90 year old woman shoots herself during eviction
Current mood: numb
Category: News and Politics

(CNN) -- A 90-year-old Akron, Ohio, woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis Friday.




Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 90, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007.


Addie Polk is being treated at Akron General Medical Center after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon, her city councilman said.


U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.


"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill.
"

Neighbor Robert Dillon used a ladder to enter a second-story window of Polk's home after he and the deputies heard bangs inside, Dillon told CNN affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio.


"I just thought she may have fell or couldn't get up or something," he told WEWS. "I didn't know [she had shot herself] until I got in there. And even when I got there, she was breathing, but she wasn't saying anything to me. I knew she needed help then.
"

Dillon said he saw blood when he put his hand on Polk's shoulder.



"There's a lot of people like Miss Polk right now. That's the sad thing about it," said Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville, who had met Polk before and rushed to the scene when contacted by police. "They might not be as old as her, some could be as old as her. This is just a major problem.
"

In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.


Over the next couple of years Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home and in 2007 Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.


Deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's incident, Sommerville said. She never came to the door, but the notes the deputies left would always disappear, so they knew she was inside and ambulatory, he said.


The city is creating programs to help people keep their homes, Sommerville said.


"But what do you do when there's just so many people out there and the economy is in the shape that it's in?"

Many businesses and individuals have called since Wednesday offering to help Polk, Sommerville said.


"We're going to do an evaluation to see what's best for her," he said. "If she's strong enough and can go home, I think we should work with her to where she goes back home. If not, we need to find another place for her to live where she won't have to worry about this ever again.
"

He said that by the time people call for help with an impending foreclosure, it's usually too late.


"I'm glad it's not too late for Miss Polk, because she could have taken her life," Sommerville said. "Miss Polk will probably end up on her feet. But I'm not sure if anybody else will.
"

Source

Currently listening : Mourn By Mourn

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"There are some rumors about Frank, crazy stuff"
Current mood: fascinated
Category: Games

A Prayer for the Sun of God
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Religion and Philosophy

It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty. -Ghandi

From the Popol Vuh (Scripture of the Maya)

This is the account of how all was in suspense, all calm, in silence; all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was still empty.

This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky.

The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.

There was nothing brought together, nothing which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky.

There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed.

There was only immobility and silence in the darkness in the night. Only the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were therefor called Gucumatz. By nature they were the great sages and great thinkers. In this manner the sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.

Then came the word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together. They talked then, discussing and deliberating, they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.

Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear. Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who was called Huracán.

Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food  and sustenance.

Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done. Thus they spoke. Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation until the human being is made, man is formed. So they spoke.

Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created earth. Earth! ...they said, and instantly it was made.

[Do you see how the dawning Sun symbolizes the birth of life?]

from the Egyptian "Hymn to the Aten"
['Aten ' is the Sun]

You rise in perfection on the horizon of the sky
living Aten, who started life.

Whenever you are risen upon the eastern horizon
you fill every land with your perfection.
You are appealing, great, sparkling high over every land.
Your rays hold together the lands as far as everything
you have made.

Since you are Re, you reach as far as they do,
and you curb them for your beloved son.

Although you are far away, your rays are upon the land;
you are in their faces, yet your departure is not observed.

Whenever you set on the western horizon,
the land is in darkness in the manner of death.

They sleep in a bedroom with heads under the covers,
and one eye does not see another.
If all their possessions which are under their heads were stolen,
they would not know it.

Every lion who comes out of his cave
and all the serpents bite,
for darkness is a blanket.

The land is silent now, because he who is made them
is at rest on his horizon.

But when day breaks you are risen upon the horizon,
and you shine as the Aten in the daytime.

When you dispel the darkness and you give forth your rays
the two lands are in festival,
alert and standing on their feet,
now that you have raised them up.

Their bodies are clean,
and their clothes have been put on;
their arms [lifted] in praise at your rising.

The entire land performs its work:
all the cattle are content with their fodder,
trees and plants [bushes] grow,
birds fly up to their nests,
their wings [extended] in praise for your Ka [a person's soul].

