Steve Coffman

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=95 BGCOLOR="#CC99CC" TEXT="#080000" background="006265f1ezuady.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>FootHills 2012</B></FONT><B>  </B><B> </B><B>|   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FootHills 2012"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FootHills 2012"><U>FootHills 2012</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id13.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books 2012"><U>Books 2012</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id14.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FHP Poets Alphabetically"><U>FHP Poets Alphabetically</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tom Jones"><U>Tom Jones</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mary Jackson"><U>Mary Jackson</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rick Kearns"><U>Rick Kearns</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ElvridgeThomas"><U>Elvridge-Thomas</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Edward Dougherty"><U>Edward Dougherty</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lynn Ciesielski"><U>Lynn Ciesielski</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dexter Roberts"><U>Dexter Roberts</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grant Clauser"><U>Grant Clauser</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Libertys Vigil"><U>Liberty's Vigil</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Robin Linn"><U>Robin Linn</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="W. 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Ikins</U></A>   |   <B>Steve Coffman</B>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In the Spirit of Tao Chien"><U>In the Spirit of T'ao Ch'ien</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jack Spula"><U>Jack Spula</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John Roche"><U>John Roche</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark Gibbons"><U>Mark Gibbons</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peggy Seely"><U>Peggy Seely</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Anthologies"><U>Anthologies</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>Ordering By Mail</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact"><U>Contact</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=385 BGCOLOR="#BBBBBB" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Steve Coffman</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Steve Coffman</div> <div> OFF TO A <I><B>BANG</B></I></div> <div> NEW MILLENNIUM POEMS</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1e92ceb0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="491" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Steve's other FootHills books (political essays and poems):</div> <div> <A HREF="#peace_meal" TITLE="Steve Coffman"><U>Peace Meal</U></A> and <A HREF="#messy_freedom" TITLE="Steve Coffman"><U>Messy Freedom</U></A></div> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Death-day Multi-tasking</B></div> <bR> <div> Chomping tasteless apple</div> <div> listening to war radio</div> <bR> <div> Neal Conan, <I>Talk of the  Nation                           </I></div> <div> latest blahblahblah bombbombbomb</div> <bR> <div> Jotting notes for tasteless poem </div> <div> listening to gory newsbreak </div> <bR> <div> <B>Just in!---</B></div> <div> blahblahblah blamblamblam . . .</div> <bR> <div>                  ----July, 2003</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Boomer Lament</B></div> <bR> <div> Do you remember when things worked? </div> <div> No, not the world---your body?</div> <bR> <div> Do you remember when everything in your body worked?</div> <bR> <div> Eyes 20-20? Memories sharp as tacks? </div> <div> Ears tuned to pin drop on velvet cushion?</div> <bR> <div> Do you remember skin so supple and soft . . . </div> <div> A bruise? A mosquito bite? A pimple? . . . Oh no!</div> <bR> <div> Every imperfection a pain, embarrassment</div> <div> too stark to be forgotten or forborne!</div> <bR> <div> Now forgotten in a blink, you say? Tout de suite</div> <div> every bump or insult mended by your lover's touch?---</div> <bR> <div> Ahh, yes---the spring night reeking with lilac dust, moon-</div> <div> light tinting the blush of her pearly cheek.</div> <bR> <div>                     ---December, 2010</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Steve Coffman has had numerous plays produced (including by the Smithsonian Institution), much short fiction published (including in Redbook's Famous Fiction, Vol. II), a memoir <I>How To Walk A Pig</I> (republished as <I>Chicken Justice</I>), two books of political essays and poems, <I>Peace Meal </I>and <I>Messy Freedom, </I>and the quasi-historical book <I>Founders v. Bush.</I></div> <bR> <div> He and his wife Bobbie live on a former farm at the end of a dirt road on one of the highest hills in Yates County, NY where they have raised two children, bounteous flowers and vegetables, occasional cows, horses, </div> <div> pigs, chickens and many acres of glorious trees. </div> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="1ee12ce0.jpg" border=0 width="274" height="206" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Off to a BANG</I></div> <div> <B>is a 52 page hand-sewn paperbook  with spine - $12.00. </B></div> <bR> <div> TO ORDER:</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here.