Rising & Shining in Cambridge

I am genuinely proud. Today is a full-tilt, caffienated, ready-to-face-the-world, wide-awake day here in sunny Cambridge as The Globe reports, “Cambridge sets $70m energy initiative.” That kicks ass!

C’mon kids… see what’s happening out here. Wake up. You won’t regret it.

A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth. -Aesop

Main Entry: ³lie
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): lied; ly·ing   /'lI-i[ng]/
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lEogan; akin to Old High German liogan to lie, Old Church Slavic lugati
intransitive verb
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
transitive verb : to bring about by telling lies <lied his way out of trouble>
synonyms LIE, PREVARICATE, EQUIVOCATE, PALTER, FIB mean to tell an untruth. LIE is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty <lied about where he had been>. PREVARICATE softens the bluntness of LIE by implying quibbling or confusing the issue <during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricate>. EQUIVOCATE implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another <equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors>. PALTER implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises <a swindler paltering with his investors>. FIB applies to a telling of a trivial untruth <fibbed about the price of the new suit>.

Four years and a day. Your snooze button has expired.

Listen, I’m not exactly Miss Sunshine in the morning. I can sleep through any alarm clock, guaranteed. In fact, even the truck driver’s special (a foghorn of an alarm purchased from a RV supply site last year) doesn’t pack the punch I need to get to work on time. So I can understand your resistance to waking. I can relate to your desire to remain warm and protected from the harsh reality waiting just beyond your blankets.

I can relate… but I can no longer sympathize. Wake the hell up! NOW!

Tonight I stood upon a bridge and let the wind use my hair as a cat o’ nine tails. I watched hundreds of you pass by on the trains and in your cars… SLEEPING! Four years and a day is four years and a day too long to let the War Monsters profit from your paychecks, seizing limbs and lives from the children they employ.

Didn’t you see me shining my light? Didn’t you hear me singing? I tried to get your attention. I was soft and sweet in my approach so as to ease your transition, but you turned away. I gently nudged you, still singing, but a groan was all I heard in reply. So I yelled. I yelled as loud as I could to be heard over the wind and the traffic. I waved my arms and jumped up and down. Wake up! PLEASE! WAKE THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW!

I know you heard me that time. How could you turn away? Haven’t you seen those kids and their new patriotic, plastic body parts? How many arms and legs will it take for you to see the mountain of dismembered lives created by this oil-land-grab?

Please open your eyes. I’ll make you some really good coffee. I’ve already got a nice fire going. Please wake up. We need you.

May I interest you in a new alarm clock?

Okay kids, I’ve had enough. The rants roll on through my mind, but they’re not the whole truth. Sure, I am bothered by the utterly whacked drivers around here who somehow mostly manage to avoid death despite the cellphones glued to their heads while banging u-turns going the wrong way into a one way street.

Sure, I am bothered by the petty gossip and manipulation and lies that make up our working social structure. Sure, it pisses me off that so many kids don’t seem to give a damn about anything but self-gratification.

And, yeah, it disturbs me on a deep level that the absolute idiot got re-elected and now I have to witness my country being driven to financial and moral bankruptcy so the war profiteers can bankroll their seven generations of inheritance.

The truth is, it breaks my heart.

I have been both gifted and burdened with a heart that doesn’t seem to have a shut-off valve. I think my Grammy is responsible for that because she had one, too. I am a ridiculous optimist, a true believer in the good of humanity… a lover of love and damn the repercussions. And I can no longer let things escalate into oblivion without attempting to wake the good people up.

C’mon guys, WAKE UP! We can do it. I know we can.