rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

i am flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens: i am a conjureman and this is the year 2006

SATURDAY
i dont get no respect

ive put some thought lately into why i dont get no respect
at least not like i want it

when i speak of defying literary and political establishments
im speaking of black literary and political establishments -
which treat me sometimes as if i dont exist

and i think im so sharp on the money in my observations
and the quality of my mack, that it perplexes me sometime that i dont get no play

i do carry some baggage
not satisfied with being a regular anything

dont want to just be a writer, i want to be a great writer
dont want to just be spiritual, i want to be a great hoodooman
a prophet of the hoodoo way

and i dont follow the party lines, for instance i think reparations is fools game
and aint gon let nobody bogart me into saying otherwise (people try to all the time)

as a conjureman i been trained to force reality to adjust to me
instead of me adjusting to reality - so im often out of step w/everybody else

and when people ignore my little strategic advice i have to accept that
im so far out ahead of the pack that being disregarded comes w/the prophetic territory
buked, scorned or ignored, i got to be willing to stand my ground

thats the way i conjure

so i accept that, future generations are my primary audience
but it would be nice to get some play in my lifetime
be nice to get paid - just enuf to not always be on the edge

but its the game that drives me
and it aint in me to pander
to nobody

so my work be carrying a lot of baggage
and i got to assume that the craft just aint been strong enuf
to carry all that baggage

well im constantly trying to grow as a literary craftsman
i believe i got the hang of it with this one but we shall see . . .

hopefully im a late bloomer

and it dont help that im so godawful slow, too many years between works
what can i do - i got to do 20 rewrites before a passage sing like i need it to sing

seems under pressure ive fallen back on old habits
working strictly on the computer now, gon back to old routine of longhanding
only when its a special passage requiring special richness
cause right now im driving for a draft and im taking no prisoners

im tired of no respect, got to get this novel done
im working hard now and it feels good but i can hear the clock ticking
i got about 8 days before i simply have to come back to earth

ima desperate man

FRIDAY
graduation 01/05/06: lou rawls
a smooth and silky bluesman

ima die trying

hoodoo colleague of mine, j sean callaghan
sent me cee los latest album the soul machine
ima fan of cee lo, found an album of his at the library
love superchicken - so i was pleased to see it

listening to piece on it called - die trying

and it really speaks to some issues i been struggling with
wondering if my black nationalist worldview is outdated

and if thats the reason i get no play in the world, that im out of step
with the multicultural times

and i try to be progressively black nationalist but my black nationalism
is nonnegotiable - im a child of the 60s and i just dont know no other way to be, ima race man - i got a people to save

been intending to read and comment on appiahs recent piece in the newyorktimes magazine - the case for contamination - which obviously raises some of these issues

one of the primary tensions confronting us as we adjust to the 21st century

woodshedding today so wont be able to do that until later this evening - assuming i have a good work day

but listening to cee los die trying put it on my mind
thats the way i feel - ima die trying

got this one refrain where he say:

so sincere my eyes begin   to swell up and tear
and its clear my music    may not do that well up in here

o my god
being a nigger must be    a good paying job
with all the fringe benefits    ignorance is bliss

there is a time and a place    for everybodys taste
but i know too much   and i owe too much

theres no way, theres no how   that i could stop now
ima die trying

THIURSDAY
in the zone and clocking pages

now thats what im talking about

and you know i cant really begrudge the medgar evers folk they little invitation
7 straight invites over a 20 year period is a pretty good run

but reasonable responses to perceived slights dont get no novel wrote
i'll show you works every time

later

WEDNESDAY
stonewalling literary disrespect

last couple of days i been taking care of business
dusted off the old palmpilot and start listing 2 be dones
been doing ideological maintenance work, been preparing for schoolhouse duty
been getting back into the world

went into the office to check my mail
and had a flyer for the 2006 national black writers conference at medgar evers

they didnt invite me, this is the first time since john o killens founded them
in 1984 i believe (7 conferences) that i havent been invited - ohwell, i knew it was coming

last couple of times ive had to 'remind' them to include me - shame them into it
probably could call them now and shame them into it but im tired of that
im tired of begging

last time they invited me to do the invocation - but we cant pay you arthur
because we are only paying panelists

i was pleased at the recognition of my hoodoo moves but put out that i wasnt
put on a panel - i got theory, i got mack - and a history there, john o taught there, so did i
adjunct to be sure but me and nunez boldly called it the john o killens chair

