Pretty

a mass of morning glories
darkest purple, with red hearts
covering the tomato bushes

Those Who Died for Us

1)

The animals who died to feed us.
It's dead. You're alive.
Is that fair? No.
So you do what you can,
towards a debt that can never be repaid.

2)

The people who died -
"for us," some say.
"for revenge," some say.
That's not as clear. It's not like food.

I've never looked into the face of a human being
(unlike an animal)
and understood that this person was dying for me.
But that's what I've been told.

3)

To the people who died -
for something,
for nothing.

You went to that place
where people die
and you died.

It's a debt that can never be repaid.

At least, speak their names.
At least say, it is not fair.
Death is not justice.

4)

To say, "Never again,"
is like trying to repay a debt that can never be repaid.
It's not possible.

But I say: "Never again."
Not for me.

---

Note: see also "Why I Became a Vegetarian."

About Some of These Links

What they are and why I put them up here.

First: stop everything you're doing and CLICK ON THE LINK TO GIRL GENIUS ONLINE COMICS RIGHT NOW! NOW!!! Then click on "The Comic." Or something.

So, after doing that, you're not on this page anymore. Okay.









Some time later . . .

Making Light

Nominally, a community of people who write, read, edit and love science fiction. It also happens to be one of the most erudite, humorous and civil places on the Web. Civility is not easy to find out here - too many people appear to believe that anonymity gives them an unrestricted license to be rude. But anyway. I can't say that I agree with every opinion expressed on Making Light, but it is always educational and entertaining. A lot of these links were discovered there.

Endzone

Thomas M. Disch is a poet and science fiction writer. When I first visited his LiveJournal, he had recently posted some poems that really impressed me, so I linked to him. Since then, he's expressed some political opinions that I strongly disagree with. Anytime somebody supports their argument with the statement "Those people are not human beings," they are guaranteed to be wrong. Plus I found out that he once wrote "One does not read [Ursula] LeGuin for fun," which is more uncomplimentary to him than it is to her. However, I'm keeping my link to his site. Maybe there's some lesson to be learned from it.

No-Sword

The title tag says "One of the inspirations for my blog." I had been reading blogs for a while, without having any idea of starting my own. Then one day I decided to try it. These are the things that my blog has in common with No-Sword:

1. It focuses on a very specific topic. The topic of No-Sword appears to be "oddities of Japanese language and culture." Which is a topic that I enjoy, by the way, even though I don't know Japanese. But I am fascinated by languages.

2. Two topics that it absolutely avoids are politics and (for the most part) personal matters. Obviously, this is a very personal blog. But I don't use it as my diary. As for politics: like many people, I have very strong political opinions. But I have no desire to add my voice to the cacophony of the political blogosphere. As the moderator of a Sesame Street discussion board said about the question of Bert and Ernie being gay, "You may rest assured that your point of view has been stated before." That's how I feel about it.

The rest of these links are, you know,stuff.