rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

watching the sun rise, licking my wounds, soldiering on

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

just heard from keith gilyard that grace killens died this morning, about 4 am
ms grace was john killens wife and of the two of them she was the militant one

that kept him on point, i knew she was under the gun and i been intending to

get to city to see her and it kept getting put back, feel guilty about that but ms grace wouldnt

hold it against me so im not going to worry about it, guess i will be trekking down to city

im out, let me leave you w/this puppetry piece, i never realized how so very human blinks are

Royal de Luxe - LE RENDEZ-VOUS DE BERLIN, DAS WIEDERSEHEN VON BERLIN from Nina. on Vimeo.

these puppets are so soulful they make me think about what it mean to be human, i enjoy being conscious of humanity and the human condition and all that, thats what literature all about, anything that sensitize me to that, im hungry for that, it make me tingle

Royal de Luxe from Yves Chauvel on Vimeo.

i miss ms grace, as much as i miss john o and my father, life is such a strange journey, i wish her god speed, and sekou and safiya and imogunla et al, all the folk in my life who have passed on, both the living and the dead, and generations to come, gods blessings on us all

all my love

rdoc

WOW, ITS TUESDAY ALREADY

hello world, ive been underwater, but it cross my mind i hadnt commented on the healthbill vote

so, giving rickydocs blessings on nancy pelosi, barack obama, anh cao and the strong 220

now the real battle begins, the senate, looking for the strong 60, i dont quite understand how that works i am shamed to say, why cant they just let the republicans filibuster,

seem like in the old civil rights days they filibustered everything and it got thru anyway - now folk so scared of the filibuster they knuckle under beforehand, i must not understand how that works

what else, im sure there is a lot to comment on but im feeling underwater, been doing nothing but ofm for the last week, other folks manuscripts, trying to get thru all these end of the year obligations

and its clear there is another category that i have to learn how to say no to, undergrad mfa submissions - this year ive been inundated with folk wanting me to critique their mfa application submissions

a lot of them folk ive encouraged to go for it, cant honorably say no when they ask me to read their work - but im kinda frustrated now, havent been able to do any of my work this week, buried in ofm

that make me grouchy

i see the answer to this is to say no

just say no rick, cant do it - trying to get my own work done, just cant do it

school obligatories i got to do, but one story beyond my obligatories takes my discretionary time, lets say 3 hours or more per story, that mean that day shot for my work - a novel takes about a week, or a full weekend, more if its a complicated novel,

and so often folk dont follow thru, thats time been wasted

some folk dont really want to become better writers, they just want help being published, mfa entry, etc - you can pretty much tell by how they come to you who want real help and who just using you

got to get ruthless rick, im not doing this again, im much too desperate to give up days - weeks of writing time consistently like this

me and george was talking about this the other day, what i got he got doubled - geo better w/the no than i am, he has to be

couple of days ago this brother aked me to read a manuscripts of shorts for him, god i wanted to say cant do it man, just cant do it, but he a brother back home thats been serious about his literary efforts, ive known him 20 years now and hes always been respectful, had enuf success to keep him in the game, i feel obligated to help him, thats what it boil down to, so many folk helped me when i was knocking at the door

when you quote unquote successful for so many folk you the best or only gateway they know and you feel like you got to be generous because folk was generous with you when you was a desperate young cub

i guess you might as well quit whining rick, you just wasting time you could be getting thru these manuscripts,

ive already obligated myself for these and i try to live by my word

but in the future, folk gone get a lot more no from me, just cant do it, just cant

had one person send me her work and give me a deadline to get back to her, it was something like 3 days and i could only be amused, okay, what about the 15 folk thats in front of you, some of whom been waiting a year or so to hear back from me, what im suppose to do about them

but mr niceguy say cant do it in 3 days, i will try in next week or so, cause i know she trying to get her mfa application off, but its not going to happen, these mfa apps they not likely to be done before end of month

my goal right now is get through these novel manuscripts, so this month look like

between schoolhouse and manuscriptwork (and evan) nothing for flowers

i really felt for my gradstudents when teaching start cutting into their production time, but i couldnt let them
stay in that space, every writer i know teach, you make it work - i bought pizza and beer last class to

knda apologize for jacking them up week before, i know i know, the beer was pushing it

(was just thinking if i put mfa folk off to the end of month that doesnt give them much rewrite time before those apps start going out dec 1st, might have to push them further up the line, big sigh)

i think when i finish this manuscript im on ima take the weekend for my own before i dig into next one

that might take some of this pressure off my soul, take some of this grouch up off of me

im gone, day feels half gone already, got a string of meetings w/students (about their manuscripts)

starting in about 30 minutes, running late again rick - got to get on my pony and ride

(pony a metaphor, actually im about to get in the volvo and ride)

im out

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

okay, let me see, cant hold back, my  boy alex yates got a deal, its still in negotiation so i cant go into detail yet but he sold his novel, me and alex been close since he got here, always came to me w/respect, came up in here talking novel, alex one of my special ones - im just as tickled as if i had sold my own

wish i could claim credit for him but alex so good he woulda sold no matter who he was working with, book was on the market all of 8 days before the bids start coming in

well, i still got bragging rights and thats what count

that photo, tulsi sent me that, from the jaipur literary festival performance, did that month long state dept goodwill tour of india, photo brought back the glorydays, they treated me like i was some kind of literary guru, bowing, touching my feet, the little halfcircle asking about the meaning of life, amazing sets and astounding offers, it mess w/my head a little bit i have to say, but i could get used to that - it was interesting the way folk responded to the spiritual component of my work in a way ive not experienced elsewhere in my travels

washout on the elections yesterday, i was hoping corzine would pull thru, we would have actually been better off to lose the 23rd up in newyork, that would have emboldened the wingnut right of the republican party to drag it even further to the right and kick out more moderates before the 2010 midterm elections

instead the model will be the virginia guy who hid his rightwing inclinations until elected, id rather have the rightwing in full bray myself

apparently publishers weekly just did a listing, 10 best books 2009, that did not include any women, imagine that - some folk are clueless, pw is not clueless, a conscious decision was made, some penalty should be paid for thinking they could get away w/it

okay, what else, had a productive weekend, im in that strange end of semester space, i got to step up my game for november, do backupped feedbacks, get manuscripts off my plates, hold overdue conferences w/students, overdue lunch obligations, i got to give them my all this month because come dec 1st im thru

i dont accept manuscripts or set up conferences that last couple of weeks of school because they will wait until the last week to give me a slew of drafts, so after school is done im still buried, that dont fly

otherday i jacked up my grad workshop, they were turning in raw fragments and i said this is not your A game, raw i can take, but not fragments, you not getting full benefit of workshop experience,

they made some good cases about struggling w/new stuff, but i think im right on this one, bring your best effort to workshop, but if im asking them for their A game, i got to give them mine, which mean focus, rick

one month, full court press focus, i can handle that

what was cutting into their production was this teaching, which will cut any writers production if you let it,
you learn how to modulate it, cant give it 100%, just cant, you learn to cut any corner that can be cut

and these manuscript, by god in heaven im getting them off my plate too, this week will be 2 down, 3 to go

i can already smell freedom to focus on my own work, maybe a month, minus family xmas time, the temptation is to shut down shop right now, that i have to fight, problem with teaching is that my heart is in it

i like doing well, i like giving my students what they need, (not necessarily what they want)

so i have to resist the pull to pull out early, but its almost time to send my traveling spirit out, thats when the real me is home working while the traveling spirit is out there dealing with people, they think they dealing w/me but its just a facade

what else, my numbers been dropping, cause my posting spotty and self referenced, so be it

did some work on my holybook this week, that was cool, finished off a gil scott heron piece for oxford and
thought if im going to be doing nonfiction i might as well do some that really mean something to me

so i pulled out my holybook, the hoodoo book of flowers, the great black book of generations, plan was to put the novel down (gasp) for nov, while im dug into the schoolhouse crunch anyway, and work on HBOF

but that didnt work, ima have to do both, there is no such thing as put the novel down

okay, im gone, i want to do commentary but its all me me me, maybe later

congrats again to alex, man that felt as good as selling my own

i love teaching young writers and i love even more when i can help them navigate the industry

alex was easy, but i get bragging rights anyway, feels good, real real good

damn every industry gatekeeper that ever was, we coming thru

all my love

rdoc

SATURDAY MORNING

finally, the sun is rising,

i been sitting here at the sacred desk trying to write for a couple of hours now and nothing happening, i feel so beat up wore out tired i just cant get my groove on,

just sitting here watching the sun rise, watching the sky turn

saw keith gilyard today, adam brought him on campus, keith and safiya the ones brought me to syracuse, me and keith go all the way back, his bio on my mentor, john oliver killens, is due out in april, from univ of georgia press, i cant wait

keith know all the secrets, he was telling me stuff about john i had no idea, i had read earlier drafts of bio but its evolved so far beyond what it was, he was telling me juicy stuff the lawyers wouldnt let him include because it was telling secrets on mainstream literary icons, who fucked whose wife, who still holding ideological grudges after all these years,

literary wars they never cease

so many secrets that i want to tell you, as you know dear regulators, secrets are my business, the hoodoo coin in trade, but for once i think i will let discretion be the better part of valor, im out

the sky is beginning to streak with light, its really pretty, today might be a chill out day, a lick my wounds day

a day for watching the sun rise, licking my wounds, soldiering on

rdoc

FRIDAY

nina shope got this from some group call boldprogressives or something like that
now i dont usually sign online petitions and other such tactics of the weak

but for joe lieberman i will make an exception, anything rachel madow (and nina) approve of

i approve of too

===============

Nina,
You may have heard the news. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is threatening to help Republicans block a vote on health care reform if the bill includes a public health insurance option.
But when reporters asked Lieberman if he'd be willing to lose his powerful committee chairmanship as a consequence, he said: "Oh, God no."
What's our answer? Hell yeah!
You and 90,000 others signed our petition to Democratic senators asking them to strip leadership titles from Lieberman (or others) if they block reform. Can you help us get to 100,000?
Please forward this email to your friends. Ask them to sign our petition to Democratic senators by clicking here.
If you're on Facebook, click here to share the petition.
If you're on Twitter, click to automatically Tweet this message:
Are we going to let Joe Lieberman screw up health care reform? Hell no! Sign the petition to hold him accountable --> http://bit.ly/2N7YVq
We'll deliver this petition to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), among others. After Lieberman endorsed John McCain for president, and Democrats let Lieberman keep his chairmanship, Bayh said:
"If he does retain his chairmanship, we still exert oversight over him... He doesn't have the ability to just do whatever he wants. The caucus still has the right to remove him from that position at any time..."
Now's the time for Democratic senators like Bayh to let Lieberman know they'll make good on that promise. Lieberman needs to be held accountable.
Please forward this email to friends -- and share on Facebook and Twitter -- so we can deliver 100,000 signatures to Democratic senators!

