm, the successful effort to remove Iraq from Kuwait in 1991.  I will always remember him for his turn of phrase reworking of the term BS..."Bovine Scatology"...now, that is the stuff speakers (and writers) only dream of inventing.  Well, OK, maybe he stole it from the unknown...that's OK, I do it all the time!

I was raised in the military and served for 3 years in the USMC.  Like "Stormin Norman"  I served in Vietnam,  Thus, I didn't describe him as "larger than life" lightly.  Military officers don't automatically impress me, altho I do realize the difficulties, both in terms of merit and politics, involved in getting that star on your collar.  Many yearn, few are fulfilled.  But Senator McCain's dad, a Navy Admiral, drank beer and played poker at our kitchen table...and like my Dad, he drank too many...not helpful at a poker game...LOL!

Schwarzkopf not only achieved those stars, he met up with the dream shared with most officers...the command of a war.  He not only executed his plan well, he sold himself even better.  Folks don't reach that level in any profession without an ability to both bully and schmooze, and  Schwarzkopf did both flawlessly as he had most of his career: indeed, it was his genetic predisposition... his father was the Commander of the New Jersey State Police, known for his belligerence and public relations.  But when Stormin Norman ran into an otherwise ordinary woman, Peg Mullen,  that persona was stopped in its tracks....she wasn't buying!

Peg was an "ordinary"  Iowa farm wife, the mother of Michael Mullen who died in Vietnam in 1970.  Schwarzkopf was his Battalion Commander and a Lieutenant Colonel at the time.  He sent off the obligatory form letter and forgot about it.  Peg Mullen, hearing stories from others Michael served with, realized that the events as described in that letter were the aforementioned bovine scatology and she proceeded to terrorize the Army brass and Schwarzkopv in particular to find the truth.  Her quest led to an award winning portrayal of her by Carole Burnett in the 1979 TV movie "Friendly Fire"....that was followed by her 1995 memoir, titled with attitude..."Unfriendly Fire" reviewed here:

http://www.vietnamgear.com/Article.aspx?Art=58

Michael was not killed by enemy fire, but by a stupid and common mistake.  Artillery shells fired over their position had not allowed for a tree line overhead...the shrapnel & debris resultant killed Michael and 2 others.  It is a command mistake....the guy on the ground who supplies the "coordinates" and the "Fire Direction" officer....both ignored that tree line tho it was clearly delineated on the maps we used to mark targets.  How do I know?  I spent 20 months doing exactly that job....a forward observer for artillery, air strikes, even Naval guns occasionally.  The built in redundancy of 2 responsible folks, officers or not, in different places, giving the "Fire" command was either ignored or both couldn't read an effen map....it's that simple.

But the Army bureaucracy couldn't admit that...and Schwarzkopf tried to cool the fires in Peg Mullen during numerous meetings....no way....Mission Fail!  Peg rips "Stormin Norman" into an asshole in her memoir, and Schwarzkopv, in his book, described those meetings as among the most difficult assignments of his career.

So Norm...you might be waiting for your meeting with St. Peter...I assume that will go well.  But inside those golden gates I imagine an Iowa farm wife is waiting...still waiting for, as Joe Friday says, "just the facts"...Time to come clean!

May Norman Schwarzkopv, Peg and Michael Mullen RIP...may their families find peace...may we all.

A CALL TO ACTION

A call to YOU, a cry for help, an appeal to that which is Right and Good and Beautiful within you and within us all.

    We come together in families, in tribes, in communities, as nations and create governments endowing them with power for one primary reason.  We as a species have come together since the dawn of Mankind for this one fundamental purpose, for OUR SAFETY and SECURITY.

    Above all else we demand that our governments provide us with safe and secure environments.   When our government fails in that responsibility, as it has in the case of rampant gun violence, we must come together and force our government to be responsible.  When you look in your heart, when you feel in your heart, is it not clear that we must take action now?   Will you turn your face away from and harden your heart toward the grieving families of those twenty beautiful, innocent and needlessly dead children?  

    With a heavy heart, a tired soul and now dry eyes I ask you to join me in this struggle for our safety.  I need your help, children all across our nation need your help.  Will you act?  I mean real political action, not just making a donation or writing a letter to the editor but helping to organize like minded people.   Only by organizing like minded people can we mobilize a force strong enough to demand the real change needed to give us the safety that is our right.

 Here is a peek at what we are up against.

  "For gun rights groups, 2012 was the most active election cycle since 2000. They contributed a total of $3 million to candidates.  By contrast, gun control groups contributed less in this election cycle than in any cycle as far back as OpenSecrets has data (1990) -- again, through mid-October. After campaign spending peaked in 2000 with $581,000, politicians only saw $4,000 from gun control groups this year."  From: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/12/gun-control.html

    The above dollars are really only a small fraction of what has and what will be spent by our opposition.  The most public group, our main opposition is the NRA.  They are a formidable force with an impressive record of lobbying victories.  While we on the other hand are currently lacking any group enabled to lobby on our behalf.  A clearer case of David vs Goliath would be hard to find.  We however have a tangible advantage,  we stand on the moral high ground.  Our cause is just, our position advocating for the safety of our children is unassailable.   In this just cause we stand bathed in the light of that which is right and good and beautiful.

    The following gun control measures are the absolute minimum that our government must enact to fulfill the compact that demands our children be protected.

1. All gun purchases must be preceded by a comprehensive background check.  All means all, if Bob wants to sell his neighbor Mary a single shot .410 for Grouse hunting Mary will have to have a background check.
2. All gun owners must be licensed.
3. All guns currently in private ownership must be registered within 1 year.  For those unwilling or unable to become licensed there will be an amnesty for anyone turning in guns within that 1 year period.  The government will provide tax deductions equal to the fair market value of the guns turned in.
4. Anyone convicted of a violent crime shall forfeit their right to own a gun.
5. A two tier licensing system must be established.   With much stricter requirements for semi-automatic guns.  
6. Ammunition clips must hold no more than 6 rounds.   (If the minimum is 10 it would be easy to tape two clips together so that 20 rounds would be immediately available for a mass murdering mad man.)
7. The penalties for illegal gun sales and purchases must be severe enough to provide a real deterrent.  
8. Penalties for those gun owners who are found to be negligent in safely securing their guns must be severe enough for real deterrence.

