Monday, May 30, 2011 — A little time in the dirt, then a cup of lemon balm tea

The health club and Curves are both closed on this Memorial Day. So I headed for the patch of earth that most needed to be cleared in the vegetable garden. I didn't get it all done, but a good swath was opened up and then I moved across the yard and threw some food in the pond and called for the koi. The red and black and the orange and black appeared before long. Both weeding and sitting in front of a pond are good for getting the chattering in your brain to settle down so you can see things a little more clearly.

I had been stewing since last night when I watched the National Memorial Day Concert in Washington on the TV. The testimonials are enough to make anyone cry. The music was tolerable and the "people watching" is always worth something. But as I watched those permanently damaged young men and heard some of their stories and the comments by the two talking heads, I grew sadder and angrier by the minute. These feelings are complicated by the fact that I'm currently reading a book by a woman who was a so-called Asset for government intelligence during the mid 90's until after 911. The book is Extreme Prejudice by Susan Landauer. She claims that the government knew perfectly well that 911 was about to happen and refrained from stopping it so that they'd have an excuse to invade and occupy Iraq.

Well, of course she's not the only one who is telling us that. Books abound. But she was truly at the nexus of communication between the entities involved at the time. She was indicted for acts against the Patriot act. I heard her being interviewed which resulted in my acquiring the book, but I have yet to find out how the story ends. It appears that she was taken away because she simply knew too much.

Now, every day we hear a new segment of the medea coverage dealing with our loss of privacy, the total "know allness" of Google and how the government encourages such gathering of all our personal info so they can also have access to it. What websites you go to, what books you buy, what blogs you read and write, etc. Up till now my response to friends discussing this has been that I don't worry about it any more. We have simply lost all sense of privacy. That's that. But when I started to write something last night about my feelings regarding the hypocracy of sympathizing with our poor military gladiators when we didn't need to send them over to invade a sovereign, foreign country because we know best and we are devoted to a policy of hegemeny, I found myself feeling fearful that they might come knocking on my door at dawn as they did with Susan Landauer. I let it actually stop me from making an entry last night.

But after working in my garden and feeding my fish I now have a little more clarity about my feelings. If you don't read any more entries here, you might want to call St. Amy and tell her that I'm gone and maybe she'll put me on her investigative agenda. Otherwise, I've decided that I have a right to read books and tell about what I've read and I'm not naive enough to think that that could not get me into trouble in this sad state our country is in, but I'll take my chances. I have such a good life and live in a paradise with generous friends and I'm terribly grateful for what I have. I refuse to be bullied by the greedy elements in our society. There is still so much good in this world, I have hope that caring hearts and minds may yet have their way.... And I'll just keep reading.