Thanks for being a bold progressive.
--Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Aaron Swartz, Brian Bills, Michael Snook, and the PCCC team

feeling gil scott heron today: my fellow traveler and keeper of the faith

hello world

i been off the gun lately, woke up this morning with gil scott heron on my mind

cause i had seen that detroit piece on youtube couple of weeks ago and this the gil scott i love, he look like he been thru the fire but he look like a survivor here - this the way i want to remember him

i think this performance captures him at his best

nephew james ross cracked on me about why i hadnt been posting lately so i figured i would

been under the gun trying to get all these projects off my plate before school starts
starting working on my martinlutherking bit for tara press while i was up at the vineyard

did a really nice draft, martin as chosen by the gods to be their instrument, fighting it
got this africanamerican storyteller voice happening telling the myth of a people and their prophet

a lot of the materials and issues i been dealing with in my novel with a reasonable closure date - whats not to like

it flowed like rainwater, i was clearly in the zone, figured done deal, but then i sat down to polish it and realize there were some historicals that i wasnt certain on, had this book sitting on my shelf

let the trumpet sound by stephen oates, figured id skim through it,

lord help me there was so much about king and the struggle i didnt now - hell i was there, been in the struggle since i was old enuf to carry a picket sign, i thought i knew it intimately but whatever possess me to think

i could write anything worthwhile without some research

isnt it always like that, you think you gon knock a project off right quick and the next thing you know youve stepped in the quicksand

i fear that the public option is gone from the health bill, i fear that unless obama find some strategic backbone somewhere its toast, thats unfortunate, it was the only part of the reform package that was actually reform far as im concerned

was reading where all these gun nuts have been going to the town halls armed, cause of that gun carry permit nonsense - that makes a lot of sense, all those raging wingnuts and loaded pistols

you know right that this aint about no healthplan, it aint about no birthcertificate or no death panels
its just a bunch of folk who cannot accept the idea of a black president, just cant deal with it

reading about the rabid responses to the civil rights movements, the civil rights and voting rights bills
feels like deja vu all over again and makes you wonder about all the folk talking about the election of obama

meant the end of racism, okay?

i been wondering who out there really believe sarah palin writing those death panel facebook policy statements - raise your hand

i got to go, trying to get a draft of this mlk piece before i head for the delta

i havent done novelwork in over a week, its like i got about a two week window before school starts so im getting thru these manuscripts been sitting on my plate and doing overdue projects like this mlk thing

but you know thats the way it always goes, you get caught up in obligatories and you lose your groove, its clear i wont make my deadline so ive quit trying but i need to maintain a minimum 3 hours a day

thats the only thing that will get me to the promiseland and all these supplemental things i do, they just dont really count

couple of days ago i made a bold post on facebook, let the mask slip and start talking about the geas of rickydoc, - listen o ye firstborn to the geas of rickydoc and i will give you a mission greater than your adversity, i will give you a vision, etc etc

usually i dont come that upfront, thats the kind of power you suppose to keep hidden and i was concerned that i had said too much - hardly anybody noticed, i got to get this novel out, make my vision manifest

im out

oh thats right, i was thinking about gil scott heron, i once had a novel written by a young gil scott heron in my library, over the years it got away from me, was thinking about how over the years gil scott heron almost got away from us too, drugs and the artistic ferver - my generation pretty much all trod that path, some of us made it back, some of us didnt

im glad hes still on the set, limping lame and still game, my fellow traveler and keeper of the faith

a luta continua and all my love too

obama care and soul doctory: awaken the sleeper, protect the weak, guide the strong

SATURDAY

i was just reading over that previous post and im thinking you out of control rick

where does all this lead, i dont have time to open another initiative, another front

okay, im swearing off army building, disregard everything i just said, as of this moment never again

i dont have time for all that, i really dont - thats just specultive  - that what i would be doing if i

wasnt giving everything i got to this novel - help me lord, stop me before i organize again....

rdoc

SATURDAY

preparing to go to marthas vineyard for a week, will be posting spotty, suppose going to vineyard only fitting, i seem in last couple of days to have turned into a celebrity whore

as you know i been trolling facebook trying to build an army, i been doing a lot of celebrities lately
still hunting artists and afrospirituals, but also been friend requesting folk like chris rock, morgan freeman and george stephanopoulos

names in the game, literary cultural academic hollywood memphis anybody w/potential pull
or cultural resources of some sort, anybody might be useful to me ever

anybody might be useful to me establishing myself as a cultural force in our age

i dont bother my time w/folk talking about be my fan - forget you, 

unless i really am a fan, randy crawford, cassandra wilson, kevin mahogony, musicians mostly, some literary folk

im reminded of that nietzsche quote that ima translate as - if you in awe of the players that mean you aint got no player in you

in my world im one of the greatest players this world has ever seen
i realize thats delusional but in order for it to ever possibly be i have to

conduct myself as if it actually was - thats what high magicians do
conduct yourself as you aspire to be and eventually you are

when reality say you must be dreaming you just defy reality, keep dreaming, systematically planting seeds
designed to bring reality into accord with your dream -

and if you understand the game young hoodoo eventually reality starts adjusting itself to your vision

even if only to the most minute degree, this is a major victory when you dealing w/reality

when you longgame on the hoodoo board of destiny

i feel like im getting twisty here, either you got this or you dont

i assume half the name folk ive friended got their people doing it, but some you can see they in it

what tickle me is that when they say yes they likely thinking im a fan want to bask in their radiance
they dont know im the one trying to shine some radiance up in here, we gon see who influencing who

before this is over

when you trying to manifest social influence the name of the game is influence the influentials - they magnify your power

one thing im noticing is that now that im getting such a large friend roll ima have to "hide" the unessential
so that im only monitoring folk who actually saying something - which is unfortunate cause you will miss the random gem

but facebook is still a time destroyer, a demon to be conquered and used that could just as easily conquer you

and strip you of your soul

use it strategically the value will be worth the investment - minimum maintenance rootwork - just enough to make the time spent worthwhile -  god i love building armies

thats what im trying to do w/you

spiritual and strategic advice - i would you

all be masters of the longgame

 happy and satisfied

all my love

rdoc

FRIDAY

learned dcs in memphis had scheduled evan to come here next week w/o any coordination with me, this is indicative of this whole process

its been more than a notion

okay, they had their brewski, does this mean the skip gates debacle is over

god i hope so, i have refused to read another article about skip gates

i just cant take the pain

i had a powerful day yesterday, must have clocked about 6 pages
now thats what im talking about, 20 more days like yesterday and i will make it to the promise land

i need to clock 4 pages a day to be done in next 20 odd days, god help me - difficult but
doable - this where we separate the writers from the dilettantes 

remember now - lone wolf recital corps - new museum on bowery, aug 6th 7 pm

Charles Gaines/Terry Adkins Collaborative

Part of Get Weird

Get Weird is honored to present an evening of new compositions by acclaimed visual artists and gifted improvisers Charles Gaines and Terry Adkins. Led by Adkins, the Lone Wolf Recital Corps will be performing Invocation for Bessie Smith, an exploration of shared space and emotional depth. This large ensemble brings together the talents of Arthur Flowers, Joie Lee, James Andrew Brown, Charles Gaines, Terry Adkins, Juini Booth, Blanche Bruce, Jacolby Satterwhite, and The Sacred Order of the Twilight Brothers. Charles Gaines, Juini Booth, and Terry Adkins will reconvene as ACTG Solar Trio to perform Freedom Suite, a relentless and soulful piece built from subtle delicacies and passionate fireworks.

Terry Adkins is an installation artist, musician, activist, and cultural practitioner who for twenty years has pursued an ongoing quest to reinsert historically transformative figures to their rightful place in the landscape of regional and world history. Although his “recitals” combine sculpturally based installations with music, video, literature, and ritual actions that intend to uphold and preserve the legacies of his chosen subjects, Adkins’s work is always abstract and lyrical. His Lone Wolf Recital Corps is a unit with revolving membership that has premiered works at ICA London, Rote Fabrik, Zurich, New World Symphony, Miami, P.S.1 MOMA,s and ICA Philadelphia among others.

