Dale Out West Part 3

The first picture is of the mountains in northern Wyoming. They are majestic. The second picture is of me. I am not majestic. I am hairy.

Dale Out West Part 2

These pictures were taken in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. I do not know why they are called "Bad". I did not see any misbehavior during my visit.

Dale Out West Part 1

Here I am in the Badlands. I am staring into the distance. What am I looking at? I cannot tell. It was too distant.

I am proud of this photo. I took it myself. I was going to ask some other tourists to do it for me but they ran away. Evidently the sight of me staring into the distance is frightening to other tourists. And small children. Also dogs. Perhaps even chickens. Oh well.

The Problem In Iraq

"The problem in Iraq is that people are being killed," said Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld in an interview on NPR this morning. Expressing anger that he had not been told of this development sooner, Rumsfeld said he will launch an investigation to find out who had been keeping the information from him.

"I had no idea...no idea at all that people were being killed," said Rumsfeld, "and believe me when I say 'heads will roll' when I find out who is responsible."

An anonymous Pentagon source revealed that Rumsfeld has suspected that people were being killed for some time. However, recent news reports of dozens of people dying caught the secretary by surprise. Evidently Rumsfeld thought that his new design for a "rapid response" military would allow war without death.

Rumsfeld says he is considering taking back all bullets from US troops. "I previously cut back on armor for humvees in order to lower the likelihood of US soldiers killing people. Clearly that was not successful. I am left with the unhappy choice of taking back all the bullets. Our troops will maintain their rifles. They can display them prominently. This show of force should be sufficient to deter the Iraqis. After all they are a cowardly people."

Richard Perle: Ugly Hair; Ugilier Ideas

Yesterday I saw a movie called, Why We Fight. It included an interview of Richard Perle, one of the key architects and supporters of the foreign policy that landed us in Iraq. His comments disturbed me. The gist of what he said was that the American character has changed; that most of us now support the Bush doctrine of preemptive wars. He said this is a good thing because it only makes common sense to kill those who would kill us before they have a chance to do so. The example he used to justify this thinking was that if someone was going to shoot you and you knew it in advance, you would shoot them.

Perhaps this is so. Perhaps we are doomed to believe that we “must do unto others before they do unto us”. For me the difficulty with this model is that it makes two false assumptions:

1. It assumes that I can, with certainty, predict the actions of another human or group of humans.
2. It assumes that killing those who would kill me will not harm innocent bystanders, and further, that this will not turn their friends and relatives into people who will want to kill me.

I lack Mr. Perle’s certainty on these matters.

With regard to the first point, I am not confident that I can know in advance that someone is going to harm me. Many times in my life I have been in conflict with someone only to find that we later become friends after talking through the cause of our conflict. How this might play out if I faced a potential killer on a dark street corner in a dangerous city I do not know. Perhaps there would be no opportunity to talk. Perhaps I would be dead. Nevertheless, my preference would be to try and talk even in this situation. Otherwise, I run the risk of what I consider a greater tragedy…taking a life unnecessarily. Perhaps, just perhaps there is a slim chance that I can talk to my potential killer and avoid death. Perhaps there is a bit of tenderness in him for how my death would affect my friends and family. Perhaps he would show me mercy. I hope he would. I hope I would show him mercy.

I am one of the fools who still chooses to believe that love and tolerance are always preferable to fear and vengeance. This is not because I believe all people are “good”. It is because I do not believe in my ability to judge such things as good or evil with certainty. For me life is not black and white; a binary system…at least not one I am capable of judging. Some of the most “evil” people I have met later turned out to have much “good” about them. My belief in love and tolerance is a practical matter. My life works better and I am happier when I practice love and tolerance rather than fear and vengeance. That is enough reason for me to practice love and tolerance. I prefer a short life filled by trying to act with love and tolerance to a lengthy one where I act on the principles of fear and vengeance.

This brings me to the second assumption underlying the Bush/Perle preemptive war doctrine – that we have the ability to kill the “evil doers” without harming innocent bystanders. Clearly this is not the case. Thousands of civilians die in all wars. Wars are not a precise business. Terms like “surgical strike” and “smart bombs”, “human shields” and “acceptable collateral damage” are lies. When I hear about a surgical strike on the enemy target and that there was acceptable collateral damage I can lull myself into believing that I am listening to reports of rationale humane activities. But if I am honest I must ask myself, “How humane is it to kill women and children?” and “How rational is it to mimic the actions of those who I call evil?” How rational is it to propose that the way to stop fear and vengeance is to engage in fear and vengeance? If I kill my potential killer on the street corner at night will not his injured children, friends and family seek vengeance on me? If I attack all who appear to threaten me will I not find myself alone, with only my fears to comfort me?