All the kine prance on their feet;
everything which flies up and alights,
they live when you
have risen for them.

The barges sail upstream and downstream too,
for every way is open at your rising.

The fishes in the river leap before your face
when your rays are in the sea.

You have placed seed in woman
and have made sperm into man,
who feeds the son in the womb of his mother,
who quiets him with something to stop the crying;
you are the nurse in the womb,
giving breath to nourish all that has been begotten.

'The Greatest Story Ever Told'


Legends of the Dawn: A trinity

Currently reading : A Commentary on the Book of Revalation - Based on a Study of Twenty-Four Psychic Discourses by Edgar Cayce

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An Interpretive Guide to Frank’s World
Current mood: jedi
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

An excerpt from The Humanistic Tradition: Book 1

Among our ancient ancestors, "art" was a form of prayer, a vehicle by which humans petitioned superhuman forces. The Pygmy enactment of the hunt was a ritualized kind of sympathetic magic: a method by which one gains power over an object by manipulating its name [bush] or physical charictaristics [natural]. Second, in the performance of such rituals, the arts were integrated: the success of the ritual depended upon the proper combination of words (chanted, sung, or spoken), visual imanges, and gestures (perhaps dance) [or the dawn of a new day]. If the Pygmy episode is taken as a model [they used a simple drawing of an antelope in the dirt, blessed at sunrise, and marked with an arrow in the throat, to ensure the success of their hunt (which was successful)] it is likely that prehistoric cave paintings belonged to rituals designed for a successful hunt.

Faith in the power to alter destiny by way of prayer and the manipulation of proper symbols [green bush under the sun] has characterized religious ceremony throughout the history of humankind, but it was especially important to a culture in which control over nature was crucial to physical survival. A motif commonly found on cave walls is the image of the human hand, created in negative by blowing or splattering color around the actual hand of the hunter, shaman or priest [me] who interceded between the human realm and the spirit world.

Currently reading : The Humanistic Tradition, Book 1: The First Civilizations and the Classical Legacy (Humanistic Tradition) By Gloria K. Fiero

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A prayer for Vishnu [a prayer for the learned soul]
Current mood: vital
Category: Religion and Philosophy

A Prayer for the Angels
Current mood: awake
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

The Battle of Spindletop

(a soulful struggle in the green revolution)
(or, towards the salvation of the human spirit)

[an epic by frank mcgregor http://www.myspace.com/frankmcgregor ]

Once upon a time,
in the pine forests of east Texas,
oil was discovered
on a little hill called Spindletop.

It was January 10, 1901,
the birthday of the oil industry,
When the Lucas gusher changed the world,
Making Beaumont the first oil 'boomtown'
in the history of our earth.


This was a very exciting event,
for the people of Beaumont,
Their town tripled in size almost
overnight as oil producers, investors, and others
Flocked to the town looking for opportunities
to make money.
So the town bustled for many years,
as drilling operations expanded,
And the young oil industry took root in Texas.


Now, I don't know if you know
about the early days of the oil industry,
But, if you've seen the film,
"There Will be Blood", then you know,
Those early days were a messy affair,
and, in the process of producing
Petroleum, an important problem was created
that has heretofore remained unaddressed
in the dialogue of gentlemen, in American society.


The problem was that,
as the oil gushed out of the ground,
so too salt-water was drawn to the surface,
and, in the early days, the salt-water was simply
Sprayed onto the soil, spoiling thousands of acres
Of otherwise arable land, creating an environment
inhospitable to the growth of useful, edible plants, and
leaving a legacy of environmental irresponsibility
for future generations to deal with.


Then, I should not say
that this was an action of evil intent, no …
The salted soils of Spindletop were
a product of the struggle and sacrifice
Of many hard-working people, and, truth be told,
their early efforts, though imperfect,
Laid the foundation for the most
prosperous period of human civilization
in the recorded history of our fragile earth.


