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Speech
Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Alumni, Alumnus and Students: My name is Martin Douge and I now have my G.E.D.. Right about now I expect Bill and Ted to show up and save me from speaking… As we can see, that expectation didn’t happen either. I also didn’t expect to be here at this part of…
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Rage at 5 and 11
I watch and listen as the Constitution is ignored and corrupted daily. Rage, fierce indignation and anger. Not the kind to do something stupid about, that would just be redundant. It is obviously long past the time for dramatic change in this country, there is no way that this is some kind of correct direction…
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States of Play
Learning, information, insights, and understanding, those are the things that I myself look for in my life. I am not the best at it, but I am the only one that can do it. In a world that I simply wanted to fit into, I have found out that fitting is a matter of embracing…
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Commencement
The twisted irony is not wasted on this mind. Here I am the day before my fifty-second birthday and I am thinking about what I am going to say at the college’s commencement ceremony. That is not the real irony though, this is for my GED class that I am speaking for – at my…
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With All My Imagination
The colors of life are painting me into depths that challenge my wanting to share. My reaching is still there, but so unbalanced it is an embarrassment of epic proportions. I am noticing the patterns of creativity versus cogent thinking, the lazy unorganized portion really wants to take it all and leave me a goofy…
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Pop Up Pompacity
From the state of intergenerational attitudes to the angst of the now, now, now brigades, the ugly is sure spewing out. In a progressive Seattle neighborhood the shouting down of others reached a crescendo during a moderated debate, a microcosm of one of the bigger pictures. Tribal mentalities and engagement pulling the most ill conceived…
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Down the Rabbit Hole
The patchwork of this friendship quilt is a fascinating affair The once thick fabric pieces, in places threaded bare The colors change, they glow and fade, and stitches disappear The meaning of that piece of love, to our heart it is placed near Or the reason why that other friend, is right next to your…
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The Cosby Effect
I have been watching the news on this for years, a confounding and resentful eruption of angst and intended justice gone sideways. Something that needed to be done, but nonetheless the manner in which it happened shook my civic foundational boots well before this abortion we have in the Oval Office took hold of the…
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The Disquieting War
Yes, it is a sad fact about today that goes unnoticed, deemed not newsworthy. We are a nation with every passing day that goes carelessly deeper into oblivion. We are at war whether the sensibilities of one allows belief or not, a war it most certainly is. On this site, in my articles, I have…
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Existential Crescendo
I was told by more than one person that a writer just writes. I can’t argue that at all because as much as I would love to stop it altogether, I can’t. It pains me not to take to the words and expressions that fill my mind and my days. It could very well be…
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Life and Fireworks
When you are my age and the Doctor sends you to the Cardiologist, there are a lot of things that went through this mind. When the Cardiologist sends you downtown to get an angiogram and the possibility of even as much as bypass surgery anticipated, a lot more went on in this mind of mine.…
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Reflections of Kind
A friend was commenting on a post I had put up. Someone in the program and it was an antagonist position that he was taking. I didn’t think anything of it until I was looking at another friend’s wall and found posts about punishing those who believe differently than he does politically. Another friend in…
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Sex, Rights, and Standards
Well crud, I always get grief and a lot of shame when I bring this topic up. Yet, as I am going to have either a stent or bypass tomorrow morning, this is as good as any to try to jump the divide of observations. This is a very crunchy time in America, as are…
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From One to Zero – Binary Bipeds
While pondering the word prompt “patience” from another page, the umpire-ical outlook on the natures of us that I tend to fall down took hold. As I examined my patience that existential door opened up a bit. I must be patient, because I, like many others in this society, in this world view, am still…
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Shouting Into the Din
These last four and a half years has been incredible and wondrous, and at the same time fraught with frustration and reflection. When someone loses their good health it is not always apparent. The thing is though, when someone tells you repeatedly over that time that they are not well, but ill, there is a…

