Leave It To Peever


­­ Bumper sticker of the week: Don't Do It!

­­ Quote of the week: ''Only people serving an apprenticeship to nature can be trusted with machines.'' Herbert Read

­­ The U.S. is the only NATO country that executes its citizens. We pride ourselves in standing for democracy, freedom, and morality. Still we refuse to end capital punishment. It is barbaric, wrong, and counter-productive. It breeds negativity.

­­ The next fuel source: Hydrogen. This is going to cause some real commotion. Bush and Cheney are doing everything they can to secure their places in the ''environmental hall of shame.'' Solar, wind and hydrogen will fuel the world in the future, assuming there will be anything left to fuel.

­­ Colin Powell pulls our delegation out of the U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. This was arrogant and not a very intelligent thing to do. Despite the official withdrawal, many of the delegates stayed, including Native Americans, migrant workers, Afro-Americans and Hispanics. ''The people who represent civil justice are still here. We have not gone,'' stated civil rights attorney Alicia Young.

­­ What economic development is not:

-- It's not a bunch of white guys sitting around wondering what should come next.--

It's not something that should happen behind closed doors. It affects everyone.--

It should not be a giveaway fest. ''We'll consider your community if you give us this.'' I say go away.--

There has to be some kind of measurable result, otherwise why keep spending our money on all the fancy brochures.--

If public money is involved, citizens have a right to know what is going on. Or not going on.--

Finally, economic development is not real. It is make-believe. People will live here if it is a nice place. If it is a place they could see raising their children. A friendly, progressive, diverse community, with good schools, good streets, parks, and a welcoming attitude. Short of an ocean, or mountains, or year round warm weather, that's about all you need. Well, maybe a strip-joint or two.

­­ I thought I was going to win the multi-state lotto a couple of weeks back. Everything was in my favor. I needed the money, I prayed, and most importantly, I had ten tickets. The chances of winning were one in eighty million. This would be equivalent to being struck by lightning while being abducted by an alien spacecraft. You'll never guess what happened?

­­ Casey's: A scalping of the public, selling gas for $4 per gallon hours after the terrorist attack on New York. They made my boycott list.

­­ Speaking of gas: The citizens of Galesburg should be ashamed of themselves. All of the gas stations in town experienced a run on gas, with accompanying behaviors that should be embarrassing. The police were called to maintain order at more than one. All the stations in Galesburg should be reprimanded for raising prices at all. The citizens who rushed to the pump, for whatever reasons, should reassess where your fears and insecurities are coming from. A terrorist laughs for how he brings us to our knees, in such an obscure place as Galesburg, Illinois.

­­ Terrorism: What can you say? Kill them, destroy them. Immediately, we join their playing field. People have for a long time killed one another for ideological reasons, for religious convictions, sometimes for just fleeting thoughts that one mind might have. I wish our answer to evil were not to try and chop its head off. The blood that spills on us, binds us to our enemies. We become blood brothers. It would be nice to think we could approach our enemy with more diplomacy, more understanding, with more talk and less death. Anyway, it's a nice dream.

­­ "You can never meet evil with evil and expect good to come of it." The Peever


Uploaded to The Zephyr Online September 19, 2001

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