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I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Tags: obama wins the presidency
Current Location: Watching CNN
Current Mood:  ecstatic
Current Music: Joyful voices
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I think the girl just up the entire pantheon of Japanese cuisine with this subject line. More on that later. Here's how the day progressed:
Yesterday, I bought a camera, and I got our train tickets (we leave for Kyoto in the morning), and got lost in Tokyo, trying to find the camera store. As a result, I never made it to the shrine I was supposed to see, so today, we did what the girl calls 'a death march' - meaning we did the following: Got up at 5:30, and headed to a place calld Tsujiki (pronounced Skee-Jee) by way of the 'Yonemoto Coffee Head shop'. We didn't see any smoking accessories. We looked. No really. BTW, that's the back of the girl's head in the green sweater there.
They have this fascinating convention called 'Coffee Jelly'' - which is basically coffee flavored Jell-o with cream on it. It's actually pretty good once you get past the texture. Starbucks even sells it. I like it mostly becuase it's not sweet at all, and most doctored up coffee drinks are too sweet for me. Now, I know it looks like i lost my lunch in this cup, but I didn't. It was the coffee jelly mixed up inside.
By 7 am were eating sushi at the Tokyo central fish market. Yes, folks you heard that right, I had sushi for
breakfast. Now with that, I have eaten probably the freshest fish of my young life and while some of it was lovely (the toro (tuna belly))
I also ate probably the grossest things I've ever had in my mouth. The girl thought it would be funny, as she had had food
poisoning the night before, to tell me, when the sushi chef presented her with baby squid wrapped in seaweed, that "If you really
loved me, you would eat that for me." I groaned, having just eaten one, and barely able to keep myself from gagging, and currently
crunching away on a piece of cod roe sushi that I had placed in my mouth thinking it was some sort of mango. (also beyond the term
gross, if you are wondering). I rolled my eyes. "YOu really know how to work a room, don't you?' I thought to myself. I didn't
say it, however and took pity my somewhat still green-at-the-gills girlfriend. After having a bite of the most lovely pickled
ginger I'd ever eaten, and adding a bit of soy sauce to my bowl. I picked up the baby squid in my chopsticks and set it in the
soy sauce. I looked at it for one solid minute. I steeled myself for the sheer grossness of it, and popped it into my mouth. I have a very sensitive gag reflex. We have a new puppy, who, having not yet been fully potty trained will occaisionally leave
us presents in the house. When I smell this unpleasant odor, I will dry heave and my esophagus will have this uncontrollable
muscular clenching, much like one has just prior to vomit. Yeah, I'm sure we're all familiar with this, yes? Well let's apply
that to the baby squid I was fervently chewing on, and you'll know how I was feeling at just that moment. But, I got it down and I didn't spew chewed up squid-bits on the sushi chef, Allah be praised. I got through it.
I feel all champion like.
(yes this is a picture of the actual sushi)
Next, we wandered through the fish market, where both alive and recently caught killed fish were everywhere. I had some
moments of buddhist reflection where I felt like a complete shithead for eating, and/or sanctioning killing. YOu know it's
very easy to eat meat when you are not connected to source of it and you don't have to be conscious of it. It made me very
sad to walk through that fish market. If I was ever close to being a vegetarian, it was at that moment. If I thought I could
pull it off without damage to my diabetic body, I might just have become one.
 After the whirlwind fishmarket tour, where we both nearly got run over on a number of occaisions by errant forklift drivers
(the place simply exhudes sheer chaos), we took off for the Meiji-jingi shrine. The Meiji family are the Japanese Imperial
family and the figurehead rulers of Japan, and just as a frame of reference, the Emporer is thought of as a living god. Now, I
don't know if he's actually thought of in a religious way in the manner as say, a 10th level bodisattva (as the Dalai Lama is),
but he is treated with that same level of honor and respect. The shrine was built in 1920 to honor the royal family and the place
is lovely. The grounds are HUGE and the gates (called Torii - literally meaning 'gate' in Japanese), are made from 1500 year old
cypress trees - big enough to rival a great sequoia.
 Torii gate at the Meiji Jingu shrine
 Sake casks
 The juxtaposition of old and new.
 After the Meiji-jingi shrine, we went to Harajuku, wandered the streets a bit and looked at the rebellious teenagers with their
crazy hairstyles and outfits and the uber commercial teenagerdom in which they all hang out. I can see why Gwen Stefani has a
thing for this place..it's all about the Pop lifestyle.
 girls in Harajuku
 Are these not the cutest puppies you've ever seen?