    When the NRA and other 2nd Amendment gun rights groups see our 8 point plan they will scream about their rights being violated.   I say to them, are you insane?  How can anyone with heart to feel and a mind to think say that your right to own a gun comes before the right if this child to live?
    To drive this point regarding rights home I must point at Habeas Corpus.   Since our Nation put security before our civil rights with the first passage of the Patriot Act the defense of the 2nd Amendment as sacred has been shown to have a foul stench.  Even today we as a Nation have, by default if not consciously, sacrificed our right of Habeas Corpus for real if not imagined security.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/politics/congressional-committee-is-said-to-drop-ban-on-indefinite-detention-of-citizens.html?_r=0

    For our cause to succeed we must harness all the help  we can.  Our greatest allies can and should be religious leaders throughout our Nation.  We must ask them to help us in this just cause.  If we fail to act history shall judge us.  Just as slavery has left a stain upon our Nations soul so too will our collective soul be stained if we good people refuse to stand for what is self evidently morally right. 

For those of you who know me you know that I am a liberal who un-apologetically supports the strictest interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.  The above call to action is what I would be working for if I did not support the 2nd Amendment as I do.  That said I would respect and honor anyone fighting for the just cause as described above.

J. K1  Cash

Is the NRA the KKK?

In a word....NO...altho the two infamous groups may very well share mailing lists.  The National Rifle Association does not emphasize the blatant racism so necessary to the KKK, but according to this African American sports journalist, the results of their policies would certainly be in alignment with the hooded knuckle draggers of the Klan...Jason Whitlock sums up the recent controversy here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jason-whitlock-jovan-belcher-murder-suicide-NRA-KKK-analogy-gun-control-partisan-kansas-city-chiefs-tragedy-120612

You can read the actual column which ignited the recent controversy on his FoxSports.com site, but he summarized it above.  This led to Bob Costas quoting Whitlock on a Sunday Night Football half time mini-torial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOi7If0zW9s

That's it....a comment on a tragedy....an NFL player took the life of the mother of his 3 month old infant and then took his own life in front of his coach.  Would either have happened if Belcher hadn't had a hand gun?  Who knows, but he did....and it did happen.  In any event, it certainly was news worthy enough to merit comment on the NFL's most watched weekly game by a HOF broadcaster.

OH...wait...not according to the right wing blather.  Talk radio went nuts, as did FauxNews....funny, the same media company that employs Jason Whitlock on another venue.  Costas had ruined the football viewing experience with his "anti-gun hysteria...."  did anybody here hysterics in the 90 seconds above?  All the usual suspects chimed in, demanding an apology.  Some have claimed they got one, including a pro-gun poster here.  Really?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2012/12/04/bob-costas-calls-jovan-belcher-commentary-a-mistake/

I ask my cyber friend Resquer...where is the apology?  If anything it was for not saying enough:

“My mistake is I left it open for too much miscommunication,” Costas said in a lengthy interview on “The Dan Patrick Show.” The 90-second weekly spot, he said, doesn’t offer enough time in which to adequately discuss the issue of “the football culture, the gun culture, domestic violence.”

But the media abuse continued, along with the usual death threats from the batfuck fringe....so Costas appeared on numerous cable outlets to explain, 1st with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC  and then with Bill O'Reilly on FauxNews, which as O'Reilly constantly trumpets, is the most viewed news program on cable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goesfw7R9vk

So let's put this in perspective.  O'Reilly, in his usual attempts to rile up his right wing audience, had been claiming he was gonna rip Costas apart, and that Whitlock was "hiding under his desk" rather than appear on his stupid program and put up with O'Reilly's idiocy.  IMO, the host shows just that in his claims about what he would have done if he had been in that Aurora theater.  First, he never would have been there and he certainly doesn't walk around packing a pistol.  He has security, necessary because part of his routine is to antagonize as many folks as possible.

Did Costas appear in apologetic supplication?  HELL NO!!!  If anything O'reilly, a refugee from a tabloid, First Edition, spent ten minutes kissing ass, as well he should....Costas has covered and broadcast 9 Olympics and who knows how many other major sports events.....Super Bowls, World Series, etc?  Events which have 10,20,50 times the audience of O'Reilly's hour on FauxNews....gimme a break!

It's simple.  The NRA is not the Klan....it is just another arm of the Republicrites, like FauxNews!  They seek to elect Republicrites and lately they haven't done very well.  No longer does the NRA generate fear among candidates...and obviously they instill even less such terror in either Costas or Jason Whitlock.  Both simply did what my theme song suggests:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-BBVQLnxI

 Will They Ever Learn?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

John McCain politicizing the Benghazi tragedy and calls Susan Rice  "...not too bright...unqualified..."

Funny...we're supposed to forget about another SoS named Rice.... Condi, who as NatSecurity Chief ignored clear warnings about 9/11....who, along with McCain, screamed about WMDs and brought us the Iraqi War with what, 4500 dead?  And their sources both times....the CIA.....Susan Rice's source of info that Sunday?  The CIA!

Really...who cares what Susan Rice said after the fact?  It could be that the video & tragedy were "co-incidental"...that's within the same time frame.  It could be that the Admin didn't want to show their cards....what they knew...to the militias...it certainly wasn't designed for political benefit....there was none.  Thankfully, the political hearings by Issa et. al. have backfired because they were so patently obvious!  That they outed a CIA safe house and operations in Libya border on treason, but nothing new with republicrites...remember Valerie Plame?

Face facts....Ambassador Chris Stevens knew the security risks in Benghazi; his diary shows that.  He certainly knew that Eastern Libya had sent more fighters against American forces in Iraq than any other region.  He chose to go anyway, on that date and with inadequate security.  For that mistake he paid with his life and three others.  I don't blame....I simply assign responsibility, the first level of which is on the ground!

funny...Jason Chavetz is on TV shooting his mouth off as I type...thanx A-hole for outing the CIA house in Benghazi.....only what we've learned to expect!   But he's got the flag on his lapel...but never on his arm.  That's why I call'em Republicrites!!!

My Short Reign as "Dear Leader"

I hereby announce my candidacy for the position of "Dear Leader."  I would need that power to carry out the following agenda!

