Ok, lets see I think we are up to Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I got up and after having breakfast with George we went to the caucus (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina). Then I went for a walk up past Logan Circle, over to the Free Library, back to the Book Store for the free library, then to Whole Foods, and on back to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. You know the one that Rocky ran up the stairs too. Walked around the library, and realized that this was the beginning of Fairmount Park. Now there are things to see in Fairmount Park, but it is an enormous park, and would have taken days, and probably a car and or a bicycle to really explore, but I did my share. Found a statue of General Von Steuben, and then some Canadian Geese and Boat House Row, and a little damn, and the black stuff you see sitting on the damn are Canadian Geese sitting on the edge of the damn. They also had a museum there to teach kids what a precious resource our water is, and that tap water, although may seem like an endless commodity, it isn't.

But you know what....? I have to throw in some editorial here. Honestly, unless the children are raised with the correct values, and that is a conservative (not politically I might add, but lifestyle), you can bring kids, and I am talking about all children, inner city, upper and middle class, and extremely well off to these attractions and it means nothing.

First of all, the bad is all around them, it is common place and "normal", so it isn't bad to them. Smelly water, mean people, mean animals, apathy, concrete, homelessness, fast food all the things I find very, very sad, and dis-heartening is just part of their very existance. A day with the Boys and Girls Club, or even a summer vacation with a few college kids earning some college credit in an intern program, is never going to make a difference to change things. What will make a difference is a longing and yearning to make a change in the world. By a whole lot of people, parents, Aunts and Uncles, neighbors, etc. So that it becomes a way of life, instead of the other I listed earlier. An example has to be set by alot of people. Not some activists, or some self serving teen agers trying to get something for a resume', so that they can get out of their graduate program and get a starting salary of at least $50,000.00 a year.

And you know what... that just aint happening out there. Oh there are some people like that out there, but they are like a grain of sand in the sahara. And the other powers, are getting louder and stronger. I have said it before.... It is all over. I wish it were different. I wish I could make a differece with activism. But I can't, and I won't. I have tried. George and I have worn ourselves out for years. Together and alone, and honestly I don't think there is one person out there that I have influenced enough to care. I may have enlightened them for a day or a month at best, so they they became outraged, but then they went back to Walmart of bought that Escalade, and it was obvious to me that they totally missed the point.

And what got me started on this... well bunches of things, but one thing that just brought my heart down low was this very day. Tuesday, after seeing the statue of General Von Steuben, I walked across the park to where there was a flock of Canadian Geese sitting in the sun, pecking at the grass, just relaxing. Not bothering anyone, and, as would be expected it made me smile. It made me smile because inside I felt warm and happy looking at these wild animals at peace in an urban setting, albeit a city park, but they were happy and content, and that makes me happy deep down inside, and that makes a smile come to my face. But... it was short lived and replaced with a just as deep an anger, that it made me first sad, then angry to the point of wanting to hurt someone, and then sad because I was helpless. Apparently a group similar to a Boys and Girls club had spent the day a this park, and they were gathering up the little urchins to bring them back to their "cribs". When one of them saw the geese, and had to run or waddle his fat little self (can you tell I am still angry?) over to them yelling and flaling his arms in the air. Behind him were some girls, his age, obviously in his group, telling him to stop, but as they were telling him to stop, they were joing him and doing the same thing.

I just didn't get it. Why would they want to do that, why would they want to disturb the peace and well being of the geese? What was the purpose...? I mean let's break this down, they are being taken out of their element... They are being taken to a "world" that is supposed to be a contrast to what they are used to. Why are they being taken there, well I would gather a guess to show them something different, and teach them an appreciation of it, and hope that they could then bring some of that back with them to start to change their own world. But instead, they are bringing their own world into this one. I didn't see any adult supervision, so I started to go toward them to stop them, and tell them to stop. But I realized that they wouldn't listen to me, so I thought, maybe if they see me taking a picture, they would stop and have some respect... Oh yea right.. respect is about as foreign to them as the geese, or the swiss alps. That is when I found myself getting angry, and I have to tell you, it was not something I felt comfertable with. Then I heard the "adult" in the group, and it was a girl, a teen age girl, obviously of a different cultural class and "status" then these kids, who was calling them back. If she had put the effort into going after them, I could say that she was hearding them back to where they were before they made the affront on the geese. There was no explanation of what he was doing. No discussion. She totally ignored me. She wasn't calling him back because she didn't approve of what he and the girls were doing. She was calling him back because he wasn't where she wanted him to be, and or perhaps, this deviation of him with the geese was prolonging her time on the "job" and she just wanted it to be over.

That is when I became sad. I too just wanted to get away from there. It was just another sign of what I believe to be the beginning of the end for any kind of chance of any kind of civilized reformation. There isn't a chance to turn things around anymore. I truly believe that it is now each man for himself, to a certain extent. I hate that as much as I hate is bring us to that point.