Looking for someone to support?

Me and my chickens heart Cynthia McKinney... (the interviewer, not so much).

For the record.

Occasionally I find the need to stray from the not-so-subtle object of this blog and address matters of near equal importance to the goings-on of my backyard brood of hens. So for all you folks out there who are caught up in the fantasy world of dynasty-love, regurgitated go-get-'em politics, or the cult of personality, here you go. Being better than Bush does not mean they are better than each other.

Chickens in the News! #4

If only our choices were as fun as this...

November rain.

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of water dribbling down the ABS pipe along the house that leads to the cistern. This was a new sound, and as a homeowner (especially early in the morning) new sounds are by definition suspicious. I sat up very startled, and was quickly calming myself, satisfied that everything was going where it was supposed to and indeed making all the right noises according to their little water paths - I had just never heard these things before.

So today, I googled images for "chicken" and "rain" and this snapshot of Don, Jim, Bob, Alva, and Bud is one of the photos I got. Not exactly what I was looking for - I have never met those five hefty, mountain men, but I am sure they had a good time eating the chicken if the rain didn't keep the fire at bay.

I am really writing because I could barely contain my excitement that it is actually raining and the water catchment tank is filling up (slowly as there is really only a light drizzle here and there). This morning I could even turn on the spigot to find free, untainted agua pouring out. This is all very exciting as the cistern has now lost its catchment virginity of sorts. I also saw a little toad between the aloe patch and the cover crop I have planted in the summer beds. I always take it as a good sign that random little creatures live in the yard - unless they are feral cats going after the chickens (there's at least one that I regularly am forced to throw rocks at) or hundreds of swallows making off with free chicken feed (I'm thinking a scarecrow?).

And with the rain, the gutters have not fallen off (though there are a few places I will have to seal up), the tank hasn't fallen over, and the plants in the basins look very content with their new found locations. According to all the weather websites and forecasters, there is a 100% chance of rain for the rest of the day and night, into tomorrow. For anyone who knows anything about Tucson, saying that it will rain with such certainty is nearly unheard of, and tantamount to saying something like Dick Cheney is going to have another heart attack, take his shiny, black helmet off, and beg forgiveness just like he did in Star Wars - don't get our hopes up if it isn't absolutely true.

Well at least it's raining.

Tragedy continued.

Well they identified the young man who was shot and killed near my house. Manuel Fimbres-Moreno was 26. He will always be 26. I did not know Manuel - at least that I know of. But I am terribly saddened by his murder and cannot begin to imagine the pain of his family.

They arrested someone on suspicion of killing him. The kid they arrested is 21. Certainly it is not proven that he is responsible, but undoubtedly prison is in his future given the broken beyond repair system of injustice. For me it is simply a furtherance of a terrible tragedy. But this time, more than ever we will be complicate in what takes place as the tax payer funded "justice" system will do everything possible to ensure that no rehabilitation will ever take place.

Are we now safer that a young man will spend years in prison learning how to be more violent, less feeling, possibly drug addicted, and completely removed from his family? And when he returns to our community (96 percent of all Arizona prisoners do) will he have any better idea how to positively impact the people around him? Or will he be hardened, broken, and lacking any real understanding of what responsibility would actually mean in a situation like this? Will he ever have a chance at anything different than just that? These are questions I ask myself, but are never asked when laws are passed and people punished. Whatever happens to this young man, will we as a community be better for the judgment that is made on his life? I am positive we will not. This makes the tragedy of last Wednesday evening even that more horrendous.

Tucson police identify man who was fatally shot last week...

If you're not absolutely-totally-demoralized- and-angry, then you're certianly not paying attention.

All Souls' Procession

Every year in Tucson, the All Souls' Procession walks the streets of downtown in a funky, eclectic array of creativity and quirky-ness that really is the epitome of this town. It was last night and a group of about 20 of us walked together to remember the people in Arizona prison's long-term solitary confinement units (as a part of the StopMax Arizona Campaign that I coordinate). The procession culminates with music, floats, and performance art all in order to burn a giant urn with hopes and memories from the year from the people of Tucson. This year they were hoping for 12,000 people. I don't know how many were there, but it was big and fun. Unfortunately I don't have any picks of the amazing floats, masks, or puppets that were everywhere. But here is some of the group that we walked with, and below, is the urn about to go up in flames.

Why we are doomed as a species.

So today there is an article in the New York Times about rich New Yorkers that have bought houses in the woods in Connecticut for weekend getaways, but they are scared out there when it gets dark - seriously! So they spend thousands of dollars to put in security systems, extensive outdoor motion lighting, and god knows what other foolish toys that was originally designed by the military and have now been normalized for its paranoid citizenry.

SO first of all, don't complain about the dark and coyotes and moose when you have spent a million dollars on some luxury cabin in the woods. It's the woods damnit. And the minute you take away any of those beautiful wild unregulated things, it stops being the woods. And secondly, if that is what you want, please for your sake and ours, stay at home on the 50th floor of whatever high-rise you live in, shut your silver spoon choked mouths, and buy some designer purse to put your small decorative dog and taser in while you shop for black turtlenecks and trendy glasses. Leave the wild places for the rest of us, who aren't permanently plugged into an ipod or blow dryer and relish the chaos of nature and the sounds of a world that has never been ours. Nor by the evidence of our treatment of this world, should it ever be.

Beware Tucson bicyclists!!

As of early this morning, there is a gang of motorcycle cops pulling over bicycle riders mostly along University Boulevard between Sixth Ave and Park Ave. SO BEWARE!! There have been heaps of bogus tickets given out by overly ambitious, blowhard cops who have decided to target bike riders. Spread the word and be more mindful of stopping and signaling and everything else. If you or someone else gets pulled over, there is a good bike lawyer, Erik Ryberg. He has an informational blog www.tucsonbikelawyer.com and his number is 520.622.3333. Personally, from my completely non-lawyerly position I would tell everyone to plead not-guilty and challenge all these tickets.