1)...I hereby decree that the next Presidential Election may not start until 1Jan2016!  Really, we can do this.  Bobby Kennedy didn't even enter the race until april of 1968 and he wrapped up the nomination (and wudda won!) in June.  Of course, he was then mysteriously murdered...the saddest day of my life.  He did that in 2 months....do we really need a perpetual election cycle?

Let no candidate file until January....no caucuses or primaries until March.....done by June, 4 months.  The British do entire elections in 6 weeks!  Conventions in August....must we?  Campaign starts on Labor Day...done in early November...2 months.  Enough already...and maybe Fox & MSNBC can debate policy and not personality.

2)  I decree that Citizens United be gone in both concept & reality...fugetabout it!!!  Do we really want Sheldon Adelson taking his profits from Chinese casinos and attempting to buy influence for his super hawk Neocon views?  And no, corporations are NOT people!  There are reasons they incorporate into a separate legal entity and it ain't to buy elections!

The two Presidential campaigns have spent over $1B each....who knows the total for the thousands of federal, state & local races?  Our elections, down the line, are bought and paid for folks, and that local judge can affect your liife far more than any President!  Go back to real folks contributing sensible amounts and quit giving the networks a giant windfall every election cycle!

3)  Wipe "K Street" in DC off the map....make it disappear....where?  Never heard of it.  Let the House of Representatives become the "Peoples House."  I know, what a concept.  Let the Senate return to learned debate.  Let the President present the outline, the parameters of domestic policy while keeping his eye on our enemies...unfortunately, that never ends!

There are only 2 issues in domestic policy...debt & inequality.  So let Pelosi & Schumer  present a solution for debt and sell it to the CEOs....and let Paul Ryan and Pat Toomey deal with inequality and present it to minorities, students, the elderly, etc.  Get out of your comfort zones people....this is serious business!

5)  I resign....never wanted to be "Dear Leader" anyways....I'm too tall for door ways in North Korea....too much testosterone to be Queen Elizabeth....besides....I wouldn't wanna live in a country that would elect me!  I'm just here...my advice is free....go for it!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-BBVQLnxI

What Romney doesn't tell you about his profiteering on the Auto Bailout
http://www.examiner.com/articl...

Romney. thru his so-called "blind trusts" for himself and Ann, invested with Paul Singer, a hedge fund manager...the larger article is in "The Nation" but the cliff notes are here.  Singer is a ruthless m'fer, quite comfortable with taking advantage of situations, reaping huge profits, and shipping jobs to China....25 of 29 plants to be exact.  Since GM & other companies had no other source for key parts at the critical time...well, blackmail is the only description.

" How did Delphi undergo such a remarkable turnaround? They took federal bailout funds, slashed worker pensions, fired union workers and sent American jobs overseas,
and got the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to pay
all of Delphi’s retiree pensions. The cost to the taxpayer for the
pension piece alone was $5.6 billion. This is on top of the other
taxpayer money they took. Is this not corporate welfare?
Of the twenty-nine Delphi plants operating in the United States when
the vultures began buying up control, only four remain, with not a
single union production worker. Delphi now produces the parts used by GM
and other major automakers mostly in China. Delphi is now incorporated
overseas, leaving the company with 5,000 employees in the United States
and almost 100,000 abroad."

The larger article points out that the company is now incorporated on the Island of Jersey, off France, so I assume Romney can translate for his kleptocrat friends.  So Romney is involved in shipping jobs to China.....nothing new for him.  Romney is again hiding money off shore.  Worse, this thief, who doesn't believe in FEMA funds, took money from both the auto bailout and they  looted the pension funds, causing the Pension Guarantee Fund (federal!) to take on that responsibility!

And yet Romney can continue to run this total lie of an ad, which if you think about it, is a compliment from the outsourcing Romney and his buddies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

And that's why I call'em republicrites!

What happened to "THE LEFT"...?

Spoiler...some of "The Left" still exists, in American punditry if not American politics.  Bookmark the site of the two links I'm providing...very Bay Area, and features the iconic Robert Scheer of Ramparts Magazine fame...good stuff...the truth marches on!

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/mcgovern_he_never_sold_his_soul_20121021/

I was one of the "angry Vietnam Veterans" the author points as part of the McGovern coalition.  As we watch George pass on to better places and read the many tributes to his courage and decency, we have to wonder....where is that decency and courage in our politics today?

It is well known that Bill and Hillary Clinton interrupted their law studies to occupy major roles in the McGovern campaign.  They are now represented as centrists along the spectrum.  Romney has run ads trying to represent Obama as to the left of Clinton.

 He is not...in both his domestic and foreign policies he is a centrist moderate, and certainly less so on the latter.  A leftist would not be raining drone directed death on innocents...a leftist would have closed Gitmo...a leftist would have followed the advice of his Vice President regarding the "surge" in Afghanistan.  A leftist would have ordered the attack on the murderous Osama Bin Laden.  As we saw the other nite, there was no debate...Romney turned tail on almost everything he had said previously (surprise!) and we ended up with this:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hawks_of_a_feather_flock_together_20121023/

"Middle East policy would remain the same, with unquestioned support for Israel, no American troops sent to Syria or Libya, general support for Egypt and other Arab Spring regimes, slow withdrawal from Afghanistan, more drones and a big defense establishment."

And every politician agrees....99% of the punditry agrees...I ask...where is the outrage?

Where I disagree with Hedges is his hope....the 1972 defeat was disastrous in a moral sense.  The republicrites managed to turn the word "liberal" into an epithet with visions of dirty long haired dope smoking hippies, those castigated in song by the likes of Merle Haggard...that's after he got out of prison!

All the political types ran for the middle as Romney did in running away from the RW knuckle draggers he coveted in the primaries.  Not that he's really abandoning the band of hativists, anti-choice zealots, neocons, Evangelical gay bashers and low information gaggle of the resentful....they are useful in forwarding the agenda of the 1%, but right now it's "wink-wink"...he'll veer right quickly after November 6, of that we can be sure.  Hopefully, he'll be doing that in La Jolla rather than DC!

Really tho...where are the major national voices for true progressive and, yes, liberal policies?  I know, "Code Pink" exists but is represented as a quicky bunch rather than as the moral voice they are.  Where is the George McGovern of today?