Since 1995 Charles Gaines has focused on the postmodern sublime and metonymy to make art that combines drawn or photographic images with text. Drawing from an array of literary sources, especially arguments challenging conventional ideas about meaning in art and its relationship to aesthetic experience, he made these ideas the basis of his work. His art began to address the irreconcilable opposition, in classical theory, between the conditions of feelings (beauty) and the conditions of culture (sublimity), which negate each other in the same experience. Gaines also has a parallel career as a drummer, accomplished pianist, and composer.  

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

got to work on my piece: praise song for haint bessie
last time i did it i blew it but the audience didnt realize it

they never do - all my love

rdoc

i was reading in the latimes that obama is shifting his focus from explaining what this does for the uninsured to convincing the insured that this was good for them too, this is a good thing

both tactically and strategically - look like will have to pull this one out the hat (the hat, get it?)

dont know why i seem to be surprised that taking down healthlobby would be hard

dont know why i seem to assume obama would do this easy, hard the only way this could be done

okay, adoption moving into final gear, appreciating my last days of freedom, working again, something
like 20 odd days of freedom left there, what else lord

have tried to slow down the facebook as instrument initiative but i guess its just my nature
still doing pontifical posts, which embarrass me, and now im biulding up my friend list cause

i need at least a thou to feel like i got critical mass, instead of waiting for folk to request me i been
raiding my friends, in particular my literary folk, i look at pictures, go for folk who look like artists and such

pull them up and bam, we share a bunch of literary friends, cool, i also check their friend numbers, folk w/only a couple of friends not into this, i need folk who thrive in this medium, who utilize it

i do about 10 a day, got to build me aN army - its kinda embarrassing a player of my stature trolling
for friends but such is the nature of army construction -when you build quick like this instead of patiently

waiting for folk to come to you you will have a lot of slush in the pile, 1st beef it up, then weed it out

also i do posts designed to mythwork myself as hoodoo holyman
put up some photos from performance i did w/terry adkins because i knew

it would speak to the africans on my list and reinforce my presentation
of myself as a contemporary hoodooman who capable of the full monty

i will put my shamanistic performance skilz against any shaman on the planet
just that my style is designed to appeal to the 21st century sensibility

i pride myself on being a cosmopolitan mamifestation  -  using facebook to mythwork that, 21st century stylee

okay, im gone, i got so much work to do

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

interesting how the haters, birthers and assorted racists are crawling out the woodwork now that they sense vulnerability in obamas game -

tpm report that florida repub official sent this photoshop of obama and new guinea practitioner to his listserve and somebody snitched him out

its been making the rightwing rounds - i believe they consider it an insult,

the old hoodooman does not

wish i had thought of it

wish too that obama had never gotten involved with this skip gates mess, - it has diminished them both,

buffalo soldier say its diminished us all - now this meeting at the white house, if obama wants that to go

well he do best to advise skip gates to be cool afterwards and not crow about his 'victory' like he been

doing in the news accounts so far - one practitioner to the other i wish obama had stayed out of that one

he lost power - we practitioners hate that

rdoc

skipgates sense of entitlement, sekou sundiata and literary feuds: they aint worth it

SATURDAY

so the cop is going, i would have said no myself but its hard to say no to the president

so it will be smirking gates and irritated president trying to be nice on one side of the table, cop on the other

guess they got to play it out, after obama stepped in the slush he had to clean it up somehow

so this fake brewski bit, unless they come out of there w/play dates its all spin

some blackfolk trying to make a case that obama should prove his blackness by taking this up

thats fools game, it diminish both obama and gates to keep playing this beyond its shelf life

ayatollah obama should have stayed above this one, but on it goes, i believe him and gates both trying

to find a safe way out at this point

what about this promo for my girl randys new cd, i agree w/joe, shes a cultural icon, when she sing, yesterday this time i sang a love song but today my souls a litte different people im singing the blues - it makes my heart full

FRIDAY

starting to feel sorry for skip gates, from the initial intrusion to the trickbag hes caught up in now, this got to be wearing on his dignity

still feel like its a distraction, one individuals hurt sense of entitlement has become the cause of the moment - a tempest in a teapot, in the midst of major storms

the dancing with the stars school of struggle, more a reflection of americas celebrity culture than it is struggle

and an unfortunate distraction - obama do a news deal on healthcare and all that come out of it is gates gates gates  -  hope obama focus  -  the old rootdoctor gon wait for the silly season to end, wait for the media storm to move on

i withdraw previous smart aleck comments about gates - i feel sorry for him,
this a hit on his dignity - skip such an attention junkie he is liable to play it out

i for one will be glad when its over

its just unfortunate all the way around

rdoc

LATER WED MORNING

damn it feels good to be working again, clocking page, slow slow slow but clocking

okay one more youtube and im gone, the no more war from playing for change

i remember when this album came out and it was powerful but after youve looked at a couple of them, well, after youve looked at one of them, the gender imbalance becomes glaring,

still enjoyable, but it could have represented better

WEDNESDAY

been trying to think of ways i can help boy obama get a health bill out of congress
i consider that the most critical thing on the board right not - not skip gates

doris kearns say in the daily beast that obama got to find his inner lbj:

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

[Johnson] often said that Congress had to be with you on the takeoff so they'd be with you on the landing. That philosophy Obama followed in giving Congress a leadership role in drafting the health care bill. After the debacle of the Clinton administration's secret task force it made double sense. And add to that the understanding that Democrats on the Hill have been waiting for years for their moment in the sun.

LBJ also understood that the president was the ultimate weapon and thus had to be held in reserve until the moment was right, but this is the critical moment we are at today. This is the moment, LBJ would suggest, when the president has to take charge, to draw lines, to pressure, to threaten, to cajole, to exert every resource of leadership he has—to put pressure on wavering Democrats to make it clear that losing health care will be a huge blow not only to him but to all Democrats who were brought into office on the promise of big change, and particularly on health care.

LBJ used to have big charts where he could know which congressman or senator he needed to call at every instant. He would then invite them to breakfast, cocktails, call them at any hour of the day or night. He called one senator at 3 a.m. and said to the senator, 'I hope I didn't wake you up,' and the senator replied, 'Oh no, I was just lying here hoping my president would call.' So this is the moment for Obama to mobilize his troops in the field, to play hard ball, to do whatever it takes to get a bill passed. LBJ once said it was fine if final votes were razor thin, even with big majorities in the Congress, for that meant he had secured the maximum provisions he wanted, rather than compromising too early and too much.

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

thats what im talking about, showtime

i have health care, my sister does not, 57 year old blackwoman w/o healthcare is a crime

gon send some money, that online petition dont speak to me, make some noises on rootsblog and fb
thats about it, no more than any civilian - this lack of influence in the realworld really irritate the old

conjureman, o i got longgame but i got no power in the world, i try to operate as a public intellectual
and i got a bit of profile, but not enough to affect the reality of things - that really dont do

it dont,  it really really dont

TUESDAY

i been trying not to hate on skip gates in this his hour of need but
this mugshot was more than i could resist - free skip gates

i suspect folk are going to try to make a cause out of it but its a small matter

i suspect skips towering sense of entitlement aggravated the interaction, how dare they do this to me

skip been up there in harvard so long he has likely forgot how to deal w/cops, something every black man learn

cant help but appreciate the irony because skip thought he was above all that - master of the postrace universe, might be a wakeup call for him but i doubt it

i been rousted myself and got all indignant, do i look like a thug to you - cop say sure you do - duhhh -

that professional black men get rousted is not news, might be news to skip but nobody else surprised

i empathize with him but forgive me if i dont get on the bandwagon w/this one, got too many real issues on the board, this dont barely count as news

man it feels good to be working again

in struggle we trust

rdoc

MONDAY: 9:57 so far so good

MONDAY: about 4 am id say

okay, been spinning my wheels for weeks now, so much for this raw manuscript phase, put what i got into the text and keep on pushing, work them out as i go along, i got to get moving again

apologies to folk for manuscripts unread, drafts of projects undelivered

novel been abusing me, and if novel not getting done, nothing else do either

i try, it just dont happen, if i aint writing and struggling, im resting

okay a couple of points and im gone,

1st; glad to see that barack has stepped to the plate on the health bill: dont bet against us he say, we gon get this done

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

So I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone:  We are going to get this done.  Inaction is not an option.  And for those nay-sayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us.  We are going to make this thing happen, because the American people desperately need it....

And so I understand people are a little nervous and a little scared about making change.  The muscles in this town to bring about big changes are a little atrophied, but we're whipping folks back into shape.  We are going to get this done.

