[Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge

[Phil Nisbet]

Joan

The poetry is thus;

Promises

We make them we break them and vow to do better. Where broken promises lead.

By Phillip C Nixbet

Do you take this woman?

I took and I left for the hills
Seeking in distant climes
Driven by self ambitions
To prove myself to my kind

To have and to hold?

She was had but not held
She was haltered to hearth
Tied by a chain to my will
Her soul in that tethered condition
Bleed itself white of its hopes
And carried her down to perdition

In sickness or health, for richer for poorer?

And how would I know, was I there?
My pay was the solo observer
As good timing dandy came home
Where were the smiles, just look as these 'things'
I am giving you all that I have to give
So surely dear woman your heart should have wings

Forsaking all others?

And now I taste the sylabants
That proclaim the deeds much forsaken
The death contemplated is passions demise
Reds that have weathered to brownish rust
Killers of trust in the brown of her eyes

Till death do you part?

I want, was a mantra, a chant in my lingua
And wanting is all that it bought
Now I count out the lucre expended
And seek for the lessons it taught
As a sad bit of paper is crumbled to dust
And ashes to ashes, it’s ended

Is there any here, who know reason?



>From: Joan Opyr <joanopyr at earthlink.net>
>To: "Phil Nisbet" <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com>
>CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge
>Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 21:51:04 -0800
>
>On 22 Jan 2006, at 20:27, Phil Nisbet wrote:
>
>>Joan
>>
>>Actually, Tom and every person in the service is required to take that 
>>oath every time they enlist, so repeating it more than once is actually 
>>required.  And Tom did not note that as a member of any of the major 
>>Veterans Organizations, we repeat the oath on joining and repeat it on our 
>>annual renewing of membership as part of the charter we have as Vets with 
>>the US Congress.
>
>I knew this; my father was in the Air Force and, later, the National Guard. 
>  I also live with a career Marine, Capt. Donald R. Huskey, USMC (Ret.)  
>Don had a very interesting career -- he was an enlisted man who "mustanged" 
>up.  I don't know if the Corps still makes a distinction between "regular" 
>officers and Mustangs, but back in the day, there was separate housing for 
>the two groups.  Also, the former thought the latter were declasse, and the 
>latter thought the former were candy-assed.
>
>>I wrote a fairly good poem at one point about the lack of faith in the 
>>real portions of marriage vows and failing to actually think about and 
>>renew them.  I have to think that had I been wiser and repeated them to 
>>myself, I might just have managed to be a better husband and still 
>>married.  And that is not about chasing tail, but about forgetting the 
>>real parts of those vows that were about supporting through thick and thin 
>>and not being too tied up in oneself alone.
>>
>>Many people proclaim that they have allegiance to the United States, but 
>>that includes people like David Duke and a host of people who have no 
>>desire to see the Constitution or the Bill of Rights upheld.  Many people 
>>give tribute to the flag, but refuse to stand up for the principles that 
>>the flag itself represents.  The Pledge at least forces some to look at 
>>what being an American is really about.  Perhaps it should include more of 
>>what you have in the Pledge you designed for yourself and I for one would 
>>be glad if the council started its meetings with just such a pledge.
>
>You and I are in complete accord on both of these points.  Marriage is not 
>about the wedding day; it's about constantly renewing the commitment to one 
>another.  And that is hard.  That takes practice.  I'm sorry to see the 
>Bush Administration wasting my tax dollars pushing marriage; most people 
>want to get married.  That's not the problem.  It's actually being married 
>that's the trick.  The gap between the fantasy and the real day-to-day is 
>immense.  I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but try to imagine life 
>in the after marriage Bennett/Darcy home.  Elizabeth is still Elizabeth and 
>Mr. Darcy is still Mr. Darcy, and, suddenly, one of the world's best-loved 
>romances morphs into Cool Hand Luke.  "What we have here is a failure to 
>communicate."
>
>This is no reflection on Melynda (though it might well be a reflection on 
>me) but I feel an irresistible urge to quote Lord Byron:
>
>"It is easier to die for the woman you love than to live with her."
>
>[I hope you'll share your poem, on list or off.  I enjoyed the other poems 
>you gave me at the Grange meeting.  For those who were unaware of this, 
>Phil is a very accomplished poet.  I'd like to read some of his work on the 
>radio show sometime.  How about it, Phil?  Now I've publicly exposed your 
>deep, dark secret -- your talent for composing verse!]
>
>>If there is no higher power, than men have the right to tell us what our 
>>rights are.  That means that human beings who happen to come to power have 
>>the right to distribute rights to the people who are in the minority.  So 
>>to me I would have to say that we would have to invent G-d if he does not 
>>exist, because only the presence of a higher power demands that feeble men 
>>not grab and assert control over what our liberties should be.
>>
>>The G-d mentioned then is not anybody's G-d, it is the higher power that 
>>Jefferson refered to as "their creator", which in its very construction 
>>tells you he meant that not to be one single religions G-d, but all the 
>>G-d's that men worship.
>>
>>The same goes for the generic In G-d We Trust which is a statement that we 
>>do not put our trust in men to uphold our rights. but rather place our 
>>trust in which ever G-d we worship and keep our powder dry to defend our 
>>rights.
>
>You're right about keeping the powder dry.  Though Jefferson wrote that we 
>are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, we must rely on 
>mere men to ensure that those rights are respected and protected.  God did 
>not see fit to intervene in Dred Scott, and I also fail to spot His fine 
>Italian hand in the 19th Amendment or the 1964 Civil Rights Voting Act.  
>Though I believe in God (my God), I see that men who also claim to believe 
>in God (their God) make power grabs, attempt to disenfranchise the 
>opposition, and assume the right to tell us what our rights are on a 
>regular basis, God (all gods) be damned.  Yes, the Lord is my Shepherd, but 
>I've got a great sheep dog and an electric fence to help me keep out the 
>wolves.  God helps those who help themselves.
>
>I have to admit that talk of a "higher power" makes me nervous.  Why?  Too 
>many years attending Al-Anon meetings, at which I was assured that if my 
>drunken relatives would just surrender their lives to a higher power -- 
>and, for some reason, the AA people always feel obliged tell you that that 
>higher power doesn't have to be God; it can be a Greyhound bus -- all would 
>be well.  Phooey.  I lost count of the number of times that blasted 
>Greyhound bus failed to help me hide the whiskey bottle or unload the 
>shotgun before Drunken Bumpkin got hold of them.  We surrender too much to 
>fate and the four winds and take too little responsibility.  My powder is 
>dry, and I am always loaded for bear.  Always.
>
>Just a few pleasant thoughts on this pleasant Sunday evening . . .
>
>Joan
>
>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>www.joanopyr.com
>

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