Odd sayings
- Bill_J - May 23, 2024 - 2:31pm
RP Daily Trivia Challenge
- ScottFromWyoming - May 23, 2024 - 2:20pm
Things You Thought Today
- Manbird - May 23, 2024 - 1:39pm
Fascism In America
- R_P - May 23, 2024 - 1:23pm
Israel
- R_P - May 23, 2024 - 12:25pm
Wordle - daily game
- Steely_D - May 23, 2024 - 11:44am
NY Times Strands
- rgio - May 23, 2024 - 11:39am
USA! USA! USA!
- R_P - May 23, 2024 - 11:02am
It's the economy stupid.
- R_P - May 23, 2024 - 10:57am
Nederland / The Netherlands
- R_P - May 23, 2024 - 10:03am
Music News
- Beaker - May 23, 2024 - 8:30am
Interviews with the artists
- Beaker - May 23, 2024 - 8:12am
NYTimes Connections
- ScottFromWyoming - May 23, 2024 - 7:24am
Radio Paradise Comments
- Coaxial - May 23, 2024 - 5:06am
Today in History
- DaveInSaoMiguel - May 23, 2024 - 3:39am
Photography Forum - Your Own Photos
- KurtfromLaQuinta - May 22, 2024 - 8:51pm
Science is bullsh*t
- GeneP59 - May 22, 2024 - 4:16pm
Maarjamaa
- oldviolin - May 22, 2024 - 3:32pm
Gotta Get Your Drink On
- ScottFromWyoming - May 22, 2024 - 3:25pm
Bug Reports & Feature Requests
- jarro - May 22, 2024 - 11:19am
New Music
- R_P - May 22, 2024 - 9:18am
May 2024 Photo Theme - Peaceful
- Isabeau - May 22, 2024 - 7:56am
Trump
- rgio - May 22, 2024 - 4:44am
Coffee
- haresfur - May 22, 2024 - 12:12am
Rock mix sound quality below Main and Mellow?
- theirongiant - May 21, 2024 - 2:23pm
Most played: what's the range? Last 30 days? 90?
- theirongiant - May 21, 2024 - 2:20pm
Dialing 1-800-Manbird
- oldviolin - May 21, 2024 - 11:59am
Name My Band
- Isabeau - May 21, 2024 - 10:27am
• • • The Once-a-Day • • •
- Isabeau - May 20, 2024 - 2:16pm
What Did You See Today?
- Steely_D - May 20, 2024 - 1:24pm
Baseball, anyone?
- ScottFromWyoming - May 20, 2024 - 12:00pm
Mixtape Culture Club
- ColdMiser - May 20, 2024 - 7:50am
Shawn Phillips
- Isabeau - May 20, 2024 - 6:20am
The Corporation
- Red_Dragon - May 20, 2024 - 5:08am
Positive Thoughts and Prayer Requests
- GeneP59 - May 19, 2024 - 4:08pm
What can you hear right now?
- GeneP59 - May 19, 2024 - 4:07pm
China
- Isabeau - May 19, 2024 - 2:22pm
What Makes You Laugh?
- Isabeau - May 19, 2024 - 2:18pm
TV shows you watch
- Steely_D - May 19, 2024 - 1:13am
Music library
- nightdrive - May 18, 2024 - 1:28pm
The Obituary Page
- DaveInSaoMiguel - May 18, 2024 - 4:18am
Paul McCartney
- miamizsun - May 18, 2024 - 4:06am
Virginia News
- Steely_D - May 18, 2024 - 2:51am
Gnomad here. Who farking deleted my thread?
- Red_Dragon - May 17, 2024 - 5:59pm
The Dragons' Roost
- triskele - May 17, 2024 - 4:04pm
Upcoming concerts or shows you can't wait to see
- ScottFromWyoming - May 17, 2024 - 1:43pm
DIY
- black321 - May 17, 2024 - 9:16am
Other Medical Stuff
- kurtster - May 16, 2024 - 10:00pm
Your Local News
- Proclivities - May 16, 2024 - 12:51pm
Alexa Show
- thisbody - May 16, 2024 - 12:15pm
Joe Biden
- Steely_D - May 16, 2024 - 1:02am
Climate Change
- R_P - May 15, 2024 - 9:38pm
Strange signs, marquees, billboards, etc.
- KurtfromLaQuinta - May 15, 2024 - 4:13pm
how do you feel right now?
- KurtfromLaQuinta - May 15, 2024 - 4:10pm
What the hell OV?
- oldviolin - May 15, 2024 - 12:38pm
Song of the Day
- oldviolin - May 15, 2024 - 11:50am
NASA & other news from space
- Beaker - May 15, 2024 - 9:29am
Artificial Intelligence
- thisbody - May 15, 2024 - 8:25am
Human Rights (Can Science Point The Way)
- miamizsun - May 15, 2024 - 5:50am
Play the Blues
- Steely_D - May 15, 2024 - 1:50am
Animal Resistance
- R_P - May 14, 2024 - 6:37pm
2024 Elections!
- R_P - May 14, 2024 - 6:00pm
punk? hip-hop? metal? noise? garage?