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

thats more like it, this obsession w/being bi partisan has let the republicans jack him up repeatedly, rhetoric will continue but i believe he realize he gon have to ram this one through

last comment today kinda fitting as i gear back into the saddle w/rest for the weary

my boy sekou sundiata died july 18th two years ago, realized it yesterday and it put him on my mind, me and sekou was ace boon, thats my boy and its still hard to believe hes gone, ida thought he was immortal, even w/o his kidneys - me and sekou we lost about 7 prime years to a literary feud - im telling you they aint worth it

you be feuding with a literary companero and then all of a sudden they gone and you be like damn, i just wasted those years, samesame david earl jackson, literary fueds aint worth the cost (im calling these literary fueds but in both cases they started over a woman and escalated, hindsight)

work today, in honor of my boy sekou sundiata - may you live forever in your work and mine

facebooking in the digital age, who got time for frivolity when armies to be built

SATURDAY

traditional chiefs in ghana were surprised to learn their national organization is latest scheduled to bestow title king of kings on gadaffi, scheduled to happen in accra next week sometime

seems the president of the national house of chiefs, one naa prof. nabila, is latest stooge to be bought off in gadaffi's campaign to be anointed africas king of kings -

informed of pending coronation, traditional chiefs protest that gadafi isnt even in the organization, how did he get anointed its king - one eagerly awaits developments

okay, i think i got the groove on facebook, 1 post a day max, a couple a week even better, i check it when i do my morning news run, restrain my tendency to build armies (damn i like that phrase)

armies are built by establishing yourself as a font of spiritual and strategic advice
a fulcrum of empowerment - eventually folk are drawn to you as plants are to the sun

as much as it embarrass me to be so pontifical if i keep it up in a couple of years id have an army
looking to me for spiritual and strategic advice, im an ideological orchestrator, thats what i do

its my nature

thats the theory behind this blog really - spiritual and strategic advice = rickydocs regulators
then i look at my little meagre readership after some 5 years of doing this and im thinking well flowers

your little theory aint working - but i got just enuf regulators to stay in the game - cool, ill take it

facebook is fertile ground, in my sorceric youth i would have been all over that
just dont have the time now just dont have it - minimum maintenance is all it gets

got a little work done yesterday, hopefully im back in my groove, lost about 3 weeks i suspect, bummer

part of that was revising 2nd half in my head, got a feel for what i want now, feel daunted by how much work this reconcept will entail - ie raw manuscript - but such is life in the literary lane

got about a month of woodshed left - showtime, believe ima call on shango for this one - need all the help i can get

rdoc

FRIDAY A LITTLE LATER

major jackson post this on facebook, see what im saying, whats not to love

i had just got back from vietnam and high as i could be in knoxville tn 1st time i

heard whats going on album, blew me away, i remember that moment

to this day - marvin gaye, caught him live once in long island, trying to go cold turkey

on facebook and almost missed this one - what im gon do is add facebook to my

morning news run, check it once a day instead of many times a day, that will work

man i got to get some work done today, last couple of weeks been rough
get my work done and i wouldnt mind time on facebook

blog numbers been falling too, times like this i wonder if im just delusional

all this man of power stuff i be spouting, building my illusionary armies

im just not feeling it today, been getting a little work done this morning (4:47am)

good days work and i might feel better about the whole thing, right now i feel like a farce

rdoc

FRIDAY

heard that obama through down at the naacp centennial, more confident coming

down on the black hand side now that he in office, had a theme of responsiblity

that there is no excuse for failure, we are so on the same page with that

i am so tired of blackfolk laying around crying the blues instead of dealing with it

my standard line on that one is crying about racism is like a sailor cursing the sea

because its wet, surely by now we have factored racism into our strategic posture

im not saying dont fight against it, im saying dont let it define you

the whole speech is here on hufffington post  -  i put it on facebook, what the hell

just went thru checking my friend roll and i missed at lot, i give up, junkie is as junkie does

once a day

rdoc

THURSDAY EVENING

who out there believes that sarah palin actually wrote her washpost article attacking obamas energy policy - raise your hand

THURSDAY

i was reading in the huffington post that cia supervisor was boasting of putting fireants on a suspect during enhanced interrogation and then other cia folk saying he was just bullshitting, dont pay him no mind

i think im going to have to come down on the investigation side of bushadmin policies, im sympathetic to obama not wanting to be distracted from whats really important to him and us

but its just too many stories drip driping and if he dont want this as a constant distraction best

to just get it done

now the facebook junkie telling me aint no reason not to say that on facebook, close my eyes and i hear
those armies calling my name - but ima fight the addiction, see how long i can hold out

i got that bit about building armies from a comment chris brunt made to mikael awake, chris talking trash to mikael when he say out the clear blue - i am building an army against you -

mikeal say he need to quite playing so much risk so this may be an inside joke but it made the old conjureman tingle, thats all i do w/my discretionary time, build armies against folk - defeat other folks armies

o i been enjoying that facebook but i got to go, step back a little bit

i swear by the god of the game - once a week will suffice, maybe twice a week, that aint bad

stick with the politics, stay away from the soul work

interesting interview of guy wrote book about founding of facebook, say it will become a way of life
food for metathought maybe - my last facebook post for awhile (couple of days at least, lord)

its like a personal echo chamber - you build your little network of folk who share your
interests and that get constantly echoed back at you and you thrive in it

im probably missing something w/my neurotic insistence on the strategic
something significant happening there in terms of 21st century engagement

irregardless rickydoc cutting back the afterburners, step back, become more enigmatic

a ghost in the shadows - minimum maintenance

i tell far too much of what im really about on this blog, but thats my contract with you
facebook i been coming too strong, gon have to lower my profile, cant let the public game

outrun production

of works - thats weakness

i got to go

rdoc

WEDNESDAY EVENING

somebody stop me before i facebook again:

decided to do some political commentary before folk judged me a spaceranger only interested in soul work:  noted that republicans know they cannot stop sotomayor - what they trying to do is frame the debate so that she represent the extreme left so that subsequent nominations will be forced to the right of her, as the "cultural norm", ie conservative white male "neutrality" - strategically speaking they trying to get ahead of the game

got some comments, thats what i be trolling for, but thats it for me, cutting back on facebook, its fun but its distractive

im out

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, so adam banks started it, he asked on his facebook page if bootlegging was ever legit

i replied, i bootleg music all the time with no moral qualms, then 1 day i read folk bootlegging digital books and it was like whoa, wait just a minute now, but i think about it and think i got to be consistent here, i do it

to the musicians, (full disclosure, i buy a bunch of cds and itunes too) and in the final analysis its about distribution with me, getting my words, my works, my vision out there whether i get paid or not

online work you dont do it if you not willing to let it get stole

first  i clarify that not getting paid is an indulgence of established writers, i believe in young writers getting paid, valuing their work so other folk will (but you have to give away stuff when establishing yourself, i know i know)

im kinda nervous about this bootlegging post, i figure folk wont like this one, all my professional friends, my musician friends maybe, so i decide,  a couple of minutes after posting it im thinking im going to delete that one, but already my homegirl patricia spears jones has a reply, so you like folk stealing from you and you like to steal (w/an eclamation point)

chagrined i reply: o i didnt say like to be stole from, i said willing to be stole from, put it online and it will be poached, dynamic of the internet, 21st century literary life,

so anyway it generated a little commentary, which i of course enjoyed, but all the time im uncomfortable because i dislike the high pontificatory profile that come so natural to me

its a skill, establishing myself as a literary visionary, all i can say is its strategic, i do have point and
purpose, but it embarrass me sometime, pontificating like i do, that wouldbe prophet thing

so anyway in my head im thinking what i should have said, had a word misspelled dammit, should have said its the cut and paste that makes digital so fraught and so forth, i always do this, but im determined to move on

the next day though, binyavanga wainaina posts the following ;

Copyright Infringement Nairobi Star - Open Letter to William Pike
Dear Mr. William Pike,

Thank you for your letter dated 20th March 2009. I was very excited to receive correspondence from you. I heard about you, and the bold people of Kiss FM, open media to Uganda and Kenya even. I have been told what a tight and efficient business you run, that your radio station, Kiss FM is the most professionally run outfit in East Africa . Market surveys are taken, no decision is taken without good data. I have heard Caroline Mutuko call up Corrupt Pillars of Society and bring them down, and give them a good radio beating.

Will you allow me a moment to use your own brave journalistic methods? A few months ago, I was told that your newspaper, Nairobi Star, published an article that I wrote. I was surprised, of course, for nobody had asked me. I was doubly surprised, for your newspaper had done this before, early in 2008, and when I complained, I was told that it would never happen again.

Let us take a moment to talk about theft, and impunity. It is the season for this subject, is it not? To my own understanding, theft and impunity in Kenya comes when people who have power, money and influence gang together, as the human animal is wont to do, when motivation is needed to do something childish and immoral. Sometimes giggling happens. People occasionally huddle, like rugby props, and hug, gurgling loudly – as our parliamentarians did just after they found their blood soaked cake and were gorging it on live television last year – bitter enemies now friends - when we decided to buy peace with our tax money by having the biggest government in Kenyan history, and paying them more than an American Senator is paid. Yippie!

Now, of course this cannot be said for a newspaper as dedicated to the truth as yours! According to your letter, it was ignorance – that lead somebody in your editorial team to cut and paste my Mail and Guardian column, from their website, presumably, and lay it down gently onto your pages, and shoot it off to the printer, happy that a day’s serious journalism had been done.

Of course, I must believe you when you said, “We thought that Mr. Wainaina’s articles were freely available since they are posted on the internet.”

I must believe you when you say this, for you are an outfit with much invested in research and data. Clearly some researcher checked, and found out that Mother Binyavanga Theresa goes about the internet Freely Enabling rich profit-making media.

I must apologize too. For I was so upset when I first heard what you did, I hired a lawyer, who has cost me 500 US dollars so far. And the results of his efforts are a three line letter from you, shrugging, “Oops”, it said, and “do you think I really care?,” it suggested.

No apology in your paper.

I thought, well, clearly these guys have more legal stamina and money than I do, and really don’t care whether or not they steal my work, they just huddle and giggle, and say, argh, shoot him a quick few lines to send him away.

Why was I so pissed off by your letter, Mr. Pike? For you to say, that any kind of writing is “freely available” is disingenuous. You are no fool, and are playing the ignorant and naive African paper that “does not know better”. You show little concern for what I see as an act of theft masquerading as an innocent “error” - as you put it. For, nowhere have I said that my work is free, and no law or practice I know of, assumes that just because somebody’s work is available for reading on the internet, it is available for stealing for the purpose of profit, without consulting the writer, the newspaper that first published it, without even indicating where it was first published.

