SUNDAY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

He's still dead, can we please stop talking about Michael Jackson? Human beings are not pharmaceutical disposal units . . . The heat is back in San Diego County, after a June Gloom good enough for 2 years . . . it's gonna be a long, hot one, even with the nascent talk about an El Nino brewing for the Winter . . . another epic visit with the in-law extended wing of the family, a bunch more fun and an obligatory return to the nagging question of what the hell is wrong with LOST's brood that they can't do this, too . . . 2 months and counting before the oldest of the LOST sons heads off to college, and he's landed a real job, too . . . back to the world/nation, leave the President alone . . . not six months in office and people are actually pissed that everything isn't fixed yet . . . eight years of Claudius and Caligula take some time to clean up . . .

OH GOOD LORD, WHAT NEXT?

Both sides of the political spectrum have those elements . . .groups that are like the relative you know you have to invite to the party, but always stays too long and says too much, and adds little to the event. For the righties, their uglies have really been stomping it up since the inauguration, fanned by the inflammatory rhetoric of AM radio bastards, they've been swept into a torrent of rage over fears that the Kenyan Muslim from Chicago is coming to take their precious guns away, so they're using them on long hated targets. It is unspeakably disgusting.

However the lefties are not without their pariahs - and while their offenses may pale in comparison to the neo-nazi and anti-abortion doctor killers of the right, their rhetoric is more than a tad embarrassing. LOST speaks of course, of PETA, the acronym standing for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals."

On its face, not such a big deal. Humans should not subject pets to wanton, destructive behaviors. Animal testing should be humane, and for a definable, worthwhile scientific purpose. All good, all true, end of discussion, right?

Not quite.

According to this morning's L.A. Times> PETA is speaking out in the hope of ending a practice which in its fevered collective consciousness is horrifying. The targets of PETA's profound condemnation are the fish flingers of Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. A sample:

PETA Director Sarah King said the flying fish demonstration represents callous disregard for the suffering the creatures undergo before they come to the table.

"There is more than enough scientific evidence to prove that fish feel pain and that they do not die well at the hands of the fishing industry," she said, citing numerous studies that show fish have intelligence as well as sophisticated social structures.

Can't wait for their celeb-studded CD release, featuring such hits as "My Martyred Mackerel" and "King Crab Nation." For Pete's sake, the fish are dead. If PETA wanted some credibility on the issue, they'd sidle up next to the Greenpeace folks, and raise more awareness about ocean water dumping of . . . well, everything. Personnifying fish, trying to equate their "feelings" with human sensations tracks on the wrong side of sane - perhaps far enough away to claim its own ZIP Code.

YES, YOU WILL WANT ONE

This is a great commemorative of the historic events of November 2008 - January 2009, and you can acquire yours at the website of the artist, John Mavroudis, The original artwork was featured on the cover of "The Nation" magazine, but Mavroudis has laboured on it since, adding several other historical figures, including LOST's personal historical favorite in the back row with brother Ted.

FORTY ONE YEARS AGO TODAY



June 5, 1968, after midnight, one of the brightest stars in the progressive spectrum was senselessly snuffed out and taken from our country, from our society, from our government.
(reprinted and updated from 2006)
Robert Kennedy is almost a forgotten man in mainstream America now, a footnote on a page about his brother's presidency for some, a cameo appearance in a TV movie about Hoffa or McCarthy, or the Cuban Missile Crisis for others. He's been gone almost as long as he was here, only for a time, among his bretheren. Even this horrific anniversary has been obscured to some degree by the death of the conservative's modern day icon, Ronald Reagan.

Robert Kennedy was a real-life story of redemption, a non-fiction, modern day Ebeneezer Scrooge. He was himself transformed from a ruthless pursuer of perceived wrong doers and those who would attack or antagonize his brother, to a statesman who cared about the poor, the impoverished, the hopeless in ways that few politicians have since. He made enemies among the more vocal of progressives of his time for declining to immediately challenge LBJ for the 1968 nomination and on the disastrous course in Vietnam, then jumping in only after McCarthy showed Johnson's vulnerability in New Hampshire - and the American public's disgust with the war. But he made up for lost time, and ultimately paid the dearest of prices for his efforts. Given what happened to his brother, his campaigning was absolutely fearless. Many of his campaign events featured him standing on the back of open cars, riding slowly through neighborhoods of exuberant people, eager to touch him and shake his hand. So many seem convinced that his spirit and drive, and energy and charisma would help carry this country out of the Vietnam quagmire, and on to better things and greater prosperity.

To watch the footage of that somber funeral train snaking from New York to Washington that funereal day, and view the sea of humanity in silent witness, was profoundly poignant. The thousands of ordinary pallbearers showed no regard for individual differences, and instead were united solely by the depth of their collective grief. In their sense of loss they showed appreciation for what the man was able to inspire in millions - an ability to emphasize common goals over specific differences. Scant few national leaders have succeeded in this effort to any significant degree since; hopefully President Obama will prove to have this kind of charisma and ability to inspire people to emphasize unity over division.

Tonight, if you are so inclined, say a prayer for the soul of this decent man who was ripped away from us. Say one for our Nation, so that we will one day soon be blessed with a batch of public servants with Robert Kennedy's sense of social justice and yearning to improve our country as a whole. And most of all, let us all make sure that we will recognize such people when they enter the public arena, and support them as fervently as humanly possible.