this reminds me of john os downhill slide in his later years
part of my mission is to keep johns rep alive, to represent . . . .,
but my rep declining just as precipitously as johns did if not worse
its like i missed the brass ring and am no longer considered a contender

for 13 years i followed john o killens from school to school as his literary rep declined,
from columbia to howard to bronx community to medgar evers - his final resting place

prestiqewise medgar evers was a big drop from columbia
but john o flourished there, not only was it his own brooklyn neighborhood
it was a crossroads of the blackworld and all these diasporic dynamics played out there

i called it the gathering place  - and baba john was its master griot -
me and medgar evers go way back

cant blame the world for disrespecting me, they dont know me, they dont know how
hard i work, how serious i am about what i do - the medgar evers crowd does

disrespect in the world i expect - disrespect in my line
that gets me every time - you try to roll with the punches but sometimes it hurts

so much for the mec connection, got to put them on the i'll show you list
the very long i'll show you list, damn near everybody in the literary world
on that list these days

but my response to literary disrespect is pretty consistent, i work harder
good news or bad, the response is the same - work harder

and on that note im going back into the woodshed, ima stonewall this
last week or so before classes start and full court press rest for the weary

who knows how much traction i will get out of that
i got the fire in me and im looking for the zone

means when classes start ima be stone scrambling
but hey - an extra week of woodshed - for that i will pay any price

my apologies to folk who been expecting me to get back in the saddle
and fuck you to the folk who dont

rickydoc aint done

i am a conjureman
i defy the literary establishment, the political establishment, everybody, i defy reality
im gon continue to conduct myself as if i am in truth
what i aspire to be

a prophet of the hoodoo way
one of the worlds great writers and thinkers
a spiritual founder

i expect reality to yield to my will
i am a conjureman

TUESDAY
turn the light on

lobbyist jack abramoff pleads guilty
this gon be good - this gon be sweet

crooked congressmen gon be scurrying like
roaches when the light comes on

and most of them repub leadership
between abramoff and delays plays
the scent of k street scandal done got funky

democ talking points:
- pay-to-play
- a culture of corruption

this gon be real good

rdoc

beale street below

beale street has died 2 or 3 times
the redlight beale of the early 1900s was killed off by boss crump

and the colored beale street of my segregated childhood died
of integration and urban renewal - lined w/bars, jooks, eateries,
pawnshops and professional offices, old beale street was one of the
playgrounds of my youth

this article tells of anthropologists doing the historical preservation thing
finding bordello artifacts from early 1900s beale

but what interest me is they found brick sidewalks buried
6 feet under ground,

its like the old beale street is still there under that
disneyland bealestreet they got now

thats an image i might be able to use in
rest for the weary

update on the sudan

darfur crises continues to fester
civilian deaths in nov twice that of deaths in oct

tensions between chad and the sudan continue to grow over
accusations of supporting each others rebels

rebel groups in the sudan continue to fight
amongst themselves, hindering their cause

this has been the historical weakness of black resistance
to arabic hegemony in the sudan

the perennial question of solidarity

we got to flip that script
see if we can find some fissures to exploit
amongst our enemies

turabi and bashir will do for a start

MONDAY
gearing up for 2006

back from the continent
havent checked my emails yet
im taking a couple of days off before
digging in for 2006

2006 gon be rough on the old rootdoctor

i am not willing to cut back on novelwork
so ima have to find me some more gears
to address all my responsibilities this year

- got to finish newdraft of rest for the weary
if anything im more desperate now than i was before
im so close i can smell it

- got to draft divination structure for the hoodoo book of flowers
worked on it some in lamu and it was sobering
to see how much of old draft did not stand the test of time

- schoolhouse gon be rough this semester
two workshops, application process, 3 thesis and innumerable recommendations

- taking two labor intensive classes this semester
a sculpture class - i like working w/my hands (been working on a legba figure for a year now - a houseguard - been thinking about doing a baobob bottletree - takes me forever cause bronzework is very labor intensive and i got to use most of my discretionary time on novel)

- and a computer graphics class - got to get my webpage skilz professionalized
got to rebuild rootwork.com and bring it up to speed

- got to take the hoodoo way to higher ground
i have not been giving THW its necessaary attention while in the woodshed
all of my ideological projects have suffered, i got a lot of catching up to do

