Do we know anything else?

Life is hard.
From the moment we leave the womb we are forced to breath. Each breath allowing us to continue our concious existence.
Allowing us to feel.
Pain.
Pleasure.
What is painful to some is pleasurable to others.
But isn't it about the feeling?
Isn't it all about the sensation?
I told my mother when I was seven I did not know I was alive until I bumped my head.
I just ate, played, cried, slept , shit, and then ate again.
My first sensation of pain made me value feeling nothing. It made me value eating, playing, sleeping and shitting without slipping and busting my head.
Pain was a warning.
There is no warning for pleasure.
There should be.
Do we know anything else?
Outside of my singular existence there are billions of other singular lives. We all share what we know in every way we can but we can never ever really share ourselves...only stories.
We live in a made up world. Some of us picked our own part in the story(life) others are bit players in someone elses. Some of us refuse to act and are kicked out of the play.
All of us are limited by our singularity. We are limited by our vessel, unable to really walk in anyone elses shoes, yet, we are all connected.
Connected by the physical rules we agreed to when we took breath.
Connected by our gut instincts.
If we get on a quantum level there is no seperation.
Period.
DNA and stories.
Stories of love, war, hate and growth.
Ending is beginning.
Winning is losing.
The point is there is no point.
If you understand you shouldn't beause I know I don't
I love it.
I cannot think of a better way to exist in this life.
I am.

American Saga

On Tuesday March 18th I attended Congressman Michael Arcuri's fundraiser. I was honored to be among the several hundred well wishers gathered to support the first Democrat elected to office in the 24th District of New York for 40 yrs.

Arcuri just returned from a trip to Afghanistan. He spoke out against war. He called for a return of the troops.
But lets face it- he's a politician.
Before he was elected to his current office I developed a good rapport with him as the Oneida County D.A.. I was fortunate enough to have few discussions with him. I was quite confident giving him my vote.
He is a level headed guy.
But at the banquet I saw politics at work.
I heard careful language, I saw gratuitous gladhanding.
How do they do it?
I know there are times when he just wants to shoot from the hip and say what he means the way he wants to say it. I'm sure he is sick and tired of faxing his press releases to some party guy like Rahm Emanuel for national approval.
Howard Dean and the memory of his HOOOOAAAAH would quell any spontanaiety for the foreseeable future.

Submitted copy:

NEW HARTFORD - On Tuesday, March 18, 24th District Congressman Michael Arcuri held a fundraiser at Daniele's Banquet Hall in New Hartford.
The standing room only event attracted a political who's who of the Mohawk Valley.

There was plenty of back slapping and witty one line jokes thrown around the room by the hometown crowd. No one in attendance was a stranger. There was nothing but familiarity and friendship. A happy hour atmosphere.

This event could have easily been mistaken as a celebration. The newly elected Mayor of Utica, David Roefaro, could not help but share the high profile spotlight that events like this provide. Both elected officials, Arcuri and Roefaro, were not the favorites in each of their races, but the results could not be denied. Their presence was a shining example of what the American political process is about.

Arcuri's wife, Sabrina, confidently worked the room on behalf of her husband, who was engaged in the meticulous meet and greet with every guest in attendance.

Imminently accessible, Arcuri must have been exhausted after shaking so many hands and smiling for so long.Despite the demand for his attention he stayed at ease and appeared to be genuinely interested in everyone he met.

This was not about the issues. This event was not about Iraq or Afghanistan. This was about the people of Mohawk Valley, the constituents that helped elect him to office. This was about the future of upstate New York and its strengthening tether to Washington D.C.

Larry Tanoury Jr. purchased a whole table for the event."I want my constituents to have an opportunity to be a part of the process and I want the rest of the legislators to know my constituency cares as well."

Tanoury's efforts paid off. The group of mostly African Americans, sequestered in a far corner of the room, was singled out by Mrs. Arcuri who made a point of greeting everyone at the table stifling any possible murmurs of discontent.

Politics at work.

Arcuri recently returned from a trip to the middle east. He boldly took a side when he admitted there is a need for gradual troop withdrawal.

"We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and have lost far too many lives embroiled in what has become a political quagmire. I believe it is time to return responsibility for Iraq back to the Iraqis, with a true redeployment of troops. Iraqis will stand up when we stand down," Arcuri said. "People in Upstate New York know what is best for America: bring our troops home, provide for our veterans, and invest in our local communities. In a recent trip to Afghanistan, I saw first-hand how fewer resources can be invested with greater returns. I believe it is time to refocus on al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

No one envies the tough job Arcuri has in front of him. The backdrop of war, an economy sliding into recession and an undecided and fractured Democratic party can all frustrate a first term congressman. For now, there is nary a kink in his shining armor.

Yeah I give him the benefit of the doubt.
Like I said before, he is a cool guy.
I remember there was a self defense murder case while he was D.A.. Initially, before I did my research, they were going to throw this guy(Spano) under the jail. The week prior a diferent guy had been aqcuitted on manslaughter. The guy(the acquitted), during a ongoing dispute, lost his temper, jumped out his truck and beat an old man to death with a softball bat.
So Spano gets charged with murder after he is attacked in his own living room while eating a bowl of Fruit Loops.
Double Standard perhaps?