More later...for now, my theme...from one of the voices I miss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-BBVQLnxI

George Rode By

A number of years ago here in town I knew a man named George Silverstein. 

He was a tall, thin, mellow, intellectual type fellow with long dark hair, which he tied back, who rode his bicycle all over town, as many here do.

George was a quiet person, a bit shy, and slow to make eye contact. For the several years I knew him we never got past the casual 'Hello' when my two small children and I  would see him on the street, or shopping at the Food Co-op. He would glance up briefly and smile slightly.

George was a regular in town, known by all, but not well by many.

Even so, he was respected by the tight-knit community.

One day an alert was issued throughout town that George was missing, prompting everyone to keep eyes open for him.

His friend and confidant Rusty North, a one handed woman who was an artist organized a search for George. 

Apparently he had left without notice and left his medication behind. The story was George was depressed from a breakup with a girlfriend.

Rusty was very concerned.

Hours passed and no one saw George anywhere.

During this time, my son and daughter and I were walking home from our outing, crossing 12th Street, when I happened to notice George on his bike making a left hand turn in our direction, headed toward the water known as Puget Sound.

I nodded, maybe smiled at him and saw he was smiling radiantly, with clear, strong eye contact, nothing I'd seen from him prior to then. He looked happy, and free, a new look for George. But, I thought nothing of it at the time, being absorbed in the business of my children's needs and woes.

When my children and I arrived home, I called Rusty North telling her I had just seen George at 12th street riding his bike, headed toward the water.

Rusty scoffed at me, and told me I couldn't have see George riding his bike, as his bike had been found two hours earlier.

I, confused, acquiesced and let it go. After all she was his close friend, and I was outside that loop. What could I know?...

Ten years later, two young boys, playing in the woods on Umatilla Street, happened to find a skeleton with a rope noose around it's neck. The rest of the rope was till attached to a tree limb above them.

A forensic study determined it was George.

I saw George ride by after he went to the woods, after his bicycle was found. 

He looked happier than I had known he could look. He looked beautiful.

I did not speak of this to anyone else until now. I am grateful that I got to see him one last time.

TERESA

When I moved into my building 5-1/2 years ago, one of the first people I met was Teresa E. She is a tiny lady, no more than 5 feet tall. 100 lbs. soaking wet, a very sweet little lady of Greek ancestry.
She always has a smile, and is friendly to everyone. She often bakes Greek pastries, covered in honey. Of course I can't remember the name. She passes them out to any and all. At Christmas she passes out cards to all 220 or so residents, even those she doesn't know. For some, it is the only thing they will receive for Christmas.
Teresa is now 87 and has lived here 21 years, moving in shortly after her husband died. About 10 years ago, a couple moved into the building, Alan and Lois. Alan was white, Lois black. There have always been a few African Americans in the building, but an interracial couple was something new and "strange". A lot of discussion ensued, and one day a group of residents, maybe 10 or 12 of them, were discussing the "problem". Teresa was among them. After much back and forth, little Teresa stood up and said, paraphrased, "What's wrong with you people? We should treat them like any body else. We shouldn't even be talking about this."
Several people told me about this incident, and they tell me the room went silent, there were a lot of sheepish looks, and all agreed.
Last week, I learned that Teresa had lung cancer. She refuses to go through any long, unpleasant and painful treatment. She asked only that she be given pain relief. She is now bedridden, cared for by her daughters, a caregiver, and her neighbors.
God bless her and we will miss her when she leaves us.

The Last Time I Saw Sherice

Several years ago I was a poster, then moderator for a live stream webcast called 'Spirit Cam'. The site broadcaster, Denis Williams, a man from England is a 'spirit medium'. 

Den seemed normal, humble, and had typical English humor, so I, and the many rest came to believe him.  He never showed a reason to disbelieve him, and we, the cyber group grew close. 

In fact some of us are still cyber friends. 

Den's purpose for the site was to teach people, to educate them in spirit matters.

He succeeded. He asked for nothing, he only gave all of himself.

His wife, a straightforward woman with a good sense of humor underwent went a mastectomy during the time the site up and running. Their daughter, as well as their son (both adults) would also post, and appear on the broadcast.

Several of the commenters who became moderators had ongoing, interesting experiences of their own. I entered extremely skeptical, but seeing how much fun the site was I remained. 

Eventually, I had to admit to myself that I had, in real life, seen a spirit of a child, an eight year old little girl who was killed when a dumpster fell on her at the dance studio where I took my two young children for ballet classes, crushing her as she, on order by her alcoholic mother was trying to take out the trash.

Back then dumpsters were metal and were designed with off-balance roll bars for loading on the trucks.

Sherice had to pull herself up onto the bar, then open the heavy metal lid to put in the trash.

That day it rolled over onto her, landing on her small chest, crushing it.

She died there a little later after two of the town's worst doctors arrived to the scene.

Before the accident Sherice and her mother lived in a small RV parked in a rental lot outside the dance studio at the beach. She would come into the studio and just watch, or be there quietly. I spoke to her a few times, and once as I walked the dance teacher's new puppy outside, Sherice came along. We played with the puppy, and laughed together.

After Sherice died, I, for some reason, was hesitant to take my son and daughter to class for a couple of weeks. 

I finally decided to return, but had a sick dread feeling that I would see that child there. 

I had never seen a spirit, or 'ghost' before.

That evening, during the class a display cabinet door fell open. The dance teacher Betsy said 'That's never happened before'. 

Her comment filled me with more dread and an absolute certainty there was no way I was going to get my two small children out of there that evening without seeing Sherice.

After class, as I was helping my kids into their coats, I thought we had made it. And then, the always to be expected words from my daughter "Mom, I need to go potty." Naturally. 

I think I may have asked her "Can you wait till we get home?' 

No, of course not..."Need to pee, Mom."

The restroom was accessible through a door leading down a long, dimly lit hall. I guided both children down the hall, saying nothing, trying not to let my fear show, and at the same time worrying that my fear might cause what I felt was imminent to happen.

We made it into the restroom with nothing unusual noticeable, except my profound expectation, even knowing, that we were not going to make it out of the building without something happening. 

As I opened the restroom door to leave, and moved the two little dancers, who seemed unaware of the certainty I was feeling, and, I believe were even chatting to each other, out into the hall...it happened.