As you have now been informed that my work is not ‘freely available’ for your two second cut and pastes, you owe me money. Now, the thing is, I don’t come cheap. My rates differ, from place to place, but a good standard is one US dollar a word. You also owe me 500 dollars, for my lawyer, and an apology in your newspaper, and one that is not hidden away in size 4 font inside your classified section.

I will donate your 800 dollar fee to the Kenya Red Cross.

What will I do if you fail to do this? Not much. As you know, no Kenyan trusts our justice system. Oh, sorry, No Kenyan except Chief Justice Gicheru, and our president Mwai Kibaki.

I will continue this conversation in my blog, soon. For fun, you know.

Oh, and as an incentive for you, a two-for-one, I am happy to let you publish this piece as well, for no fee at all.

Binyavanga

(its on his facebook page, im not sure how to link you to it, im still a facebook newbie)

so snyway the temptation was too great and i leap back into the fray, posting letter to my wall getting my copy cut paste bit in, said all im saying is in the digital age its just copy cut paste, you do what you can but when you digitize your work you facilitate it being stole, if that freak you out you in the wrong business - amatuers borrow, professionals steal - that aint news, its just been digitized, literary life in the 21st century

my final post on the matter was that i dont put my fiction online, im not willing to let my fiction get stole, i put out enuf to tease/promote but nothing substantial - my nonfiction, well i accept that as the cost of being in the game

okay, well, i have to say i enjoyed that little to do, i do love stirring the pot, i can see this facebook can get addictive, will have to draw back though, been letting the mask slip, profile too high  - 

charismatic power the strength is in the restraint

the temptation for me is this hoodoo instinct to conquer, to position myself as a significant player and start building armies, highjohn the conqueror is my patron haint - ima hoodoo lord of the delta and power is what i do

but the hoodoo power mode is to low profile, to position yourself and just watch, the observer, constantly positioning yourself for strategic posture, and when you do feel the need to intervene it should be done with the lightest touch possible - so old rickydoc gon back up off the facebook as instrument initiative

plus that its taking up noveltime and thats a woodshed no no

do a brief post every week or so rick, not quite as pontifical one hopes, but the deal here is im almost 60, i aint got time to be talking for the sake of talking, everything i do strategic, designed to manifest my vision,

aint got time for frivolity

all my love

rdoc

 

thats what i get out of being a writer - i want to be there

TUESDAY: ec osundu: post #2

i havent been keeping up with my posts lately, been sweating this adoption thing since i got back to syracuse and lamenting all the projects i should have done this summer

that are so far undone,

but i was chatting facebook with ec osundu this morning and thought
about some ec commentary that i didnt do in 1st one posting as i was in city library and on the family run and gun

i remember when ec 1st got to syracuse, he had applied 1 year and didnt make it, he came back
the 2nd, me and george decided we liked his grit and his work, we put him on the list

then he had visa issues, missed the 1st year, bummer, came the 2nd, everybody loved him,
brilliant writer, very professionarial in his manner, very arrogant and resistant to criticism

took him about a year before he let anybody tell him anything, me and ec used to joke about
his nigerian bonafides, even then he was trying to figure out how he would be able to stay in the states

joked about all his friends in the states were hustling this and that and ec lamented that he
was not upholding the nigerian reputation for being a hustler and i would tell him you a hustler man

look at all you had to do to get here, look at how hard you work at what you do, and he had brought his

family with him and was taking care of them on his student stipend, ec a hard working man, remind me of that bit everydog has its day but its the bulldog get the weekend, i told him you a literary hustler

and one day its gon pay off, so this morning we chatting on facebook and i told him yeah man, i started write (on facebook) that you were the greatest nigerian hustler on the set

but i didnt think other folk would appreciate/understand it like we do, he say he woulda sued me, said he got to take care of his image now, i say cool that would have been good publicity for both of us

ive become a facebook addict, friended cassandra wilson the other day, you know that tickled me, met her once some 15, 20 years ago, picnic with her once after a concert in central park, hit on her somewhat of course, but nothing came of it and we not really friends but ima big fan so it was nice to reestablish contact

what i really want to do on facebook is get a list of syracuse mfa students for the last 10 years or so from terri and do a syracuse mfa page so they will all know each other cause i know them all and have friended the ones i have found to point where i got a serious syracuse mfa contingent but they only know about 2 years ahead and 2 behind of each other so the earlirer ones dont know the later ones and vice versa and then im thinking how to i hook up the ones coming in this year into that su mfa network so i got to set up a network where they can start helping leverage each other to the literary promiseland - it would be so nice of forge of them a literary mob

another good organizing idea that i am likely not to follow thru on, organizing writers is more hassle than herding cats ever could be -

speaking of mobs, im out, i did a post on facebook the other day:

arthur rickydoc flowers confess an immodest aspiration to be a writer of historical stature and significance - despite all evidence to the contrary he believe he still has a shot - if he does not make it he will die surprised

the responses warmed my heart, folk i respect talking about you already are an important writer arthur, i have to say i didnt expect that, i was being ruminative, expressing a regret that i have not as yet lived up to my early potential, they made me blush, deep purple, gave me inspiration to get back on this novel,

as always going home threw me off my game

in struggle we trust

all my love

rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world, old boy back in the cuse, family crises kept me running
but you know that just means that family crises kinda consistent

but cause im not there i dont dig in until i am, which makes me feel guilty
ohwell, life is rough no matter how you cut it

efforts to adopt nephew out of foster care moving into closure, thats gon be
a challenge - transporting family drama to the cuse - ohwell

good news is that my girl randycrawford has a new cd out, no regrets, randy my all time favorite
i ordered her cd cause i have everything she ever did and digital just wont cut it, randy i want it all

randy one of the few folk whose work has evolved over time and is still current, got a voice like a bell

this one is another collaboration with joe sample and this one is bluesier than most - o joy

deep jazz and blues too - o joy

no cuts on youtube yet, had to go to the vaults

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

wow, has it been a week, family got me rolling

only got a minute now, still in the delta et al

i see that sryacuse grad ed osundu won the caine prize

way to go ec, looking good, looking real real good

caine prize big african prize, big dinner at oxford, 10,000 pounds, month at georgetown, bragging rights

the 5 finalists were

• Mamle Kabu (Ghana) ‘The End of Skill’ from ‘Dreams, Miracles and Jazz’, published by Picador Africa, Johannesburg 2008

• Parselelo Kantai (Kenya) ‘You Wreck Her’, from the St Petersburg Review, NY 2008

• Alistair Morgan (South Africa) ‘Icebergs’, from The Paris Review no. 183, NY 2008

• EC Osondu (Nigeria) ‘Waiting' from Guernicamag.com, October 2008

• Mukoma wa Ngugi (Kenya) ‘How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile’, from ‘Wasafiri’ No54, Summer 2008, London

way to go ec, looking good

rdoc

WEDNESDAY MORNING:

about to hit the road for the delta, heard from oneko arica this morning when i did my last email check
drummer with band senta lain in kenya, hes in the states, hitting with pato banton

me and oneko hung tough one kwani/sls kenya couple of years ago

i did a performance with senta lain at the carnivore club in nairobi and it was one of the most

complete performances i ever did, it was amazing, 1st the carnivore itself is an amazing venue, hard to describe it, then the band, we did a full hit, and at one point michel played counterpoint to every word on his guitar, it was just incredible, one of the top 5 performance experiences ever for me and ive had some good ones

i bootlegged it so i had this terrible sound quality tape and have dreamed of bringing them to the states one day to hit with them again, if i die before doing that and folk trying to show some respect for my contribution, bring senta lain over to play at the throwdown

so anyway oneko tells me they have an cd out, he will send me a copy

i go on i tunes and download it right away cause i believe in supporting the arts and i want to encourage the industy to do more senta lain but im looking forward to a hardcopy from oneko

and i dont even collect cds anymore, ive sold most of my 1000s and only kept the ones that i consider special, a couple hundred, or ones that i would not be able to find easily should my digital collection ever get eaten by computer demons, but senta lain i want hardcopy

that performance was the 1st time i publicly performed as mganga maua, i had done a ritual performance earlier that day, this woman came up after and annointed me mganga maua, witchdoctor flowers she said, thats who you are

i tried some things that day, threw my little divination chain as part of the performance, the venue drove me to higher ground, specially since i was in east africa, i felt like higher ground was called for, birthplace of humanity and all that

it was reading about east african prophets that i was informed that the difference between a diviner and a prophet diviner in many of their cultures was that the diviner did private readings for clients, the diviner prophet also did public readings for the whole tribe

every since then i been trying to publicly manifest the prophetic, mganga maua in the house

it was senta lain that took that evening over the top, they provided the beat and i climbed on top of it

and we took the roof off the carnivore club, not that it has a roof anyway, it was a magical evening

im gone, i got to get on the road, all my love

rdoc

MONDAY

clocking pages more or less - look here, never ask god what next cause you liable to get an answer
sister has took sick down in the delta, my mothers full time care person down, that mean both of them in jeopardy

i got to go south

dont get no work done when i go to the delta, nothing but 1 family crises after the next
but what can you do except what you can, im gone, have to try to keep the big mo,

this morning i been listening to hugh masekela, there is one song of his remind me of safiya henderson holmes

when she was dying of cancer, some friend offered her a coolout weekend in hamptons so i drove her out
and it was one of the highpoints of my life, it took all day but me and safiya had a wonderful time