Maybe I need to explain more.
Spano is black.
Anyway, when the middle aged, white softball killer was initially charged they could not decide if it warranted murder.
Somebody help me out here. I get out of my car in a rage and beat a old man to death with a bat and the defense was: "he verbally abused me daily and I lost my temper"

I'm black, experience tells me we do not even need to speculate if I would be charged with murder. Look at the poor (black)guy in Long Island who had to deal with a racist mob on his property and is still going to jail.

Post racial right?
Amazing.

To their defense the D.A. was embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the Police Department(Arcuri was investigating the embattled Police Chief).

The Police department charged Spano without consulting the District Attorney, that is like going to war without asking the people, or telling them the whole story.
Arcuri stepped in, cleared the air.

Spano was given a lesser charge and is doing three years on weapons possession( he was charged for being in possession of the murder weapon).
To this day the ada on that case hates me.
I will never utter his name in public.
Spano's lawyer could have thanked me-but he didn't.
I have a thankless job.

I Tried

I tried to stay out of this. I tried to let it go.

As an official observer and loyal participant of the blogotronosphere.

I can't let it go.

You probably know what current bombshell scandal I am alluding to. If you already OD'd on it...sorry.

I must continue this sordid conversation.

Give my fresh perspective.

As a resident of New York State and a practicing member of the armchair sociologist society, I am obligated to not only offer my two cents but to also include my perverse view of the whole mess.

It is a clash of unrealistic standards, outdated ideas and fundamentalist puritan mores smashing up against reality.

We live in a sex charged society that supports a multi billion dollar porn industry but buying sex illegal?

What about the loophole that makes it legal if it is on film. So basically I can pay a ho and film it and it is all perfectly legal but if I want a little privacy, like a hotel room for instance, it is suddenly an illegal act.

I wonder how many porn producers got busted as johns before they decided to make a buck.

Stupid just like our drug laws.

O.K. back Spitz

Governer Spitzer, who once compared Upstate New York to Appalachia,

is a penny pinching john who warns his ho's 'there may be some danger involved'.Do you ever wonder exactly how many businesses sell nooky like the one he was using.

What is the point?

Who are we fooling. Prostitution is here to stay.

What is the big deal?

I don't want to hear any utopian rap about a perfect world where everything is free.

Bullshit- we won't see it in our lifetime.

I don't want to hear about your daughters, if you keep a eye on them chances are they won't end up a prostitute, the same goes for sons.

Wake up, there is nothing wrong with sex. I don't care what anyone says there is always someone who is going to charge.

Male or female.

I am not like everybody...people who pay a couple of grand for a nice time are in my envy file. I think it is one of the hallmarks of true freedom to be able to do that along with whatever else you can lump in (as long as ther is no bloodshed).

I can't help it...I like him more now.

Before I was rather indifferent I knew his political affiliations in my part of the state were pretty much limited to the Oneida Indian's Land into Trust issue and the New York Regional Interconnect power line issue.

In defense of spitz's crack about Upstate Appalachia; I had the opportunity to ask Tom Brokaw what he thought of the comments when he visited Hamilton College on a lecture tour. In his signature voice, smooth as a shot of 100yr old scotch, he replied: "The dairy industry has taken quite a hit here(upstate) and cruising some of these backroads I have observed incredible rural poverty, there needs to be some creative economic development...."

He agreed.

But thats expected.

I love it when people act human.

McGreevy has to be mentioned in the same sentence.

Spitzer bought ass, McGreevy...another story.

I think the American people's expectations are low enough to actually accept that type of behavior and I am surprised he resigned.

He should have played it down, minimized it .Fucked with the whole cult of public conscience. He should have compared himself to McGreevy and asked our mostly hetero populace what they think.

He should have cried on T.V.

My Belgian girlfriend told me: "In Europe the men applaude that shit".

I would have rode that shit out...'hey, I'm only human ova here'

But wait a minute.

The actual minutae of the situation has not reached us yet...all the gritty details. Spitzer's penis size, what type of sex he liked and his incessant haggling over price. The shit they would have a hard time editing unlike the Mike Tyson rape trial that included the most x-rated testimony I have ever heard shared in the paper or on television.

He could not escape the fact that he is an asshole...after everyone forgives him for buying nooky they have sit through the evidence that the multi millionaire, or is it billionaire, governor haggles a working girl over price.

You cannot spin out of that (republican shit).

Dude you are rich as hell- pay the girl.

Spitzer was not exposed because what he did was wrong he was exposed because he is a dick.

Intricacies of B.S.

I have always loved words. When I was a kid if I heard a new one I would repeat it until the image , percieved spelling included, was embedded on my mind.
I learned a new one almost everyday...I think.

Words.

They create reality.

Words sustain reality.

Add depth...to shallow concepts.

Shed light on dark ideas.

Arrange them correctly and you are a magician.

Twisting churning the malleable paradigm you live in.

Talking to a God you do not know.

Exposing truth within a giant lie

Words.

Do all those things and more

an ode to reality

painting

society

with words