The very end of the hall was a few feet to the right of where we stood as we turned to head back to the exit door. I felt compelled to look over to my right, but, though I did not want to, I was unable to resist.

I looked over at the end of the hall, a small dark, unlit alcove, where some extra chairs were stored, and there stood Sherice. 

She was encircled by a light, a clear light that created an amber glow around her. I could see the dark alcove beyond that.

Sherice stood smiling, looking directly at me, making eye contact with my fearful, quick glance. I could see her from her knees up.

She was wearing bright new looking blue jeans, and a bright red, new looking tee shirt. 

While alive Sherice was always dressed in faded second hand clothes. She had a difficult life.

But, there she was, two weeks after her death looking radiant and new. The light I saw around her seemed to emanate from within her and not from an external light source. There was no external light source. Apart from Sherice, that part of the hall was completely dark.

Sherice had the look of someone who feels great joy to finally be at home.

Her drab dark brown hair was a richer color, and her pale skin was no longer pale.

She looked perfectly natural, and like a person standing there, except only from the knees up.

It was not a frightening event, though, to my current regret, I felt fear.

I silently turned to shuffle my little ones up the hall, and out the door. I never spoke of this to anyone for twenty years expecting no one would believe me, and I wasn't sure I believed it myself. But, it happened. 

After spending time with Den and the group on Spirit Cam I came to understand the experience I'd had as something normal, and natural. I learned that many people see these types of things. 

I found peace with the gift Sherice had given me by stopping by to let someone know she was well, that she was home.

ROPE A DOPE...OR JUST DOPEY?

Where was Barack Obama last nite?  Did he have any idea that he was there not only to defend himself and his record over the last 4 years but the progressive values of those that elected him in the first place?  Did he expect that defense to be anything but a dismantling of Romney's only intention...to turn the national treasury over to his cronies in the kleptocracy...AGAIN?

If he did, then he didn't show it.  He allowed Romney to escape time and again from his only theme...that is, a return to the supply side scam that lowering taxes, particularly on the wealthy, would somehow bring in more revenues to pay for the government Americans continually indicate they want and need.  That hasn't worked since the so aptly named Art Laffer introduced it to main stream economics in the 1970s.  It has been tried before...by Reagan in the 80s when he tripled the debt...and by Bush Jr. in the last decade when the debt was doubled.  At the same time inequality has reach the highest point since the gilded age and jobs have made that giant sucking sound that Ross Perot predicted.

Oh, but Romney didn't say that revenues would grow...his plan would be neutral in that regard, as would the actual effect on taxes for the wealthy.  Of course, no specific loopholes, credits, deductions or exemptions to be eliminated...that's his secret plan...but it's not.  We've seen it for the past 30 years...and it's failed.  Romney even admitted it.  Business start ups at a 30 year low....exactly in line with the 3 decades the supply side flim flam has dominated the economic conversation.

Romney says he will limit deductions in total...but at what level?  The other day he said $17K...most of us reach that point...last nite he threw out $25K, $50K, pick a number...he literally said that!  No mention of how we define income....your salary or pension is taxed at the income tax rates....HIS income is virtually all taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%...and that includes the category called "carried interest"...a scam that the 1% claim are capital gains but aren't...they're commissions for the most part...that allows the 25  top financial scammers ( AKA Hedge Fund Managers) to average $980B...yes, that's a "B"...a few years ago and pay that CG tax rate which itself is the lowest in history.  Flim Flam, thank you Ma"am!

But Obama pointed out none of that.  He was passive and allowed Romney to dominate the stage, including the moderator...the weakest performance since the last Dukakis debate in 1988.  It brought back old images of loud big mouth Republicrites pushing around passive & "nuanced" Demwits.  It worked then, and it will again if Obama doesn't get his head out of his ass!  It better start next week...Biden better take Ryan to school on their lack of specifics, their lack of specificity, their dissembling.  These debates are the big stage....if Obama doesn't realize that, then we could be stuck with Romney-Ryan-Akin...and it won't be pretty!!!

YO YO and ME

In 1964, I was a student at Arizona State University. I had a white Corvair which I drove to and from the campus, which was perhaps 16 or 17 miles from our home in Northwest Phoenix, to which we had moved in 1961, from  South Phoenix. The South Phoenix location was only 5 or 6 miles from campus, and there was a direct bus connection.

Sometime in March the Corvair broke down, which it did frequently. This time it was an expensive repair (transmission) and was going to be in the shop for 3 days for repairs, and another couple waiting until I got paid. This put me in a quandary. How to get to school for a week?

Taking the bus from our place was out. The first bus passed nearby at 7:30, and arrived downtown 5 minutes after the second bus I would have to take, which meant I'd have a 55 minute "layover" downtown. The second bus would arrive at 16th and Broadway in South Phoenix 10 minutes after the final bus I would have to take to arrive at the campus in Tempe. A 50 minute layover. I would arrive at school about 10:15. My first class on MWF was at 8:30, on TTh it was at 9:15.

Thus I arranged to spend the week with some friends in the old hood, problem solved. One bus, a 20 minute ride.

I had to catch the bus at 20th Street and Broadway at 7:30. The first day while waiting at the bus stop, a girl began talking to me, asking all kids of questions. She was 16, a high school drop out, overweight, and not very attractive. She informed me her name was Ora Mae Criddle, but everyone called her Yo Yo. She also let me know how she got that name; she was famous for the way she went up and down like a Yo Yo. She had a younger sister, Marsella, 15, who was nicknamed "Ring A Ding" because she "knew how to ring a guy's bell".

I was relieved to get on the bus and hoped I had seen the last of Yo Yo. The next morning, arriving at the bus stop, one guess who was there. Yo Yo. This went on for the rest of the week. I don't know why she was there on Monday, but the rest of the week, it was obvious she was there to see me. I had told her I'd be taking the bus the rest of the week

Well, I got my car back and was free of Yo Yo. Or so I thought.

A couple weeks later, on a Saturday night around 10, I was watching TV in my room when I heard my sister screaming. I rushed down the hall, as did my dad, and opened the door to my sister's bedroom. There stuck in the window, was Yo Yo. The house had crank out windows, and Yo Yo was caught. My sister was screaming and crying (she was 17) that there was a woman stuck in her window. Yo Yo was also crying loudly, shouting loudly for help.

