January 31, 2008
January 21, 2008
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
...Modern man's chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man's ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war.
What the main sections of the civil rights movement in the United States are saying is that the demand for dignity, equality, jobs, and citizenship will not be abandoned or diluted or postponed. If that means resistance and conflict we shall not flinch. We shall not be cowed. We are no longer afraid.
Violence... is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will. The well-off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds, and driven from the mainstream of our societies, because we have allowed them to become invisible. Just as nonviolence exposed the ugliness of racial injustice, so must the infection and sickness of poverty be exposed and healed - not only its symptoms but its basic causes.
There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminated even the possibility that war may serve as a negative good. If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war.
It is not enough to say "We must not wage war." It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.
Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that those who pioneer in the struggle for peace and freedom will still face uncomfortable jail terms, painful threats of death; they will still be battered by the storms of persecution, leading them to the nagging feeling that they can no longer bear such a heavy burden, and the temptation of wanting to retreat to a more quiet and serene life. Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life's restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom.
excerpts from The Nobel Lecture, November 1964
January 20, 2008
bird hunting continues
I've been told the hunters won't be out much longer,
but I still hear gunshots all morning.
Here's a nice rock.
Ah, the seagull. They aren't as quick to take off as all the other birds.
The swans flew right over me Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, I looked up and the swans
were flying right at me.
I didn't have time remove the lenscap and focus.
I listened and looked for them Sunday morning, and they
still surprised me, so this is all I managed to catch.
Better luck next week.
I had better luck with this little fella.
What is it?
A piece of wood or something.
First, I focused on the wood, then I took one of the surroundings.
The surround-in-focus one was just much better.
There was a snowstorm. Good, wet, clingy snow.
I keep hoping for a weekend ice-storm followed by a clear morning.
January 13, 2008
January 07, 2008
Happy New Year
Is it a shark? Is it a fish? I call it sharkfish. My neighbor calls it a sand shark. I think she's right.
I've become obsessed with shooting birds.
Aren't they lovely?
These fellows will be dead soon thanks to these guys:
Can you believe Barrington allows duck hunters to blow guns on the beach where I walk my dog?
WTF?