Bruce’s new album “Wrecking Ball” drops on Tuesday March 6th.
Idealism, up close and personal.
I spoke with a group of Jesuit Volunteeer Corps members last night, a focused conversation on organizing, power, race and class in Syracuse. The group of 8 young people are working for a year with various social service agencies around town.
Party Tonight In The Temple of Soul!
Happy 70th Big Man! (photo montage Rocco’s Photo Tavern )
This Just In . . . a final resolution towards a better 2012
A few posts ago I compiled a list of things I want to do in 2012, ways to improve the quality of my life. It was a foul year 2011 and I need a way to reduce the stress and tension of life in these dark days of recession, austerity and decline. The following piece (by the sage of baseball writers, Roger Angell) in the New Yorker on the decline of letter writing has forced me to add one more: write some real letters to friends and family.
Me For Lee!
I made it into the newspaper this morning–if anonymously. In the annual story on the silly write-in ballots during the November elections, it was discovered that: “The late Lee Alexander, a former Syracuse mayor who spent time in prison for corruption, received a vote for county executive.”
That was my ballot. I voted the straight crime ticket on the three big Onondaga County races that were uncontested–also voting for Bernie Madoff for County comptroller and Sal Piemonte (the local lawyer frequently in his own legal trouble) for District Attorney.
Dey’s Building Project Downtown–Another Win For The 1%
As I read the Sean Kirst article in the Post-Standard today about the development of the old Dey’s department store, I wondered if anyone remembers the history of this building . . . not the department store, but the more sordid recent history. Check the records.
Over the years, the city has taken over $8 million out of the CDBG budget to repay the HUD loan. This is money that would have gone to help low income families repair their homes, fund agencies to fix up vacant houses and provide a limited amount of social services like the local community centers. In addition, the city also took money out of proceeds earned by the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) and sold city assets ($1 million for a city-owned parking lot.)
War On Christmas 3–Revenge Of The Agnostics
Excellent article in Slate by Torie Bosch entitled “No Reason For The Season” lays out the argument for a secular celebration of Christmas. A nice quote:
The War On Christmas . . . Continued
I woke up this morning to the idiotic right-wing propaganda machine on my local talk radio station. This morning was an unhinged discussion about schools waging a war on Christmas–largely by de-emphasizing the Christian nature of the holiday by replacing the word Christmas with the word holiday–and other silly things. The guest culture-war correspondent from Fox News sounded really angry: he would probably have a brain aneurysm if he heard this song!
Seasons Greetings! (Continuing The War On Christmas.)
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all . . . and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only America in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.
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By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
