One More Time in the Tenth Second

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by: JO

For your Christmas present to the world, your gift on the nth night of Hannukah, your acknowledgment of your humanity,

In the 10th second you will see what this is about. If you haven’t watched the video, none of this will make the least sense. So watch the video first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

I dare you to watch it and not be haunted by the image in the 10th second, and those following. Yes, you think you know, you’ve known all along, so bellies up to the bar across the street from the softball fields of St. Jude of Schmooze. But you need to be reminded, time and time and time and time again, until you–we– are moved to do something and then do something more. What that might be is up to you.

This is what politics is about. The video is not about Dawn Upshaw. It is not about whether your father’s second cousin thrice removed by his fourth wife’s fifth daughter once saw Dawn Upshaw for six seconds on her way to Studio 7 to record music that you like. No, the music, the video, the diary is about its title of the symphony: Song of Sorrows. It is about the Tenth Second.

It is not about what you know, or like, or think, or feel. It is about what you do. Whether or not you can stand in Tianmen Square and stop a tank as one man once did. Whether or not you can hold a spoon in western Sudan or eastern Chad or anywhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can march in Solidarnosc to change the immutable, if not forever then at least for a day, or a year, or a decade. On the eve of the bonuses, paid early this year to avoid the taxes, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12… you can write, email, shout out.

You can make the connection! You can help others make it. The one million and first dollar of the bonus is merely a down payment to sate the insatiable: greed. It is the greed that needs to be wrapped in a shroud, while the one millionth and first dollar, and every dollar after it, goes first to feed the hungry. And when that is done, what’s left goes to help fulfill the dream of every mother lying awake under the same stars: a better life for her child.

Then next year you can hear the Buckaroos Choir sing Joy to the World at the Spendalot Mall and put Cash back into Christmas.

7 thoughts on “One More Time in the Tenth Second”

Barron X says:

December 7, 2010 at 4:41 am

.

That’s what I’M talking about.

Where’s my share ?

.

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GalapagoLarry says:

December 7, 2010 at 10:17 am

Thanks JO. Again. If this isn’t a “political” post, what is? Thanks ++++.

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droll says:

December 7, 2010 at 7:00 pm

Like holding stupid grudges on a random blog to make a point you could be making more effectively without the sarcasm?

Congratulations. You’re a great example of why this message never quite resonates the way it should.

No, I know, we should all feel lucky that you grace us with your presence. You must be super busy in your goatskin tent where you raise livestock to personally crate, ship, and give to starving families. The rest of us evil people (the tank) using our fancy pens, drinking fancy drinks, typing on fancy machines from warm places. Really, we’re disgusting!

Keep fighting that good fight. You can stare us down. I know you won’t blink.

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1. JO says:
  
  December 7, 2010 at 7:40 pm
  
  I can see from your comment that you got at least 10 seconds into it, which was my objective.
  
  I suppose you think that your comment says something about me, about whom you know nothing, rather than about you and your reaction. Less clear is what point your were making in your first graf, something about being more effective without the sarcasm, followed by your third graf.
  
  Nice thing about the layout of diaries on this site, as opposed to comments, is that you — you, droll — can identify the author before you read beyond the headline. Lots of people have told me they never read my posts–told me repeatedly in response to various posts and comments.
  
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  1. Voyageur says:
    
    December 7, 2010 at 11:07 pm
    
    Lots of people have told me they never read my posts.
    
    Lots of people havetold me they never read my posts. — JO
    
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  2. droll says:
    
    December 9, 2010 at 5:45 pm
    
    when that unbelievable bastard had the audacity to post a working link the first time you posted this.
    
    Thank him by taking out the bitchy little paragraph.
    
    I also feel it’s time to remind you that this is a blog. Not an episode of the Ricki Lake show. I know you plenty. It is odd to me that every time someone posts “You don’t know me!”, they are making assumptions about a poster they know just as well.
    
    So don’t worry, I won’t make the mistake of reading one of your diaries ever again. Way to meet your true objective, you poor tortured soul!
    
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    1. JO says:
      
      December 9, 2010 at 8:15 pm
      
      will read all of your diaries. When can we expect the next one? 2011? 2012?
      
      I had to Google Ricki Lake to understand your comment. Interesting reaction by you on several levels — linking the image in the Tenth Second to Ricki Lake, for one; seeming to know enough about the Ricki Lake show to make a connection, for another.
      
      Not reading my diaries? Thanks for letting me know. That way, I can bring up your name, fully confident that you won’t read my comment(s). Sorta like government employees not reading WikiLeaks — better not to know. How will you sue for libel if you don’t know the offending material is there?
      
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