” Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I am dead”
---Confession posted on postsecret.blogspot.com
Funerals
and waiting for funerals. March came like a lion, how ever it is
that the innocent remain. Over fourteen days, the epic of Terri
Schiavo unfolded spastic and baited. Mega-meme generators churned “news”
on an empty stomach, or at least, the presumption of hunger. The
apparition: a video clip of Terri Schiavo, replayed until, it can
only be imagined, that the precipice of her conscious and conscience---would become apparent to the uninvited into the family tragedy. From the margins came this
story of Terri, she, one who cared enough to mention, she wouldn’t
be taking the TV when she was “gone”. A family Dub’-ate,
as what went to the margins in the national dialogue, as the only other kind of dying one can do unchecked;
is the mysterious fate of twenty-six captured enemy combatants that
bliPPed. Then too, the drilling and exploration of the Alaskan
Wildlife Refuge sneak wrapped through congress. Another earthquake
in southeast Asia, and the coffins of dead soldiers. There will be resurrections
and rumors of resurrections. If only we were cannibals we might, feel fed. Measuring
fifteen days wide, meme generators framed the questions, drew imaginary
lines. Have you written a living will (Now that tort reform legislation
has passed)? Have you discussed your option to end medical care at
an agreed upon time? (As your health care providers draw dollar signs
on drop ceilings, then pull them back unveiling a beautiful time share
heaven) The right-wing “agenda”
is working, are you satisfied with a multi-million dollar machine that
intends to do your living for you---if you can’t.
Certain,
edited, the spools of tracing paper headlinss. Ladies and gentleman,
to your chest, anode and cathode! To your chest pledge without a resuscitation
order: Until this woman dies…until this woman dies…
Some abated, but beneath the breath
of those caught in the spectacle, a murmur arose;
“ Perhaps Terri would die on Easter?” Corrections were
made, Good Friday /shouldwould have been the day. It got no further. Here
is the secret, (14th
century. Via French, from Latin secretus, “separate, hidden,”
from secernere,) those involved were not concerned with apparitions,
rather, appearances, re-appearances. That you believe in ghost is
(w)holy, a private matter. 14th
century. From Latin privatus, the past participle of privare:
not for others, secluded, personal, not public, acting in personal
capacity, nongovernmental, reserved and secretive, not understandable
by everyone, lowest-ranking, in the old plural and also french: genitals. Adding to the definition
of a word“the words” change in time, re-defining
the dialogue here ---the term that could apply---is disingenuous. Her family welcomed and deserved no such attention.
Despite waht was offered, it
could have been avoided. Some people, like my brother John, doesn’t
know about these goings on. He probably would know about
the release of the video game “God
of War” Most likely, has seen previews for a show on the
new cable outlet, the Military
Channel; a program about bombing exercises conducted at Nellis Air
Force base that states cleanly “Less tribal councils, more
explosions.” It could have been avoided, legislators of another
time---could have foreseen situations that extend life, we could presume
from recent events, they might have also, for the peac of the constitutional purists, better accounted for immortality. What's
past is passed. The remainder, secrets that move on the edge of awareness
and consent, like these from postsecret, a mail art project that invites people to share their most personal secrets via postcards, and publishes them online:
"I
was gang raped in college and turned into a slut almost immediately
afterwards"
"I
regret every decision I’ve made except my abortion"
"No
stressful job or rush hour traffic
No medical bills or family responsibilities…
I want to break into prison"
"I
hate people who remind me of myself"
"I
talked someone into suicide"
"While
others pray at church-
I bow my head and think about TV programs I plan on watching"
--- Secret
confession from postsecret.blogspot.com
4.01.05
Lance Oditt
editor
at semantikon dot com
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