Monday, May 29, 2006

Epilogue To A Love Story

Cross posted at Howard Empowered People

Ascension Sunday.


The Earthly story of John and Mickey Oehlmann came to an end this week, when the maintanance crew came to clear their apartment. I was fortunate to have gotten the word that their family had abandoned the contents of the place, save for an air conditioner, two TVs and a couple of electric reclining chairs.

I arrived about half an hour after the crew, and asked if they'd mind if took a few rememberances, and they said whatever I took was something less for them to carry, and knowing how close we were they were glad to help.

From the moment I stepped inside the apartment, I realized that a rich history was left behind. Things that should have been held for future generations of their family lay in bags waiting to be discarded to the compactor. First I found their wedding album, and many books of family pictures. Then I found all of John's scrapbooks and trophies. Sadly his military medals seem to have been lost to the trashbin before I arrived.

But the real treasure that I've found in the garbage bags was every letter they exchanged during WWII. She had only mentioned them to me once but they were clearly one of her prized possessions. Yet my favorite item so far, even though I'm not a Catholic, was her Rosary beads from her First Communion.

Mickey passed away just before Easter, and I resolved to light a candle for them on the Catholic holiday of the Ascension. When I got on the bus to go to work on Sunday morning, I had a feeling that she was on the bus with me, holding my hand, as if we were going to meet someone. I put the thought out of my mind while I got my coffee and went downstairs to set up.

About 20 minutes later as I was singing, I suddenly found myself holding back some very deep tears, and realized that Mickey and John had been there listening to my performance. They had never heard me before and I felt them dancing just a few feet away from where I was standing.

I got all choked up and had to stop singing while resisting the urge to burst out crying, Then I felt John ask me to play "Their Song."

I took a deep breath and the words came out.

When somebody loves you
It's no good unless he loves you
All the way

I felt them looking into each other's hearts and they slowly began to dance again on the subway platform. I was trembling. The other people on the platform saw me falling apart.

Deeper than the deep blue sea is
That's how deep it goes
When it's real

Then that Love that knows no Comprehension that I always talk about swept over me, and I could almost see them.

Who knows where the road will lead us
Only a fool would say

The song ended and I felt them watching as I played "Mail Order Annie." I could sense they realized that if they stayed longer I'd never get any work done, and would probably end up a shapeless mass in a pool of my own tears. As the train arrived, I felt their love draw near to me as if in farewell. When the train stopped I felt them move toward one of the doors. It opened and they both stepped on, turned to me and waved, and went off with a smile to continue their amazing love story.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day. I am.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

An Open Letter To Kos

I was banned from your site for the comment in the previous thread. Haven't got a clue as to what upset you. There are many intelligent, aware and active people at your blog and I'm sure we'd all like to see a free and fair election in November. It's just not gonna happen, and there are dozens of reasons why that should be painfully obvious to you by now.

If Democrats take control of both houses, as seems likely, they will, in addition having to clean up the mess left by the elephant, have to begin it's long overdue constitutional duty of oversight of the executive and his party. If I were John Conyers, I'd start at the PNAC's need for a "New Pearl Harbor" that fooled the nation into war in Iraq, and just pull on the threads until the sweater unraveled.

In all honesty, do you believe that BushCo would let that happen? Do you think they'd just let the intelligence committee follow the money trail of graft and war profiteering? They didn't want the 9/11 Commission! They have never allowed oversight! Do you think they'd just leave their fate to the whim of a few carloads of rigged voting machines and hacked phone banks?

They couldn't come this far so blatantly if they didn't have a plan. Our lovable furry friend Grover (Norquist) seems to think they'll pull Ossama bin Buggin' out of a spiderhole on Halloween. Now that would toss all the Democratic efforts in the toilet, but at least there would be no violence involved, and the permanent majority that Rove wanted would be firmly in place.

ANY other option that Bush has involves some lame excuse for declaring martial law. Invading Iran would be a great help to him there. Or maybe PNAC already has a sequel to 9/11 in the can.

Any mental health professional will tell you that Bush exhibits the pathology of an abusive spouse, except if he ever hit Laura, he knows he could never go to sleep. As Randi Rhodes often says, we're all wearing the blue dress now. Bush is at the stage now where he needs to teach his bitch a lesson. And who's gonna stop him? Arlen Specter?

So thanks for the troll rating, dude. It's greatly appreciated.

Banned At Daily Kos by Kos

Troll Rated By Kos Himself:

Stop It! Stop It!

There ain't gonna be no freakin' election this year and I'm freakin sick of folks talkin' like there's gonna be one.

Can anyone in the whole freakin' blogsphere give me one single incentive that Bush has to hold an election this year??


Can anyone in this freakin' blogsphere give me 20 reasons why Bush doesn't want an election this year.

Sorry folks, your Democracy has been swallowed by giant frogs that should have been marched on Sept 12.

And no one here has a Plan B.

50 Ways To Dump The Dubya

Love Songs From Ground Zero

by Subway Serenade on Fri May 12, 2006 at 07:40:36 PM PDT


[ Parent ]
* [new] Maybe not a real troll (2+ / 0-)

but sure as heck sounding like one.

by kos on Fri May 12, 2006 at 07:59:56 PM PDT
***

I'll take that as a badge of honor. Sorry I crashed your Phuquing "Gate."

It don't change the facts. We need a Plan B...

Just in case Bush cancels the election

Goper's Lament (Hard To Be A Republican)

Monday, May 08, 2006

Howard Dean On "This Week"

The Democratic Agenda for Real Change:

"The fact is we want real change in this country. We're going to balance the budget, we're going to have American jobs that stay in America and we're going to have honesty and openness in government again. I think those are pretty important. The next thing we're going to do after that is make sure that everybody has health care in this country. If they can do that in 36 countries around the world, we can do that here in the United States of America...

Ending the Republican Culture of Corruption:

"There is a culture that goes from the White House to the Vice President's office to the leadership of the United States Senate to the leadership of the United States House of Representatives, and in the agencies. Corruption has become a way of life and it has to change. We have to pass real ethics legislation, not the nonsense that was passed last week in the House of Representatives.

"We promise you that within 100 days we will vote on real ethics legislation. It will pass and there will be no more free trips. There will be no more free lunches and there will be no more sticking things in big appropriations bills that give oil companies and HMOs billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers' money in the middle of the night."

On the Bush Administration's Use of Prewar Intelligence:

"I think it's time to stop beating up on the professionals in the CIA. The fact is they did their job. They gave the intelligence to the White House. The White House didn't want to use the intelligence. The intelligence failures that got us into Iraq were not by large in the CIA, they were in the White House. They wouldn't listen to what they were being told by the CIA."


That's why I'm a Deaniac.

Gore/Dean '08