In Harajuku, we went for lunch to a place called 'Harajuki Gyoza Boy' -
awesome awesome awesome is all I can say. Gyoza is a pork dumpling made with veggies and either pan fried or boiled and dipped in
a sweetened vinegary version of soy sauce. Rock n' roll. So damn good, with that, some pickled cabbage and very light chicken
soup, a bit of rice and a nice draft beer - it may have been the perfect lunch. It's one of the girl's favorite lunch spots in
the world and I can see why.
 After lunch it was off to Shibuya, and Tokyu Hands - a craft/kitchen/do it yourself type store. I have been wanting a tofu press
box, and we found one, complete with all the stuff I need to make our own tofu. We had a bit of difficulty finding the place but
I managed to get directions by asking in Japanese, afterwhich the girl informed me that it was from then on, my job to talk to
strangers. I was flattered, if not confident. After the tofu press box purchase, we found a place to buy a camera bag for our camera purchase of the day before, and headed
off to Asakusa - are second to last stop of the day. At Asakusa, which is the 'old school' area of Tokyo, we saw a shinto temple
that quite a sight to behold. Add to that the rows of snack and chachki vendors along the promenade up to the temple, it was...well,
a very sensory experience. Girl and I stopped at a snack vendor where we got these sort of bread things with bean paste in them.
It was sort of like a mini bean burrito,except the beans were sweet. It was good, if a little odd. We stepped to the shrine, I got a blurry photo, and did the 'honor the temple thing' - which is to bow twice, clap twice and then
bow again and throw some money into the fountainy thing. I turned around and girl asked me if I was Shinto now. I said I wasn't.
We were fading pretty much hard core at this point, but managed to make it to the top of the Asahi beer building where we had draft
Asahi (girl's favorite Japanese beer) and ate that, along with 6 pistachios and a couple of pieces of cheese that resembled sausages
but were strangely pleasant.
 from the top of the Asahi building. After this, we stumbled 'home' on the subway, and are currently being tired but happy girls to be loafing in our beds. Oy vey, is all I have to say. we're exhausted but it was well earned and a very cool day of tourst-like activities. P.S. - the girl thinks and has advised me to state here that she thinks I make her sound bitchy in the blog post by forcing me to eat
baby squid. In her defense, she's not bitchy, and had I severe enough reservations to look green at the prospet of another piece of
baby squid sushi, I am confident she would have backed down. Also, she thinks it's wierd that I call her the girl. Since I can't very
call her "Mrs. Mel', I will continue to call her 'the girl'.
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We just got back from a restaurant called 'Shabusen' in Tokyo. It's Shabu Shabu - hence the name. Basically they give you a pot of boiling water, on a gas light so it continues to bubble away and a plate full of veggies and this super thinly sliced meat. You season the water, put veggies in, and then take pieces of the meat and swish it around in teh water, cooking it. You eat the meat, and the veggies, and at the end they add noodles and you drink the soup. It's very tasty. 
For dessert we had...green tea ice cream, with a twist. Red beans. Uh huh, you heard it here first. IT's kind of like eating ice cream wtih a big scoop of chili. Very odd texture. The beans are sweet, but still. To quote the girl: "The texture made me go back for a second bite. Yeah, still wierd."  The bad news, girl seems to have food poisoning. She doesn't want to talk about it, so I'm livejournaling about it instead. And with that, gonna go look after my honey, who is one sick puppy right now. A little bu-bu in her shabu shabu. 
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Sundance I was actually back in Utah for Sundance. First one I've ever attended, which is ironic after having moved away after living there for 11 years and avoiding it like the plague. it was actually fun. I wore my pseudo-local 'grr look at the damned interlopers' sneer, for a few days, but underneath it - I have to say it was fun. Saw a few really amazing movies, one in particular that hit me just so - called the "The Wave " about facism (based on the experiment that this teacher in CA in the 70's). Anyway - it was subtitled in German and I think becuase of this it may not go into major release - which is sad, because it was amazing. To me it said a lot about 'in group / out group' psychology - eg, 'we're better than you because we belong to cause (insert name here)'. Scary. Profound. Made me think of all isms out there - particularly ones of a religious bent - mormonism, catholicism, republicanism, racism, fascism...etc. Scary shit. Wish more people could see this film. In other news, Girlfriend saw celebs (I did not), including Mattew Perry, Gilmore Girls lady, a lady from SNL, Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Nick Carter, and Amy Brenneman (yum). How i missed these people I will never know, but I think it's probably cause I was only in for the weeked becuase I had to work Monday and girlfriend stayed the better part of the week...also girlfriend and her best friend, Ginaaaaa (who came in for the latter part of the week on Sunday as I left) had them hang out Starbucks every day - which is apparantly where the famous go in Utah. For coffee. Cause they are afraid to buy it anywhere else. New job continues to be amazing. got my first check. Also amazing. girlfriend? Amazing. Dog/Cat, Amazing. Life is good. :) Tags: girlfriend, sundance
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You Are a Boxer Puppy
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Energetic, playful and good with kids.
