Millennium War -written November 2001     9/11 everything changed. The wake up call came To a threat that hides among us Blowback, I  say To our Intervention in the Middle East   The media manufactured Consent to the Police state As The visual horror it repeated and played And we wrapped our grief in an American Flag Then let the war machine spring into place And begin a campaign That will bring hell down upon us. We pound Afghanistan and starve the Iraqis And they poison our people Tis just the beginning Goddess help us all   They all claim they serve the One God. How can this be so? What God would kill? The innocent heroes of New York City? Not the Allah I know. These people must go. They are evil And among us Goddess help us all   They would all kill me. The Bushs included . Fundamentalists are dangerous No matter what religion they claim Religious people they say, With their partners in Saudi Arabia. They would kill me for being gay, For being a Pagan, for being an "abortionist" Yet I am America the free.   And I fear for our freedom, Of the terrorists winning By having our own government oppress we the people. Goddess help us all! The wake up call came To look at our lifestyles, To change our priorities, To find a new way To find an alternative to oil for blood To find a new way To keep freedom for all. The soul of America puts out her clear call For us to find another way Goddess help us all!

I really love that poem, it touched me with words that have floated
around unarticulated in my head for almost two years.
...

Your millennium poem really has resonance with me on a number of levels,
but I have found over the past two years that I am less tolerant of
extremist views from either side of the fence, in religion or politics,
and have really come to believe that there is common ground we can all
find and the more I speak with people about this point, the more I
realize that it is not a naive concept, but something we really can
strive for - maybe that's why Dean struck such a chord with me, but it's
so early in the election game, I'm really just trying to get momentum
against junior and his good ol' boys, cause you can't get much more
extreme than them, but like when we unseated his father, it took a
helluva lot of planning, work and sweat, but it was worth it and it can
be done again, 'cause you can't stop the motion of the ocean once it
gets flowin'...

 I wrote:

 

Sydney then wrote

 

I know you've been on so many frontlines too, and you and I both know that we can affect change and policy and that is why I know we must do it again, only I feel like the lamb in the woods and slightly
shellshocked from a decade of 80-90s aids activism that almost killed me
in the process, but also cause my causes are all over the place this
time, war, environment, aids, africa, abortion, et al.

 

..Can I post what you have written as a blog on my site?  I believe in
WE THE
PEOPLE!

Please, blog away! I really love you too, and will be lighting candles
for your trip to the pac nw tomorrow, what time do you leave?

Speaking of lighting candles, the drought in Joshua Tree was so severe
that we got some folks in nola to start working their juju and we've
been having flash floods in Joshua Tree since folks started lighting
them all over town (St. Michael's candles I was told - more than 500 of
them at last count), sounded like a lot of candles, but also a lot of
love; for me, for bob, for nature, but hopefully just enough rain to
save the trees from being eaten by the mice and not a deluge to start
the new aquaduct to l.a.

Collectively we can win this, but it is WE THE PEOPLE and we just have
to remind ourselves and our friends of that every once in a while.

I loved the Jose Marti quote on your website, i'll have to send you a
pic from one of his numerous memorials, now that I've got my new laptop
up and humming, the movie studio begins.

Much love-
Sydney

 

 

It really was incredible timing, the lighting of the candles and the
light rain started falling within two days (actually the remnants of
Hurricane Claudette headed to Joshua Tree instead of New Orleans), the
longer they light them, the more it's rained - I think it's a total of
only about 1/4th of an inch of rain and much of that evaporated, but it
hasn't rained in two years.

They cancelled all official city business in Yucca Valley and JT for
three days because of high humidity & flash floods, downside, there were
three car wrecks because of the rain, but everybody survived intact we
were told!

Have a safe trip!
Sydney