One would be hard pressed
to uncover an adventure with beginnings more humble than that of a formerly unlovely wreckage
resting on a sandy sea bottom
embryo of destiny, unrealized at the discovery moment,
to morph into the planet-navigating boat of peace,
“Golden Rule” [Read more…]
About Stan Levin
Do Not Ever Question the Fuhrer’s Orders
Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake. – Ronna McDaniel, Republican Chair, June 13, 2018
Beachtung ! BEACHTUNG ! BEACHTUNG JEDER !
Manner in der schlange hier druben …..!
(and be marched to the slave-laborer’s barracks)
Frauen und kinder schlange hier ….!
(and proceed directly to the crematoria) … [Read more…]
It Is My Fault | National Poetry Month
San Diego Free Press continues its National Poetry Month coverage with the poem Stan Levin, a local activist with Veterans for Peace.
I was not a good kid,
not at home
not at school.
Once I slapped my first grade teacher
and she slapped me back.
I did not like school
and I did not like kids
who liked school
I’m not smart.
I did not like smart kids
Two high schools threw me out
I couldn’t get a good job.
As soon as I could
I left school
I left home
I left the neighborhood
and everything I was mad at. [Read more…]
Coming to a School Near You | Readers Write
Who among us is not complicit?
Once again, a deadly weapon found its way into hands of some “unqualified” person, and it has been an instrument of chaos and carnage.
It’s the result of:
– an out-of-control industry;
– many sources of distribution;
– a fraternity;
– the NRA — which long ago abdicated its original purpose —
– owners who will not own up to being invested in the problem at some level;
– greedy, cowardly, unprincipled politicians of every office being on the take;
– and many of the rest of us who have sat on our hands and could not or would not organize to stop the mayhem we witness daily.
What do we wait for? [Read more…]
A San Diego Vets for Peace Homeless Encounter
Three of us, two members of San Diego Veterans for Peace and a guest, are jammed into a Prius — along with 20 new sleeping bags. We are driving slowly south, down 16th Street in search of people lying on the sidewalks.
Chapter members have been here many times over the past five or six years, and have distributed more than 3,200 bags to unfortunates on the street.
“There’s someone.”
We park some distance from the homeless person. Caution and intuition are at work now, tempered by experience. One of us stays with the car, while the other two make contact. [Read more…]
Readers Write: Democracy v. Dictatorship
Among myriad political systems societies flirt with, the most fragile revolutionary experiment, and possibly least likely to endure might be Democracy. An ideal that people of different persuasions might willfully and collectively empower one another for the well-being of all defies odds. Democracy requires adherents to accept that all persons have value, and are entitled to safe, and satisfying lives, eschewing exploitation of any.
Dictatorship, the antithesis of Democracy, once entrenched may endure for generations before being dislodged, not a simple process. Differences between styles of government are generally understood. Fidel Castro’s reign illustrates totalitarianism, as does the current, cruel regime of Kim Jong Un. There have been many tyrannical overlords in history visiting chaos and misery upon vast numbers of hapless humans.
How could a functioning democracy, lofty in idealism and benefits, morph into a regressive Dictatorship, foreclosing millions from a decent life, so as to nurture a small number of privileged individuals?
[Read more…]
The Perversity of Success and the Case to Be Made for Failure
We are taught that Success is always the preferred outcome.
I dare propose otherwise ….
Contrarily,
It is my considered belief
that a reduction in world suffering
could be directly attributed to a failure of intent. [Read more…]
Go ….. or Stay
Listen up, young man (aka dude) …. yes, You,
If you can stop texting for a few minutes,
and hear me out. I don’t want to shout.
You are nearing your prime,
and you’re thinking maybe it’s your time
to Go.
[Read more…]
The Big ‘P’ (PTSD)
Memorial Day, 2017
Mission Valley, San Diego, California
Cool, overcast morning
A resident of the hotel,
person of means who would sometimes be called
(disparagingly, or admiringly) a “Fat Cat,”
had spent the night on a bed
for which he had, or more accurately,
his Corporation had popped three-fifty.
His room had a view of the hotel golf course.
For the purpose of this narrative,
with your indulgence, I will refer to him as “FC.” [Read more…]
Memorial Day: Recruiter’s Siren Song to Hero (Under Construction)
Listen up, son.
You are one of today’s pawns
on the chessboard,
and the recruiter sitting across from you
is the chess master. …
This is not his first day …
But it is yours, and a fateful one you need to think hard about.
Harder than ever.
[Read more…]
Bearing Witness to Homelessness in San Diego
They are here, by the hundreds, by the thousands, the dispossessed among us. People having little in the way of the niceties of a comfortable existence that equates with the concept of “Home”. Many wear all the clothing they own, on their backs, day and night.
Some push their collection of meager possessions around in a shopping cart they have found or stolen, ahead of them in their endless wanderings to nowhere in particular.
Their days are twenty-five hours. [Read more…]
Readers Write: Military Too Small?
Regarding the proposed expansion of the military–
Good thinking!
By all means we must ramp it up, for the following rational reasons, in no particular order:
The weapons manufacturers are in dire need of further enrichment,
and Congress needs the various kinds of kickbacks available in order to avoid being poverty-stricken; [Read more…]
