Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

July 29, 2007

Publishers Favourite Sites:

Rosanne Catalano

http://www.rosannecatalano.net/

Michael Smith

http://subs.zinester.com/86758/

Barbara Weymouth

penwormprayerwarriors-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Helen Dowd

www.occupytillicome.com

Today’s Announcements

Happy Birthday to our writer, Arjun Bali: arjunbali@gmail.com

Dear Prayer Warriors

I'm asking an unspoken request for me.  The Lord knows what's going on

and I can't go into it, but I do need your prayers.

Love to all and thank you for your prayers,

Barbara Weymouth: weymouth@surewest.net

DRUNKENNESS AND SABOTAGE AT CAPE CANAVERAL
CTV News and the Globe front, while the Star goes inside with some attention-grabbing headlines involving NASA. The US space agency has long been used to getting sensational press coverage (they put a man on the moon, after all), but yesterday’s revelations that on at least two occasions space shuttle pilots lifted off in a state of inebriation is most likely not the sort of attention NASA is looking for. According to a report to be released today, NASA pilots lifted off “even after doctors and other astronauts warned they were a flight risk because they were drunk,” the Globe reports. No names or dates are mentioned in the report. In separate news, NASA announced yesterday it had uncovered sabotage by one of its space program sub-contractors. A computer destined for the International Space Station was found to have had some of its wiring cut. The computer was to have been sent into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavor on August 7, but the damage allegedly caused by the sub-contractor would not have endangered the crew or the shuttle, NASA says.

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Please note that Storytime Tapestry is a free newsletter to members and there will never be a cost for the newsletter. Donations are purely voluntary and no member should ever feel guilty for not making a donation at this time.

Today’s Stories

~**~**~

Reason, Force and Balance
Mark Crider
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.

If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either
convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat
of force.  Every human interaction falls into one of those two
categories, without exception.  Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion.  Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the
personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force.  You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal
footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing
with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing
with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats.  The gun removes the
disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential
attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations.  These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes
it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job.  That, of course, is only
true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by
choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a
mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the
young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a
civilized society.  A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a
successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force
monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that
otherwise would only result in injury.  This argument is fallacious in
several ways.  Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the
physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute
lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out
of it with a bloody lip at worst.  The fact that the gun makes lethal
force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the
stronger attacker.  If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter.  It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and
easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but
because I'm looking to be left alone.  The gun at my side means that I
cannot be forced, only persuaded.  I don't carry it because I'm afraid,
but because it enables me to be unafraid.  It doesn't limit the actions
of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of
those who would do so by force.

It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a
civilized act.

Mark Crider  2007

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

The Lifetime Year
by Gary Jacobson © May 2007

http://namtour.com/lifetimeyear.html

Remember the eternities of a lifetime year
That birthplace of unsettling fear
Changing young boys brave and strong and clean
Though only nineteen...
Sent far from home to fight
For a nation’s sovereign right
Fell into brutish war
That good men say they abhor
Where each step can be your last one
Born again under Vietnam’s sun in the land of the gun.

Remember where was shed the unspeakable tear
Nevermore to forget brothers left there
Left nourishing a verdant jungle, all worldly care
Remembering shadows that go bump in the night
Exploding forever on senses awful fright
Riding hueys through dawning light
Steel war horses breathing fire to inspire
Through sweltering dust of Phan Thiet
Through the agent orange sunset
Wondering what each new day will beget...

Calamitous the omen
Though ... it don’t mean nuthin’
Just turn away to the next eve of destruction
Where evil in air around you plays
Three-hundred-sixty-five nights ... three-hundred-sixty-five days
Dreaming feats in prophetic night threatening
Foreboding chilling auspices thrilling
Come back always to bloodletting killing
So, think about something else
Weary heart’s racing the beating pulse.

Travel back to alien lands
Again walk with blood-stained hands
Where you lost the boy, but found the man
Humping deep dark jungles of Vietnam
Where you marched with hellish premonition
Bartering innocence with death in unholy arbitration
Through smoke and fire crescendo of mortars
The exploding crack of rifles making men martyrs
Laugh at foreshadowing doom
Death enshrouding the jungle gloom.

Cling desperately for life to brothers
Pray desperately to mothers
Scan every bush, snipers in the treeline, mines in the ground
Struggle to hear every out-of-place sound
Blood flowing in veins like ice
Embroiled in the service of sacrifice
Pray to God ... curse God
Straining within and without
To hear the primal shout
Painfully aware of each slightest movement
Trusting life to war’s armament.

Vietnam severely impacts all of life
Rifling the mind with PTSD strife
Still upsetting life values once thought dear
Violence to every night for the rest of life sear
Filling every thought with rivers of sweat
Still humping combat gear filled with fomenting regret
Feel still that combat rage
Too often saving burdensome life to pain assuage
Once again beside brothers angels cannot keep...
Can you tell me why I still can’t get to sleep?

