I Hear America Singing- Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

(Happy 4th of July, (e:peeps)).

Has anyone ever been to the Iron Island Museum in Buffalo? I just read the other day that the television Ghost Hunters recently filmed the museum and some other sites around Buffalo.

I recently installed Firefox3 on my comp. Estrip looks great on it! I really like this version of firefox a lot better than the previous ones.

I went with my dad to church today for father's day (he's a Lutheran). It was a really nice service. The sermon was by a visiting minister, who worked within the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960's. She was friends with Martin Luther King, and has continued to be an activist for social justice. In her sermon about the beloved community and our responsibility towards promoting equality, she tied in a passage from Exodus where Moses finds the burning bush. Moses doesn't believe that God could really want him to be the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses is a stutter, and doesn't have much confidence in his ability to lead people. What I got from the sermon was that we all have the ability to fight for justice and equality, that God wants each of us to take part in this struggle- even if we believe we don't have the ability to make a difference. Even if we aren't the most eloquent of leaders. I don't know if God has a purpose for people, but we can find a purpose within God and what it means to believe in God. I don't know how you can truly believe in God, and somehow not believe in human equality.

Not meaning to bore people with my religious thoughts on here. Happy Father's Day to the dad's on here! Also, a very happy birthday to (e:jason) and (e:joshua).

I didn't know if anyone here has posted about Kucinich's call for an impeachment of President Bush.

While he obviously will not be impeached now, it does surprise me that there wasn't a greater movement to impeach him during his presidency. Maybe no one felt that they could substantiate the claims against him enough to make a concrete move for impeachment? It just seems that potentially lying about mass weapons seems like a worse offense than what Bill Clinton lied about. That's not to say that it was right what Clinton did. I just meant from a comparative perspective.

Aaron came up for a couple of hours yesterday, and we went yesterday to the beach. It's been a long time since I've been to the beach, I really enjoyed it. It was really good seeing him. Afterwards, we went to this cemetery in town and looked up war monuments and memorials. I know that probably sounds morbid, but it was interesting.

i just finished up a research project last week, so I'm looking for a job. I also want to get my license (it's kind of a long story why I don't have one). I'll let you guys know when I'm taking the test, so you won't be out on the road that day.

I just finished reading several good books. One book was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and the other was Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. Dick's book was good, but it's hard to wrap your mind around it. A lot of it deals with transitive realities, mind-shifting drugs, and the corruptibility of organized religion and power. In the end, you have no idea what is real or what truly existed. I like some of his other books better, but I would recommend it. I definitely would recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's amazing. I don't even have the words to describe how great of a book that truly is.