(a Hollywood example of leadership?)

 The double-edged knife of insomnia cuts many ways - like a good Kali student knows (thanks Tuhons Inosato and Gaje's Sak-Sak and Pakal). I believe my insomnia is sometimes my best friend and sometimes my worst enemy. I believe that sometimes it's what keeps me alive and sometimes  my insomnia's killing me.

Last night I saw a few minutes of a movie that I STILL haven't seen in it's entirety. That movie is CITY HALL.

Yeah,folks, I KNOW it's a movie - scripted entertainment - but that doesn't mean it lacks value.

PLEASE watch the video speech that hollywood actor Al Pacino makes in the film. My thought is this-if an ACTOR can muster up this level of emotion, why doesnt REAL MURDER and TERROR on our streets do that to our leaders/to US ?

Let me say NOW-AGAIN that I LIKE JAY WILLIAMS-PERIOD. I also liike John McNally(even though he had me forcebly removed from the so-called Mahoning County Criminal Justice Working Group-more than once),Anthony Traficanti AND David Ludt-in fact, I consider all four friends and hope they feel likewise. That doesn't mean that I disagree or agree with everything they do or dont do. I say this now because regular listeners to the show KNOW that regularly I query: Where's the leadership, citywide,countywide,statewide and nationally? Where's the outrage by our leaders, by we the people ???

A few weeks ago "IT" happend again- the senseless spilling of blood.

From The Vindicator :

...

The other homicide victim, Hylen L. Cash, 21, of Sunshine Avenue, was killed around 11:40 a.m. on Ayers Street after an argument that witnesses told police was over heroin.

Travis Donaldson, 18, of Truesdale Road, was charged with aggravated murder and felony fleeing in Cash’s death. He was arrested on South Avenue shortly after the shooting after the car in which he was a passenger fled from police.

The driver, Tasha Martinez, 25, of South Bruce Street, was charged with felony fleeing.

I remember that Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day, well, at least for me. The sun was out with pretty puffy and wispy white clouds in the sky. Mill Creek Park was perfect ! But on Ayers, the sidewalk was red with the blood of someone just more than a child-blood (allegedly) spilled by another child. Lives ruined,families shattered,a young life gone.

So where was the outrage by community leadership???

If THAT was not the time for SOMEONE to hold a press conference next to that bloody ground demanding a 'moritorium' (mor·a·to·ri·um-an agreed suspension of activity [Latin mora delay] ) a Cease-fire. SOMETHING...then maybe this from the day before (again,from the Vindicator): ...After shooting five people in a Falls Avenue home, the shooter reloaded, walked up to one of the victims as she screamed and fired the gun at her head until she stopped moving.

Theresa Harris, no age or address available, was killed in the home early Saturday, the first of two homicides in the city that day...

 

"Really don't mind if you sit this one out.

My words but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT.
I may make you feel but I can't make you think.

 

Your sperm's in the gutter -- your love's in the sink.

 

So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.

 

And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away in
the tidal destruction
the moral melee.

 

The elastic retreat rings the close of play as the last wave uncovers
the newfangled way.

 

But your new shoes are worn at the heels and
your suntan does rapidly peel and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.

 

 

And the love that I feel is so far away:
I'm a bad dream that I just had today -- and you
shake your head and
say it's a shame..."