- got to followthru on hoodoo secret societies initiative
probably my most challenging task of the moment
trying to shapeshift a spiritual tradition is real Work

- gon be more aggressive about getting my empowerment strategies
into the african american dialogue this year - talk about real Work
shapeshifting a people is even more challenging

- got to maintain newren workshop
institutionalize it and forge the next generation

- got to followthru on my commitments
to the page folk and my kwani family

- got to really get busy w/the gymwork
and addressing health maintenance concerns

- got to be more diligent with my
family communications (and ms turbee)

- be nice to clean up my finances this year
but i dont see that happening until i get
paid for rest

- got to regularize rootsletter
and whittle down ponderous mailing list of some 4000 folk
a 1000 of which probably consider me something akin to spam

got to get rid of everybody who is not EAGER to hear what i have to say
right now everytime i make a controversial statement (what other kind are there)
i get a slew of please removes - im tired of that

- and got to get back in the rootsblog groove

havent been keeping up like i like cause i been deep in
the woodshed and its all been about rest for the weary
but im concerned that my posts have become too self
referential lately

at the sametime its the personal nature of my voice/weblog
that provides my online niche - i got to be real and true to me

i cant compete w/news organizations and fulltime sites
like black commentator or chickenbones (fundraising links - ujaama)
its my literary voice and my hoodoo worldview that im selling
in the online marketplace of ideas

i got to strike that balance again
start monitoring news sources, weblogs, websites & mailling lists again

at the same time ive been putting more time into rootsblog than
will be available once i go back to work
ima have to be real disciplined this next semester

cause when i get to the summer woodshed
i want to have done another draft of rest for the weary
so summer woodshed will be strictly polish, strictly moneydraft

putting the poetry on it
also i want to keep growing as a teacher of creative writing

which means in addition to giving studentworks adequate and even
exemplary attention, i got to gear up my reading of shorts and novels
and craft and theory - fulltime job on its on - as is novelwork, webwork
and all my other projects -its like i got 4 or 5 full time jobs and the
schoolhouse is the only one that pays hardcash (bless you syracuse university)

and i got to give bonnie her due
thats another full time job
domestic tranquility is a wonderful thing
long as bonnie happy im happy

otherwise spring 2006 gon be a hardgrind
just thinking about it makes me tired
im weary in my bones tired

heard this great blues last time i went home for christmas
singer say she saw santa hitchhiking christmas eve
he shivering and crying, she gave him a lift

santa say his sleigh blew out, rudolphs nose went out and
the rest of the reindeer went back to the north pole cause they claim
they wasnt making enuf money to be out here running around in this cold

santa ask if he can get a ride, my feet hurt he say
i been walking all night, cause old santas got to make it
the whole world is depending on me

i feel you
makes me reconsider rest for the wearys original title
no rest for the weary

but one does try to stay positive doesnt one
rest for the weary it is - thats what i want it to be

okay rick, you need to focus, let me see now
whats of interest to me at the moment

civil liberties and executive war powers

what about bushs claim to be able to circumvent any law
because of executive war powers

expanded war powers are often assumed by presidents and civil liberties
abrogated in times of war - said war powers to be relinquished when war is over

but this 'war on terror' will be going on for decades if not generations
executive war powers are for hot wars, not cold ones

to accept bushs claims to be above the law means he is the law
some emperor or dictator who can do as he pleases

i dont think so

bush has obviously decided to stonewall questions raised
by his domestic spying

good - that will keep it on the front burner for awhile

what else
another quickie or two and im out of here

assumptions in new orleans

cant testify to this but it
seems that the deaths in new orleans were not as racially determined as we thought
seems black/white death percentages pretty much reflected population
seems the more common demoninator was age

this is an opportunity to strengthen progressive alliances
before it was just blackfolk howling about blackfolk suffering

always good to broaden your coalitions
make common cause, make it a human rights issue
instead of a racial one

okay what else
i guess thats it for the moment

impatient to get some project work done today
clock a minimal 3 on rest

w/the kind of load im going to be carrying this semester
these posts are going to have to be ever more disciplined

