hill in a handbag

I dreamed that I saw Dalai...

52 years ago today, the 14th Dalai Lama fled his homeland of Tibet due to invasion and oppression of Communist China.  His exodus took him to India where he still lives in exile today.  I believe the Dalai Lama to be a source of great inspiration.  His teachings and peaceful practices should be a supplement to every religion.  Click here to read the speech he gave today.

Is there an order to all of this disorder?

Last week I watched a PBS show about the life and death of Robert F. Kennedy.  It was extremely emotional to me and I discussed it with several people.  This was a man to dedicated his life to peace and died a violent death.  I guess this is par for the course but it really upset me.  It kind of haunted me for a few days...especially a video of him addressing a rally in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968...the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed.  It was absolutely chilling.

Little did I know when I watched that documentary last week that I would end up going to Arlington National Cemetery today where RFK is buried.  I went today with Will, Jeremy and Lindsay and it was a very last minute decision.  I was really choked up for many reasons.  One of which is that we're in a very similar state to where we were in the 60's.  Our civil rights are still being violated, we're still at war for no good reason...The only thing is that we don't have may American's like Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.

While we walked through Arlington Will pointed out the fact that we (the Frank's) are who we are today because of the Kennedy's.  Even as a kid I stood out in the rain and the cold to campaign for candidates I believed in.  I don't think I knew it at the time but I did that because of what the Kennedy's taught my parents and what my parents taught me.  My beliefs, my convictions, my tolerance, my music taste, my desire for justice all stems from those two men.  The fact that I stood at their graves today just blew my mind...and this was not my first visit to Arlington.  I just went there with my eyes open today.

Here's the incredibly moving speech RFK gave the day MLK died.  Two months before he was also killed...

Ladies And Gentlemen,

I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.

In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.

Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

Rememberance...

Too true...

And it's true we are immune

When fact is fiction and TV reality

- Sunday Bloody Sunday

I Don't Like Mondays

I'm nearly speechless over the events that took place in my state today.  My thoughts and prayers are with the students and families effected by today's tragedy.  Regardless of location, this would be horrific, but I think it's especially painful to me because my brother Will went to Virginia Tech along with several cousins and countless dear friends.  Everyone I know locally has someone who has attended Tech.  On several occasions I've heard two very wise men say something along the lines of...when you go to a wedding you relive your own all over and when you go to a funeral your bury you own again.  All day today I couldn't help but thank God that this didn't happen ten year ago.

What I don't think comes across very well on the news is that Blacksburg is a very quite, peaceful and beautiful city.  Will would say all of the time that if you read the police log in the newspaper the worst offense you ever saw was some drunk dude accidentally walking into the wrong apartment.  This is never something you could have ever imagined happening there.

I usually judge the impact of US news and events by what the irishtimes.com has on the front page of their web site.  I guess that puts things into perspective.

Hokies are fiercely loyal to their school and their alumni.  So tonight my heart also goes out to Will, Sam, Jonathan etc because I know that today has to be horribly emotional to you.

Needless to say...I can't believe the news today.

Sweet 16

Ok...it's 16F today.  It doesn't get this cold where I come from.  I'm wearing like 5 layers and have the heater under my desk running at full blast and still freezing.  I know that most of you come from places where it's this cold on a regular basis but I seriously can't handle this.  It's so cold I could cry.  I jut thought you should know.

I Still Heart Tony Blair!

Even Crazy People Can Have Great Hair

Great hair!  I bet it'll hold up nicely in jail too.  FYI...she was once engaged to this man.  In a perfect world I suppose your hair would be as good as that of your mate.  But I guess that we don't live in a perfect world.  Maybe that's why they never got married...they had irreconcilable hair.

RIP Gerald Ford 1913-2006

I really admired this guy.  He never meant to be president...just to serve his country.  He was a president that was never actually elected.  How crazy is that?  I believed him to be genuine and someone who looked out for the best interest of our nation...not a blood thirsty hate monger elitist dumbass.  Oh, did I say that?  Well it's my blog and as far as I can tell we still have free speech in this country...and if not I'm willing to risk it.  So say it once and say it loud:  I'm black and I'm proud.

RIP Gerald Ford (and James Brown...again)

Good Lord...err...Knight!

I guess at this point this post is kinda like someone giving me a copy of Rolling Stone with Bono on the cover as a gift since this news is vomitiously (disconfident that's a word) splashed through every media known to man.  But wouldn't it just be odd if I didn't mention this as well?

Blah, blah, blah...Bono's going to be Knighted...like all good Jedi should.  Come to think of it he's more Ewok than Jedi but that's for another post.  Anyway, it's an honorary honor and not the real thing hence and luckily he will not be able to go by Sir Bono.  If I'm ever Knighted...or Damed as the case may be...I would want people to call me Dame Phyllis since that's not my name either.  Bono's exact title will be Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order deducing that he's recieving this honor from Bill & Ted and not from Buckingham Palace.  I can't help but wonder if you really get a suit o' armour when you're Knighted...if that suit comes with a shirt and a tie or if receiving your armour really means you're a fallen angel [see inappropriate attire and Wings Of Desire].  For more information on this please reference every other newspaper, magazine and news/entertainment show in the world.

All kidding aside...so proud.  Whooda thunk back in '97 that some day that little guy peeping in our San Antonio window would become a Knight...I mean aside from him and us...whooda thunk?

Side Note:  Apparently there are tons of people who decline British honors such as this, including John Lennon, John Cleese, Alfred Hitchcock, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Kenneth Branagh and many more.