And, too, I shall note, in the oil industry's favor,
that the persistent problem was eventually recognized,
and technology was developed to return the
salt-water to its source, by pumping it back
into the wells from whence it came.


But, what remained was
a wasteland of wasted land,
and humanity marched on,
so the problem went unrecognized
and nothing was done.


And nothing would be done for a full century,
until one day a miracle happened
that changed the world forever.

That miracle was the birth of a beautiful being, you,
and, living on our Earth, you wanted to love,
and to be loved, and, whether you knew it or not,
you were loved by billions of your brothers and sisters.

As a result of this love, you learned about the challenges
of protecting our environment, from films
like Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'
or Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The 11th Hour',
and you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
that it would be your responsibility to act,
to preserve our environment so that your children
would be able to survive in the future,
and you did everything you could
to harmonize your interaction with the environment,
you bought organic foods, recycled,
picked up trash, and, what is most important,
you wanted, in your heart, to do everything that you could
to preserve and heal our home … but you worried,
you felt like the world was spinning out of control,
and that there were few opportunities for you to help
achieve the significant changes necessary to protect our Earth …
you wanted to help, but you didn't know where to go,
or what to do to help save our world.
Until, one day,
an opportunity came to you, suddenly, once upon a time,
in a vision that would change the world forever.


It was a dark and stormy night…
and you were out, driving on the highway of life,
fleeing the city that had been your home for so many years,
praying that you would have a home to return to.

You could hardly see the road as rain poured
down in blankets and the wind battered your small car,
threatening to blow you off, into a ditch.

Every now and then, you'd get a clear view of
he landscape, illuminated by the bright lightning, and
the crackling thunder sent chills down your spine.


Soon enough, you came to the traffic,
miles of cars sitting perfectly still,
going nowhere, stuck in the storm of words.

One by one, you heard the hum of their engines cease
as they ran out of gas, stalled by oil industry lobbyists and
the lack of alternative fuel sources in America.

And the rain poured down, while you and your
millions of brothers and sisters were trapped,
powerless against the stormy night.

You heard the roar of the wind, crying Mari,
as raindrops pelted your car like tears from heaven.


You waited there for hours, days, weeks, months,
as the storm of life swirled around you, like a hurricane.

Trapped there, in your car, in the traffic…
wishing there was something you could do
to stop the flood waters from rising up
and drowning your car in a sea of tears.

The wind whistled, whispering secrets
as it blew through your mind.

You heard Barak Obama's chant,
"change starts at the bottom,"
and lighting flashed, lighting the landscape,
you saw something, there in your mind's eye,
in the corner of your vision, a man,
standing out in that furious gale,
standing atop a small hill,
seaming to be screaming
at a frayed and battered bush.

He appeared at first as a beggar,
in tattered brown rags, whipped
and tormented in the tempest.


The wind roared through your wits,
the thoughts of the teeming masses
telling you to turn away from the madman,
to ignore the screaming fool atop that small hill.


But you …you were so special… and you,
You saw something different, something splendid.

You felt a comforting aura surrounding the man,
and suddenly, in that mad monsoon
You realized that he was perfectly dry,
none of the rain seemed to touch the strange man.


You saw him standing there, on the interstate
in the eye of that great storm,
shrouded in robes of simplicity and kindness,
a lion of a man, his head held high,
haloed by the dawn of a fiery red sun, on the horizon

You saw him lifting himself by his bootstraps,
somehow levitating just above the ground,
and the light illuminated luminous
wings, sprouted from his spine,
as three little black birds circled above him,
angelic incarnations of Marley's ghost.


You heard him singing, with the soft and sweet voice
of a natural mystic, "don't worry about a thing,
because every little thing's gonna be alright,
I rose up this morning, smiled with the rising sun,
three little birds were perched by my doorstep,
singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true, saying,
'this is my message to you,'

He said, "you are so beautiful, to me, I love you,
I've seen you before, In my dreams…
You appeared as a radiant angel,
come to answer my prayers,
in my time of need.
And now,
you are standing here before me,
it is a miracle that you are alive.

