Weeeeellllllll... It's done; and we haven't managed to get Bush out of office. I don't know how much moral victory to say the high voter turnout represents. If Bush ran roughshod over the country after having not won four years ago; imagine what his attitude will be now. My brother Jamil pointed out that the battle-ground states and the purely Republican States are eerily reminiscent of the divisions that created the Civil War.

So now, what to do? For those of us who want America to move in a direction that takes care of its poor and sick; that seeks international brotherhood with other nations; that examines its own past and present of racism and imperialism and works avidly to exorcise it, the work is now way deep underground and behind the scenes. We have to facew the fact that getting Kerry in office would not have been the end-all of our goal in the first place and that now that we've suffered a setback, the grassroots work is even more necessary. It will be more necessary to work with kids, to protest, to take to the streets, to write, to dare to empower the disenfranchised etc etc.

Perhaps more than ever, Americans; those of us who've lived here all our lives who take for granted our patterns of consumption and utter privelege; need to do even more self-examination than before. We need to understand our own biases, our own bigotry and our own selfishness as evidenced by our gross patterns of consumption and realize that our lives will at some point have to get much worse if we are to make our world a more fulfilling one of which to be a part.

So here goes; i feel like i have to be more honest; guard my personal integrity more fiercely if i'm to affect the world positively; if i'm to counteract any of the new fucked-up energy that resides in the world. So here's my first act... go look up Corinna Bain's work and read it. She's amazing. She's a genius. For some reason, i think i need her poems today. Google her and contact her and ask her to mail you a chapbook...

word - later