You've also got a wild spirit that can't be trained or tamed.
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Yes, I have comfortably settled into domestic bliss. I can hardly believe it sometimes, how well we seem to fit. At this moment, we are sitting next to each other, typing away on our respective laptops, with A's new souped up (but not yet VPN compatible) laptop sitting on the coffee table. I'm using a tv tray and she's not (preferring to 'rough it') and we're in nerd-bliss. I can't imagine what we look like, but I'm sure it's pretty geeky. And it's heaven. In other news, started the new job this week. I really love it so far. I feel like I've been given a key to the 'golden room' of the hourly-wage-exempt. It's lovely to be treated like a human and be valued for your a brain. My official title is 'Performance Management Analyst' and I report to the quality manager but I produce reports for a senior director who oversees 5 call centers. It's kind of a headtrip to think about when you look at the shakeup of my very foundations last year. I guess sometimes you have to have that to get course corrected. Wow...as I continue to be amazed. I love my job so far - it mainly consists of pulling reports on center productivity metrics and reporting upwards to the directors. In addition, as I become more familiar with the reporting systems, I'll be doing some ad hoc analysis, statistical runs and possibly some SQL queries against the data warehouse as well. Also, I started school this week - just one class, but it's enough to get my scholarship going, becuase I needed to use it or lose it. It's a graduate seminar on international communication. Lots of reading and I need to get back to it, as weekends are the time for me to get my shit done for class. So job and school and relationship are all respectively amazing and I've never been this happy...and wow - who would have thunk it just a few months ago. We have a home and we do the nesting thing together and...even the dog and cat get along. It blows the mind. "... And so life goes in shire, as it has for nearly an age...." Tags: charter, girl
Current Location: couch
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: the hum of a CPU
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Brilliant. Quoted from 'Atheist Revolution' by vjack:
So I've decided to read the Christian bible from cover to cover. Why? The last time I did so was quite awhile ago, well before I had read much about atheism. When I've referred to biblical passages here, Christians sometimes complain that I'm taking the passages out of context. So I picked up a parallel bible with the NIV version presented column-by-column with the King James version. I'm about mid-way through Leviticus now and ready to share some initial impressions.
This is the first time I've read the NIV translation, and it certainly makes for an easier read than the King James. Still, I like to go back and forth to compare both versions and note some of the seemingly important differences. As but one example, NIV replaces "thou shalt not kill" with "you will not murder." At least to my mind, there is a world of difference between the meaning of "kill" and that of "murder."
Genesis makes for an interesting read, and I genuinely enjoyed it. A certain beauty is evident in some of the language and imagery. Of course, one must set aside the realities of modern science to some degree or else one will experience it as little more than a list of false claims about nature.
The god described in these first three books is difficult to recommend. This god is presumably almighty and yet needs to rest while creating the universe. This god is presumably wise beyond measure but places two forbidden trees (that of knowledge and that of life) in the Garden of Eden where early humans can access them. Moreover, this god evidently botched the first attempt at creating humanity to the point where it was necessary to slaughter all except Noah and his clan. Thus, with regard to power and knowledge, this god seems to be quite flawed.
What about morality? Well, there is little question about this. This god repeatedly refers to itself as jealous and demonstrates wrath, impatience, cruelty, intolerance, and more. The god described in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus is certainly willing to provide humanity with a number of laws, the majority of which are completely ignored by virtually all modern Christians. This god makes it clear that it is to be honored with animal blood and burnt offerings (i.e., animals sacrificed and burned on altars). However, most modern Christians would never dream of doing this, going so far as to equate such acts with Satanism when they were in fact mandated by the very god they claim to worship.
The infamous passage in Leviticus does indeed state that male homosexuality is wrong (and that men who engage in homosexual must be killed), and yet, this is embedded among so many other laws given to humanity that it hardly stands out. It is fascinating that Christians obsess about the couple brief mentions this receives while completely ignoring the call for blood sacrifices, the clear requirement of stoning for minor crimes, and the multitude of references to the evils of yeast.
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad that today's Christians ignore nearly all of the laws their biblical god hands down in these three books. And yet, I remain puzzled that anyone claiming to be a Christian can ignore all of this, selectively choosing the couple parts that make them feel good while neglecting the bulk of what is actually there. This is the sort of god who is unlikely to react favorably to such neglect. If I believed in such a god, I don't think I'd go near anything containing yeast!
So a note to all the donut-lovin Mormons - pay attention here!
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bodhi_chenrezig's journal
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