So, much as I respect Mr. Perle’s years of experience and vast knowledge, I must disagree with him. Not all American’s believe his idea that it is better to go to war with others before they go to war with us. I for one do not and I know there are others like me. The preemptive war doctrine sounds too much like the model used by other failed empires and the tyrants that ruled them. On a personal note, even if Mr. Perle and his kind decide to pursue lives based on fear and vengeance I cannot afford to do so. When I practiced this in the past it landed me in a mental institution. I have no desire to return.

Iris Eating Deer

Last summer I planted some Iris...transplants from some raised by my Grandmother Hankins. The deer ate them. I hated the deer. This spring the Iris grew and bloomed anyway. One of the blossoms is 8" tall and 7" wide. I no longer hate the deer.

I Don't Know What

This is a pix taken on a trip with my friend David. We went to the Coralville resevoir. As you can see, the photo has been heavily manipulated...just like my brain. I used software on the photo today and LSD on my brain back in the 1970's. Oh well. David said he enjoyed the trip.

Iowa City Tornado April 2006

Clearly Meaningful Fog

The other morning fog sat on the road. I drove through it anyway, not really sure where I was going. I ended up in Iowa City. There were friends there.

Mickey Mouse Remembered

This is the Mickey Mouse phone that lives at Uptown Bill's Small Mall.

Mickey, Mickey, Mickey. What ever became of you? Once you were king of the silver screen. Now children hardly know you. So much for fame. Then again you still have your looks.

Piggly Wiggly

This is a sign from a Piggly Wiggly store in Sikeston, Missouri. Piggly Wiggly was the first store to let (make?) customers pick out their own groceries. Before the "Pig" people waited while clerks picked out the things on their shopping lists. Now we can go get stuff ourselves without having someone wait on us hand and foot. Thank you Mr. Piggly Wiggly.

At Little Rock Zoo

This is me and Rejeanne at the Zoo in Little Rock this past February. The animals were glad to see us. Several of them "did their business" for us. We found the Fox particularly fragrant.

Ms Dorothy's Party

This is me and Ms. Dorothy at Uptown Bill's Small Mall in Iowa City. We often "party hearty" at Bills. Sometimes we even eat chocolate.

Buddha's Hippocampus

This Buddha was sitting in an Iowa City shop window. Why? Only Buddha knows. I once went to Japan to study about Buddha...I was not a very good student. When I was getting ready to return to Florida a priest quoted the Bible. I thought it was odd that a Buddhist would quote the Christian Bible but then I was not myself when I was in Japan. Maybe I have never been myself. I don't know, or really care anymore. Like I was saying...the priest quoted the bible passage about wine skins:

Luke 5:37,38 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’"

I don't understand what the priest was getting at, but as I said, I was not a very good student. I no longer worry about ideas like new and old, much less wine. It has been my experience that worrying about distinctions like old and new causes me pain. Whatever I have in front of me must be sufficienct or else I will be unhappy. If I am new and long to be old I will be unhappy. If I am old and long to be new I will be unhappy. If I want that which I do not have then I will always be unhappy. I wrote a poem about this idea when I got back from Japan. It was written in Iowa City, an old wineskin of mine, about what I felt that day, definitely new wine since I was in a manic fit (or at least so I am told).

Old and New Wine

The old wine can be made new.

Plum blossoms can become buds.

Shiva can learn to waltz to "Also Sprach Zarathustra"

Vasque hiking boots can be the key

For me

To set free

That which is in me

Finding A Place

Is this lamp trying to be a tree? I do not know. Does the tree wish it were a lamp? Don't know that either...being neither lamp or tree. Guess I did too much acid back in the 70's.

Southern Women

I was made from Southern Women.
Mattie Jean’s blood flows in my veins.
Aunt Maysel’s grit stiffens my spine.
The joy of Aunt Pat’s chocolate pie shines in my eyes.
Grandma Hankins gave me laughter.
And most of all Grandma Mac gave me my soul.
Their blood, grit and soul have long departed.
Motes in God’s - eye returned to the stars.
Yet their spirit remains.
Lifting me from darkness,
When I would fade to nothing.
Shaping my path when my feet lose their way.
Yes Southern Women made me;
from the red Arkansan clay.

Balloons

Thinking of balloons. Or is it balons? Or baloons? Or ballons? I bet the balunz don't care.

Chair Lottery

Who is going to sit in the chairs? Who lives in this purple and yellow room? Who? I ask you! Who?! Please send your responses to daleshankins@yahoo.com and win a chance at a magnificent prize.

Bluesman Jack

I met Bluesman Jack at Tony's Grill in Iowa City, Iowa. He is not there anymore. His face has finished sliding off the page.

Tree And A Poem

This tree lives in my memory. It's parent lives in Iowa City. Happy tree.

A poem for today. It is kind of happy.

A woman's tears open my deepest wounds

Resurrecting a child buried by his mother's pain

"Yes Mamma...I love you Mamma...Please no Mamma."

I fall into a timeless hell but do not die

Seeing no one to judge me I walk on

May women keep their tears

I have enough of my own