be well yall
good luck in the coming year

rdoc

awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong

(note: i may do a post on where im coming from w/that little mantra of mine -
obviously ive decided to use it repeatedly until its a recognizeable
part of my vision - its meaning is pretty self evident but theres an interesting story
behind what im trying to do w/it - mostly about me trying to train/shape
the hoodoos of the future and establish hoodoo as a predominant force in the world)

later

kenya kommentary: representing: african american to the bone

hello world
on my way to kenya
plan to keep a running commentary
if i can find an internet cafe like i did
last time

im too tickled
had a wonderful time last time
mostly cause i met this kwani crew
its like they got a harlem renaissance thing happening
nairobi style

ive attached the schedule
kwani has a much higher profile this year

gon be interesting

always trying when about to go through an experience to
gain the most out of it  -  at all times in a what is most significant about this moment
mode - alert to moments of fa

looking forward to it

and im very conscious of representing
african american to the bone

gon do my act
it went over well last time - mostly,
oral tradition and all

so often folk from the continent dont think we can throw down
think we lost our licks

so i enjoy representing, bells on the ankles and my longtailed rattle
and all, doing an afroamerican hoodoo thing

my ritual performancework being acknowledged as the real thing
on the continent mean a lot to me

last time i didnt have my instruments
this time im taking it all the way home

thats why i been working on my signature piece
gon initiate that bad boy on the continent

got to represent and leave that good impression
cause im very proud of being african american
and i want folk of the world to think well of us

folk around the world like to sneer at us cause when
they think afroamerican they think MTV and BET

but thats alright cause when i was coming up being afroamerican meant
something else - our struggle was the model for struggles around the world
thats what im representing when im in the world

im looking im listening im learning
im growing in struggle
do a little good here and there all the better

solidarity means more to us than it does to blacks of the world
that grew up in black countries
where the very being of blackness is not challenged and defined every day

we grew up under the gun and solidarity is one of our greatest values

when im somewhere and i see another black person and i give them that
little you and me nod and they dont respond it hurts my feelings

i expect that acknowledgement to the point where it totally throws me off
when i dont get it

i get to kenya and its like when i went to jamaica recently
im just overwhelmed with the blackness

naive or not, for better or worse
my attitude is damn, look at all this solidarity

im outta here
keep you up as i can

in struggle
rdoc

awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong

-----------------------------------------------

Summer Literary Seminars - Kenya 2005 Schedule

 

Wednesday, Dec 14th

Noon – 2pm

Registration/meet and greet.

2 – 4pm

Official opening of program.

Remarks from Binyavanga Wainaina, Mikhail Iossel and Thomas Burke.

Lecture by Marjorie Oludhe-McGoye

 

6 pm Welcome Cocktail

 

Thursday, December 15^th

10am – 12noon

Craft-based Lectures

New Journalism and Investigative Journalism

Nonfiction within a context - an introduction to the nonfiction process

  Parselelo Kantai

Fiction 

Fundamentals of good fiction writing  Thomas Burke

Advanced Fiction Writing 

Advanced Perspectives on the craft  Arthur Flowers &

Mikhail Iossel

2 – 4 pm

Roundtable presentation followed by group discussion The Business of Writing in

Kenya

Stanley

Gazemba, Binyavanga Wainaina, Fiona MCrae, Mike Vasquez and Mikhail Iossel

 

Friday, December 16^th

10am – 12noon

Craft-based Lectures

New Journalism and Investigative Journalism

Translating

Kenya

for Kenyans - perspective and audience in non-fiction    Billy Kahora

Fiction

Crafting the short story    Doreen Baingana

Advanced Fiction Writing 

The editor’s perspective - what kind of work excites us?  Fiona McCrae &

Mike Vasquez

2 – 4 pm

Lecture:

“Soundtracks: The Meeting Of Music And Creative Writing” Dr Joyce Nyairo

Roundtable presentation followed by group discussion Spoken word: Where Literature meets Music

Arthur Flowers, Oneko Arina, and Kama of Kalamashaka.

 

Saturday, December 17^th

11 am – 6pm

All day event: excursion to Paa ya Paa artist colony in the outskirts of

Nairobi

for an afternoon of visual arts, music, and nyama choma barbeque.

 

Sunday, December 18^th

Free day.

 

Monday, December 19^th

10am – 12noon

Craft-based lectures

New Journalism and Investigative Journalism

Building a viable career as a nonfiction writer Parselelo Kantai

Fiction

An editor’s perspective - what do editor’s look for?  Mike Vazquez

Fiona McCrae

Advanced Fiction Writing

The editing process and experimentation with form and style  Binyavanga Wainaina

Thomas Burke

2 – 4 pm

Lecture: The

Matatu Culture Dr.