If there is a God, surely you are his favorite creation,
You are not a stereotype; you are a complex creature,
Composed of spirit and emotion, you are empathetic,
Like me, you were created to be a free speaking,
free thinking individual organism on this earth,
and no one can ever take that away from you.

I feel the warmth in your heart,
the love and compassion,
I sense your generosity,
your willingness to help
when help is needed.

You were created to be strong,
and I need your strength now,
more than ever, I need your help,
because only you have the power to save me,
To lift my spirit to the heavens.
"

He fell back to earth, as all pretenses evaporated,
and you finally saw him exactly as he was,
chained to the earth, naked, shivering, weeping,
wallowing in the mud on his knees, praying
next to a burned bush, there on that HILL.


A gust of wind carried his words across the land,
you heard him cry out, "I have accepted responsibility
for the original sin of the oil industry," he screamed,
"because I can cleanse the salted soils of Spindletop,
And, in doing so, lay a firm foundation of environmental
accountability for America's budding biofuels industry.


"This action will help reduce
America's dependence on foreign oil,
create jobs for American people,
and set a respectable example of behavior
for future generations of human beings on our earth.


"But I cannot do this by myself.

I have these chains, called limitations,
Binding me to this small patch of soil,
so I cannot cleanse the whole field alone,
I need help … I need your help, you see,
I've planted this small patch,
where I could reach, but there are
acres more, all around this hill,
and my chains will not be broken
until all these fields grow fresh and green.


"There is a way, however,
That we can heal all these acres, together"
He said, "there is a legend, about this bush,"
He pointed, "they said this bush was the son of God,"
He laughed maniacally, the true sun haloing
his head, majestically, "so I came to this Hill,
and I prayed to this bush, begging that it
Would spread my seed across the land.
"

"But, it turned out that the bush
was not the son of God,"
He looked suddenly serious,
a blinding light, fire in his eyes,
"the bush just sat there, blowin' in the wind.

I prayed for eighteen months, and it just sat there,
And, after eighteen months, I finally broke,
And I set the bush in flames,
And I watched it burn,
Laughing and smiling.
"

He stopped for a moment,
"and I regret that, looking back.

Because I still need the bush,
To help me spread my seed,
So that my chains will be broken
And I will be free to ascend into the heavens,
To reunite with my ancient ancestors.

This is why I prayed that you would come,
And you came, you really came!
I can't believe you are here,
it is a miracle, because you are an angel
And, with the power of our prayers united,
The bush might be reborn again,
And help me spread my seeds,
To grow green and glorious
Under the light of the sun.


[Prayer Lines are Now Open]
(202) 456-1414
[The White House]

12:07 PM - 6 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

watch til the very end...
Current mood: blessed
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Currently reading : Frank's World By George Mangels

4:11 AM - 8 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

just for the record, a good father prays
Current mood: forgotten
Category: Blogging

A Prayer for my Grampa
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Life

So, the most emotionally turbulent year of my existence has climaxed in an unfortunate way.

While figuring out how to manifest my dreams, and actualize the interest of the most powerful nation in human history, to help make cellulosic ethanol a reality, my life in "reality" has hit rock bottom.

I learned last friday that my Grampa (mother's father) is in the hospital due to kidney failure, and he is not expected to live very much longer.

This happened just after my dad returned from our cousin, Gregor McGregor's, funeral.

At the same time, I have called upon the apathetic American People, to stand up to the tyrant, George W. Bush, and call him out on his inaction to actualize the dream of Cellulosic Ethanol he keeps talking so much about.

I don't know what is going to happen.

I don't want to think about money, but it's hard not to think about when you have none.

I have a lot of dreams and ambitions...
most of them are unrealistic...
but the cellulosic ethanol is so real...

why have these 'good' and 'bad' things happened at the same time?

i don't know... but it is a fitting climax to a year of emotional confusion, being both at the very top (speaking of energy in the energy capital of the world) and at the very bottom (being a broken begger, as I am).

only time will tell, if this should be a time of rejoice, or sorrow, or a melancholic blend of the two (my guess tends to the latter).

