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Love in the 21st Century

...and before long we were trading mp3 files and saliva...

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch on January 23, 2002 | Comments (0)

I can't get rid of this damn sofa

I just can't get rid of that damn sofa, the one you left behind when you left me.

It was a nice sofa, probably the best one I've ever had - how the hell did your parents keep it stain-free? - it was white for crying out loud.

For a while I'd sit on the couch in it's plush cushions and read the paper, as if it were some long, warm, far-reaching arm of care from you even though we both know that you're always cold.

Later, I'd throw big parties and have a bunch of people sit on the sofa, completely unaware of our voyage together. Some would comment that it was a nice sofa.

I eventually moved thousands of miles away and gave that white whale to a friend who put all this faux sheepskin over it and threw wine soirees and wild grape-and-cheese-eating orgies on it. I think this is where it got the red stains.

She would move, too - this friend, and I would be reunited with that damn thing while visiting my old home, in the apartment of two guys who have it in the spare room even though it's still a better couch than that ugly olive-colored slouch in the livingroom.

I think this couch is going to be around for a long time. It will probably move again, like all of those who have owned it before. It may spawn pillows and write novelettes about it's world travels. It will grow old slowly, stain by stain, fluffing by fluffing. It may end up in an alley and become a home for rodents. Scrap wood may be broken off of it and find it's way into garages of men with power tools and become little trinkets or widdled elves, the rest may be buried or incinerated to produce electricity which may find it's way to the television of a young couple watching it, sitting on their sofa.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch on January 23, 2002 | Comments (0)

Appropriate

I think I'll write an essay someday, named "Welcome to Neglect City", or maybe just a blog entry.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch on January 12, 2002 | Comments (0)

Words as localized smart bomb

"Localized" because considering how well thought out the arguement was, and despite the fact that it took up almost an entire page (and cost the author Sean Penn $56,000 to have it run) in a nationally recognized paper - it went almost entirely unnoticed.

************************************************************

An Open Letter to the President of the United States of America

Mr. Bush:

Good morning sir. Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you, I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country. However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil.

I believe this is a big world full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families, their beliefs, and their dreams. My father, like yours, was decorated for service in World War II. He raised me with a deep belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as they should apply to all Americans who would sacrifice to maintain them and to all human beings as a matter of principle.

Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics, the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and position of your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement. Take a close look at your most vehement media supporters. See the fear in their eyes as their loud voices of support ring out with that historically disastrous undercurrent of rage and panic masked as "straight tough talk."

How far have we come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral damage" of many hundreds of thousands. Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often accompanied by an odd smile.

It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because with all your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing to sacrifice ours.

I know this cannot be your aim so, I beg you Mr. President, listen to Gershwin, read chapters of Stegner, of Saroyan, the speeches of Martin Luther King. Remind yourself of America. Remember the Iraqi children, our children, and your own.

There can be no justification for the actions of Al Qaeda. Nor acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Yet, that bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop. However, principles cannot be recklessly or greedily abandoned in the guise of preserving them.

Avoiding war while accomplishing national security is no simple task. But you will recall that we Americans had a little missile problem down in Cuba once. Mr. Kennedy's restraint (and that of the nuclear submarine captain, Arkhipov) is to be aspired to. Weapons of mass destruction are clearly a threat to the entire world in any hands. But as Americans, we must ask ourselves, since the potential for Mr. Hussein to possess them threatens not only our country, (and in fact, his technology to launch is likely not yet at that high a level of sophistication) therefore, many in his own region would have the greatest cause for concern.

Why then, is the United States, as led by your administration, in the small minority of the world nations predisposed toward a preemptive military assault on Iraq?

Simply put, sir, let us re-introduce inspection teams, inhibiting offensive capability. We buy time, maintain our principles here and abroad and demand of ourselves the ingenuity to be the strongest diplomatic muscle on the planet, perhaps in the history of the planet.

The answers will come. You are a man of faith, but your saber is rattling the faith of many Americans in you. I do understand what a tremendously daunting task it must be to stand in your shoes at this moment. As a father of two young children who will live their lives in the world as it will be affected by critical choices today, I have no choice but to believe that you can ultimately stand as a great president. History has offered you such a destiny. So again, sir, I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror. Don't destroy our children's future.

We will support you. You must support us, your fellow Americans, and indeed, mankind. Defend us from fundamentalism abroad but don't turn a blind eye to the fundamentalism of a diminished citizenry through loss of civil liberties, of dangerously heightened presidential autonomy through acts of Congress, and of this country's mistaken and pervasive belief that its "manifest destiny" is to police the world.

We know that Americans are frightened and angry. However, sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation, may well prove itself a most temporary medicine. On the other hand, should you mine and have faith in the best of this country to support your leadership in representing a strong, thoughtful, and educated United States, you may well triumph for the long haul. Lead us there, Mr. President, and we will stand with you.

Sincerely,

Sean Penn

San Francisco, California

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch on January 02, 2002 | Comments (0)

Six Pack of Barrels

Eye of the wild-Bill beholder

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch on January 01, 2002 | Comments (0)