Here We Come: "There's a natural mystic blowing through the air..."

"There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air;
If you listen carefully now you will hear.
This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die - don’t ask me why.

Things are not the way they used to be,
I won’t tell no lie;
One and all have to face reality now.
’though I’ve tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask.
’though I know it’s impossible to go livin’ through the past -
Don’t tell no lie.

There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air -
Can’t keep them down -
If you listen carefully now you will hear.

There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air.

This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die - don’t ask me why.

There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air -
I won’t tell no lie;
If you listen carefully now you will hear:
There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air.
Such a natural mystic blowing through the air;
There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air;
Such a natural mystic blowing through the air;
Such a natural mystic blowing through the air;
Such a natural mystic blowing through the air..."

- Bob Marley, "Natural Mystic"


(...)


Sheehan Glad Bush Didn't Meet With Her

By ANGELA K. BROWN,
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 18 minutes ago

CRAWFORD, Texas - A woman who led an anti-war protest for nearly a month near President Bush's ranch said Tuesday that she's glad Bush never showed up to discuss her son's death in Iraq, saying the president's absence "galvanized the peace movement."

Cindy Sheehan's comments came as war protesters packed up their campsite near the ranch and prepared to leave Tuesday for a three-week bus tour.

"I look back on it, and I am very, very, very grateful he did not meet with me, because we have sparked and galvanized the peace movement," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "If he'd met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there."

Sheehan and about 50 other peace activists arrived in the one-stoplight town Aug. 6, the day after she spoke at a Veterans for Peace convention in Dallas. She and a few others spent that night in chairs in ditches, without food or flashlights, off the main road leading to the president's ranch.

The Vacaville, Calif., woman vowed to stay until Bush's monthlong vacation ended unless she could question him about the war that claimed the life of her 24-year-old son Casey and more than 1,870 other U.S. soldiers.

Two top Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan the first day, but the president never did — although he has said that he sympathizes with her and acknowledged her right to protest. His vacation is to end Wednesday, two days early, so he can monitor federal efforts to help victims of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast.

Sheehan's vigil attracted crowds of other anti-war demonstrators. Most stayed a few hours or days at the original roadside camp or at the second, larger site about a mile away on a private lot offered by a sympathetic landowner.

The massive response has transformed her life, she said.

"I thought our country was going down, down, down. I thought nobody cared about our children killed in the war, but millions care, and millions care about our country and want to make it better," she said. "The love and support I've received give me hope that my life can someday be normal."

The protest also sparked counter rallies by Bush supporters who accused Sheehan of using her son's death to push the liberal agenda of groups supporting her. Critics also said the anti-war demonstration was hurting U.S. troop morale while boosting the Iraqi insurgency.

Many Bush supporters pointed out that Sheehan never spoke against Bush or the war when she and other grieving families met the president about two months after her son died last year.

Sheehan said she was still in shock over Casey's death during that meeting. She said she became enraged after independent reports disputed Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons — a main justification for the March 2003 invasion.

After leaving Crawford, protesters will spread their message on a three-week "Bring Them Home Now Tour" with stops in 25 states. Buses on three routes will meet in Washington, D.C., for a Sept. 24 anti-war march.

Sheehan will leave the tour next week to spend time with her family, including her mother who recently suffered a stroke, which caused Sheehan to miss a week of the protest. She plans to attend the march in the nation's capital, hoping to reunite with people who converged on the Texas roadside that came to be known as "Camp Casey."

"When I first started here, I was sitting in the ditch thinking, `What the heck did I do? Texas in August, the chiggers, fire ants, rattlesnakes, uncomfortable accommodations' — but I'm going to be sad leaving here," Sheehan said. "I hope people will say that the Camp Casey movement sparked a peace movement that ended the war in Iraq."

___

On the Net:

Bring Them Home Now Tour: http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org

SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050831/ap_on_re_us/peace_mom





Center Seeks to Reopen 'Naked Boys' Show

By JOHN HARTZELL,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 30,10:18 AM ET

MILWAUKEE - Those "Naked Boys Singing!" hope to resume taking off their clothes next month. The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center plans to reopen the musical revue, which features nudity, in mid-September, Richard Hart, the center's attorney, said Monday.

Police shut down the show Aug. 18 in a dispute over whether the center needed a theater license for the production. The center received a letter Friday from the city's license division indicating officials believed the center's nonprofit status meant it did not need a theater license after all, Hart said.

The center started staging performances of "Naked Boys Singing!" Aug. 11 and was scheduled to continue them until Sept. 3.

"Naked Boys Singing!" has run into trouble with authorities before in such cities as Provincetown, Mass.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Atlanta. Eventually, all three cities held performances of the show.

The claim filed last week contends that police selectively enforced the license ordinance against the center and seeks about $630,000 in punitive damages, legal fees and lost revenue. It says that proceeds from the production had been designated for various AIDS research groups and theater groups.

"This issue has really put a black eye on the city," said Don Hoffman, a co-director of the center.

SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050830/ap_en_ot/theater_naked_boys_singing