it was a memorable memory, the kind you live for - she died fairly soon after but there one masekela
everytime i hear it i think of safiya - she heard it 1st time that day & loved it, forced me to play it over and over

i complained vociferously but now everytime i hear it i feel the love -
i dont know the name of it, i call it trekking w/safiya

another favorite masekela of mine is send me, where he talk about struggle, say he want to be there when the people
turn it around, when they triumph... on a hunch i went to youtube and there it was, masekela, send me, talk about oldschool

must be masekela, cause im feeling the love now
for all of you, for my family, the world, everybody

thats what i get out of being a writer, writing books i hope
will serve the generations, its all about the love

i want to be there

rickydocs top 10 list of gualag states: the global order and the human condition

SUNDAY

okay, 1st somalia cut off 1 hand 1 leg of the teenagers in photo for stealing
thats digusting, as is the stoning stuff too,

also disgusting is michael beys transformers gratuitous racism in rotf
i have to confess that i wasnt going to pay good money to see that movie anyway

but what i have heard about skids and mudflaps makes me feel bad
its like why in this day and age would he go out of his way to dump on blackfolk

and then he say, they just robots, lighten up, i guess old redwhiteandblue optimus prime
is just a robot too, signifying nothing, the whole movie is robots

not only are they little jar jar me so crazy, ghetto kids but they are cowards that cant read, was that necessary

apparently upon reflection he got some other rightwing kicks in there too, a gratuitous slap on
obama, some jockstap misogomy, i dont support rightwing screeds no matter how entertaining

ist 1 i looked at it when it came on hbo, this 1 i wont bother

what offends me is that he thinks he can take a gratuitous punch at blackfolk and not pay a cost for it
well they wont be getting my money, though i have to admit they wouldnt have gotten any of it anyway

SATURDAY

system back but now i got a pinched nerve in shoulder,
im a 1 handed typist now, what next lord, what else i got to fight

supreme court say strip searching 13 year old girl over ibuprofen over the line, 8 to 1 against
it, everybody except for, you guessed it, clarence thomas - he is such an embarrassment

saw this wonderful movie last night, a john sayles movie, honeydripper, about a delta jook
and magical guitar players, danny glover plays oldschool piano player in need of new tricks

he enjoys those worldweary roles, and establishing himself a nice little legacy, keb mo plays this blind bluesman see all, some young boy plays one of the earliest bluesmen to electrify his guitar, him and chinabell take the show

delta blues family & the little community come thru nicely, it was a wonderful little blues movie

made my little delta heart full (i think it was actually alabama but what the hell)

well, im gone, clocking pages 1 handed require a little more time,

been listening to little axe this morning, what i call them wolf house blues

that was a damn good movie

im out

rdoc

THURSDAY

well the king is dead, ive always liked his music but he was just too wierd
i once read that writers are judged by their worst when theyre alive, their best when theyre dead

my fav mj song is the man in the mirror, speaks to my own struggle to be
"im starting w/the man in the mirror, im asking him to change his ways..."

then i would think when he looked in the mirror what did he see, and what did he do with it
and it would kinda ruin it for me

now that hes dead i guess i can enjoy it w/o feeling somehow soiled

i grew up with michael jackson, from the jackson 5 to his faded out maturity
and if he has strayed at times too far afield in his journey, well so have i

ah but look at the legacy

michael jackson, the passing of an era, R.I.P.

WEDNESDAY 909 AM

i think dear regulators that im going to deal myself a hand in the healthcare reform bill
in terms of trying to back obamas play here, send him some money for it, put some

strategic analysis on it here, i feel like such a fool when i try to contribute to a realworld struggle
my total lack of influence on the way of things becomes glaringly apparent, but what can you do

except be a teamplayer and play your little part best you can

my sister doesnt have heathcare, i cannot imagine a life w/o healthcare

i see the forces of evil trying to derail obama on this one, dont worry bout it man, i got your back

ima do my part on this one, neglible though it be, more on this later but right now i got to clock my pages
i been strong last couple of days, might make my deadline after all, pray for me

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY  6:22 am

clocking pages, back in the game

okay, since iran got it on my mind, rickydocs top 10 gulag states
where its citizens are repressed and yearning to be free

ima big scifi fan and in those spaceoperas you often have the free systems
and the slave systems and the free folk always trying to free the slaves

im reminded of the american civil war just now

so anyway let me label what ima call the worlds gulag states, that chokehold their own
this has got to be controversial, a couple i know are going to irritate folk if i had commentators

which i dont so here we go, i will do them alphabetically, dont want to get caught up in rating repression
i notice i dont have any western democracies here, that dont seem politically correct do it but i call it as i see it,

the west way of rule is by trickery not outright repression, rule by game and, if its trick to trick i will take my chances

i call myself a player too and if you outtrick me and mine, i consider that my fault, that just mean i got to step up my game

i could put america down as an oppressive empire if that make you feel better, the case can be made that it represses the world and if im going to call out israel for repressing palestinians, i guess i should call out america for repressing its minorities, but its not military repression its trickeration, i feel like thats a level playing field, i got tricks too - i am rickydoc trickmaster, horse of the conqueror

everything is relative, states that call themselves democratic, islamic, marxist, socialist, capitalist,  jewish, etc, they all on the list - basically my criteria is states that i personally wish would set their people free, cases like sudan and israel, a reasonable portion thereof

ima keep this down to 10 cause even as i speak i think of little repressive states that fit my criteria but arent big enuf to be strategically significant, bunch of african, arabic, east bloc countries - i want to free them too

some choices arbitrary, could have used egypt where i put saudi arabia but they feel like the basically the same and egypt repression based on politics, saudi arabia repression based on religion and that seem to offend me more - the old hoodooman cannot abide a thief of souls

i fear (if folk took me seriously) ihis list would offend old allies in struggle, jews (israel) and the left
(venezuela/cuba) but what can i do, my geas say call it like i see it, chavez be repressing, israel too

i think venzuela got in because i am personally disappointed that chavez use such a hard
line, i approve of his game, but i dont think i approve of his means

somalia is an awkward choice, not really repressing its people but the system is hostile to the human
condition and i would like to set the people free, and its african too, put this one down as a personal

what i need to do is go to some human rights org and get a ready made list but that aint my style
if the process doesnt clarify for you your own sense of justice what is the point

1)   burma
2)   cuba
3)   china
4)   iran
5)   israel
6)   sudan
7)   north korea
8)   somalia
9)   venezuela
11)  zimbabwe

doing this i realize how subjective this judgemnt is, this the list of countries rickydoc personally find most problematic in terms of the global order and the human condition

the states i personally wish would set their people free, i suspect there are countries you think shouldnt be on this list, some you think should

what would your list be

rdoc

sotomayor and refresher research: black soldiers during civil war

 
FRIDAY

washpost interviewer asking author of the hemingses of monticello about barack obama and her ansswer:

Given your research into this racially mixed family, how would you answer this: Is Barack Obama the nation's first black president, or the nation's first biracial president?

Well, going by his own self-designation, and by the history of this country, he's the first black president. He was treated as a black person growing up, and a majority of black Americans have some white ancestry, we know that now from genetic research . . . blackness in America is by definition multiracial. I wouldn't have any hesitancy in describing him as the first black president.

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

as long as blackfolk are the despised of the earth racial identity will be a fraught decision

but listen o ye travelers to the geas of rickydoc and i will give you a mission greater than your adversity

i will give you a destiny

rdoc

 THURSDAY

had a  scare yesterday,

picked up book of night women by marlon james

jamaican writer, in which he uses a lot of the narrative innovations im using in rest for the weary

im like god help me some young turk has done 1st what i was going to dazzle the literary world with

but the more i look at it i see where

we doing enuf different that im only losing maybe 30% of my dazzle,

also picked up bolanos 2666 and drood by dan simmons

now the question is do i actually read them

i dont know that i want this boy james in my head while im trying to do closure

i got manuscripts on my plate ive agreed to read for people too

you always planning big blocks of writing time and life never cooperates - you end up squeezing out what you can, just like always

im gone

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

so Im in my historical section now and last time i worked this was years ago - so this morning i realize my civilwar campaign dates are off, i got the battle of brice crossroads before fort pillow and that aint historically correct - so im doing some refresher research on black soldiers during the civil war and ran up on this account of the stone river campaign

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

While the generals planned, then men lay down in the mud and rocks trying to get some sleep. The bands of both armies played tunes to raise the men's spirits. It was during this "battle of the bands" that one of the most poignant moments of the war occurred. Sam Seay of the First Tennessee Infantry described what happened that evening.

“Just before ‘tattoo' the military bands on each side began their evening music. The still winter night carried their strains to great distance. At every pause on our side, far away could be heard the military bands of the other. Finally one of them struck up ‘Home Sweet Home.' As if by common consent, all other airs ceased, and the bands of both armies as far as the ear could reach, joined in the refrain."