My dad and sister were not amused, especially when I had to admit that I knew the lady in the window. I had no choice since she was calling out my name.

To add to the confusion, there was a knock on the door, I went to answer it and there were two police officers. It seems on of the neighbors had seen a "large black woman" trying to get in the window.

I t seemed as though, despite Yo Yo being dumb as a stump, she had asked me to show her my driver's license and quickly noted my address. It was 12 miles from her home, and how she ever found it is a mystery. She had borrowed her dad's car (later on I learned, without his permission), even though she had no license. Her dad also was not happy and I heard he grounded her for a month.

Well, the cops were bemused, and arranged for my dad to drive her dad's car to their house, and I drove Yo Yo home. Yo Yo got a good lecture from the officer, still crying. My dad was very unhappy, my mother was furious (what will the neighbors think? She was at work at the time), and my brother and my friends thought it was hilarious.

I never saw her again. I heard several years later that she had a couple kids and was unmarried, living in a public housing project.

LURCHING FORWARD...INTO THE PAST

"How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?"

Say what?  That probably sums up the response of thousands of African Americans when they were confronted by questions such as the above iconic example in the Jim Crow South...literacy tests were part of the tactical disenfranchisement of almost all potential Black voters, along with poll taxes, property requirements and plain ol' physical intimidation.  Not a pretty picture which necessitated the passage of voting rights legislation in the 60s, laws still on the books regarding some Southern states.  But voter suppression is back...and not just in the South!

An old axiom of politics is to never let a crisis go to waste, and this truism far precedes Rahm Emmanuel...I heard it cited in PoliSci courses in the 60s.  This is a case of an invented crisis....voter fraud that doesn't exist.  The Bush Admin made a lot of noise about it after 2000, which is funny in itself given the mess in Florida and the fact that they took office after losing the popular vote by 500,000 votes:

"A major probe by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud"

Read more:  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830

This attack on voting rights is curiously aligned with the election of republicrite governors in the wave election of 2010.  Well, waves roll in, waves roll out...and the republicrites, led by infamous Hativist Kris Kobach of Kansas, do not want to see a repeat of 2008.  Their solution?....target the demographics of the Obama victory....African Americans, Hispanics, Youth & targeted elderly...they ain't going after Grandma in the suburbs, but if she lives in a public retiree facility in Philadelphia, she's fair game.  Onerous photo ID laws which involve cost, time and fighting thru an inept bureaucracy...reduction of early voting, particularly on the Sunday before election day when Churches traditionally bring voters to the polls in buses & vans...purges of voters rolls where voters have to prove their continued eligibility rather than the other way around...all designed to do one thing, as admitted by a Pennsylvania official...reduce the vote and allow Republicrites to win close elections, including Romney-Ryan!

I could go on, but in the interest of brevity, let me register my reaction....DISGUST!!!  That a major political party could return to so cynical  an agenda, so immoral in intention, so blatant in execution ought to give all decent folk pause...do we really want to go back?

For several years I was a poster and then moderator for 'Spirit Cam' on justintv . com. The site owner was a man from England who said he was a 'spirit medium'.
He seemed normal, humble, and had typical English humor, so I, and the many rest came to believe him.
He never showed a reason to disbelieve him, and we, the cyber group grew close. In fact some of us are still cyber friends.
His purpose for the site was to teach people, to educate them in spirit matters.
He succeeded. He asked for nothing, he only gave all of himself.

His wife, a very straightforward woman and their daughter, as well as their son (adults) would also post, and appear on the broadcast.

A number of the members who became moderators had ongoing, interesting experiences of their own. I entered extremely skeptical, but seeing how much fun the site was I remained.

Eventually, I had to admit to myself that I had, in real life, seen a spirit of a child, an eight year old little girl who was killed when a dumpster fell on her at the dance studio where I took my two young children for ballet classes, crushing her as she, on order by her alcoholic mother was trying to take out the trash.
Back then dumpsters were metal and had off balance roll bars for loading onto the trucks.
Sherice had to pull herself up onto the bar to open the door and put in the trash.
That day it rolled over onto her.
She died there a little later after two of the town's worst doctors arrived to the scene.

COMING HOME IN BODY & MIND

I came home from Vietnam in 1968, left the Marines and attended City College for a year...and an exciting and vibrant year it was!  My sister was, at the same time, attending UCSD as a member of its first freshman class. Also at UCSD was an obscure German Philosopher named Herbert Marcuse....but he would become, depending on point of view, famous or infamous in that time.

The best explanation I can find is this documentary done by a Danish film maker.  It's almost an hour, but well worth it for a bit of San Diego History:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5311625903124176509#

I thought of this period recently when the Manchester-Lynch SDUT showed their true colors in a hilariously over the top editorial "Obama in 2016" which predicted all manner of catastrophe to come.  In those days the UT was owned by the Copley family, rabid  right wingers in the old "commies everywhere" vein.  Along with the local American Legion, they made Marcuse the most controversial man in America, and provoked numerous threats on his life in the process.  His graduate students armed themselves and the SDPD provided various manner of security.  This was the era of assassination...Martin Luther King & Bobby Kennedy were both murdered in 1968...the threats were real!

I met Marcuse along with Angela Davis after I achieved a bit of notoriety...getting arrested at a Max Rafferty Senatorial campaign event.  Actually I wasn't really protesting the obnoxious Rafferty...I was defending a gal friend from a YAFer (Young Americans for Freedom) in the crowd.  He pushed me, I decked him, and half a dozen cops decked me....wee, my 15 minutes of fame!

I would often go out to UCSD to visit with my sister and her friends....they were "Clean for Gene" types, I was for Bobby Kennedy, but we both lost that nite in June when Sirhan Sirhan pulled a trigger.  The Chicago DNC had happened...we were stuck with choosing between Nixon & Humphrey...the mood was sour.  I met a graduate student of Marcuse who introduced me to their inner circle as "the Vet who was beat up at the Rafferty rally..."  ah well!

Marcuse was a small vibrant man in his 60s...as threatening as your Grandpa...he was a Jewish refugee from Germany, a former OSS (precursor to CIA) employee, and a critic of Fascism, Communism and Capitalism,,,not that I was ready to understand it.  I slogged thru Reason & Revolution but I didn't understand it...I wasn't ready.  I did understand that this man was a good man who was being vilified by the worst of American political inclinations...a return to McCarthyism, pure and simple.

