{"id":253,"date":"2006-07-04T19:31:03","date_gmt":"2006-07-05T02:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=253"},"modified":"2017-09-13T20:57:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T03:57:47","slug":"a-day-for-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"A Day for Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry to all and sundry for being scarce.\u00c2\u00a0 Your pains, pleasures, and other p-words<\/a> have not gone unnoticed.\u00c2\u00a0 Just lots of work to be done.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m like Gandalf that way…maybe more like Sir Ian McKellan’s Gandalf, the one that takes only a few edits instead of 17 years to get back to you.\u00c2\u00a0 (Oh boo hoo, you Fourth Age purists<\/a> — you loved it, baby.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, now’s the day when we folks in the US o’ A make a big to-do.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily it’s turned out to be a good day so far.<\/p>\n

Space Shuttle Discovery is in orbit<\/a>, safe and sound.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a peep from that stupid fuel tank.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, I know — it’s obsolete tech, never worked right, we have no business in space, yadda yadda.\u00c2\u00a0 The crew are fine.\u00c2\u00a0 With luck, they’ll be just as fine in three weeks.<\/p>\n

I wanted to note the holiday this time. \u00c2\u00a0 Here’s a special something…for George and Karl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
\nThe language is not Narn or Human or Centauri or Gaim or Minbari.<\/p>\n

It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the language of trust.
\nIt speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.
\nIt is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.
\nBut always it is the same voice.<\/p>\n

It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us.
\nAnd the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born.
\nIt is the small, still voice that says we are One.<\/p>\n

No matter the blood, no matter the skin,
\nNo matter the world, no matter the star,
\nWe are One.
\nNo matter the pain, no matter the darkness,
\nNo matter the loss, no matter the fear.
\nWe are One.<\/p>\n

Here, gathered together in common cause
\nWe agree to recognize this singular truth and this singular rule:
\nThat we must<\/em> be kind to one another.<\/p>\n

Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us,
\nAnd each voice lost diminishes us.
\nWe are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation,
\nThe fire that will light the way to a better future.<\/p>\n

We are One.<\/p>\n

–J. Michael Straczynski
\nBabylon 5<\/u>:\u00c2\u00a0 “The Paragon of Animals”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And yes, I’m still angry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry to all and sundry for being scarce.\u00c2\u00a0 Your pains, pleasures, and other p-words have not gone unnoticed.\u00c2\u00a0 Just lots of work to be done.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m like Gandalf that way…maybe more like Sir Ian McKellan’s Gandalf, the one that takes only a few edits instead of 17 years to get back to you.\u00c2\u00a0 (Oh boo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,6,27],"tags":[72,35,26],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livejournal-postings","category-offtopic","category-personal","tag-babylon-5","tag-livejournal","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}