LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

Let your light shine thru.

— Bumper sticker of the week: Bush deserves a fair trial.

— Quote of the week: “America — this monument to the genius of ordinary men and women, this place where hope becomes capacity, this long, halting turn of the No into the Yes, needs citizens who love it enough to re-imagine and remake it.” Cornel West, professor of religion, Princeton

— Song of the week: “Dear Mr. President,” by Pink, with the Indigo Girls. This is one of the best protest songs you’ll ever hear.

— Why Mexicans must sneak across the border: Most Mexicans coming to America are unskilled laborers. America, while we need unskilled laborers, doesn’t make it easy. In fact, in 2005, the U.S. distributed about 5000 visas for unskilled workers worldwide. Two of them went to Mexicans. A diabolical dilemma: We need them to do our dirty work, but we don’t want them to enter the country legally. And we wonder why there’s a problem.

— Martini’s and Weenies: Get ready for the first annual Martini and Weenies Galesburg Extravaganza. Featuring cheap vodka, Mississippi caviar, Hy–Vee olives, turkey wieners, and day old buns. This is one you’re not going to want to miss. $15 per couple. All proceeds to go to my new program, “Send The Peever to Hot Springs.” Date to be announced.

— Dream eaters: That’s what they are, Bush and his henchmen. Dream eaters. We long for life, and they give us death. We work our butts off to make a living, and they make us poor. We beg for the truth, and all we get are lies. Every child is left behind with a war budget. Prisoners are tortured into confessions. They don’t want to recognize that their big business friends are destroying the world. They fire people so they can replace them with their own right-wing robots. They hate diversity. They despise differentness. They spy on us because they know we don’t trust them. They fear us because we know what they are: Dream eaters.

— Speaking of craziness: Cities are making it hard on organizations that feed the poor. Seems they don’t really want the poor in their town, so they are making it hard on anyone trying to help them. This is the epitome of current societal sickness. That they don’t care that people are hungry. I think people who think this way will languish in hell long before they ever get there.

— A city council candidate debate: There was a real interesting ordeal.

— I would have to say, all things being equal, that if Washington, D.C. slid into the ocean, we would all be better off.

— “What kind of father would hate his own daughter for being gay?” — Dear Mr. President, Pink

— To all those persons who are busting their butts off trying to make ends meet on a minimum wage, you are to be admired and congratulated. Yours is a tough time and an exploited one. To single mothers who must spend all of your money on health-care, child-care, and keeping an old beater running, keep your head held high and your spirit up. Look out for yourself and your children and take the best employment deal you can find. Things can get better. Don’t apologize for nothing. This is not an easy time. We have stepped back into the nineteenth century. We are suffering through a Bush induced Dark Ages. Keep the faith!

— To everyone who believes we can overcome Bush’s negativeness, who remains optimistic in spite of it all, who challenges the falsehoods and lies spread by the government, who counters gossip and innuendoes with questions and facts, who turns a deaf ear to racial and ethnic jokes, who goes out of their way to say hello to strangers, who embraces diversity for its richness and wholesomeness, to these people I say, “Thank you.” You are countering a deep darkness that has settled over the land. This is the worst time I have seen in my 59 years. Let your light shine thru.