Like, A Really Awesome Poem by Taylor Mali

Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali

In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences -- so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally...
I mean absolutely... You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like...
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation... ness
is just a clever sort of... thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since...
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

© Taylor Mali 2005

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Wet Cleaning

This is my Valentine's Day "romance" shot. Taken in the Mission District of San Francisco not long ago. Heart, Walt

AL GORE FOR PRESIDENT 2008

He would have my vote in a heartbeat.

Supporters push Gore to run in 2008

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 28 minutes ago

Veterans of Al Gore's past are quietly assembling a campaign to draft the former vice president into the 2008 presidential race — despite his repeated statements that he's not running.

His top policy adviser from his 2000 presidential campaign and other key supporters met Thursday in Boston to mull a potential Gore campaign. The participants and Gore's Nashville office both said Gore, who is in London, is not involved.

Elaine Kamarck, a veteran of the Clinton White House and Gore's policy guru in 2000, said the meeting was informal and shouldn't be taken as a sign there will be a Gore 2008 campaign.

Chris Mackin, a Boston consultant and Gore supporter, called it "an early stage conversation." But he added: "We're very serious about exploring this."

Gore's spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, said the only campaign Gore is on right now is against global warming.

"He so appreciates the sentiment behind efforts like this. But he's been very clear he really has no intention of running for president in 2008," she said.

Gore won a hard-fought primary campaign to become the Democratic nominee in 2000. He won the popular vote, but lost to President Bush after a messy legal challenge ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since then, the former Tennessee senator has worked against global warming and served on corporate boards, including Google and Apple Inc. Due to a range of business ventures, aides have said Gore could spend as much as $50 million of his own money to launch a credible presidential run.

And, in the background, groups have been lobbying for Gore's return to presidential politics.

"He certainly has the right political climate. How many political candidates are being nominated for Nobel prizes and winning Oscars?" said Dylan Malone, co-founder of AlGore.org and organizer of a political action committee trying to draft Gore.

His work on global warming earned him a Nobel nomination and two Oscar nods for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." He has re-branded himself on late-night television and has brought together a stable of grass-roots supporters.

In 2002, Gore asked Malone to stop a draft effort he had begun; Malone did. Malone started up again and, so far, Gore hasn't waved him off.

"The difference is dramatic. His time has come," Malone said. "We're raising tens of thousands of dollars fairly easily. Our mailing lists are growing so quickly we have to buy new computers."

In a New Hampshire poll released this week, Gore ranked fourth, behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) and John Edwards. Gore earned 8 percent.

The results mirror other polls nationwide.

"He certainly is in a position he can get into this," said Doug Hattaway, Gore's campaign spokesman in 2000. "He doesn't need to jump into this right away. He can keep his powder dry for a while."

Gore is scheduled to be in Washington next month to testify on Capitol Hill on global warming.

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