AND everyone should show up tonight, Tuesday, 8pm at Old Main for the community bike ride. The last few weeks there have been over 200 folks from all over Tucson riding together on a different route every Tuesday. ALSO, there will be a Tucson Critical Mass bike ride this Friday eve, at 6pm leaving from El Presidio Park, and then every last Friday of each month.


"A patriot must always be ready to defend his [sic] country from his [sic] government." - Edward Abbey

H2O.

Didn't someone recently say that the next world war would be over water? I sure hope it doesn't get confused with this current war over oil...

Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices (NY Times)...

So it won't go to hell so fast.

(I know, I thought it was called Myanmar too.)

This about sums it up.

Sometimes I think the world is going to hell.

The day in news - as I see it.

Handcuffed kids steal US border agent car

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico...(oops)

Myanmar Buddhist monk stands before police


Ahmadinejad visits NYC and is treated as Bush should be


Navy to mask Coronado's swastika-shaped barracks

CORONADO, Calif., -- The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air...(why not just stick with honesty?)

Because it matters what people say on blogs.

But it does matter what happens here.
Check this out too.

Back after three years...

Well I don´t know what to say. Three years is nearly too long to comment. The monsoons have arrived in Guatemala and the days are interrupted by a dousing of moisture that hangs in the air somewhere between refreshment and stickiness. The city bustles like it always has and the shopkeepers are the same and different all at once. With the presidential elections only a few months away there is a tangible electricity in the air over who might win and what real effects that will have. There is never a good choice for president in Guatemala, and meanwhile celebrations of the very military that is responsible for a holocaust against her own people go on in what looks like a police state and is clearly a descent into the horrific past all the while forgetting the terror that gripped the country not so long ago. We have been in the city for two nights now and we are itching for a departure to the mountains and the winding roads of the countryside. I don´t know how easy it will be to download photos while here but I will certainly try. For now, follow the link on the word ¨celebrations¨ and you will get a great idea of what takes place in this slice of the world. (We happen to be staying at James´s the photographer´s house so I can´t but help shamelessly plug his blog, never mind that he has incredible pictures.)

Going to Guatemala with an achin . . . . in my heeaarrt.

In about eight hours I will be on a plane flying south to Guatemala where the monsoons have already begun and the fact that something about any reasonable change to our country's attitude towards immigration has NOT taken place is felt in the tangible way that we passport wielding, English speaking, comfortable folks can't begin to comprehend. Seriously. But I am going to hop on down for a two and a half week jaunt to visit friends and relax a bit - ahhh the power of the dollar.... How conveeenient. To think that such a reality is entirely IMPOSSIBLE for most folks in Guatemala or almost any other country where the predominant human color scheme is other than pasty is a nearly insurmountable obstacle for the minds of us Citizens. In fact most of the time, when one hears that someone from Guatemala, Mexico, or any other country south of here would come to visit or work in the US of A, the assumptive fear that too often follows is that we should worry that they might stay. What if I stay in Guatemala? Anyone (besides my boss) worried about that? The double standard is a bit like an elephant giving us all a collective lap dance and we not only are unwilling to acknowledge the elephant is there, but that we don't even know what a lap dance is. Anyways, my soap box rant aside, what I really wanted to say was that I am going to Guatemala, where the chicken buses run wild and the chickens speak Spanish, so my entries will be a bit more sparse, but I hope to get you up to date on our travels and adventures.

In the mean time, here are some links on Guatemala in case you are interested:

Current Events
Photos
Human Rights work

Cray-zee.

So good...even chickens can get down to this - so why can't the rest of our country? For more info go here.

Just another day on the US/Mexico border.

With a phone call everything can change so quickly. One minute you are chuckling to yourself over some private joke that you remembered from the evening before, and then the next minute your friend’s voice is over the phone from somewhere south of Tucson in the middle of the desert telling you they found the body of the woman they were looking for. She had been crossing the border and then the desert like so many thousands of others, looking for work. The body had already begun to decompose he tells me, and the hair on my arms stands up – I don’t know if it is from the air conditioning that just kicked back on or the gravity of his words that kicked me in the gut. There was a strain in his voice that was palpable and it wasn’t the static that from poor cell phone coverage. There are times when phones have this unnerving quality, like a massive car wreck between juxtaposition of events and interconnectedness of us all. Sitting in the shaded confines of my office, the picture of a woman’s body, decomposed and lonely, was never clearer, never more distinct, and yet miles if not worlds away from me. The very border that killed her made my reality possible. The insufferable heat she succumbed to was my privilege and my enjoyment. The car wreck of our circumstances is not easily cleaned up.

Somewhere, only an hour’s drive from where I write, more phone calls are being made to the necessary authorities, and surely prayers are being whispered on the dry burning wind of the desert. Water is touching the lips of those who endeavored to find this unnamed person, and sweat is being wiped from brows with the knowledge that the cars are not far off. A woman who died with nothing but courage, is now with companions she never knew. The family she was walking towards is certainly weeping at the news of her confirmed death, and yet sighing with the relief that she will not be one of the hundreds who simply evaporate into the oblivion of the desert. Close by, I am sure there are those who are sidestepping such an ending, walking a tightrope to survival and the possibility of work in the North. Meanwhile we jump from air conditioned cars to offices and back, our agendas tightly under our arms, and our destinations “legally” sanctioned by convenience of laws made on our behalf. As long as there are jobs here and US sponsored poverty elsewhere, women like this will die alone in the desert. As we are responsible for the policies of this country, we are then responsible for this woman's death.