</U></A>     </div> <bR> <div> ON-LINE          <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U> </U></A>                              </div> <bR> <div> From the US      <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Off To a Bang"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="12-15"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="12.00"> <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </B></div> <bR> <div> From Canada      <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Off To a Bang"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="12-15"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="12.00"> <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="2.75"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </B></div> <bR> <div> From Other Countries           <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Off To a Bang"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="12-15"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="12.00"> <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="5.00"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </B></div> <div> *********************************************</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="messy_freedom"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>Messy Freedom</div> <div> Steve Coffman</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1ef20c80.jpg" border=0 width="288" height="456" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Cover Design: Marcelle Toor</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.marcelletoordesigns.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.marcelletoordesigns.com"><U>www.marcelletoordesigns.com</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>To democracy's unheard voices.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"I have finished your book now.  I thought it was fantastic!  With your wit</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>and your wry sense of humor, it makes the seriousness of the topic almost</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>funny (until the seriousness bites you a second later).  My other favorite</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>chapters were The Parable of the Dog, Gorilla Glue Two, Why is Everybody</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Always Picking on Me, The All-American Bowl Final Quiz and Addendum Katrina.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>I thought you had just the right touch regarding Katrina."</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>--Jean Waldman, Wausau, WI</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"Your latest book (Messy Freedom) should be required reading for every politician in Washington, D.C."</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>--Leah Silver, South Bend, IN</B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>Contents</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>DEFINITION OF TERMS     </B></I></div> <bR> <div> Freedom Defined     </div> <div> Democracy Defined     </div> <div> "We" Defined     </div> <div> "People" Defined     </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>SPIN I</B></I></div> <bR> <div> A Pocketful Of Posing     </div> <div> Will Everybody Poor Please Shut Up     </div> <div> Moral Values     </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>SPIN II</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Singing Those Red State Blues or </div> <div>    Purple Mountain Majesties      </div> <div> A Haymaker Right To </div> <div>    America's Breadbasket     </div> <div> Seriously---Why On God's Sweet Earth Would </div> <div>    Any Family Farmer Or Small-Town American </div> <div>    Ever Want To Be A Republican?     </div> <div> Rural Republicans Revisited     </div> <div> Was Howard Really My Man?     </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>THE RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL NEXUS</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Strange Bed-Partners     </div> <div> <I>The Ten Commandments     </I></div> <div> Religion And Democracy      </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>FEAR</B></I></div> <bR> <div> The Fear Factory     </div> <div> Rove's Rave      </div> <div> Back To The Fear Factory     </div> <div> All The News That's Fit For Wrapping Fish     </div> <div> The Mother of all Gut Responses<I>     </I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>JUST DON'T TRY TO GET OUT OF IT   </B></I></div> <bR> <div> The Corporate Box: It's All Locked Up     </div> <div> The Mute Button     </div> <div> Family Values     </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>THE MORE-THAN-ANYONE-</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>CAN-EAT BUFFET</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Poll Cats     </div> <div> Order! Order! Order!     </div> <div> Iconoclasm In Six Easy Questions     </div> <div> The Parable Of The Dog     </div> <div> Form W      </div> <div> John Philippic Sousa     </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>THE GREATEST GENERATION</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Gorilla Glue Bonding     </div> <div> Gorilla Glue II     </div> <div> Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Me?     </div> <div> The All-American Bowl Final Quiz   </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>ADDENDUM KATRINA  </B></I></div> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Back To The Fear Factory</B></div> <bR> <div> Karl Rove and his Bushite buddies know that there's nothing like a good war to bring the national family together---in a rousing patriotic feast of hate and fear. Why limit your vengeance to the guilty few when you can take down (er, liberate) a whole country. Or, better yet, two or three?</div> <div> Even if you don't get the guys who did it, at least your friends get rich off the war, the plunder and the rebuilding.  </div> <div> If you put your mind to it, you can always find a war. </div> <div> If not Afghanistan and Iraq, how about Cuba or Korea or Iran? If not Haiti, how about Venezuela? Or Nicaragua? Or those Mexicans? Or Indians? Before 9/11, we had the Lusitania, the Maine, the Mayaguez, the Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor, the Alamo. </div> <div> Panama? Columbia? Salvador? Grenada? Don't you understand? It was either them or us---we had no choice! Those fearsome Salvadorans and Grenadans were coming to pollute our air and water! Cut down our ancient forests! Steal our oil and rubber and bauxite and tin! Replace our hospitals with prisons! Rewrite our Constitution! Brainwash our children! </div> <div> It's them or us!  </div> <div> In times like these, we must bite our tongues, corral our protesters in pens like slaughter-ready cattle and always be prepared to prostrate ourselves and avert our eyes before the powers that be. </div> <div> Oh, wouldn't that make our country's founders proud?</div> <div> Ben Franklin, for instance, who said: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety."</div> <div> Or James Madison who said (1788): "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."</div> <div> Or Thomas Jefferson who said (1789): "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe despositories." </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>John Philippic Sousa</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>I've been Ayn Randed, nearly branded</I></div> <div> <I>a communist because I'm left-handhanded;</I></div> <div> <I>that's the hand to use . . . well, never mind.</I></div> <div>               ---Paul Simon, "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I                        </div> <div>                   Was Robert  McNamara'd Into Submission)," 1966</div> <bR> <div> Oh, shush now. You and Paul and Ralph and Dennis and Howard. You're mushy-hearted and kind of funny sometimes, but so hopelessly romantic and naive. In this Depraved New World of ours, don't you get it that perception creates reality? </div> <div> Maybe that's the real Culture War going on here. Not "Are you moral?" but "Who you gonna believe---the spin machine or your lyin' eyes?" </div> <div> Well, instead of gasoline, try putting perception in your gas tank and see how far you get. </div> <div> Instead of paying steelworkers and engineers, let your PR man and ad agent build your next skyscraper. </div> <div> Instead of farm-grown food, have a meal of Virtual Victuals (patent pending). </div> <div> Instead of going to a doctor, go to an actor. </div> <div> Instead of giving your diabetic child insulin, try a placebo and a prayer. </div> <div> Instead of assuming any moral responsibility for what you or our country does, just put a flag pin in your lapel or a sticker on your car.</div> <div> We as a nation desperately need someone real to slap us in the face and say: "Wake up now, our sweet darling America, it's time to wake up!----" </div> <div> A high-tech society that wants to run on faith instead of scientific method? </div> <div> That thinks BMWs come from waving a Blessed Magic Wand? </div> <div> That expects bananas to appear like manna at the snap of finger and thumb? </div> <div> That thinks electricity comes from flicking a switch? (Of course not, Stupid---everyone knows that it comes from a wire! Actually, switches are so passé---I just use my universal remote. Any problem? Not to worry---because God is my Palm Pilot.) </div> <div> What we need are fewer Framers and more Farmers, fewer Ad-men and more Dad-men.</div> <bR> <div> ISBN:  0-941053-82-2</div> <bR> <div> <B>Messy Freedom is a 100 </B> page hand-sewn paperback with flat spine - $15.00.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here.</U></A>     </div> <bR> <div> TO ORDER  <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><B>Messy Freedom </B></FONT> ON-LINE </div> <div> <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Messy Freedom"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="05-24"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="15.00"> <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>      </B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/images/view_cart.