| The following is an email that i just wrote to Vice-President Cheney in response to the Federal Government's role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:
dear mr. cheney,
my name is daniel lewis, and i am a freshman at Bard College. I know that the chances of an aide of yours reading this are slim, and of you seeing this even slimmer, while the chance of my getting an automated reply thanking me for my mail is probably 99.999%. My having named the college I attend most likely makes the former even smaller. But anyway, i figured that i'd give it a shot. Who knows?
over the past few days, i have been working hard at not only starting classes, but in keeping up with the news. I am from brooklyn, new york, and this has been a major change for me to not be constantly connected to current events through the newspaper and radio. Since I arrived on campus a few weeks ago, I have felt this desire to understand the reasoning behind the workings of this country even stronger than I did in my last years of high school, and I have to admit, I am completely dumbfounded by the lack of a useful response from the federal government to the people of New Orleans. Why do you insist on spending so much money on a war when the entire city has become a no-man's-land? There is anarchy and discontent on American soil, and yet there is still rhetoric
spouted about fighting terrorism. I am not saying that terrorism isn't a
problem, but I do not want to get into a rant on why I disagree with your
government's foreign policy and the war in Iraq.
the United States were founded on the principle that it would b e a government for the people and by the people, but, as in many of your decisions on domestic policy, it does not seem as if you are truly taking this to heart. why all the tax cuts when the revenue could be used to aid the survivors of Hurricane
Katrina? How can you sit in Washington and ask people to donate money for aid when you cannot even get an effective response into Louisiana? it has been five days since the hurricane hit: why has there been no real response? this is a disaster akin to the recent tsunami in asia, and although I disagree with the meager aid that the federal government gave to the asian governments affected, I would have thought that you would have cared more about your own nation than this. This is a disgrace.
My question is why can't the federal government take just a fraction of the
budget from the war in Iraq to aid our own people? I realize that the sloppy
planning of the war left us no real exit strategy and the military is now
entrenched in Iraq, but you must realize that if anything, this will affect the politics of this country. Your response is not only hurting thousands of
desparate Americans, but you and your party's political power. Frankly, you are out of touch with our nation. This is something that needs to be changed. Please, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Bush: please forget about your friends in the oil business for a minute. Americans are dying, not just in Iraq, but in our own country. Please, stop with the bullshit. The people of New Orleans do not need platitudes and promises of aid; they need help, and they need it now. If you are at all the patriots that you claim to be in your speeches and your campaign ads, you will respond to this disaster.
Your country needs you.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Lewis
NOTE: apparently, as the mailer daemon told me a few seconds after I sent this email, vice.president@whitehouse.gov has been deactivated.
When i was looking at the transcript to find where things went wrong, the word "vacation" kept popping up.
- D | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment   |
| alright, so while i've been here at shire again, having the best time of my life, i've realized that i really don't need this thing anymore. therefore, i'm gonna stop writing in this, and if you wanna find out about whats going on in my life, you're actually gonna have to interact with me in some way. adios.
- danny | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | fire and rain is in my brain (i made a rhyme!) | | Time: | 03:09 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/hot.gif) hot |
|
| | i'm in an internet cafe in costa rica right now, and this place is fricken cool. i'll be home in a few days though, and i'll do a whole big thing about this then, but i am alive. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| i'm watching the task force x episode of jlu right now. deadshot and captain boomerang kick ass (dorky names aside).
tonight was really short. performing arts awards were nice (but hot. and long.) also, kinda disappointing that we didnt end up doing anything.
i played hackey sack for an hour today in my courtyard.
tomorrow is our manhattan island walk. im meeting some people at the 2/3 train tomorrow at 8:30, which we'll take to the very top of the island. we'll then walk the entire length to the bottom. We'll see how far we last.
goodnight. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | my senior project presentation was tonight and i can honestly say that this was the first time i enjoyed public speaking. theres something about pouring a years worth of effort and research into something you really love to do and then trying to share it with an audience that really made me happy. thanks so much to everyone who came, im so glad you thought it was good. and anyone who has questions about comics or wants to borrow them, you know who to come to. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Kodachrome - Paul Simon | | Subject: | BC'ers! | | Time: | 10:42 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/snore.gif) tired |
|
| | senior project presentation tomorrow at 4 in the performance space. be there or you suck and need a damn good excuse. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | ob-la-di, ob-la-da - the beatles | | Time: | 12:45 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/blank.gif) strange |
|
| because i am bored and tired but don't want to go to sleep for fear of waking up and having to go work, i have decided to make a playlist of all the songs we were singing at sam's at 5:30 yesterday.
EDIT: if anyone can remember exactly what songs we sang, i think i'm missing a couple in my memory. feel free to jog it. also, i think being at laid's earlier killed my good mood. i have no idea why. meh.
EDIT #2: my computer's desktop is now that photo julie took of the sign at the bob dylan concert that says "the bob dylan show." i am now slightly happier. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | busted - ray charles | | Time: | 01:40 am | | Current Mood: | tired |
|
| | HIGH SCHOOL IS FINISHED FOREVER | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 12:13 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/hyper.gif) hyper |
|
| | i no longer have high school classes. 2 weeks of high school finals and i'm done with high school forever. woo! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | The Simpsons | | Subject: | Dylan Concert | | Time: | 06:58 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/smile.gif) content |
|
| | Bob Dylan is a Golden God. The concert last night was easily the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. Just a couple more things on my list and I can die a happy man. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| just what you've all been waiting for, the complete list of the songs that i posted a few days ago. Good job people, I'll probably have another the next time i get really really bored.