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

that was kind of poignant i thought -

believe ima have to use that in rest for the weary - research, dont you just love it

research for a novel, in particular a historical one, is unrelenting, i enjoy it myself, if anything you have to discipline yourself or you will just keep Researching when you should be Writing

that painting is of a victory of the 1st kansas, when they rose up out the grass to stop a rebel calvary charge

kinda like obama with that sotomayor supreme court nomination, thats as deft as bush 1 picking clarence

throws the opp off their game, they dont want to alienate the hispanic vote so they wont be able to mount a fierce enuf defense to derail her

obama got his game on with this one

threw the repubs off and mollified hispanic resentment over cabinet appointments - payback for their electoral support last year, soft support, slack, tardy, and tentative - depending on what obama do w/immigration, this lock them in for the next go round - you go boy, you the player

my understanding is the admin have a three phase strat for getting her thru

1st shape the initial 48 - 72 hour news cycle

then two more phases which i have forgotten, cause im feeling fidgety, didnt get a lot of work done today, spent damn near the whole work day on refresher research - damnit

i got to go

rdoc

poets gone wild: dereck walcott, ruth padel, the oxford poetry chair and aspirational terrorism: poetic justice

TUESDAY

okay i call this post poets gone wild or even better poetic justice

naw, i prefer poets gone wild

btw: 11:15 am and already i got 6 pages - i feel a zone coming on

when the work flowing like rainwater and you dont want to eat, sleep, nothing but work - this what i live for - the zone - now where was i - right, the real world

okay, seems dereck walcott was up for the prestigious oxford poetry chair

suddenly old sexual harassment charges were dredged up, mostly a 1982 class in which he asked a student to consider a poetic exercise:

"imagine me making love to you, what would i do?"

(it take a poet to consider that an effective pickup line)

then anon packets sent out to 100 judges w/copies from a book recounting a 1996 allegation - in neither case were his attempts successful but we got to assume it worked once or twice

ruth padel, walcotts rival for the post say she shocked i say shocked anybody could stoop so low, as to smear her respected colleague, she say this reflects badly on poetry

walcot, 79, drops out after complaining about lowblow character assassination, this becomes news

one wag, one michael deacon got in the game by channeling the dorian gray dude, wrote that unlike great novelists, great poets are by nature reprobates:

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

Imagine if Dylan Thomas, for example, were around to apply for the Oxford post today. Thomas drank like a drain, begged and stole from friends, fought with his wife in public, had affairs, and on at least one delightful occasion is said to have defecated on a host’s floor.

TS Eliot: another unsuitable candidate. Plough through his collected works and you’ll find, eventually, lines that could be construed as racist, and others as anti-semitic.

Then again, Eliot was as nothing next to Philip Larkin, who in private letters to friends and his mother wrote all manner of racist and sexist things. In one letter, he complained about the noise made by black spectators at a cricket match he’d attended at Lord’s, and expressed his regret that there hadn’t been any heavily armed South African police present. (For more, much more, see Anthony Thwaite’s excellent Selected Letters of Philip Larkin.) A few years ago, Channel 4 broadcast a tape Larkin had recorded of himself drunkenly singing, at home, a ditty he’d written urging the expulsion of immigrants, and prison sentences for workers who went on strike. Loved pornography, too. Oh, and he cheated on his girlfriends.

Byron: womaniser. Coleridge: drug fiend. Pound: fascist sympathiser. Yeats: snob. Crane: alcoholic. Keats: smackhead. Kipling: imperialist. Hughes: another womaniser. Poe: married a 13 year-old. Verlaine: jailed for shooting one of his friends. Lawrence: pervert. Betjeman: had a bit of a temper on him, apparently. And don’t let’s get started on John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. The booze, the sexually transmitted diseases, the mistresses, the page boys...

All of these men, our anonymous epistolary guardians might grudgingly concede, knew a thing or two about putting words together, chopping them into lines and all that carry-on. But not one of them, were they alive today, could hope to land the Oxford post; they just don’t meet the exacting moral standards set by people who conduct smear campaigns.

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

all men, what he trying to say

so okay, padel is chosen, 1st woman oxford poetry person, right after 1st woman poet laureate appointed, so far so good, padel says its a shame her friend and 'revered colleague' dereck got knee capped

then the telegraph publishes emails from padel to journalists (emails? from her computer? with her name
on them? did she not realize she was leaving a digital trail? - poets)

not only did she rat him out she called his age into question, suggest that he actually lives in the
caribbean not britain, and whatever else she thought appropriate

after continued denials amid increasing calls from the british literati to resign she did so

i have to say listening to her statement i felt bad for both of them

i remember when i realized i was the real thing as a young cub and that my personal business

was going to be in the streets for folk to assess and disect and write about and almost decided that maybe i didnt

want to be a writer after all - then i decide it is a small price to pay to be historically significant

well she did make history didnt she, raised her literary profile too - its all good

both of them will get a good poem or two out of it, thats all we ask

god i love the literary life

rdoc

MONDAY

so he did it, there was some question, as to if obama would send a wreath to the confederate

soldiers memorial, the consensus is that he would do so rather than open that issue, and compensate

by sending a wreath to the african american union soldiers memorial and thats exactly what he did,

i started to comment on that a couple of days ago, wish i had, then i would have been prescient and i like being prescient in my commentary, feels ...well...so... prophetic

utimately decided it wasnt significant enuf to waste posting time but i

while following confederate memorial links i found a lot of interesting articles/websites on slavery and southern mythwork that it wasnt that bad

including those talked about the mammy on the southern soldiers memorial

i think me and boy obama going to have to respectfully disagree on this one, not a deal breaker but i would have played it different

forget the diehards, let them choke  -  was reading a comment in the times week in review said that the defeated

south maintained defacto slavery through reconstruction et al iuntil, the article said, the election of obama

that statement was open to commentary on so many levels

ran across this washpost bit that started: A disturbing new study debunks the idea that slave-owners cared about the men and women who worked for them. While no one would suggest that slave-owners were generally motivated by feelings of affection, one line of thinking has asserted that slaves were not only the personal property of their owners but figures that slave-masters cared about paternalistically and even lovingly -- a narrative exemplified in books such as "Gone With The Wind."

excuse me: disturbing? debunks? what critical thinker believes in the southern mythwork of the paternal slave owner, (obviously many of the commenters to this article, many of whom respond w/the red herring of the african slave traders bit)

i thought toni laid that paternal slaverowner bit to rest with beloved, clearly there will be nuances of 'affection' for particular slaves but who cares

did a piece for oxford on nathan bedford forrest and the southern apologists who would make of him a hero

how i am trying to use mythwork to take down the devil, dont know how they will respond to it, might be a little controversial in southern literary circles cause i attack southern icons like shelby foote et al (and of cours NBF himself)

when i was following the confederate memorial links i ended up where i always do, fort pillow

something personal in fort pillow for me, youd think one of my ancestors died there or something

was reading that time mags toure review of whiteheads new novel sag harbor and he came out of this post race bag

that so often makes me wonder if im out of step with my times, guess that just have to be so

i try to be sophisticated and cosmopolitan with it, but ima live and die in the struggle

i look at my neglible readership, both here and my works, and wonder anew am i out of step

i suspect i do this blog more for me than you, my little platform to say things i want to say

kinda like my novel, im not writing it for you, im writing this for future generations

hoping i get more respect from them than i get in my own time - the prophets curse

or should we say the visionarys curse - a little less hubraic maybe

a luta continua

rdoc

btw: 4 pages today, got over a major hump, life is good

SUNDAY

hello world, feeling a little panicky, month almost gone and ive done about 20 pages

thats less than a page a day, that wont get me to the promised land, got to find me another gear

was reading this website walking folk thru the mfa application process

good info for anybody considering the mfa - im always encouraging my undergrads, then i pay when every spring semester 4, 5, 6 of them apply for syracuse behind all the encouragement i gave them to go for the mfa and the literary life

round about their junior year is when i start orienting those who have talent and an expressed interest in the literary life toward that mfa

start working on their submissions/applications

every spring semester i have to endure disappointing my undergrads, left up to me our entire incoming class would be syracuse undergrads i been nurturing,

instead i have to recluse myself from judging them

but im the one have to tell them no, you didnt make the cut - yeah i know, im the one said you had the potential of greatness in you

lets hope i also gave you the fortitude not to let no rejection stop the show, hopefully i prepared you better than that

proper literary response to all setbacks is i will show you

whats really rough is they still on campus, its an awkward semester, part of the process is shotgunning the best schools for them and hopefully somebody snatched them up, still it hurts to turn down folk i myself encouraged, and see that talent/potential get nurtured by somebody else

students have become so important to me in this my 50th decade that i want to work a mentor/student thread
into rest for the weary but it will have to be on the fly cause i cant stop the novel flow, its showtime - stictly closure now

this website also included a ranking of mfa programs, syracuse came in 11 on this ranking, 20 on old usnews listing

neither one of these are acceptable, we at least top 10, i got to finish my novel so i take some of the
pressure off george when it come to literary rep, dont want to be the weak link in the chain

wish either one of the marys, caponegro or gaitskill, had stayed, both of them raised the syracuse fiction faculty bar

was some interesting work on how to go about applying for mfa, may put process here when i get a moment

basically said the criteria is funding, faculty, structure, location - or something of that sort

nice to see the brother put forth to take over nasa, thats in keeping with my vision

of blackfolk as a star faring folk  -  those of you know me know i think space is the place

that i think one planet is not enuf to insure survival of the species, accidents happen

nukes, global warming, astroids, accidents happen - planets die

planets shrug and people die, the universe shrugs and planets die

got to spread out, enhance the chance of human survival, and i would like blackfolk to be

at the forefront of that, it is the geas of rickydoc - spaceranger supreme

1 month and 20 pages, god help me that wont do, 2 months left that will be 40 pages
instead of the 80 or so i need to be thru -

you got to double up rick, but then ima want some manuscript clean up time - you got to triple up rick

new gear rick - focus

rdoc

FRIDAY

two recent gallop polls with different reads, one says republican identification surging neck and neck
the other, equally recent, says that republicans losing ground in all political democragphics - go figure

are the repubs making a comeback already, thats a bummer

also a bummer to see those 'terrorist' arrested yesterday are 4 black men who converted in prison

a replay of the liberty 6, black men of limited understanding and blumbling plots, playing at jihad

set up by government informers, who make their foolishness manifest

some of the most dignified folk ive met are those islamic prison converts but then you got some folk whose idea of islam basically boils down to not eating pork. 

