If you open your mind for me
You won't rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin
Living twice at once you learn
You're safe from pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dreams alive, you can be the guide but...

Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

I was spending time driving, well actually sitting, to work and not really paying attention to what CD I had playing. You get into that sorta haze phase where all you pay attention to red light and their proximity to the front of your vehicle. Usually it is during this time that I begin to plan out my day. Lessons, strategies, and the right words spin around in my sleep-dazed mind as I bounce between the brake and accelerator.

Odd thing, this one song came out of my speakers and all thoughts seeped out of my head as the lyrics began to take precedence. I have listened to Queensryche since they put out their first album so many years ago. Queensryche is not for everyone mostly because of Geoff's style of singing. Don't ask me why but Geoff's voice has a way of grabbing you by the short hairs and making you pay attention to the message.

As Silent Lucidity began it was like for the first time I was actually listening to the message and wondering how much he was actually singing to me. Yes, I know that he wrote the song with someone else in mind, but great googly moogly it might as well had been about what I am feeling and going through right now. If you have not heard this song yet, take a look at some of the online vendors to hear a sample.

As for me, I'm thinking I need to sit down and have another listen and sort things out...

-WTS

When Lisa Marie decided to begin recording I was slightly amused. I mumbled to myself that it would be just a matter of time before she would cash in her father's name. When her first album came out I was impressed that the first single "Lights Out" was really good. She came close to cashing in because the song was about being raised in Memphis, but life experience is part of music.

Not sure when the video came out, (I would guess on the anniversary of the King's death) but take a gander and cry in the memory of Elvis. I know and fully understand that it is not politically correct to publicly criticize someone who is lending his or her talent to raise money for charity. I get it, she wanted to help out and either herself or some overpaid record exec decided to imitate other daughters with their famous daddies genre and create this video.

Give me a break though, this takes tasteless to the next level and I'm not talking about the images of the babies with guns. I would have been okay with just the Elvis version and I might have been alright with a Lisa Marie version. Combining the two together though kinda made my spine twist. This idea worked with Nat King Cole and his daughter, but this one, not so much...



-WTS

I know that in the past I have discussed the demise of television and I have pointed the finger at the major cause, reality television. Without really going back into the details of what annoys me about reality television, instead let me talk about a show that has really stirred up the American public. If you haven’t heard about Kid Nation, (or however it is spelled) I am sure that soon you will. Basically, the premise of the show centers on allowing kids to run their own society without any adult supervision. In other words it is a free-for-all society based upon video games and booger eating.

I haven’t actually seen the show and I am not here to comment on the morality of the concept. Actually, I am laughing at the apparent outrage people are directing towards CBS and its affiliates for producing and broadcasting this show. Take a look at some of the news outlets and watch the interviews that have been conducted. People are disgusted with the dangerous theory of allowing children to be responsible for themselves and for their fellows without adult supervision.

Okay, reread the previous sentence and ask yourself if this is an issue or not.

Think about the parents that you know of that do horrible jobs of taking care of their own children. Think about the dreadful situations that kids are placed in with adult supervision that make the news and try to calculate the amount that have yet to surface. Kids are not stupid first of all. In fact, once they realize that some organization is needed in order for survival, they will band together. I have worked with adolescents long enough to know that in situations, they will band together to help each other out. What is so wrong with allowing kids the chance at self-government? I have a feeling that some of the latest decisions made by grown-ups who are in charge would not have happened.

Besides, I also strongly feel that the blame on CBS is sadly misplaced…

Their parents had to give permission for their children to be on the show and typically, the kids are not directly being paid since they are minors…


-WTS

Come closer to me 

Well, the day of reckoning is once again upon us and the bells will once again echo throughout the hallways of countless schools today. The race to May has once again begun and I am looking forward to it. It takes a special person to work with children especially numerous of them forty hours a week. Elementary teachers get the special task of teaching those little empty sponges how to read, write, and do math. They also have the onerous task of showing these little ones the marvels of history and the wonders of science. Well, theoretically they do because the reality is that if you teach in the 3rd-5th grades you will eventually be forced by administration to teach to a test.

Secondary teachers, while many have fewer subjects to teach, they teach in larger volumes. Many in my field deal with 120-160 kids on a daily basis. They have the extra joy of having 30-35 sweaty adolescents seated in a class that was designed to house 28 at the most. Undaunted, secondary teachers polish their craft and try to get these little angels to love the subject area. Once again, reality will bite them in the ass as they are once again forced to teach to a test.

You know, my education growing up was pretty good. Sure, I graduated with some deficiencies, but I was able to correct them by taking extra courses in college. I was exposed to many different things and sometimes enjoyed attending a certain teacher's class. There we no pressure on us to pass a freaking test. The point is, when are the collective voting community pull their collective heads out and demand that teachers be allowed to teach?

