Hope in a Darkening Age...
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"THE END OF ALL INTELLIGENT ANALYSIS IS TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR SYNTHESIS."--H.G. Wells. "It's always a leap into the unknown future to write anything."--Margaret Atwood "Be kind, be useful, be fearless."--President Barack Obama.
Sunday, June 07, 2015
Eulogy of Hope
President Obama's eulogy for Beau Biden is more than a tribute to this "good man" but the statement of life principles that illuminate not only his own commitments but a path for others. His words were underscored by those of Beau's kid sister and his brother at the funeral Saturday. The entire service is viewable on C-Span, as are the other eulogies and songs.
I spotted a story today I won't dignify by linking that asserts that these events shed a different light on Joe Biden, who has otherwise been seen as a joke, a punchline. Pretty obviously, nothing has changed but the media spin. Joe Biden, as these eulogies attest, has not changed--that's really the point that runs through these memorials, from Joe and his parents even before that, to Beau and his siblings, and to the next generation of their children, the same commitments to the love that is always there, to compassion, generosity and service. But the media can't deal with anything so incomprehensible, and would rather stick with the Republican-fed cynicism, slavery to fashion and triviality and the cliche-ridden sensibility for which they are so justly infamous.
RIP Dave Parker, All Hail Bobby Bonilla Day
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Two Pittsburgh Pirates greats who I saw play in their prime were in the
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other ...
On Turning 79 in 2025
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Top of Trinidad Head June 30, 2025. My climb dedicated to my friend Mike
and to the
memory of Jim Harrison
On one of his birthdays, writer Jim Harrison po...
History of My Reading: Florida Fantasies
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West Palm Beach--1970s postcard
When I abandoned my Cambridge apartment in late 1975 and arrived in my
hometown of Greensburg, PA, I immediately regrett...
Bob Donlin Off the Road
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Only photo I could find of RaeAnne and Bob Donlin, someyears after I knew
themI discovered this typescript in my archives (by which I mean boxes of
random ...
Star Trek's End? (With Update)
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Just as I can't un-see what I saw in the fifth episode of *Star Trek:
Picard*, I wonder if the damage it has done to the Star Trek universe can
ever be und...
Jonathan Miller
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Of all the people I didn't know who died in 2019, I was most saddened by
the death of Jonathan Miller. He was an important presence at various
times in ...
5 years ago
The Malling of America
available at your online bookseller
Manifesto
..."The answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."--Barack Obama Nov. 4, 2008
"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage." Barack Obama January 20, 2009
"If you turn away now – if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible…well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves. Only you can make sure that doesn't happen. Only you have the power to move us forward.--President Obama on Sept. 6, 2012
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