- thisbody - May 14, 2024 - 1:27pm
Social Media Are Changing Everything
- Red_Dragon - May 14, 2024 - 8:08am
Internet connection
- ai63 - May 14, 2024 - 7:53am
Congress
- Red_Dragon - May 13, 2024 - 8:22pm
Ukraine
- R_P - May 13, 2024 - 5:50pm
What The Hell Buddy?
- oldviolin - May 13, 2024 - 1:25pm
Surfing!
- KurtfromLaQuinta - May 13, 2024 - 1:21pm
Bad Poetry
- oldviolin - May 13, 2024 - 11:38am
See This Film
- Red_Dragon - May 13, 2024 - 8:35am
Podcast recommendations???
- ColdMiser - May 13, 2024 - 7:50am
News of the Weird
- Red_Dragon - May 13, 2024 - 5:05am
Those Lovable Policemen
- R_P - May 12, 2024 - 11:31am
Vinyl Only Spin List
- kurtster - May 12, 2024 - 9:16am
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Index »
Radio Paradise/General »
General Discussion »
• • • The Once-a-Day • • •
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Page: Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 185, 186, 187 ... 191, 192, 193 Next |
maryte
Location: Blinding You With Library Science! Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 22, 2008 - 1:39pm |
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oldviolin
Location: esse quam videri Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 22, 2008 - 1:33pm |
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Frozen
Back before the clock struck 1942 I was a nine-year-old boy, my brother eight, and my sister twelve. We lived a life protected from the war by a dirt road and endless pine trees. The soldiers from Ft. Bragg were always training in the deep woods and were a comfort, since in my imagination I could see rows and rows of black boots goose stepping toward our house to gather us up for a long trip. We didn't know then about where those trips went.
The war was on the lips of the older ones; and in the shadows and the open spaces where all the older boys used to stand, walk, and run. It was in the way we used to save our toothpaste tubes and roll tires up to the depot on collection day.
There was another war in those days, as I recall; or as recalls me. That dirt road was our world in a nutshell. We knew every tree, fencepost and ditch. We rode our bikes up to the pavement and down to the invisible borderline that separated what I was to learn about impoverished spirits from skin color and hair texture.
My brother and I relished the insults hurled at the colored kids, especially that older girl, who passed through our territory on the way to their school, just up and over from our house.
In our world they had their own doctor, their own school, their own church, and their own cemetery, where mysteriously a headstone or two would occasionally be toppled over.
The fact that they shared the same dirt road, the same patched clothing, and the same stream for water never occurred to us. I doubt that it would have made any difference anyhow.
One day my brother and sister and I were riding our bikes. My brother was riding on my handlebars and we were chasing our sister down the road. An old truck came sliding around the corner and ran over our sister, right before our eyes. My brother jumped off and ran home screaming, but I just stood there, frozen in time.
The old colored man got out and stumbled around in front of his truck, and fell to his knees; sobbing and holding my sisters head in his hands.
The next hour or so was a blur; my mother running up, crying. My oldest sister and her boyfriend yelling at the old man....to much noise to recall.
The old man just stood there, as did I, alone, also frozen in time. My uncle was the county sheriff and showed up with his deputy and I remember them asking him a lot of questions and putting him in their car. All he said to my Mama was, "drunk."
I never saw him again except in my frozen nightmares. He took from me the one person in the world that represented sweetness, and hope for something besides this dusty road and the war in my little nine year old head.
About a year later, that older colored girl walked up our road as always with her little brothers and sisters as usual. We hated them even more now, and we threw rocks at them and called the usual taunts. Through my tears I screamed "You killed my sister! You killed her!" She yelled back "well, she shouldn't have been in the road!"
I was so angry that I screamed as loud as I could "NIGGER!!!" She turned around and glared at me and gave me the middle finger and said; "what is you, but that?"
...Some wounds never heal. Never. Slavery of the spirit will follow a course along a dry river bed; through a treeless forest; into a birdless sky; within a vengeful heart.
As the poet said, "Life goes on within you, or without you."
B
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mrs_amanda
Location: Too far from the ocean Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 22, 2008 - 1:13pm |
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Exit2Eden
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Posted:
Apr 22, 2008 - 1:13pm |
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Manbird
Location: La Villa Toscana Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 22, 2008 - 12:43pm |
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cookinlover
Location: Auckland, New Zealand (former Boston native and Atlanta transplant) Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 9:46pm |
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Manbird
Location: La Villa Toscana Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 9:39pm |
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NoEnzLefttoSplit
Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 9:33pm |
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oldviolin
Location: esse quam videri Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 8:38pm |
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bokey
Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 2:49pm |
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samiyam
Location: Moving North
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 6:39am |
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triskele
Location: The Dragons' Roost
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 6:04am |
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typecast
Location: where my feet meet the ground Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 20, 2008 - 5:58am |
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maryte
Location: Blinding You With Library Science! Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:13am |
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Isabeau
Location: sou' tex Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:13am |
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Manbird
Location: La Villa Toscana Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:07am |
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Red_Dragon
Location: Dumbf*ckistan
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 7:56am |
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triskele
Location: The Dragons' Roost
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 6:58am |
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samiyam
Location: Moving North
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 6:54am |
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typecast
Location: where my feet meet the ground Gender:
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Posted:
Apr 19, 2008 - 6:51am |
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