So, view the video when you have time...well worth it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Doctrine

As I watched Romney in his disastrous press conference the other day I noted his brief description of a Romney foreign policy.  He did emphasize another tenet of what has come to be called "The Powell Doctrine"...use overwhelming superiority of forces to exercise the mission (I have no idea why that was not covered in the brief Wikipedia link, but there are plenty of other sources, including his original article  in Foreign Affairs Quarterly, circa 1992.)  Well, Romney is being encouraged, or forced, to give a major speech on foreign affairs.  Watch carefully...lives could depend on it!

Certain things are clear.  Romney is surrounded by the old Bush Neocon crowd who ignored the tenets of General Powell's admonition in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Try going through the list of questions...some can be answered in the positive, particularly in the AfPak theater...literally none can be affirmed in the case of Iraq but history shows that they didn't care to either ask nor answer any of them....they had their agenda, reason and history be damned.  Thousands of lives later the Middle East is, well, different.  Yet Nobody can predict even the near future as we are witnessing today.  It is also clear that the West and America in particular has no control over that future!

So I ask you to note the questions above.  You might try running through them concerning recent conflicts, or even those of other eras.  Then ask...where can all of them be answered in the affirmative?
Romney is certain to echo the present Israeli government in beating the Drums of War with Iran.  A Knesset & Likud member was on Morning Joe this week and clearly stated that, in his opinion, all peaceful means have been exhausted.  He is representative of this most extreme and aggressive Israeli government in the history of modern Israel...are we to turn over our foreign policy to them?

Something to think about it as we await Romney's mandatory speech!

The Hermit and the Mantra - Om Mani Padme Hum

The True Sound of Truth

An old story speaks about a similar problem. A devoted meditator, after years concentrating on a particular mantra, had attained enough insight to begin teaching. The student's humility was far from perfect, but the teachers at the monastery were not worried. 

A few years of successful teaching left the meditator with no thoughts about learning from anyone; but upon hearing about a famous hermit living nearby, the opportunity was too exciting to be passed up. 

The hermit lived alone on an island at the middle of a lake, so the meditator hired a man with a boat to row across to the island. The meditator was very respectful of the old hermit. As they shared some tea made with herbs the meditator asked him about his spiritual practice. The old man said he had no spiritual practice, except for a mantra which he repeated all the time to himself. The meditator was pleased: the hermit was using the same mantra he used himself -- but when the hermit spoke the mantra aloud, the meditator was horrified! 

"What's wrong?" asked the hermit. 

"I don't know what to say. I'm afraid you've wasted your whole life! You are pronouncing the mantra incorrectly!" 

"Oh, Dear! That is terrible. How should I say it?" 

The meditator gave the correct pronunciation, and the old hermit was very grateful, asking to be left alone so he could get started right away. On the way back across the lake the meditator, now confirmed as an accomplished teacher, was pondering the sad fate of the hermit. 

"It's so fortunate that I came along. At least he will have a little time to practice correctly before he dies." Just then, the meditator noticed that the boatman was looking quite shocked, and turned to see the hermit standing respectfully on the water, next to the boat. 

"Excuse me, please. I hate to bother you, but I've forgotten the correct pronunciation again. Would you please repeat it for me?" 

"You obviously don't need it," stammered the meditator; but the old man persisted in his polite request until the meditator relented and told him again the way he thought the mantra should be pronounced. 

The old hermit was saying the mantra very carefully, slowly, over and over, as he walked across the surface of the water back to the island. 

SIMPLE INTERNET BOUNDARIES!

Good morning all.  My first blog  isn't my intended comment on the UT historically in San Diego...that can wait.  The tragedy in Libya and the attack on the American embassy in Cairo brings another thought.

The American ambassador and three other personnel were killed in a fire set by attackers of the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  The full story is here:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/20129112108737726.html

The Libyans along with the Egyptians were riled up over a youtube video, allegedly produced in America and linked to this Florida pastor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfPPtHtUfmQ

Supposedly the video, which I haven't located yet, is an amateurish attack on Islam and degrades their prophet.  Prior to these events it had less than 3000 views.  Rumors in the middle east had it as a Hollywood blockbuster coming out on 9/11...so think about it.  A stupid video put out by irresponsible bigots has reached around the world and resulted in 4 deaths.  The same pastor, Terry Jones, has previously caused riots and deaths in Afghanistan when he threatened public Quran burnings...welcome to the digital "create your own reality" age!

Can any of us write something or create a video here which we present to the world, come what may, and have similar results?  Would we wish to do so?  Do we think before we hit the post button, or in this case the publish link?  Respect of ours and others boundaries, parameters of behavior, shouldn't disappear under the relative anonymity of cyber space...the above is an example of why that is!

Introduction: Real Fake Friends

This blog is intended to give a platform for various views on a variety of subjects similar to The Rant Board, but threaded per user request and is meant to complement that site's open ranting style forum. It is an open forum using the Disqus commenting platform which also accepts comments from other systems, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and OpenID as well as anonymous posts.

If you are interested in blogging for this site, simply post a comment on the main page and we will email you an invitation. You can then blog about anything you like, creating discussion threads about various topics.

This is an extension of a community which formed in response to various local newspaper web sites switching from anonymous comments to requiring Facebook accounts, which many felt was an invasion of privacy as expressed on the newspapers' own message boards at the time. We welcome all points of view and respect your right to privacy and anonymity and encourage you to express any opinions you have on any subject you like. We also welcome your comments and criticisms.

Thanks for Reading,
Jason Smith

Night Traveler

When we first moved to Port Townsend, we moved into the Captain Brown apts. on Polk St. We lived in a roomy basement apartment there.

We three shared a full sized mattress in the big dark bedroom, my two year old daughter, my almost four year old son, and me.

My daughter always snuggled in close to me. 

She didn't say anything, but must have felt scared. I felt scared in that place. 

So did others who would walk past talking about how that is the building  'I was always afraid to go in to'.

After time (we were only there a year), we each had our own bed, still in the same room.

One night I woke up and looked up at the front of my bed,

and saw my daughter standing there, looking timid. 

I thought she'd had a bad dream, and was coming to get into my bed.