1. Mine's not a hige horse - the shins
2. Gates of Eden - Bob Dylan
3. Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin
4. Sweet Wine - Cream
5. Hey Love - stevie wonder
6. Won't be fooled again - the who
7. Part-time lover - stevie wonder
8. Mexicali Blues - the grateful dead
9. Melissa - the allman brothers band
10. long tall sally - a cover by the beatles
11. think - aretha franklin
12. Big, Bright, Green PLeasure machine - Simon and Garfunkel
13. Play with Fire - rolling stones
14. Hey now - ray charles
15. Birthday - the beatles
16. One more saturday night - the grateful dead
17. I can't turn you loose - otis redding
18. are you experienced? - jimi hendrix
19. what a wonderful world - louis armstrong
20. the end - the beatles (how fitting...) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | the 30-sec clip of "I wanna be sedated" on itunes | | Subject: | au hau hau (snooty laugh) | | Time: | 10:15 pm | | Current Mood: | back and forth and up and down |
|
|
Your Inner European is French! |
Smart and sophisticated.
You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so. |
who knew? i guess that explains this craving for fine cheese and part of my hatred of bush? heh | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| ok, because i'm bored and its late and i still dont wanna sleep, im gonna do another one of my lyric things. name the song and artist if you can. here goes:
1. You were so poorly cast as a malcontent.
2. With a time-rusted compass blade, Aladdin and his lamp Sits with Utopian hermit monks Side saddle on the Golden Calf, And on their promises of paradise, You will not hear a laugh.
3. You hurt and abused tellin’ all of your lies, Run around sweet baby, lord how they hypnotize.
4. Who wants the worry, the hurry of city life. Money, nothing funny; wasting the best of our life.
5. When you are near me I go through a change or two, Hearing your footsteps I hurry to catch your eye And I stand there waiting, yeah, But girl, you just walk on by
6. I'll move myself and my family aside If we happen to be left half alive I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky For I know that the hypnotized never lie, Do ya?
7. Call up, ring once, hang up the phone To let me know you made it home.
8. She said her name was Billy Jean and she was fresh in town. I didn't know a stage line ran from Hell. She had raven hair, a ruffled dress, a necklace made of gold, All the French perfume you'd care to smell.
9. Again the morning's come, Again he's on the run, Sunbeams shining through his hair, appearing not to have a care. Well, pick up your gear and Gypsy roll on, roll on.
10. Gonna tell Aunt Mary 'bout Uncle John, He says he has the blues but he has a lotta fun. Oh baby, Ye-e-e-eh baby, Woo-o-o-oh baby, Havin' me some fun tonight.
11. I ain't no psychiatrist, I ain't no doctor with degree. It don't take too much high IQ
To see what you're doing to me.
12. Are you worried and distressed? Can't seem to get no rest? Put our product to the test. You'll feel just fine now.
13. Your mother she's an heiress, owns a block in Saint John's Wood, And your father'd be there with her, If he only could .
14. Did ya ever wake up in the morning, Just about the break of day, Reach over and feel the pillow Where your baby used to lay? Then you put on your crying Like you never cried before.
15. You say it's your birthday, Well it's my birthday too--yeah. You say it's your birthday,
We're gonna have a good time. I'm glad it's your birthday, Happy birthday to you.
16. Everybody's dancin' down the local armory, With a basement full of dynamite and live artillery. The temperature keeps risin', everybody gittin' high; Come the rockin' stroke of midnite, the whole place gonna fly.
17. I cant turn you loose now I'm in love with the prettiest thing I never, never turn you loose now Because of all the sweet love she brings
18. Trumpets and violins I can hear in the distance, I think they're calling our names. Maybe now you can't hear them, but you will.
19. The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, Are also on the faces, of people going by. I see friends shaking hands, sayin' "how do you do?" They're really sayin' "I love you"
20. And in the end, The love you take Is equal to the love you make.
goodnight. | | comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Jumpin' Jack Flash/Youngblood - Concert for Bangladesh | | Subject: | WAHOOOO! | | Time: | 06:52 pm | | Current Mood: | accomplished |
|
| Senior Project pt. 2 done, onto the thrid and final chapter: The Grim n' Gritty 1980's and the Return to the Basics in Modern Comics (probably something a little bit more concise than that, but hey, i'm really tired from having been writing this essay all day and i had track, so gimme a break, eh?)
in other news, it's looking more and more likely that i'll go to bard, but still hold out and see what happens with oberlin and vassar. this trip to reed has a good chance of falling through, to tell the truth. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Conan in the background | | Time: | 01:12 am | | Current Mood: | woohoo! |
|
| | Happy Birthday to me ^_^ | | comments: 12 comments or Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dragonmaster915's journal![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/blah.gif){kind=small}
bored
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/bouncy.gif){kind=small}
ecstatic![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/up.gif){kind=small}
thankful![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/shocked.gif){kind=small}
shocked