Mbugua wa Mungai

Roundtable presentation followed by group discussion Writing within a Context: The Kenyan Conversation

Binyavanga Wainaina, Tony Mochama and

Stanley

Gazemba

 

Tuesday, December 20^th

10am – 12noon

Roundtable presentation followed by group discussion Opportunities and challenges of getting published in the

US

Arthur Flowers, Doreen Baingana, Mikhail Iossel, Thomas Burke, Mike Vazquez, Fiona McCrae

 

Noon: Closure, SLS-Kenya 2005

Remarks by Mikhail Iossel

Invitation to participate in SLS-St Petersburg 2006.

 

7pm

Kwani Reading with Arthur Flowers

Carnivore’s Simba Saloon

 

Wednesday, December 21^st

Transition to Lamu/safaris begin.

 

Wednesday, December 21^st – Saturday, December 24^th

Meet on

Lamu

Island

.

Independent writing time, with nightly group dinners at one of several oceanfront restaurants.

 

Saturday, December 24^th

Evening: Christmas Eve party on

Manda

Beach

.

 

Sunday, December 25^th

Morning: group breakfast and writing time.

Optional group trips to

Lamu

Museum

,

Swahili

House

Museum

, and Donkey Sanctuary.

Afternoon:

Dhow ride with stop at Manda beach for swimming.

Evening: sunset participant reading and workshop on Yumbe House rooftop area; group dinner to follow.

Nighttime: Christmas party on Manda beach.

 

Monday, December 26^th

Morning: group breakfast and writing time

Afternoon: walk to Shella beach for lunch and swimming; take dhow home.

Evening: sunset participant reading and workshop on Yumbe House rooftop area; group dinner to follow.

 

Tuesday, December 27^th

Morning: group breakfast and writing time

Afternoon: TBA

Evening: Farewell group dinner at Hapa Hapa.

 

Wednesday, December 28^th

Lamu to

Nairobi

.

Program finished.

Fees(KSh)
Students:
Private Schools & Universities                           KSh 3,500
Public Universities Literature Students                KSh 1,300 (Subsidised by Kwani Trust)

Non-students:                                                  KSh 5,000

Contact Jacqueline Achwoka at the Kwani Trust office or on 0733298689 for more details on SLS.

  

Suite 1S, 1st Floor
Madonna House( opp Soin Arcade)
Westlands Road
Westlands
Nairobi
______________________________

P. O. Box 2895
Nairobi 00100
KENYA
______________________________

Tel :  +254 20 4451383 / 4450490
Cell : +254 733 526358
Cell : +254 721 934807
______________________________

Email : info@kwani.org
URL : http://www.kwani.org
MSN : cirujune@hotmail.com
______________________________

kwani?

i works the soul

MONDAY
i works the soul

hello world

just got back from brooklyn
had a good newren workshop
its really growing well
workshops are such a longgame thing
that sometimes you wonder

but we got some good strong writers in there
and we been working lately on preparing the next generation,
most of us now are in our 50s, oldschool warriors still hitting that lick

and we didnt have but a couple of youngsters
so we been concentrating on young talent
we 50 odds figure we got about 10 good productive years left before
we start getting shall we say tired
(hopefully 20, 30 or more, but 10 we can count on)

and im real pleased with the young folk we been
gathering, some good and true talent

got to work on structuring a strong institution to
leave them

those of you who know the history know that i was once
exec dir of the harlem writers guild, a 50 year old institution
ran into some problems with my youthful enthusiasms
and got tossed,

when they tossed me, my whole generation of writers left with me
the real writers, the ones that really cared

they bet on flowers
just couldnt leave me hanging in the wind by myself

the harlem writers guild put out an anthology recently
and didnt include me or my generation, they excommunicated us - that hurt

so me maintaining and taking newren to higher ground
this an act of redemption for me

plus that john o killens, my mentor, was a founder of the guild
i remember a delegation of us going to john and asking him if it was okay if we broke off and started a new guild and him saying okay

just maintain

i was trained to approach this workshopping thing as part of building black institutions

john tried to build into african american literature an infrastructure
that facilitates the nurturing of committed black writers and thinkers

literary visionaries
you train a strong artist/visionary and no telling what they will contribute