I raised up, she didn't say anything, or climb into the bed. 

I reached out to her, but she backed up slightly. 

She was wearing her favorite Pluto pajamas (I still have those).

I said her name as I reached out to her, but, I couldn't seem to touch her -  my hand went right through her image.

Then, I didn't see her. 

I heard her give a deep sigh across the room, over in her bed.

And, I remembered she had gone to bed wearing her blue Holly Hobbie gown, not the Pluto pj's.

I deduced she had 'projected;, felt afraid, and went back to sleep when I said her name.

I did not dream that, I was fully awake.

The Short Good-bye...

We had a doctor here in P.T. whose wife had their third child and had to get blood transfusions. She was a public nurse. She developed AIDS, and died within 2 years. She was 39. 

I remember seeing her downtown during her last months and I could see that she was taking it all in, saying goodbye. As she progressed and stayed in bed, the kids would run up to her room every morning and come running back downstairs cheering 'Mom's not dead yet'. They were all under age 5.

It does sound terribly sad, but as it turned out, her husband, our family doctor had gotten back in touch with his college girlfriend who remained his friend during the time he was losing his wife. After his wife died, he and the friend got together, got married after a while, and moved to Oregon. She had three kids also, so the kids had a wonderful woman to be there for them, and a new family.

It was perfect. The wife who died had developed dementia and gave him many months to part from her. He waited a good amount of time before he remarried. 

When my daughter was 4-5 she had a little stuffed penguin which she took with her to an appointment. 

The doc asked her what its name was and she told him 'Randy Jacobs', which is his name.

While Jim (my first husband) and I were engaged we went with a friend from work to a Catholic Shrine called Our Lady of the Snows, somewhere outside EStL.

Jim and I had gone there a few times and liked it because it was such a scenic place, interesting looking. He was in the process  of becoming Catholic, so that worked for him also.

After touring the park freely just before dusk (we were the only people there), the three of us were standing at the Angelus Bells pond fantasizing about how the amphitheater stage looked futuristic. I said something about what if a UFO came down and landed there right now.

Our friend said something about a big hand reaching up out of that pond, and we all laughed. We were having simple fun trying to scare ourselves.

The lights were off at the Angelus Bells pond, but on everywhere else around the grounds.

Then I said 'What if these bells started ringing?'

At that moment they did. 

The suddenness and the loudness of those bells ringing five feet away from us startled us, scared us and, as in the movies, we ran screaming to the car. 

Also, as in the movies, where the girl always falls, I slipped on the gravel and fell calling out for them to 'Wait for me!'

Jim looked back, bells still pounding, and looked to the car again, clearly considering his options, but he came back for me.

By then I was on my feet, and we left there quickly.

We all laughed and felt we had just had an amazing adventure.

I had moved out of my mother's house and was staying with Jim and his dad until we were married a couple of months later.

It was a two bedroom house, but the dining room area, between the living room and the kitchen was made into a bedroom, where I slept.

That night, when Jim, his dad, and I were all in our respective beds ready to go to sleep, Jim's large dog (a standard poodle) jumped up and ran barking excitedly to the front door.

No one seemed to be at the door, no one knocked, there were no sounds, but the dog stood facing the door barking furiously.

Then the dog began to back up, still barking as if watching someone come through the door into the living room.

The dog backed all the way through the living room barking. When it reached the room where I was sitting in bed watching, the dog turned around to face the kitchen, as if watching someone walk past him, and he continued to follow that, still barking harshly all the way through my room toward the kitchen.

It looked as if that dog were clearly seeing someone there.

I saw nothing.

From the time the dog began to back away from the front door I could feel a strong energy inside the door, like an energy field. almost like static electricity without the tingles, or shocks. 

As the dog backed through the living room, I could feel that energy field move through the room in front of the dog.

When the dog reached my room and turned around to face the kitchen, I could feel that energy mass move into my room. Needless to say I was terrified, and dumbfounded. It was like a wall of energy that reached from one side of the room to the other.

The energy mass moved through my room, and as it reached the area of my bed, I felt it pass right through me, continuing on the to kitchen.

Once the energy field reached the kitchen, the dog stopped barking, I no longer felt that energy wall. I jumped up and ran screaming into Jim's room and jumped into his bed.

All the time the dog barked Jim was calling out to him to hush, but he didn't come into the room.

I told Jim and his dad what had just happened and they didn't know what to think, though Jim was as uneasy as I was. His dad, a large man, may have been better at concealing his concern, he said nothing.

Later the next day Jim told me he had called one of the Brothers at the Shrine and asked about the lights being out, and the Bells ringing at the Angelus pond the early evening before.

The Brother told Jim he checked the circuits and there was no evidence of a power outage at the Bells showing. 

The Brother also told Jim that if there had been a power outage, the Bells would not have rung, as they are on the same circuit, and timer.

The Brother had no answer for why the lights had been out, or why the Bells rang when they did.

When I fell, as we ran from the Bells, I scraped my ankle, leaving an open abrasion that took a month to heal. Incidentally, the day we went to the Shrine happened to be April 1st (1965).

During the following month, Jim and I noticed with surprise that we seemed to be able to know what the other one was thinking, and we would finish each other's thoughts ourselves, which was fun for us, if perplexing.

The day my ankle healed May 1st, that stopped. Life resumed as normal.

That energy field was a real, and palpable as the keyboard under my fingers. I have not felt anything like that since. 

August 2010

There was a power outage last night at 8:30.

Through the sliding glass doors I was able to see the full sky, which in the rare darkness left by the the Park-and-Ride lights and all other lights being out, including Safeway, gave me a clear view of all the stars one sees in a black sky.

There were some low clouds on the Eastern horizon emitting

occasional flashes of lightning, and it was a bit windy.

I happened to look down and there was an owl sitting on the railing

of my balcony. He was sitting on the corner by the opened door.

Af first I thought it was a hawk, as a couple are frequently seen on the other side of the building, but as I stood at the door, three feet away from the bird, I could see that it was an owl.

As car-headlights would come past, I was able to see spots and lines in the feathers, which ruffled like hair in a breeze.

I stood there, as it sat looking around, for at least fifteen minutes. 

I was excited. 

What a thrill. It is the first time I've seen an owl in person, and up so close.