What was that when it was alive?

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Saturday May 19, 2012 · 1:28 PM PDT

2012/05/19 · 13:28

Our neighbor was killed this week, and his death is still a mystery.
No one saw it happen, but it might have been like this:

The cable guy saw him in the road and stopped at the bodega.
The chef remembered the wiseass who was talking about entrepreneurs and elites.
Chef told the cable guy, two guys walked into the deli, and ….

A corner bodega near the train station. Early morning.
The Chef stands behind the deli counter, watching the morning news.
Enter Patrick and Big.

Patrick:
Hi, how ya doing, I’d like a chicken fajita and a Coke.

Big:
Good morning, I’ll have the steak salsa burrito and a BumSteer. Hey, Pat, I didn’t know you ate that alien food.

Patrick:
Hey, Biggie, that burrito isn’t wearing a “Made in USA” label, is it? You know, I can’t see anything in this whole store that was made here in the states. Not even the people. I know PR was gonna be the fifty-second state, but these folks don’t look that shade of tan to me.

Big:
These folks here are our entrepreneurial elites, who CREATE jobs for the poor schmucks like your friends over there. These citizens of tomorrow came straight from Mumbai and Seoul to grad school at MIT and Wharton.

Patrick:
Yeah, they can afford to go there; they’ve got the cash. My kid couldn’t even get enough loans this year to keep goin’ at Rutgers. How do you know who these new people are? What did you do, sign their immigration papers?

Big:
These guys don’t need sponsors; they’ve got credit limits like you dreamed of when you flipped your house. Now that you mention it, they asked about buying up some of the dilapidated houses around here, doing a little free slum clearance. Didn’t you used to live over there?

Patrick:
Hey, Biggie, you know damn well I only lost that house because my wife got laid off from her guard job, after I got laid off when the shop closed. There was no way our kind of custom work was gonna compete with these big chains that bang it out for nothin’. After ten years of paying the mortgage, I couldn’t get a live person to sit down with and work out a re-fi.

OwlAground

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 11, 2012 · 9:24 PM PDT

2012/05/11 · 21:24

The Owl has crossed the Water and passed beyond the bridges. It is a different world across the Water. Gardens are everywhere, but the Owl has not found the Serpent.

These are strange creatures who say nothing good of one another. They fear strangers and mistrust their neighbors. In previous life the Owl had brothers and sisters who supported one another. We had dignity and we had strength.

The Owl knew the Wise before arriving in the Garden. Even as the Owl passed over, there were still some Wise who helped their companions through the journey.

From fledge to final flutter Owl lived in a tiny, snug nest among common folk. Mockingbirds serenaded the nightly garbage trucks and chanted to the car alarms. Sparrows and starlings jousted for crusts. Doves and finches heralded dawnbreak at the seeder.

And always, there were pigeons. Beneath the pigeons crept rats and other foul creatures. Owl met these monsters in nightly battles and learned nightly lessons in pain.

Owl knew that this was not a perfect world, but it was the only world we had. We had to work together to survive and prosper. Owl was taught from the egg that the Great Parliament would act, in its Wisdom, to care for all of the folk regardless of species.

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What was that when it was alive?

Owl has crossed over the Water.