Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Un-Gerrymandered


The Mad Moderate

delivered our Lloyd Doggett sign
tonight just before supper.
The old orange cat slipped in
for an autumn nap
as our new friend held the front door
open through a long declaration
of exactly Why he was mad
as hell at the Bush Administration.

Said he’d gone to the Travis County
Republican convention
the year Bush was elected.

If I’d been telling it I would have
said the year of the coup d’état

Mostly I was trying to keep
three large dogs from slipping
out the front door while
The Mad Moderate
continued to explain to Jay,
who is in a mood to vote against
ALL incumbents, that Doggett
voted against the Patriot Act,
against fast tracking Free Trade,
against restricting Habeas Corpus
and was great on the environment
and women’s issues, really everything
except Iraq, and was better this year
about that.

The Mad Moderate told us
he’d gotten seven letters
to the editor published.

I said, "Let me shake your hand."

I know Lloyd Doggett
mainly from years of work to
protect Barton Springs.

Right after 911 he came home
and held an impromptu town meeting
at a NOW conference right before
I read a an anti-war poem, thinking
then they would do what they have done.

I’ve phone banked for his campaign
every time he’s run for office save
once, when he lost a local race
by 19 votes.

I complain bitterly when he votes
to fund the war.

He told me I was in the minority,
that he agreed with me, but had to
represent the district.

That's what he used to say.
Lots of us are mad at him about
voting to fund Iraq.

Recently he's backed the Murtha plan,
who looks like my grandfather,
and says we should negotiate with
all stakeholder governments in the
Middle East and re-deploy troops.

When Tom Delay led the re-districting
fiasco that turned Lloyd’s district into
a fajita strip going from north
of Austin to the border splitting the city
and cutting us out of his district I made sure
hundreds of people cast the vote for him
I lost, supported all the Killer-Ds,
still do.

I helped write the State Democratic
Platform, and it's a good document,
not that anyone pays much attention
to platforms.

I like Lloyd Doggett.
His father was a dentist about whom people
say when you call them, "He was a good man."
His wife's fluent Spanish helped hold the new
district together.

The Mad Moderate
is delivering and installing Democrat
yard signs in our left wing neighborhood.

This guy, who helped Bush get
elected in 2000, is arguing with my
husband who’s mad at everyone
in the Congress, even Lloyd.

But now Jay's going to vote for
Doggett, the dogs didn’t
get out and our front yard looks
like Democrat central, all of which
occurred just as I was serving supper,
because I’d called a friend and
asked for a John Courage yard sign
thinking we were still in his district.

But we got un-gerrymandered
and given back to Lloyd,
so Jay has to vote for one
incumbent after all.

* Art by Jum Nuttle

Click here to identify and support peace candidates in local districts.

©Susan Bright, 2006,

Susan Bright is the author of nineteen books of poetry. She is the editor of Plain View Press which since 1975 has published one-hundred-and-fifty books. Her work as a poet, publisher, activist and educator has taken her all over the United States and abroad. Her most recent book, The Layers of Our Seeing, is a collection of poetry, photographs and essays about peace done in collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue and Middle Eastern journalist, Muna Hamzeh.

HOME

What it is About

Earthfamily Principles

Earthfamilyalpha Content II

Earthfamilyalpha Content

Links

LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Will every vote be counted? The electronic voting machines are suspect. The last time I used one it screwed up and the people there had no idea what to do. I voted but I never really knew who I had voted for. I complained to the poll watcher and they said "Que Lastima" in Elephantese... No donkey reps were present.

9:26 AM  
Blogger SB said...

click on the Suffrage link here to find links to voter watch actions in for different localities.

the voting machines are a HUGE problem.

if they steal another election, my guess is there will be an open revolt

sb

9:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Susan, thanks for the blog.

Now, what I'm concerned about is the governor's race. I really think Bell could win but not unless people get that there's a chance and don't throw their vote away for Kinky. I went to his rally last Sunday and took my 14 year old son (introduction to politics, m'dear) and I think he can do the job. There are many savvy, Texas folk who agree.

So, for me, I got off my cynical, despondent butt and I'm going to put Bell's sign in my yard.

We can get the Republican out, but only if we vote for the Democrat. And, at this point, I think that's the most important thing.

Thanks for listening.

Peace,
Celeste E.

12:14 PM  
Blogger SB said...

I got in a bunch of trouble passing around an anti-kinky email from Deb Russell a few weeks ago -- but basically Kinki is pro war, voted for Bush in 2004!and the list goes on.

Kinki is not a real alternaive.

Strayhorn's son is Scott McClellen, Bush's mouth piece for years.

I have a Bell sign in my yard too, thanks to The MAd Moderate!

The alternative is Rick Perry. That's motivation.

SB

12:50 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home