(samesame hoodooman, my specialty is unleashing artists - then they produce a healthy body of work and its just grows and grows)

a lot of that is passing on what each generation in the tradition learns to the next generation
i would not be who i am today if i had not been the beneficiary of john o killens life
of struggle and service - and he of the ones who passed it on to him

ive reached that point in my artistic and hoodoo life where passing it on to the next generation
is as important as getting my own work done

i cant let john o, the newren crew, or my literary tradition down
every month i trek on down to the city
finances, weather or weariness, dont nothing stop that show (unless the crick rise)

ima do whatever i got to do to take
that operation to higher ground

whenever you get hammered
when you regroup you got to regroup on higherground
then its all progress, all part of the growing process

that way adversity is transformed into strength
thats what the blues is about

i got to go, got to get todays work done
just wanted to get a post started

my hit numbers been growing since katrina
i got to maintain that

gon be interesting to see what my next phase gon be
i can feel a new level of engagement coming down
i think cause i been in the woodshed and the things i work out in
my novels i generally try to manifest in the 'realworld'

the effort of which feeds back into the authenticity of the novel

prophecy for instance
its a difficult process to explain, maybe later

today im feeling fey today like i sometimes get
dont know where this post will go this week

reason i started this post is i was back there ripping these two tapes
i found at the library:  one - violin, sing the blues for me: african american fiddlers 1926 - 1949
oldschool violin blues, im really enjoying it too

seems the violin was the instrument of choice for african american
musicians until the 1930s or so when the guitar took over

the other - clasic blues: recordings of the smithsonian collection
and im reading the liner notes, right - its been such a music education reading the liner notes
of the 1000s of cds ive listened to since i discovered the public librarys stash

and there was this quote of roosevelt sykes that spoke to me
both as a bluesman and a hoodooman (for me thats always been a paired set)

"now some people dont understand.  they think a blues player has to be worried, troubled to sing the blues.  thats wrong.  ill put it this way: theres a doctor, he has medicine.  he aint sick but he has stuff for the sick people.  so the blues player, he aint worried and bothered, but hes got something for the worried people.  doctor you can see his medicine you can see his patient.  blues you cant see the music, you cant see the patient cause its soul.  so i works the soul, and the doctor works on the body"

thats me
i works the soul

as some of you know my daddy was a prominent medical doctor in old memphis
back when being a black doctor was a big struggle and achievement

believe me, i know

id love to tell his story but im shamed to say
i just dont know it that well
does any man ever really know his father

but i do know he had this abiding sense of responsibility for the health
of the colored folk of south memphis

one of my favorite lines, i use it every chance i get
was one i heard as a child:

doctor flowers still own half the kids on the southside
cause they havent been paid for

ive always wanted to walk in his footsteps
thats what i call myself doing as a hoodoo doctor
he worked the body, i works the soul

rickydoc flowers
spiritdoctor

awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong

endgaming the woodshed: the old space ranger is coming back down to earth

MONDAY

hello world

been dug into my breakdown, tight focus right
everything needs work, ideas and narrative licks still popping
its a good draft but its not the draft

im into a little despair up in here
having trouble grinding thru the breakdown for the teardrops
when will this cursed thing be done

i wanted to be thru
i was looking for the draft not a draft
& its like no no no god not a draft the draft

feel like ive failed
in front of the whole world

cursed internet has only compounded
my exposure

oh well, moving on . .

got to stay real
despair aint real
determination is

finish the draft, fix what you can in the next month or so
we will see where we go from there

rickydoc
holding on

SUNDAY


hello everybody

i really owe everybody an apology
i keep saying ima do this and ima do that
with these posts and then i dont have time
to do nothing

except struggle w/this novel
which is beating me all about the
head and shoulders

let me take a moment to try to keep my chops in
and then i got to get back to work

first my daily rant against the bush administration
let me get that out the way

i have wearied of their incompetence
and i fear what they have done to america
they arent serious about governing and public stewardship
and we suffering because of it

they have willynillied into this arbitrary war
in which the goal apparently now is to support a iranian gendered shiite theocracy
until its strong enough to suppress folk on its own
then cut and run

and just hope the shiites are capable of hammering the sunnis into submission
and further radicalizing what had been a secular and sophisticated population
which did not support terror tactics and was adverse to its practitioners - before bush

