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Editor's Chair ~ October 28, 2003

Fall Anguish

What is it about Fall that always leaves me as melancholy as Spring leaves me exhilarated? 

Inevitably, change occurs during the Fall.  The most apparent, of course, the visible ones--even in Texas our Red Oak trees leaves change; the sky seems bluer, the air clearer--nights are again bearable, the stars brighter.   

Last weekend marked the beginning of Standard time again from Daylight Savings time.  More dark hours, less daylight. 

But the changes I am feeling are deeper than visible ones.  Fall is a time of slowing down, of more quiet.  Even out here in the country, except for the occasional sound of geese flying south overhead, there are few if any bird sounds.  Gone for the most part are humming lawnmowers and the fragrance of green grass.  Replacing it are the rustle of dying leaves on a lonesome October wind.

This particular Fall it has been so quiet I can hear falling acorns hitting the driveway, even with the windows shut.  We seem to have a whole lot of acorns this year--the old-timers say it is because we had the largest amount of oak pollen this spring that we've had in twenty years.  It just feels different to me.

I have been told that because of recent solar flares, the Aurora Borealis can be seen as far south as Mexico.  It is so dark out here at night we can see the Milky Way with our security lights on.   I have watched hopefully each clear night we've had so far, figuring I might eventually catch a glimmer of Northern Lights. So far I haven't, but I've noticed that in the stark stillness of the autumn nights, shooting stars really seem to last longer. 

There's a sadness in this stillness, however.  America is yet "at war" in Iraq.  The President declared our "continuing positive influence" there at his recent press conference.  He and all the politicians say the War on Terrorism will not be won quickly.  Pundits speculations re: ultimate resolution, range from five to a hundred years. That prospect hangs in the still, dark autumn air like an anvil over us.  Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insists we will have to fulfill our military commitments with civilian personnel (Go HERE and type in "S89" to read the Uniform Mandatory Service bill now before the House to understand what he is planning for your sons and daughters, husbands and wives).

Read the big overarching plan -- http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Yesterday, I overheard a satellite-telephone report from non-imbedded news personnel in Baghdad (KPFK, Los Angeles) who explained that Americans are not being told the truth of what is truly happening in Iraq.  No one around here seems to care much.  They still show up for soccer games in droves. They still show up for high school football games by the trucksful.  They buy new cars on credit.  They fill the local  Sonic Burger Drive-In on Saturday night.  They stare at me blankly when I ask them where the cradle of civilization was.  They can tell me who won (or lost) the World Series, though.  Ditto, the Super Bowl.  A few of the brightest and best can tell me what a spotted salamander is and all about its endangered habitat.  Some can explain why every other major religion was represented in last year's DS middle school Christ-mas pageant EXCEPT Christ-ianity.  Many can recite the lyrics to Britney Spears' latest song.   Children around here idolize the supernatural gifts of Harry Potter and dream of going to the Hogwort School of Witchcraft in order to reconcile the bus bully.  They talk about Greenhouse Gasses.  The can tell me how our ozone layer is being depleted.   The North Pole is really melting.  Some can even define a black hole.   Certain of the older ones can quote the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics.   And one has even memorized the five equations supporting String Theory.  But they won't talk about or, God forbid, even read a chapter of the Bible.

And they cannot tell me how the fourth amendment (among others) was gutted by Patriot Act I.

And they cannot tell me why a man who went AWOL for eighteen months is today saluted by our military.  And why did this one who was on watch for our country fail to scramble air force jets to either intercept or shoot down just one of the four hijacked jets on 9-11?  Read Presidential Procedure for such events HERE, established June 2001; and FAA guidelines HERE.  Now think about it.

And they cannot tell me what was or were those "work(s)" that lit the Big Bang -- who or what flipped the switch -- the ignition (although proponents imply the String Theory will eventually explain that, too).  Isn't a scientific theory supposed to be OBSERVABLE as a process before it becomes an accepted hypothesis? 

The past two months commercial news has increasingly reported the "Coma Case" in Florida--alleging a young woman, Terri Schindler-Schiavo, has been in a "persistent vegetative state" for 13 years, whose husband wants her taken off life support so she can die', etc., etc.   The news media be damned.   This is flagrant fraud and obfuscation of truth.   Do you even care?   Enough to read more?  Because of the lack of truth reported about this tragic story, many of our alphabet news media are this week changing their internet headlines to soften their initial indifference and error -- "THE COMA CASE" -- has hence been rewritten as "Paralyzed Woman's Feeding Tube Reinserted" or "Woman in Vegetative State Case..." 

Just type "Florida Coma Case" into Google and look for yourself.  The "Coma Case" headlined on or about September 18th.  This week those headlines were changed, at least on the internet, softened for appearance's sake.  But the truth was already being reported on renegade independent media shows/websites like The Power Hour, and Alex Jones' highly acclaimed Infowars radio show.  Terri is NOT in a coma.  She is brain-damaged from abuse.  She is awake and alert.  In fact, it was Alex Jones who first brought the truth of this young woman's horrific plight to radio light. 

Go HERE to watch for yourself those videos (which changed the American press' attitude and public's knowledge) concerning Terri's ACTUAL physical state.

BRAVO to Alex, Joyce, Dave, and Linda Kennedy, and all the others who brought the truth forward and prevented a nazi-like precedent from being set in this country for EXTERMINATING HUMAN "baggage."   This is not about right-to-life, folks--it is about euthenizing the sick for convenience and when it is financially beneficial to the advocate(s).

But Baby Boomers, beware; ours is the largest generation on earth--if our economy is in the tank, if social security is depleted, if Medicare is shrinking--well, get ready--who do you think is going to be YOUR advocate in your old age?????   That's right--The state!

Does anyone care out there?

 I think the increasing dimness of October reminds me most of all of the demise of our own sense of humanity and the current state of general human indifference--being neither hot nor cold, neither light nor dark, but merely gray--people just don't care anymore.  

In my own neighborhood this past year, keeping the peace was defined by obfuscating truth to preserve public reputations and the veneer of "friendship."  I have been ostracized for not turning the other cheek when one of our local mucky-mucks covered up a crime by simply writing out a check....

In November, 2001, I was verbally and  physically assaulted in my own church before forty of our congregation for (privately) suggesting to our minister that the Bushes and the Bin Laden family's friendship and thirty year business (and vacation) history connotes a conflict of interest.   No one lifted a finger to help me.  They all just stood there watching the assault with a look on their faces like I had worn a short skirt into a pool hall and deserved it... 

But don't believe me...read more HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE  and HERE and HERE.

Every day now I must face the reality that I am ill, carrying a hybridized organism in my body which was patented by the head epidemiologist of our Department of Defense, Dr. Shyh-Ching, Lo--(U.S. Patent 5,242,820) by our own DOD and the US Army as a "stealth weapon".  WHY???  AGAINST WHOM????? 

I can no longer count on my legs to always support me, nor my hands to find long-learned chords on my guitar.  Music is pretty much out of the question anymore--except perhaps in some informal setting around the old campfire.

http://www.whale.to/m/scott7.html
http://www.drdino.com/cse.asp?pg=articles&specific=53
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1520a.html

But let me let you go now, so you can finish watching "West Wing..."

-- Betty

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