I guess I have spent my entire life trying to "make a difference". I have marched in marches, and led a few. I have worked so hard to try and improve the lot of working people, the single working parent who "is trying to be Mother and Father. Only to have us elect jokers who pulled out the safety net that we worked so hard to establish. And nobody cares. have tried to cause people, through every means available to me, to judge people "by the content of their character, and not buy the color of their skin". Only to find the racial divide, on all sides, greater than when I started. Who would have thought that 32 years later we would have a man dragged to death, torn to pieces for no other reason than his skin color. Who would have thought after all these struggles, that a young man would be beaten near to death and then left to face his last moments tied to a fence. And why? Because he was made, by the same God that these "wasted units" worship, different than us. His sexual orientation was the death sentence for this young man. Worked in the soup kitchens, worked in the neighborhoods. Tried to help the aged. Only to have idiots, in both parties tell me how hunger is almost abolished. If these people would just get to work, why everything would be OK.Struggled to get candidates elected, only to be disappointed by them. And them Democrats were as bad as the Republicans. I am reminded of a State-run Farm in Traverse City, Michigan. It was a working farm, where the challenged, some physically and most mentally, could feel a sense of worth. They lived there, and everyone had a job. Every one had a sense of worth and digity. The farm was self supporting, it produced product for sale. The conditions were good, the people who lived and worked there felt safe and secure. Then one day my own "peers" in the liberal left decided that they would apply the minimum wage laws and so on, and because of the way they went about it, the farm was closed and the people were put, literally, out on the streets. I used to see them in the winter just sitting in restaraunts trying to keep warm in this Northern Michigan paradise. Thank God for the businesses that would keep them in coffee.

Now this is not all in the right time sequence, just random association on the idea expressed by our Kat. I can remember the day that I got word that one of my students, his name was David, committed suicide. I have told his story, I think, somewhere in one of the threads. I remember going home, sitting in my chair, and crying for the best part of two days. Must have been a breakdown of some sort. I just know that I questioned the reasons for why I care. I remember wondering, "What's the use?". People, in the end result don't really give a fuck. Or maybe they are just overcome by it all and numbed into inaction. But they continue to elect people who say nice things, and then continue to act in narrow ways that benefit a small constituency. I finally came out of it. The spirits of my people, some of you call that conscience, kicked my big Irish ass out of that chair with instructions to get back on the road. I came to understand that I cannot, all by myself, change the world. But I can, by whatever is Holy, change that space that I am occupying. And I can join with others and effect a little more. And I can make sure that when people around me think of the time we spent together, they will smile. Or at least they will not forget, because it isn't always pleasant. And when I make mistakes, they will remember that I will apologize, and then continue on the road.

The Mudcat Cafe, and all of you from everywhere on our planet, give me more hope than I have ever had. We continue to grow together, musically and mentally, and we damn sure help each other to understand that different is not bad, just different.

All the best,

Big Mick