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Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of
universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I
reach my hands and play with pebbles of
destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs
reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive
in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
The Vault
Take It Where You Find It
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
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An amazing sight!
I was to be in NYC in about a day or 2 from now, but that didn’t happen.
I watched the Chief of Engineers, US Army, on Fox News tonight. He was in full war mode. In charge, and taking the initiative. I told my family about 4 days ago that the military (I probably said the army) is going into activation mode: reserves and NG call ups, and recalls of retired and Individual Ready Reserves ( one step out of the reserves and still on a roster ). War, in other words.
It went without fanfare yesterday that POTUS signed the EO to permit DOD to bring active up to enough reservists to fill the active ranks to a million personnel. It was a few days before that that he authorized NG call-ups by state governors. At the same time, volunteers among retired medical specialties were called. A friend of mine who used to be a bird colonel is headed back to work now, from the retired ranks.
Mayor De Blasio made the idiotic mistake of calling his guardsmen “not military”. I am sorry to say that the political class in our country are sub-caliber sonsabitches. It scares me to imagine the idiocracy who now lead us.
The sailors on this ship, and the one that just sailed past the USS Iowa into berth in LA (Mercy), are head and shoulders better than the mayors of our big cities. I’d put a CPO up against De Blasio any day. God bless the US military.
Not only the US military. The British Army is doing much of the work fighting the virus in Britain, too. Everything from transporting supplies to building temporary hospitals to treating patients.
It’s notable that many in almost equally critical, but heavily unionised, jobs (train drivers on the London Tube and dustbin collectors, for example) are leaving work in droves. Which could have been predicted; that sort of job attracts skivers.
Casey sed: “It scares me to imagine the idiocracy who now lead us.”
=========
Indeed.
There seems to be little to no “leading” going on.
Men, stand up and jump right in and get shit done.
But there are very few men any more, instead, mostly wimmen no matter which gender they claim.
Lots of old lady hand wringin’ and little gurl bawling. This is the result of 40 years of attempting to make men irrelevant in all ways.
But we’re still out here and we are getting it done, in spite of the Mt McKinley size obstacles. It might just take a little longer. But it WILL get done. 1 man = 10 of anybody else.
Ghostsniper said it well.
Those points are correct and significant. I made this observation elsewhere:
Thank you for committing those points to writing. Thank you for getting that word of work and dignity out to many who do not organically understand it. Sadly there are too many who do not, and many of those are people of strong influence and persuasion.
Piss on them. Every last one of them and their delicate sense of self-importance, furrowed brows and all. Piss on them.
Turn the stupid TV off and leave it off.
And welcome to the redneck world of getting it done, making it work, Making do, suffering in silence, cussing about it, and doing it all over tomorrow. Scars and calluses. Tools. Engine exhaust. Dirt and sweat.
And by redneck I include all the ghetto, gang, single mom, single dad, unloved, discarded, misunderstood, and ignored. Black Americans, mixed, oriental, indigenous, Latin, mutt, doesn’t matter. Redneck.
Point your finger and place it in the middle of your chest. That’s the person who is going to make things survivable if not make things better. Start small if you have to and help those within reach, take care of your own, don’t do stupid stuff, and improve the things and the life surrounding you.
It is good to be Redneck.
On capital “L” leadership:
Leaders tell their people, “you can do this” and then show them how to do it. They LEAD.
The assholes in charge these days only know how to say “you are required to do this” and then poke with bayonets. I don’t have to tell you what that is.
Thus endeth the lesson.
My brother lives in NYC. His FB page is a long string of posts and memes, all of the most vicious Trump hate he can find. I find it most ironic that the most hated man in Manhattan has come to to rescue their wretched asses.
JWM
@Dan Patterson-
“Piss on them.
Turn the stupid TV off and leave it off.”
I am in 100% agreement with you Sir. Turn off the TV and disconnect the power cord. Throw it in the dumpster and be a free man.
It’s good to see the USNS Comfort entering New York harbor. Let us pray that this Chinese Virus pandemic will not come to mean “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Leadership. I think it was Buck Sexton, on the radio yesterday, who points out that dems say stoopidshit like “I want a thousand generators here!” and have no idea where, who, or how that would happen. They say an order into space; into thin air. Trump is exactly the opposite of that. He knows the logistics, and in that regards he knows the logistics in many fields important to our current crisis.
Sexton said the former way, the dems way of bloviating orders, is very Soviet in style. “I want 10 million bushels of wheat in Belarus next month!” No fukn idea how. Not even growing season. You just starved the farmers and truck drivers to death last winter. That’s our democraptic leadership in states and big cities. be really, really wary of those assholes. Be the sergeant whose new LT just stepped off the truck with starched fatigues and rosy cheeks: tell the dem leadership, with tact (sarcastic tact/ military style tact) that what they say is usually horseshit, and that the good governor, mayor, or city councilman can sit in the corner and let the men handle it.
Dangerous days we’re in.
I ain’t saying it didn’t happen, because I am reliably informed that it DID happen, but I find it strange that not a single one of the many clips I have seen of USNS Comfort entering NY Harbor SHOWS the fireboats giving her the traditional water cascade salute. I wonder, is this a sly little media poke in the eye, after President Trump made some of their heroes like Ms. Rachel (Nevada) Madcow look like idiots?