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="display" value="1"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> ********************************************</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="peace_meal"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="7" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Comic Sans MS" >Peace Meal</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Steve Coffman</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1f220c40.jpg" border=0 width="288" height="452" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>Cover Photo: Jan Kather</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> From The Author</div> <bR> <div> In March, 1965, at the University of Michigan, I attended the first Vietnam War teach-in and learned why our government's reasons for our deepening Indochina involvement were based on historical ignorance and political lies. Four years later, at the height of that insanity, I was reclassified 1A for the draft and was suddenly faced with the choice of going to prison, leaving the country I loved, or betraying my own sacred code which did not allow killing innocent people for bogus motives.</div> <bR> <div> December 1, 1969---on my 27th birthday---I received the best gift of my life, a high number in the new Draft Lottery that freed me out of that hideous Hobson's choice.</div> <bR> <div> August 1972, my wife Bobbie and I left Ann Arbor with baby Zack and moved to a former farm in Yates County, NY---with grandly simple desires to get back to basic verities, grow our own food and raise our children in a rural environment.</div> <bR> <div> April 1, 1974, I had a knee operation at St. Joe's in Elmira and shared a room with a young man who had just returned from Vietnam and was suffering from an uncontrolable bleeding ulcer. All night we talked and shared what we knew, several times crying together at the senseless destruction of it all.</div> <bR> <div> These Bush years have reminded my heart and gut and brain of Vietnam. Seeing my country once again being led to war in manufactured ignorance and fear, I've tried to conjure all the love and logic and satiric barbs in me to dissuade us from embarking down an equally unwise and immoral road. I marched, I protested, I wrote.</div> <bR> <div> Since 1965, I've mostly been a writer of fiction and plays and my country memoir <U>How To Walk A Pig</U>. But this book is a collection of writings forced out of me by our times. From the strategic pre-war fear-mongering in 2002. Through our inexorable march to war. And up to the first anniversary of our invasion, miles still to go before we sleep.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Steve Coffman</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> TABLE OF CONTENTS</div> <bR> <div> <B>Nothing to do with 9/11, a review </B></div> <div> <B>Two movies, one seen/one unseen          </B></div> <div> <I><B>Spider-man/Al Qaeda-man</B></I><B> and</B></div> <div> <I><B>Men In Black II               </B></I>                                                     </div> <bR> <div> <B>GRANDPARENT LOVE                                                      </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>MARCHING ON THIRD AVENUE      </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THAT NEW TORTURE GAME     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE       </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>words of war</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Garamond" ><B>                         </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>ROGUE NATIONS                    </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>RECIPE for Neocon New Century</B></div> <div> <B>All-Mine Pie</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>                         </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Death-day Multi-tasking                    </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>MANY-HEADED HYDRA               </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>HEGEMONY                         </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>WE INTERRUPT OUR WAR </B></div> <div> <B>COVERAGE FOR THE FOLLOWING </B></div> <div> <B>SOPHOMORIC INTERLUDE</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="News Gothic MT" ><B>     </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>My Moon </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Garamond" ><B>    </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE THREE-STATE ISRAEL-</B></div> <div> <B>PALESTINE SOLUTION                    </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Uncle Sam We Am</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Garamond" ><B>               </B></FONT>          </div> <bR> <div> <B>JUST IN . . . </B></div> <div> <B>GUANTANAMO DETAINEES</B></div> <div> <B>IDENTIFIED AS INSECTS!     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The 21st Century     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE ELUSIVE ANTICHRIST     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>PATRIOTS     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>WHILE WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>DEFINING OUR FUTURE               </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A TOWN HALL MEETING             </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THAT NEW TORTURE GAME</B></div> <bR> <div> Dear Editor,</div> <bR> <div>       You've read about it, I'm sure. These Al Qaeda suspects we've captured, how we've got them naked, chained to the wall, semi-starving them, not letting them sleep for days, over and over changing the room temperature from zero degrees to a hundred. Not torturing them, mind you---we just call it subjecting them to "stress and duress". That's cute, isn't it.