A writing prompt from Onion Boy asks us to start with:
“She needs to talk.”
Now write uninterrupted for five minutes.
She needs to talk about what happened last night. It’s all over the news, but they’ve gotten it all wrong. Though they had the cameras and the flashbulbs, they weren’t actually there. They didn’t see everything in the flesh. They didn’t see the blood or the corpses, the artillery fire; they didn’t smell the gunpowder. She has ten times the right to speak out and tell people what happened, but she’s beaten to the punch by the pundits, sitting in their comfy chairs, serious concern etched across their collective face in magic marker. And people pay attention to them because they’re in nice suits, looking rich, looking like they matter, unlike the people who were really there.
She needs to talk about the people who won’t listen, who won’t do anything, who will turn the volume down or change the channel if the images disturb them. Who see the problems of half the world away as images from another universe, not connected to them, as real as the seige of Gondor; popcorn entertainment only.
She needs to talk because nobody will hear her. The world passes her by on the streetcorners, tripping over her soapbox, eyes averted, noses plugged to the smell. She needs to raise her voice above the honking horns, the gutteral growl of buses, or the merry ding-dongs of the streetcar bells, the rush of their wheels. The men in suits keep on their merry way, ignorant and blissful, but not if she can help it. If the world can’t hear her, she’ll speak louder, and louder still, until somebody listens. Until somebody pulls her from the soap box.
She needs to talk. Even if she’s pulled from the soapbox, at least somebody has heard her.
And that’s my five minutes.
Iraqi Interim Constitution Signed
The Iraqi governing council has set aside their differences long enough to sign into force the occupied country’s interim constitution.
…and the world crosses its fingers…
Busy Week Ahead
I have quite a busy week ahead of me. In between my twenty hours with Alternatives Journal, and my fifteen hours with the Social Planning Council, I also have to man the subscription table at the Alternatives Rocks benefit concert on Wednesday evening.
A tireless group of volunteers has organized this concert, to raise awareness about our environmental studies magazine and to sell subscriptions. The fruit of their long labours comes to pass at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10 at the Starlight (47-A King Street North). The up-and-coming local bands who have generously donated their time to the event include Masters and Moderns, the Jolly Llamas and the Ludes.
I’m not usually a concert goer, but I’ll be there. It going to be a good time and it’s for a good cause. So, if you’re in Waterloo this Wednesday night and have $20 to spend, come on out.
But between this, the dishes and the laundry, time will be at a premium. If my blogging here is a little on the light side, that’s the reason why.