this is a farce

let us leave aside the question of if they manipulated the american people into war on false pretenses (we know they did) lets look at how they have waged war,

its been just one big snafu after the other

waged war on the cheap, not enuf troops, didnt secure weapon dumps, wouldnt spring for armor, disbanded the iraqi army, tried to run iraq as a colonial fiefdom, gave permission to torture and otherwise abuse people, and they right casual about their collateral damage too, declared open season for vultues like haliburton, not enuf troops to hold ground bought w/blood,

when caught at abugraib instead of fessing up about condoning torture, they jailed the peons, and they used white phosphorous on people (chemical warfare however you parse it)

they and their iraqi allies have been guilty of all the human rights violations they now claim to be the reason we are there in the first place, we have been no better than hussein

and aint no telling what theyve done we dont know about
oh they have added all kinds of bad vibes into the world
like we didnt have enough real problems, they went out and just made a problem
invaded iraq for the hell of it

and they treating america the same way domestically,

bush would have killed social security if we had let him, why would anybody want to kill off social security, the only thing that stands between oldage poverty and a decent living for so many folk,
something that works to do what it was meant to do

hes destroying the environment, he spent up the surplus clinton paid for, hes stripping the american people of rights designed to protect them from the abuses of the powerful, the very thing that has defined america at its best, and through tax policies hes 'defunding' american government in order to enrich the rich, its doesnt make sense, the rich are rich enough and what is the point of killing off the government

defunding it, when the war in iraq and katrina and so many other pressing concerns evidence the need for a strong prosperous government every day

our own fundamentalists are more of a danger to us than iraqs are

and this darwinian every man and maybe woman for himself social compact they have forged, its amazing that they hate darwin so much while so gleefully playing out his observations

and not only did he ignore katrinas folk during the flood
except as politically necessary hes still ignoring them
let them eat gumbo is the bush clan motto

its an obscene philosophy of governing and it offends me

and nobody is doing anything for the sudan
nobody, ive tended to turn away myself because  its so painful
to have to sit there and just watch it unfold

the world did not allow this to happen in the balkans
and i can only assume its because they were europeans
dead africans just dont count as much and everybody knows it

and even as i rail against the sudan i look at the conflicts all through africa
war and conflict and people dying and institutions destroyed
and wonder why this one bothers me so - for one, like the genocide in rwanda
overt attempts at genocide and ethnic cleansings disturb me

as does murdering a black population precisely because its black

(yes yes i know, w/an attendant array of economic, tribal, etc issue but primal point
being they are being attacked killed raped murdered and mayhemed
because they are black - if that dont irk me real deep in my soul that irks me)

was about to comment on haiti, another issue that really really irks me
and the global black community must do all it can for haiti but the bottom line
is that the haitians got to get their act together and god aint that the truth for
black populations all over the world and especially here in the americas

but you know when you go there the frustration level becomes acute cause
you know folk doing what they can and the fight there starts squarely with yourself

i am pretty on it but when i look at my life i have to face the fact that i have been slack
i have been my own worst enemy and im pretty competent at life

everybody struggling
everybody can do better

we have to, collective and individual responsibility
only way we gon get out of this historical trickbag

and i think on that note ima get back to work

and all this needs to be approached systematically, not just ranting, that
dont change nothing, i need to start on rickydocs state of the unity is what i need to do

my woodshed is coming to a close
already got tendrils pulling me into the schoolhouse
advisees calling & next semester gon be a hardgrind:
application (600 stories) & thesis (3) semester

and just got a call from the delta
my sister is blowing the chaos horn
rickydoc has got to go

supposed to be going to kenya on the 12th, will keep an online chronicle of that
but clearly woodshed is over, oh ima hold on for the rest of the year,
historically i generally finish the product about a week or two into the new year
and i count that as a win

but its no longer the unfettered days of  woodshed, its back to fending off life
for writing time

oh i been dancing to my own tune and having myself a real good time
but anyday now its gon be time to pay the piper

all the life issues i have ignored for the last 9 months or so have reached
critical mass, i got to put out some brushfires w/the quickness

got to get on back out into the world

forget this post, im going to get some work done
these are the last days and times of my freedom

i been in my own little world

almost time to
come back to yours

my love to you all
rickydoc flowers