</div> <div>       Almost as cute as holding them in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay where we don't have to allow them any human rights, or even recognize them as human beings. No lawyers. No charges. No trials. Not even a list of their names. Wouldn't Stephen King love this story? Wouldn't Orwell? Wouldn't Kafka? Too bad it's not a story. It's real. It's what our country is doing.</div> <div>       Oh, this is cute, too. If they don't talk, we take them to countries like Egypt, Morocco and Syria to be interrogated by torturers. Oops, did I say "torture"? Well, we don't know if they're actually being tortured because we don't watch, we don't ask, and they don't tell. Kind of like those three monkeys, you know?--- See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. I know that Donald Rumsfeld thinks it's cute because he laughs while he tells us about how cleverly we're torturing these captives without having to admit to it. And the President finds it pretty hard to resist a smirk, too.</div> <div>     The really funny thing about it is that we were the ones who used to believe in  "innocent until proven guilty", the right to face our accusers and defend ourselves in a public hearing. We were the ones who fought so hard for the Geneva Convention and the Nuremberg Trials. We are, of course, sickened by the barbarity of Roman crucifixions, The Spanish Inquisition, our own treatment of slaves, Indians and Salem witches.</div> <div>      But this, this is good. Just ask John Ashcroft. This is justice. This is moral and ethical. This is legal and just. This is us at our best. But let's not be for torture because we're in any way barbarous or vengeful. No, rather let's do it because it feels good and we're so powerful that nobody can stop us. </div> <div>      Just too bad we can't put it on reality TV.     </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Ides of March 2003    </I></div> <bR> <div> <B>***********************************************************</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="what_some_readers_have_said_about_peace"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Comic Sans MS" >What some readers have said about Peace Meal</FONT></div> <bR> <div> I think it (Peace Meal) will have a big impact, and gives voice to what</div> <div> many people feel, putting some action where most of us feel hopeless</div> <div> and powerless. It is really a great book!</div> <div>           -- Suzy Koptur, Miami FL</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Dear Steve,</div> <div> Both Jack and I have read your book...wonderful. You have put into</div> <div> words so much of what we think and feel.</div> <div> Lots of laughter and a few tears at the truth you tell.</div> <div>       --- Judy Wilbert, Dundee, NY</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Your book is lovely, both form and content.  Thank you so much for</div> <div> sending me a copy!  From your mouth to God's ear.</div> <bR> <div>        -- Janice Weiss, Oak Park, IL</div> <bR> <div> First and foremost, let me tell you that Jean read aloud to me over the</div> <div> phone your poem on page 59. And your last line, ending: "songbirds"</div> <div> gave me wave after wave after wave of goosebumps.  .  . . She also read</div> <div> "Our New Bill Of Rights" and that's when I asked her to send me  2</div> <div> copies.</div> <div>         -- Iva Reed, San Francisco, CA</div> <bR> <bR> <div> What a handsome book!</div> <div>       --  Marsha Kite, Charleston SC</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Hey, what a treat to get your book!   Last night we both read little</div> <div> snippets---I think that I will bring it to work after we're through and</div> <div> pass it around.  It seems like the kind of book that should be passed</div> <div> around. </div> <div>       -- Isabel Hamilton, Seattle, WA</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> Many thanks for sending Peace Meal. You're right "enjoy" is not the</div> <div> right word to describe my response. To say that I'm filled with</div> <div> admiration for your indomitable spirit may come closer. For me, the cumalitive effect of your brief essays, is like reading a single anguished poem expressing the grief of a heartbroken lover. Your refusal to succumb to despair serves as an example to us all.</div> <div>      -- Jack Goldman, Ithaca, NY</div> <bR> <bR> <div> ISBN:  0-941053-34-2</div> <bR> <div> <B>Peace Meal</B><I> </I>is a 72 page hand-sewn paperback with flat spine - $10.00.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> TO ORDER  <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><B>Peace Meal </B></FONT> ON-LINE </div> <div> <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Peace Meal"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="04-9"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="10.00"> <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>      </B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/images/view_cart.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="display" value="1"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here.</U></A>     </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>