james comities sister said, “right now, to me he’s, like, the dumbest person I ever came in contact with in my life,”

i probably wouldnt go that far but i dont find a have a lot of sympathy for these folk,

thats all we need, some misguided african american terrorists who actually do approach it w/some competence, instead of the losers they call  'aspirational terrorists,'

which i guess is a blessing, a pitiful little blessing but i take what i can get - kinda like clocking pages

really need to go over what i did yesterday one more time but im liable to keep pushing because i need the momentum, dont know that i can take another day of not moving forward

love getting up every day struggling with the page, but the frustration level is also high
when you struggle all day and move hardly at all and all you got to look forward to tomorrow

is more of the same, it gets tedious and boring, but god help me this is what i live for

before i go: an article in higher education about boyce watkins denial of tenure up at the cuse
sorry he didnt get tenure, i can feel his pain, but truth be told he fumbled the ball

i feel him though, that tenure process is real humbling, english dept probably more flexible than the finance dept and i had the support of my chair, my fellow traverler in that great fraternity, the mystic knights of the sea, bob gates, it makes a difference, even still at one point i was like

forget this, im not going to be treated like this, im walking - but i could not figure out how to explain
to bonnie that i had walked away from a good job cause they hurt my feelings, she wasnt going to

be cool with that - domesticated man have to abandon his free spirit principles - thats life

im out, its 6 am and already ive frittered away part of my writing day

all my love

rdoc

obama and cheney: warring for americas soul: the text

THURSDAY

well you know i been staying away from politic, figured id let obama handle his game, i will handle mine

but every once in awhile i think something so important that i take a hand in the game

these dueling speeches this morning rate so to me, a little contention over the soul of america

in this corner, barack obama, saying we can take the highroad and still win, that in fact we will win only by doing so on the highroad

in the opposing corner we got mad dick cheney saying anything goes

got obama standing firm in the face of pressure from left and right

proud of you boy, handle your game

so anyway let me give you some highlights from obamas speech
if you want to see cheneys welcome to go here

interesting that cheney has become the voice of the bush admin, they dont
even try to maintain facade of bush as anything but the empty suit he was

john cole say its clear these days who the HMFIC was

obama on the defensive on this one, taking punches from left and right

what ive decided on obama is i believe in his strategics, i believe in his longgame,
so i give him benefit of the doubt on his tactical moves - im with you boy

so 1st he start off talking about steps hes taken to keep ameria safe, then he say

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

These steps are all critical to keeping America secure. But I believe with every fiber of my being that in the long run we also cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our most fundamental values. The documents that we hold in this very hall -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights -- these are not simply words written into aging parchment. They are the foundation of liberty and justice in this country, and a light that shines for all who seek freedom, fairness, equality, and dignity around the world.

I stand here today as someone whose own life was made possible by these documents. My father came to these shores in search of the promise that they offered. My mother made me rise before dawn to learn their truths when I lived as a child in a foreign land. My own American journey was paved by generations of citizens who gave meaning to those simple words -- "to form a more perfect union." I've studied the Constitution as a student, I've taught it as a teacher, I've been bound by it as a lawyer and a legislator. I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never, ever, turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake.

I make this claim not simply as a matter of idealism. We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and it keeps us safe. Time and again, our values have been our best national security asset -- in war and peace; in times of ease and in eras of upheaval.

Fidelity to our values is the reason why the United States of America grew from a small string of colonies under the writ of an empire to the strongest nation in the world.

It's the reason why enemy soldiers have surrendered to us in battle, knowing they'd receive better treatment from America's Armed Forces than from their own government.

It's the reason why America has benefitted from strong alliances that amplified our power, and drawn a sharp, moral contrast with our adversaries.

It's the reason why we've been able to overpower the iron fist of fascism and outlast the iron curtain of communism, and enlist free nations and free peoples everywhere in the common cause and common effort of liberty.

From Europe to the Pacific, we've been the nation that has shut down torture chambers and replaced tyranny with the rule of law. That is who we are. And where terrorists offer only the injustice of disorder and destruction, America must demonstrate that our values and our institutions are more resilient than a hateful ideology.

After 9/11, we knew that we had entered a new era -- that enemies who did not abide by any law of war would present new challenges to our application of the law; that our government would need new tools to protect the American people, and that these tools would have to allow us to prevent attacks instead of simply prosecuting those who try to carry them out.

Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight; that all too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us -- Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens -- fell silent.

In other words, we went off course. And this is not my assessment alone. It was an assessment that was shared by the American people who nominated candidates for President from both major parties who, despite our many differences, called for a new approach -- one that rejected torture and one that recognized the imperative of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Now let me be clear: We are indeed at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates. We do need to update our institutions to deal with this threat. But we must do so with an abiding confidence in the rule of law and due process; in checks and balances and accountability. For reasons that I will explain, the decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable -- a framework that failed to rely on our legal traditions and time-tested institutions, and that failed to use our values as a compass. And that's why I took several steps upon taking office to better protect the American people.

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

then he make the case for closing guantanamo to enhance our security in the world
and stay true to our principles, the he step up

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

Now let me be blunt. There are no neat or easy answers here. I wish there were. But I can tell you that the wrong answer is to pretend like this problem will go away if we maintain an unsustainable status quo. As President, I refuse to allow this problem to fester. I refuse to pass it on to somebody else. It is my responsibility to solve the problem. Our security interests will not permit us to delay. Our courts won't allow it. And neither should our conscience.

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

he go from there to address the complaints hes gotten from left and right
that he will release dangerous prisoners in the usa or anywhere
that we are not capable of keeping dangerous terrorists in supermax prisons
the explain to left why he changed his mind on the photos,

the pundits been giving cheney the round but thats because obama had so much more ground he had to cover, he trying to govern, cheney just trying to cripple him, cause doubt and confusion, obama full of nuance, cheney quick and dirty, cheney might be making short points but obama got the longgame

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

There's a core principle that we will apply to all of our actions. Even as we clean up the mess at Guantanamo, we will constantly reevaluate our approach, subject our decisions to review from other branches of government, as well as the public. We seek the strongest and most sustainable legal framework for addressing these issues in the long term -- not to serve immediate politics, but to do what's right over the long term. By doing that we can leave behind a legacy that outlasts my administration, my presidency, that endures for the next President and the President after that -- a legacy that protects the American people and enjoys a broad legitimacy at home and abroad.

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

We see that, above all, in the recent debate -- how the recent debate has obscured the truth and sends people into opposite and absolutist ends. On the one side of the spectrum, there are those who make little allowance for the unique challenges posed by terrorism, and would almost never put national security over transparency. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are those who embrace a view that can be summarized in two words: "Anything goes." Their arguments suggest that the ends of fighting terrorism can be used to justify any means, and that the President should have blanket authority to do whatever he wants -- provided it is a President with whom they agree.

Both sides may be sincere in their views, but neither side is right. The American people are not absolutist, and they don't elect us to impose a rigid ideology on our problems. They know that we need not sacrifice our security for our values, nor sacrifice our values for our security, so long as we approach difficult questions with honesty and care and a dose of common sense. That, after all, is the unique genius of America. That's the challenge laid down by our Constitution. That has been the source of our strength through the ages. That's what makes the United States of America different as a nation.

I can stand here today, as President of the United States, and say without exception or equivocation that we do not torture, and that we will vigorously protect our people while forging a strong and durable framework that allows us to fight terrorism while abiding by the rule of law. Make no mistake: If we fail to turn the page on the approach that was taken over the past several years, then I will not be able to say that as President. And if we cannot stand for our core values, then we are not keeping faith with the documents that are enshrined in this hall. (Applause.)

The Framers who drafted the Constitution could not have foreseen the challenges that have unfolded over the last 222 years. But our Constitution has endured through secession and civil rights, through World War and Cold War, because it provides a foundation of principles that can be applied pragmatically; it provides a compass that can help us find our way. It hasn't always been easy. We are an imperfect people. Every now and then, there are those who think that America's safety and success requires us to walk away from the sacred principles enshrined in this building. And we hear such voices today. But over the long haul the American people have resisted that temptation. And though we've made our share of mistakes, required some course corrections, ultimately we have held fast to the principles that have been the source of our strength and a beacon to the world.

Now this generation faces a great test in the specter of terrorism. And unlike the Civil War or World War II, we can't count on a surrender ceremony to bring this journey to an end. Right now, in distant training camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives. That will be the case a year from now, five years from now, and -- in all probability -- 10 years from now. Neither I nor anyone can stand here today and say that there will not be another terrorist attack that takes American lives. But I can say with certainty that my administration -- along with our extraordinary troops and the patriotic men and women who defend our national security -- will do everything in our power to keep the American people safe. And I do know with certainty that we can defeat al Qaeda. Because the terrorists can only succeed if they swell their ranks and alienate America from our allies, and they will never be able to do that if we stay true to who we are, if we forge tough and durable approaches to fighting terrorism that are anchored in our timeless ideals. This must be our common purpose.

I ran for President because I believe that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together. We will not be safe if we see national security as a wedge that divides America -- it can and must be a cause that unites us as one people and as one nation. We've done so before in times that were more perilous than ours. We will do so once again.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

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

okay okay, i gave you more than i planned to, so sue me

i gotta go, gotta clock my pages while the clocking good

all my love

rdoc