Or, it is so much easier to let us deal with your kids and try to give them a good education and you taking no responsibility for their learning?

-WTS

Running from the light leads me to nowhere
Fear of the unknown keeps me from looking up
Shouting into the abyss yields no answers
The unknown seems to be the path that I must tread

Excerpt from 'Requiem to Non-Tomorrow'
WTS

We sometimes get so involved with tunnel vision that we lose parts of life.

Humans have an amazing ability to become so narrow-visioned that they often lost parts of their lives in order to focus on a small portion. Sometimes we do this because we have to while others, well, get lost slowly. Either way some use the loss of something to gain empathy and even deep sympathy. There are those who turn losses into anger and self destruction.

I got a call tonight to let me know that one of my closest friends has once again left his senses and gone down a dark path again. I am angry with him at the same time that I just want to hold this man who is as close to me as a brother and tell him that things will be okay. I almost went over to where he lives just to shake the shit out of him just to see if that would work. Deep down I know that this would accomplish nothing and probably send him further away then he already is.

I hate doing nothing, but there I am right now...

Holding a flashlight and waiting for him to come back...

-WTS

The requiem is unpublished anywhere someday when I am ready I will publish the whole thing. When I'm ready, that is...

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Nothing, I mean nothing honey if it ain't free, no no

-Kris Kristofferson

I am still pondering on the last entry and trying to figure out where the confusion in rights comes from. I think it basically boils down to not having a clear definition of freedom. It would also help understand what freedom is if you have never had it before, I think that would cut down on the whining.

Put simply, Freedom is the ability to do what you want as long as you accept the consequences. Radical idea I think, but for me it works. Some of my friends with shady reputations may tell me that freedom means doing what you want as long as you don't caught. Either way there is a balance between rights and responsibilities that we must all understand...

I can only hope that we do...

-WTS

Sometimes we take what we have for granted in this nation and become confused on the differences between rights and privileges. Classic example, I was listening to The Bob Rivers Show podcast and the topic was the HOV lanes in Seattle. We don't have HOV in the city in which I live in but having done some travel I have seen the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes from time to time.

Police in Seattle have been catching drives using blow up dummies, mannequins, and even stuffed clothing to make it look like there is an occupant besides the driver in the car. Those people are basically violating the law so they can get to where they need to go ahead of everyone else. These kind of people piss me off. Look, I am typically running late for one thing or another and the sight of traffic turns me from an outie to an innie but I will wait just like everyone else.

So, I turn up the radio and wonder what is causing the jam and whether or not the 3 cups of coffee that I consumed earlier will talk to me before I arrive to my destination. Then you see them, the special ones who allow themselves to drive on the median or create their own exit. Sometimes I just want to take my vehicle and cut them off it angers me so.

Back to Seattle...

The hosts were talking about the HOV lanes and the conversation was pretty good on the morality of using the lane when actually there was no legal right to do so. Then the caller that always has a point to make called and I almost drove off the road. He said that the use of HOV lanes was unconstitutional because it violated his rights to drive in his car on highways he paid for through his taxes.

If you agree with him, go on to the next entry...

First of all, driving and ownership is a privilege that is earned by an individual. There are no Constitutional amendments or Articles that deal with the freedom to drive. Oddly enough, the founders were concerned with silly things like press, religion, speech, petition, and assembly. God forbid we circumnavigated due process protections so we can get to work 15 minutes early. Many of the founders believed that people had basic fundamental rights (unalienable) that should not be taken away by the government without due process. These rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There were other political philosophers who thought it should be life, liberty and property. My point: We have the privilege to own stuff but what we do with our stuff can be regulated by the government.

If you believe that the government should not place restrictions on how we drive on the roads, I suggest you hang out at a busy intersection when the traffic lights go out. Apparently, without red and green lights telling us how to behave, we are a lost species. HOV lanes are intended to encourage people to carpool and I am all for that. With the current administration not paying attention to the environment it might behoove as all to take full responsibility and do as much as we can until government catches up.

-WTS

I am not there 

I know, I know I said that I was going to back into the swing of the blogging domain and so far I have not. Sometimes, I would sit at the computer with fingers raised with full intention to talk about, well, my life. Call it what you want, but with things beginning to wind up once again, I began to feel that I have nothing interesting to say. Even more, I had come to the point where I figured that it would all come out as dribble. I am, at best, an novice when it comes to the art of language manipulation. Sure, I can reach for my thesaurus and come up with a commanding word now and then, but it would be just that fake. I was always taught that if I had nothing constructive to say that I should say nothing.

Well, I'm tired of nothing and I am coming back to the blogging realm with lights and fire engine sirens...

Well, at least for now, with a short posting...

-WTS