This, that, some other…
Well, I’m still gunning to get a redesign to this site up soon and finally start Wode. I’m going to pick March 15th as the date for that. As for the comic Journal, I’m going to be kind and honest with myself and put off its debut until May, when I’ll be between Dicebox chapters. And I’m going to be a little lazy and not update the dates on the intro pages to both of these comics until I update the site design (you’ll know when I do, it’ll be a totally new color palette).
Oh, my report for APE 2004: I hooked up with a lot of great people, had some nice conversations, ate a lot of great food and even picked up some comics. That’s about it.
Ah, I’ll probably do a more complete account, after Kip gets the pictures he took up. Yes, for once I was not the photographer—there might even be pictures of me this time. (You have been warned.) But I do want to quickly thank our fabulous host Patrick.
Naturally, one on the topics of conversation had in San Francisco was about the upcoming elections. Seems we are all a bit on the liberal sides of our respective families and are oft argued with the spectre of the intention of the Founding Fathers dragged in as an example of why we are wrong.
You know, I went to public school in the 70s, during Bicentennial fever and was taught plenty about the Founding Fathers and their intent. Wouldn’t say I agree with all they stood for, but I do feel they got a lot right. Like how protest is a sublime expression of the human spirit—questioning authority and not blindly or quietly following.
In fact, here’s a fine quote I saw this morning on a flyer calling for a protest here in Portland on March 1st from Founding Father Benjamin Franklin:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
And here’s another goodie from ol’ Ben:
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
On a related note, here’s a link to a 1946 educational film called Depotism that begs the question, “What sort of community do you live in? Where would you place it on a democracy/despotism scale?” (found via Portland IMC.)
While I appreciate the contribution the FF have made to formulating the basics of our democracy, it is frustrating to deal with people who seem to think that they worked it all out, end of discussion. If that were so, we wouldn’t have needed struggles for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights, labor rights, consumer protections, public financing of elections, environmental justice or even public schools and libraries. All that stuff “the left” has been so “extreme” about.
Ben Franklin’s cool. He brought Tom Paine to the colonies. That alone earns him a gold star.
The Founding Fathers also called the Constitution a temporary meassure, an emergency government, until some future and wiser administration came along and provided a better solution. And why they made room for amendments.
I think they’d be appalled that theirs is still the best of all alternatives for this country.
And, yeah, their views on women and civil rights were, ah, less than enlightened.
And as much as I admire a lot of B. Franklin’s work and contributions, I can’t forget that he popularized the phrase “All cats are gray in the dark”; that older women can still be enjoyed in a carnal way once you ignore the face.