Trying To Keep My Head Above The Waves of Apathy and Defeat
crossposted from Lee Edward McIlmoyle's blog
This title is not a song lyric. not yet, anyway.
Three (or maybe four) thoughts for this hot Thursday morning, before I resume working on THE UNINVITED GUEST:
1) There is no liberal media bias. It’s a myth successfully perpetuated by the very real conservative media to keep control of the conversation and misinformation of the general populace. It’s a bogeyman and a stalking horse. In a true liberal media bias, most of the crap going on wouldn’t be, because the lights would be on, and everyone would see for themselves what rotten, evil, selfish bastards are running the Western World.
2) One of my favourite modern neo-prog/classic rock bands, Marillion, released an album last year called Sounds That Can’t be Made, which I have been trying to find the love for. What I have found is that, while it’s a competent, well-conceived album, it just doesn’t jump out at me much. A stray riff here, a bit of lyric or backing vocal there, some quiet moments that almost grab me, but mostly, it feels a little bit like an entire album of B-sides. Stuff that’s good enough to be recorded and issued, but not captivating enough to be the only album of original music we get for a few years. I feel really bad writing that. I want to like this album. I’m sure that if I just listen to it a few more times, I’ll finally ‘get it’. Perhaps it’s too nuanced for my headspace right now. I don’t know. I feel like I’m failing as a fan. I’ll come in again.
and 3) I think I have failed my assembly in the Ward 2 Participatory Budgeting process. We chose a delegate last month to negotiate in good faith for a compromise plan that would get some of our proposals on the table for a fair and proportionally-unbiased shot at being voted for in the coming PBW2 vote (coming this August 24th and 25th). I feel that I failed my delegate, who tried to persuade our assembly to accept the compromise list, but the majority of our assembly turned them down flat because they weren’t prepared to see the good in other peoples’ proposals. That’s their right, and I love my assembly, and I support their right to turn down the compromise.
It doesn’t matter, because 2/3rds of the ward approved it, so it stands, and Stinsons’s usual heel-digging tactics didn’t hold up the parade. They may actually get some good out of this exercise despite themselves. But I feel I failed because I somehow failed to instil the spirit of the process in my assembly. It was well within their rights to say no, to choose to chance losing everything for their principles. But they failed to see the good in compromise, and that’s very like Stinson, even though the decision came from members whom I don’t normally associate with the whole isolationist mindset of my neighbourhood; it came from my friends, whom I honestly thought ‘got it’.
I apologize to Norman Kearney, to Joanna Millions, to my wife, and also to Mike and Ralph and Matt and Brenda, and to Bill and Natasha and Yvette, as well, because I let you all down. I haven’t made up my mind yet whether I’ll be running for Assembly Organizer again in the coming weeks, but I assure you, this failure of mine will factor into that eventual decision.
Well, that’s my bit for today. I’d just like to add that I support George Takei and Stephen Fry, who are both taking on the Olympics Committee and the repressive fascist government of modern day Russia. The 2014 Winter Olympics cannot and should not be staged in a country that is determined to justify their hateful policies towards the LGBT community. As a bisexual man, I cannot condone their actions. The Olympics can and should be relocated to a country that respects the human rights of all of its citizens.
I just wonder if there is such a place, in these days.
Lee.
This title is not a song lyric. not yet, anyway.
Three (or maybe four) thoughts for this hot Thursday morning, before I resume working on THE UNINVITED GUEST:
1) There is no liberal media bias. It’s a myth successfully perpetuated by the very real conservative media to keep control of the conversation and misinformation of the general populace. It’s a bogeyman and a stalking horse. In a true liberal media bias, most of the crap going on wouldn’t be, because the lights would be on, and everyone would see for themselves what rotten, evil, selfish bastards are running the Western World.
2) One of my favourite modern neo-prog/classic rock bands, Marillion, released an album last year called Sounds That Can’t be Made, which I have been trying to find the love for. What I have found is that, while it’s a competent, well-conceived album, it just doesn’t jump out at me much. A stray riff here, a bit of lyric or backing vocal there, some quiet moments that almost grab me, but mostly, it feels a little bit like an entire album of B-sides. Stuff that’s good enough to be recorded and issued, but not captivating enough to be the only album of original music we get for a few years. I feel really bad writing that. I want to like this album. I’m sure that if I just listen to it a few more times, I’ll finally ‘get it’. Perhaps it’s too nuanced for my headspace right now. I don’t know. I feel like I’m failing as a fan. I’ll come in again.
and 3) I think I have failed my assembly in the Ward 2 Participatory Budgeting process. We chose a delegate last month to negotiate in good faith for a compromise plan that would get some of our proposals on the table for a fair and proportionally-unbiased shot at being voted for in the coming PBW2 vote (coming this August 24th and 25th). I feel that I failed my delegate, who tried to persuade our assembly to accept the compromise list, but the majority of our assembly turned them down flat because they weren’t prepared to see the good in other peoples’ proposals. That’s their right, and I love my assembly, and I support their right to turn down the compromise.
It doesn’t matter, because 2/3rds of the ward approved it, so it stands, and Stinsons’s usual heel-digging tactics didn’t hold up the parade. They may actually get some good out of this exercise despite themselves. But I feel I failed because I somehow failed to instil the spirit of the process in my assembly. It was well within their rights to say no, to choose to chance losing everything for their principles. But they failed to see the good in compromise, and that’s very like Stinson, even though the decision came from members whom I don’t normally associate with the whole isolationist mindset of my neighbourhood; it came from my friends, whom I honestly thought ‘got it’.
I apologize to Norman Kearney, to Joanna Millions, to my wife, and also to Mike and Ralph and Matt and Brenda, and to Bill and Natasha and Yvette, as well, because I let you all down. I haven’t made up my mind yet whether I’ll be running for Assembly Organizer again in the coming weeks, but I assure you, this failure of mine will factor into that eventual decision.
Well, that’s my bit for today. I’d just like to add that I support George Takei and Stephen Fry, who are both taking on the Olympics Committee and the repressive fascist government of modern day Russia. The 2014 Winter Olympics cannot and should not be staged in a country that is determined to justify their hateful policies towards the LGBT community. As a bisexual man, I cannot condone their actions. The Olympics can and should be relocated to a country that respects the human rights of all of its citizens.
I just wonder if there is such a place, in these days.
Lee.