A co-worker of mine was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. He's a great guy, very nice; and a good manager.
Everything was fine for him 6 weeks ago. Now his, and his family's, whole world has been turned upside down.
I was working late on Friday...taking some stuff outside and saw him, a young man and our chief engineer coming into the building. The young man was his son. I'm guessing 16 years old or so. I stopped to say hello. My co-worker was coming to clear out his office. I could see the pain in his son's eyes.
Please say a prayer for all people who are sick, and today for a person named Nigel who has brain cancer.
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I Wish I Could Read Spanish.
Besides the pictures, there are some cool links on that page.
I found this song/poem at A aba de Heisenberg
Lonely Planet
Planet Earth is slowing down
Overseas, underground
Wherever you look around
Lord, take me by the hand
Lead me through these desert sands
To the shores of a promised land
You make me start
When you look into my heart
And see me for who I really am
If you can't change the world change yourself
If you can't change the world change yourself
I didn't care if the sun didn't shine
And the rain didn't fall from the sky
I just cared about myself
From this world to the next
And from the next back to this
By our actions we are bound
We're running out of love
Running out of hate
Running out of space
For the human race
Planet Earth is slowing down
You make me cry
When you look into my eyes
And see me for who I really am
If you can't change the world change yourself
If you can't change the world change yourself
If you can't change the world change yourself
And if you can't change yourself ...
Then change the world
I'm in love with the planet I'm standing on
I can't stop. I can't stop thinking of
All the people I've ever loved
All the people I have lost
All the people I'll never know
All the feelings I've never shown
The world's too big and life's too short
The world's too big and life's too short
The world's too big and life's too short
To be alone ... to be alone
(The, "Lonely Planet", album "Dusk", 1993)
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Normally I'm not a serious political person, or much of a serious person at all.
So why the long one-sided "don't vote for George Nethercutt" post yesterday?
I was involved in the Engineers strike at Boeing on Feb. 9, 2000.
For those of you who can't understand why people would ever strike. The people on strike loved that company (seeing it as a family of workers) and the work we did building safe and affordable airplanes. We were trying to change the direction the corporate leaders had taken that we believed was, and would continue, driving a great and proud company into the ground.
Besides that global vision, we wanted to keep our medical benefits intact as much as possible, continue to make a fair wage and be treated with respect as partners in the success of the enterprise.
The Kaiser Steelworkers Union members came to picket, march with us, and show their support. Those men and woman had been on strike (and then locked out) for over a year when they came to Seattle to support us.
One thing they asked us to do was call George Nethercutt's office at the Washington State Legislature and ask George Nethercutt to stop blocking the bill that would give those working families an extension on their unemployment benefits. I did that. Like an elephant I have a pretty good memory for some things, so now that George Nethercutt is running for State Senator from Washington, I want him to lose.
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I feel really blessed to have been able to participate in that strike, along with the WTO marches and rally in Seattle.
One of the coolest moments of the Boeing strike for me was when we were in front of the Corporate Headquarters picketing and the Teamsters showed up with a big semi painted with Teamster's logos and labor promotional information on the trailer. The trailer was actually a portable sound stage. They backed it across the street from us and started playing really good and loud rock and roll music, including the Rolling Stones song "Street Fighting Man" from Beggars Banquet.
That was fun. Felt very alive.
