bobby.

the movie. have you seen it yet? why not? go. stop reading this. go see bobby. it was worth my eight dollars and fifty cents. perhaps one of the greatest politicians to ever live. (do great and politician belong in the same sentence?)

here is a speech that bobby gave... it just reminds me of how much history repeats itself. i wonder, will there ever be someone like bobby again? perhaps it is barak?

notice how this speech could be read for today, replacing not just the violence within america, but also the war in iraq.

"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

[free] good music.

go to freederekwebb.com and there you will enjoy the creative lyrics of derek webb. for free. you can read about why at relevantmagazine.com

if you're wondering where i'll be the day after thanksgiving... i'll tell you: celebrating black friday at nordstrom. that means i'll be working from 6:30am to 3:30pm with all the crazies who shop at those hours. oh, that's you? sorry if i offended you... but, you still are crazy.

red cups. not the kind at raging parties.

what a pleasant surprise: i made dinner for dan and dillon and right before we sat down, a knock at the door revealed kevin and micah!

i have a problem: haircutters love to chop off so much of my damn hair and charge 1/6 of my monthly income. but, it is just hair. it will grow back.

i encountered someone who just didn't want to talk much or expand on the current election results. i thought he was boring. maybe he feels threatened by my new friend, nancy?

sometimes i realize that i have friends that i need way more than they need me. sad realization, but in the end, i think it's worth it to pursue. totally selfish, i know.

i am becoming desensitized. for example, when i first came to san francisco, my heart ached when i saw the homeless man digging through the trashcan. now, being here for 3 months has made me... numb. i don't feel that ache anymore. i just... go on with my day, helping to create a consuming environment. damn me. where is the in-between? i am going to start volunteering in january.

there is this woman who i often see on market street, she carries a sign that reads "defend your rights" i want to talk to her, but she is always walking the opposite way that my bus is going. did someone take away my rights? am i on the offense? does she have a job? where does she live? does she think that she is effective? is she?

secret confession: i thought i was going to die on the bus the other day. a real death. not some over dramatic "i thought i was going to die!" line from a story. i thought there was a suicide bomber on the #21. i am alive, obviously. but i still was scared. why, i'm not sure. but i definitely am contributing my fear of dying on the bus to the media and my own horrible judgments. damn me, again.

the red cups are here at starbucks. what a brilliant marketing campaign that allows me to associate paper cups that aren't recyclable to jesus' birth.

damn you, california.

election outcome...
--prop. 83: do you know what this means in a city like san francisco? sex offenders won't have a place to live because pretty much every thing is within 2000 feet of a school/park/playground. ousting them to the edge of town (or out of town) might not stop them. and now, are they really going to register? i need to talk to a registered sex offender, i would like to hear how they feel. maybe we should just give them a big S to iron on to their shirt.
--prop. 85: i'm not even going there.
--prop. 86: i am shocked that this wasn't passed.
--prop. 87: amen! i love public transportation! higher gas prices = bummer for you.

now let's see what changes are made when the dems take over. interesting.

half yearly sale at nordstrom = hurting feet