My First Christmas

Hi everyone - this is a brief message Doug asked me to post.

I'm working hard, learning and changing. Been sober since November 11th (Remembrance Day in Canada, Armistice Day in New Zealand - same thing).

The deal here is that we move through 3 phases of 42 days each. I'm still in phase one - identifying my issues and triggers.
Anyway folks, this is my Christmas card to you all.

Doug

RISE UP - by Doug Graves (December 2007)

Rise up to Higher Ground

where better things abound,

and eagles soar above the roar

and chaos strewn below.

Just catch the breeze and lift your wings,

be all that you may dare,

and leave behind the battlfield

where once you marched so bold.

Take flight, rise up to Higher Ground

and watch your dreams unfold.

Customized counter

Customized counter: "Customized counter Time until Monday, 17 March 2008 at 9:00:00 a.m. (Auckland time) 99 days 2392 hours 143561 minutes 8613693 seconds Alternative version It is 99 days, 16 hours, 41 minutes and 33 seconds until Monday, 17 March 2008 at 9:00:00 a.m. (Auckland time) Current time is 2007-12-08 16:18:27 (local time in Auckland"

The Warming

There are really only two choices in life. One is to do good and the other is to do bad. It's up to each of us to choose. When Christ gave his sermon on the mount he had lots to say. At the end of his talk a young fella was blown away and asked if he could follow. "Sure," Jehovah said, "Just give up everything you have and join the gang. He had lots and walked away.

Exasperated, after many questions about how to attain this or that, Christ said one thing. "Just love one another as I have loved you." What else matters? Money comes and goes and jobs come and go; the difference is what anyone leaves behind. What is your legacy?

Hone, come home. By now you have figured out something I learned some time ago, and that is that politics is best left to hogs at the trough. You have more to offer and there is an absence of leadership here. Hell, we are inundated with former clerks who don't have value or heart and they will spend the heritage that is so little and too late.

We need to invest in our children. Never mind if they can speak the reo or look the same color as you... just look into their hearts and make your choice. Life is just too short.

Ugly facts.

36 or so hours from now I am going into Detox and Rehab. It will take some weeks but this needs doing. I'm a pisshead and intend to give all of nurture, or nature, to exist. My churchmen have allowed me to speak tomorrow so I intend to at least apologise for whom I am. But...I'll never allow myself to be a doormat for anybody, so if they want to go, well let it rest on them. I declare no violence anymore, because I have had a guts full of it. Because in the end it is all about blaming everybody and pointing fingers. I have had a guts full of that too.

kanata

Jacques Cartier came to Canada in 1535, saw some Iroquois and asked them to meet. He asked where they were and they answered, "kanata". This was the Iroquois name for meeting place. Well it became the name for my country, Canada. Of course, the Poms got involved and battle took place on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. Wolfe took on Montcalm and kicked his ass. The French have never forgotten this and have been bitter ever since. Shoot. They pretty much have their own state within a state, even their own immigration laws.

When WW2 broke out there were riots in the streets of Montreal because the frogs could not understand why they were being asked to fight. The Conscription Riots...never mind the war was in France at the time.

One of the biggest frauds of all time was General Charles DeGaulle. When Dwight proposed he broadcast the secret message to kick off D Day, he balked. This was some bastard living in London with only a servant for company, no damn army and he had the temerity to refuse. He came over to Quebec one year and finished his speech with, "Vivre Le Quebec Libre!" and touched off our Separatist battle that left Pierre Laporte garroted with a crucifix and the British High Commissioner, Cross, found in the trunk of a car at the airport.

The separatists went to Cuba, where they were celebrated for these brave acts. There was an amnesty and these guys all came back to professorships and government appointments. Many now sit in Parliament. How can New Zealand handle the hypocrisy? There is no upper house or supreme court worth a damn. They steal and will continue to steal until someone puts a stop to it. Public Works Act, Foreshore and Seabed.

Here we have a police force of rapists and crims, not all, but too many. With so much of their mana on the line you would figure they might do some good, but no...they go on a terror hunt for Maori. At least in the States you can take it to the Supreme Court, but there is no such place here. There were more casualties in Canada. A soldier jumped off a truck and the bolt on his SMG discharged a round into his chin. The bullet rattled around in his helmet for a bit and settled down. I spoke with the fella who trained him. He wasn't following order and discipline as advised. To me it is a shame that Canada, The United States, Australia and New Zealand declined to sign the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Shame indeed.
Next I want to talk about Shame Jones and his pal Sam.