Storytelling

Stories come to us from all kinds of places. Most are told by our parents or other relatives. Some come from books, and some come from memory. When my children would ask for a “Story without a book”, the ones I told most often were ones I remembered from my own childhood. Later, I wrote them down so I could pass them on to them to learn for their children.

Many stories for children owe their success to repetition. Repetition, and simple stories with simple plots or doggerel entrance children. They are learning about their world every waking minute, and repetition makes that easier.

Adults often find repetition monotonous and boring. Consider re-runs on TV. But when a parent reads a story to his or her child, it's not boring at all, because, deep down, we are passing on a time-honored tradition, Storytelling.

For thousands of years before writing was invented, the duty of passing down history and lore about a people and their place in the world, usually fell to one man: The Storyteller.

These were no ordinary stories. They were of creation and destruction, of great battles and victorious heroes, of journeys taken and fantastic miracles witnessed or related, told again and again.

Over the centuries, as storytellers became more sophisticated, they refined their stories to fit with contemporary society. Court Jesters were often storytellers, and sometimes those stories had a point. Although they were often labeled fools, it has been said that the jester was the only man who could tell a king an unpleasant truth and not suffer consequences. It's where the phrase “Speaking truth to power” originated.

As literacy became more common, stories were at last written down and standardized. More people could read a single story than a storyteller could reach in a lifetime. Publishing stories became big business. Books, newspapers, magazines, gazettes, tabloids, were all printed for the express purpose of telling stories. Some were true, some were not. The same thing goes on today.

Lately though, newspapers seem to be shrinking. Fewer papers are being bought and read, and some have folded. Trying to cut costs, some newspapers have narrowed the paper they are printed on. They have hired fewer reporters and subscribed to syndicated content providers, simply reprinting stories submitted elsewhere. Think of that e-mail you got that had been forwarded so many times, you had to scroll through a dozen pages of e-mail addresses to find the message.

E-mail is another reason for the decline in printed media. But a story spread by e-mail can go around the world at the speed of light and be read by more people than any book or newspaper. Whether that's a good thing is a subject for another day.

Over the last dozen years or so, storytelling has been going through a renaissance. Men and women have taken up the art in an effort to reconnect people with our shared past and oral tradition. Their costumes are as varied as their stories. There are storytellers who dress like hippies, or fairy queens, or harlequins, but they all share a love for telling stories for children and grownups, too.

If you can make up stories that are entertaining and fun, then you are lucky, indeed. But if you can't, there are plenty of printed stories you can use. However, if you are a parent, you should learn one story, one short simple tale with a little action and a little repetition,and some humor, so when your child says, “Read a story without a book,” you'll be ready. And your child will be amazed.

                                                                            Hatriots



The political atmosphere in which we find ourselves is the worst it's ever been. Thanks to the wide range of right-wing talk radio, propaganda TV, eight years of a criminal administration, the Republicans in Congress, and media celebrities whose stock-in-trade is hate speech, Democrats, liberals and progressives have been demonized.

The Republicans seem determined to deconstruct the framework of a working representative government. They want to eliminate social programs that millions of Americans rely on, they want to shutter schools and are attacking Universities as hot-beds of radical and communist thought and indoctrination. They want to cut Social Security benefits, cut taxes for the top 1 percent of wage earners, and to be ruthless in their goal of destroying the Presidency of Barack Obama.

The goal therefore, is to keep you dumb, poor, and scared.

Dumb because the more education a person has, the more likely he or she will choose wisely when voting.

Poor because the more money a person has, the less they have to worry about putting food on the table or paying for gas or electricity, or any of the necessities. They have time to think about their own best interests.

Scared because people who are fearful are easily led. And if one is given a very strong reason to do a very bad thing because doing that will make them “safe”, they'll do it. Even if the reason makes no sense, or is based on lies.

Republicans are liars. The entire right-wing are liars. And they don't care. A Republican will stand up in front of a group of people, large or small, and tell provable lies and keep a straight face. They know they are lying, the leadership knows they are lying. Anyone not tethered to the right-wing knows they are lying, and yet, the lies many times go unchallenged.

Why do you suppose that is?

It can't all be laid at the feet of the media, although they certainly share in the blame. There are few reporters left. The press has abdicated its role as a seeker of the truth for the cushy job of a stenographer.

The so-called liberal media is a myth. Obama has had more negative stories written about him than positive ones. More than George W. Bush had in eight years. The press doesn't seem to criticize Republican wrong-doing, but let a Democrat make a mistake or misspeak and the press are all over it. And when one doesn't make a mistake, the press will misquote him.

Another place to lay blame is with the White House for not taking the necessary steps to expose and disgrace the liars. They should have swept in, crushed the opposition, and left them bleeding in a corner somewhere. They seem to think that if they just play nice, the other guys will, too.

But they won't. They will go on lying, cheating and trying to destroy the President. They have said, publicly, that they will not work with this President. They oppose every proposal, even when the Democrats try to include their ideas. In fact, when a Republican advances an idea, and the President says he will support it, the Republicans oppose it. The House of Representatives has passed a number of bills, without a single Republican vote, but when the bill goes to the Senate, it languishes in committee after committee and gets nowhere because of Republican obstructionism. Filibusters, once used only to block legislation that the minority party opposed on principle, is now used routinely on any legislation proposed by the Democratic Majority.

They have been dubbed the Party of No. No ideas, no truth, no morals, no love of country, no support of voters, no shame.

So, whats a Democrat to do? There are a few who have called the Republicans out. Rep. Alan Grayson from (FL) and Barney Frank (MA) are the most outspoken on the House side, While Senators Al, Franken (MN) and Charles Schumer (NY) have voiced disapproval of their stalling tactics. There are others too, but these stand out.

What the Democrats, as a party, and the White House have to do is wise up to the fact that the Republicans are never going to be helpful or cooperative. They won't compromise, they won't negotiate, they want everything their way, and if they can't get that, no one can. They would shut down the Government, if they could, because that is just what they want.

They are anti-American. There is no other way to put it. They are the dis-loyal opposition. There is no stand too hypocritical, no lie too big, no irony too twisted.

It is time for us to stand up and say no to them. No, we won't take this anymore, no, we won't let you lie and get away with it, no we won't let you drive this country back into the ditch when we've only recently pulled back on the road, no we won't go back to the failed Republican policies of the past. No, No, No.

I recently heard Sarah Quitter Palin speaking to a group of teabaggers and Beckerheads at a rally dishonoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As she stood there in front of the fawning crowd, spewing her particular form of venom, she called them Patriots. But I heard a different word. I heard a word that perfectly describes the right-wing and the current crop of crazies who lead the GOP,

Hatriots.