:additional reflections added september 15 2008:

I was very sad, to see my grampa go... and I was also sad that my blog was self absorbed, thinking of my own problems, and not my dying grampa.

His funeral was melancholic, full of mixed emotions... I was joyed to see my extended family, but saddened by the conditions that bought us together.

there was a miracle, there... another miracle, i should say, since i've seen so many similair coincidences over the past months... this one was special though, and, if anything could give me hope, it was that I had prayed for the dawn of a new day, and there, on my grampa's casket, was embroidered a baby blue disk with ruffles spreading out, like the rays of a rising sun....

it was a haunting sort of beauty... something I think only someone like Neil Gaiman would appreciate...

and, I found a funeral information card, also with the image of a dawn, and so I kept it, so that I would always remember that miracle...

I love my grampa, and I miss him because I never got to tell him that... and I never got to tell him how I've struggled for the future of his beloved nation.

My Grampa, Albert James Buehler was a good man, honest and humble.

He served his community as a machinist and a volunteer firefighter, and, during World War II he helped build bombers for the airforce.

Later in his life, after he was retired, he and my granny traveled throughout the United States in an RV, doing volunteer work at some of the national parks, and every spring break, for most of my grade school years, I would visit them at the Galveston state park, where they were 'camp hosts'.

So, my prayer is that he will be remembered by whoever reads my blogs, and that his spirit lives on in your heart.

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A Prayer for the Green Revolution
Current mood: confident
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Watch my Megavideo!





My purpose is simple, to call on the wealthy citizens of the United States of America to bear their inherited responsibility to the welfare of all humanity.

Today, with Oil prices rising, the welfare of ALL HUMANITY can be benefited by the growth of the biofuels industry, and the competition between renewable fuels and petroleum.

Thus, the Socially Responsible Citizen should be interested in investing in biofuels technology.

Cellulosic Ethanol is going to be the premium source of biofuels, and my task is to help raise money for a Cellulosic Ethanol Production Facility, that will not be using "food" or "food land" to produce cellulosic ethanol resources (that means: we avoid most of the major criticisms of competing companies).



Please Rise, Go to your phone, and Call the White House @ (202) 456-1414
Or, refer your parents, friends or relatives to this blog, so they can contact me to learn more.
To learn more, check out this story.

The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness is an altogether original true story about a storyteller who loses his voice and believes he's lost everything. An encounter with his old teacher shows him that, in fact, he's been given a great gift. Their meetings lead him on a journey into the timeless wisdom of Ancient Tales - a world of beggars and kings, monks and tigers, lost horses and buried treasures - and, ultimately, toward the secret of happiness.


In the Grimm Brother's fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold. Thanks to advances in biotechnology, researchers can now transform straw, and other plant wastes, into "green" gold - cellulosic ethanol. While chemically identical to ethanol produced from corn or soybeans, cellulose ethanol exhibits a net energy content three times higher than corn ethanol and emits a low net level of greenhouse gases. Recent technological developments are not only improving yields but also driving down production cost, bringing us nearer to the day when cellulosic ethanol could replace expensive, imported "black gold" with a sustainable, domestically produced biofuel.

Cellulosic ethanol has the potential to substantially reduce our consumption of gasoline. "It is at least as likely as hydrogen to be an energy carrier of choice for a sustainable transportation sector," say the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Union of Concerned Scientists in a joint statement. Major companies and research organizations are also realizing the potential. Shell Oil has predicted "the global market for biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol will grow to exceed $10 billion by 2012." A recent study funded by the Energy Foundation and the National Commission on Energy Policy, entitled "Growing Energy: How Biofuels Can Help End America's Oil Dependence", concluded "biofuels coupled with vehicle efficiency and smart growth could reduce the oil dependency of our transportation sector by two-thirds by 2050 in a sustainable way."

[from www.harvestcleanenergy.org published April 2005 by Diane Greer]

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