Struggle with everything in you to survive
To arise from this hell-hole to 'the world' alive
Ghosts freed from lingering guilt
Cruel war upon its warriors built
Wondering why you too aren’t back there
Beside moldering buddies in a foreign jungle lair
Back there giving rise to malicious discontent
Duffels full of life’s altering moment
Blistering contagion in shadowy portent
Planted without relent to past and present torment.

My heart will always beaucoup memories hide
Yet forever I’ll foreshadowing bide
War’s deadly poisoned bane
The Nam’s horrific pain
Nam's drumming thunder bringing singing rain
Men trying to kill you again and again
Remember that fated year of the protestor’s jeer
When you got back to America’s hatefully despising leer
Given those forever searching still
Vietcong to kill...

************

You've asked for a book of my poems ... well, here it is ... entitled "My Thousand Yard Stare."  There are over two hundred full color pictures and graphics in this book of my comrades-in-arms, and other battle pictures with some of my most popular poetry, that veterans tell me are healing to them. Buy the book instantly at, http://namtour.com/marketplace.html with the security and ease of PayPal or your choice of credit cards.

If you wish it signed by the author, let me know by email.

You may also order it from me directly. There are special discounts for groups.

Gary Jacobson

My Thousand Yard Stare

6325 south Old Hwy 191

Malad, Idaho 83252

Price is $20 ... Add $6 postage= $26.00

Please vote for "Vietnam Picture Tour!" as a "Top Military Site," at "Veterans Topsites." I need your vote, Just Click this link to vote:
http://www.worldwidetopsites.com/php/in.php?id=knights
Vietnam Picture Tour is presently in 2nd place on "Military Topsites,"

Thanks to your generous support...so whether you vote once, every day, or now and then...I sincerely Thank You!

Gary
Gary Jacobson

"Vietnam Picture Tour," http://namtour.com/namtour.html A walk in "the park" grunts called Vietnam, with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. Experience chilling reality to leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent on your tongue, the smell of "the Nam" acrid in your nostrils, and textures of "the Nam" imbedded in you as though you were walking beside me in combat.

My poignant poems directory, pictures and artwork to show the essence and feeling of war on young "boys next door," http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html

"Realm Of Poetry," Poems of love and romance, spirituality and meditation, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionheart to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies, and comedy ... and also links to my site of riding that bestial ogre called war ... http://namtour.com/P/RealmOfPoetry.html

Readers Feedback

Thank you Carol for printing my story on Old Age.  There are so many good stories on Storytime Tapestry.

Thank you for providing the opportunity to  publish our stories.

Charlotte

Family Legacy - Such a beautiful, heart touching story! Thanks, Mindy Sayre

Story by Carol Roach – Family legacy - What a sad, yet awesome story.

I am happy you finally had love. I never did. Jene

Hello Carol

I just don't know how to express my feelings after reading this story, The legacy of neglect and abuse. Is this really the story of YOUR life? Is Doris really Carol?

I cannot begin to imagine that this sort of poverty/neglect and abuse existed in such advanced countries. My heart goes out in sympathy for Doris. I felt tears in my eyes.

I thank God for blessing me with lots of love, hugs, food clothes and above all lots of support &closeness from families and communities. My father was a very hard working man who supported his family of six children, two sons and four daughters, his wife and grand-parents. We all loved one another dearly.

I have to read your book.

S K Jandu

Carol I am reading your script and it has made me cry several times.  I have been so busy these couple of days, not even readng my mails... I found a lotr of books and things for the charity shop of animal shelter and I am ttrying to get some work done about the translation and my book, but not much... the 'normal;' chores and work keep interfering.  Hope you are keeping well,

Tanja

Story submitted by Victor Buhagiar. That is awesome. It reminds me of the story I wrote about Tippy, Michael Smith

Storytime Tapestry Angels

Angels on earth, they exist they are out there.  Angels come in all ages, shapes and sizes, civil status, and religion.  Their nature is love and their purpose is giving to the less fortunate of this world.  Storytime Tapestry angels are no exception.  These angels are loyal members who have contributed to the upkeep of Storytime Tapestry newsletter so that Storytime Tapestry can continue come to your email box 350 days of the year.

Here is our Storytime Tapestry Angels: Also, I would like to thank those of you who chose to be a silent angel and gave an anonymous donation to keep Storytime Tapestry up and running.

Clara Westerfer, Mark Crider, Rosanne Catalano, Paula Booher, Kay Seefeldt, Mariane Holbrook, Mary Ellen Grisham, Louise Nomani, Sharon Bryant, Angela Walker, Hart and Helen Dowd, Keith Ready, Ginger Morgenstern, Ellie Braun-Haley, Surinder Jandu, Bob Shaw, Carol Meeks