Poetry 004

I finally got me understanding
A little bit of the math
Behind the operations round here…

Translate as:
I admitted to knowing nothing…

I said,
“Fill my Styrofoam cup
With your dreams of cities
Emasculated in the armpits of history,

And let the tides of the sea’s
Rise to reach our gas pumps
And envelope
That which was rightfully hers,

And watch the Cadillac’s submerge
And float like submarines
With a gangsta lean…”

Cuz I finally got me understanding
A little bit of me…

Translate as:
Scared of getting hurt
So I don’t commit
To nothing but the profession of my passion…

I said, “Two plus two equals four
So what’s the three really for?
Except to better recognize
The divine at the core of all of our hardcore
And what’s more
Is that the streetlights
Never fail to illuminate
The inner street fights
The parts of us that we love to hate”

They said, “If you love something give it away”

I said,
“But if it’s taken
Instead of given, then
It smirks of a whole new rhythm
Of a reason
To keep you living and believing
Until the day that it dawns on adequate hands,
Hands of those that truly understand
The beast beneath
The gimmicks of wordsmithery,
With piano keys pounding like it was a ceremony
A funeral tribune
Lost in the tune
Of rites of passage, which
Ain’t right
Til we say it’s so…"

I finally got me understanding
A little bit of the tracks we stand over…

Translate as:
But ain’t that the bitch of manifest destiny?

I said,
“Question all you want
But the marks
Will only leave you be
As a leaf on the tree of productivity, with
Cycles that repeat out of necessity
For more mulch for another seed
For another tree of creativity…

This ain’t an end, It’s a means

That’s finally got me understanding
A little bit of the in-betweens
Between the in-betweens…

Translate as:
I travel,
Because my shoes
Choose to carry me
And transcend me
Through the clarity
Past the muddy depths
Of what it means to not have any choice left.

---Jordy Yager, 2007

Journalism 010

Internet Hunting Could Fall Prey:

Do you remember when having a mobile phone was a novelty? And remember when you could first order pizza over the Internet? And remember when you could shoot live deer, wild boars and ram with the click of your mouse?

It’s known as “internet hunting” and it allows a user to sit in front of a computer, pay a fee and survey real animals, via live camera-feed, that have been stocked as game. And as the animals meander into the crosshairs on the screen, with the click of the mouse, a mounted gun fires a live round at the intended target.

That may change shortly if the Massachusetts Legislature passes the bill that Senator Robert Creedon, D-Brockton, has filed outlawing ‘internet hunting.’ Creedon filed the proposed ban on behalf of Brockton constituent and deputy director of advocacy of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Scott Giacoppo.

“I took this initiative to Sen. Creedon and without batting an eye he was onboard,” Giacoppo said.

“Internet hunting” originated in 2005 with John Lockwood’s Texas-based website, www.live-shot.com, which after only months of operation was shut down with a state ban. Twenty-two states have since outlawed the “arm chair hunting” as quickly as possible in fear of seeing it spread.

“To our knowledge there haven’t been any other internet hunting sites [since live-shot.com],” Giacoppo said. “But there’s potential to be a disgrace to a state that hasn’t outlawed it.”

As more states follow suit with the ban, there is the increasing possibility that future sites will pop up in states that have not done so, which is part of the reason that animal rights advocates and gun ownership advocates are seeing eye-to-eye on the issue.

“Internet hunting is not hunting,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, a Massachusetts gun advocacy group. “It has nothing to do with being a sportsman. To me, it’s just ludicrous.”

The National Rifle Association has agreed with GOAL’s position, but remains cautious of using terminology such as “remote control hunting.” Wallace mentioned the possibility of developing new technology for handicapped hunters who are physically unable to fire a rifle. The hunters would be in the direct presence of the firearm but would use a remote control device to fire it.

“Internet hunters are not even in control of the firearms,” said Wallace. “It takes violent video games that one last step.”

Journalism 009

This is the newspaper that I am currently writing for and a little bit of info in regards to Brockton itself...

The Brockton Enterprise is a $0.50 afternoon daily newspaper run out of Brockton, Massachusetts with a daily circulation of 35,040. The racial demographics of the 327,083 residents in the area of circulation are as follows: 83% white, 7% black, 3% Hispanic, 1% Asian, 6% other. In 1999, the Knight Foundation issued a report that found 2.3% of the Enterprise’s news staff to be non-white. The Quincy Patriot Ledger and the Enterprise share Chazy Dowaliby as editor. She’s been with the Ledger since 1998 and with the Enterprise since July, 2005 when she replaced Charlie Hickey, due to publisher Kirk Davis’ dissatisfaction with Hickey’s job. The Enterprise subscribes to AP services for national and foreign news coverage. Local coverage extends into Boston and throughout Massachusetts but mainly focuses around Brockton, Stoughton, Taunton and Holbrook.

The Enterprise is owned by GateHouse Media, formerly known as the Liberty Group Publishing, which owns 74 other newspapers throughout the country.

Founded in 1881, the Enterprise was owned by the Fuller-Thompson family for 115 years until it was bought in 1996 by James Plugh who reportedly paid somewhere between $20 million - $30 million. At that time the newspaper’s circulation was approximately 50,000. One year later, Plugh paid $60 million for Quincy’s Patriot Ledger, which has a circulation of approximately 65,000. In 2003 Plugh sold his majority stake in the two papers to a Boston-based investment firm, Heritage Partners Inc. Plugh remained publisher for one more year, until he hired Kirk Davis as publisher. Finally GateHouse Media bought the Enterprise in 2006 as part of a $225 million deal.

Brockton is the sixth largest city in Massachusetts, with a population of 94,304 and is situated in Plymouth county. The most famous local Brocktonian, was boxer Rocky Marciano. Brockton Mayor James E. Harrington moved to Brockton from Somerville in 1972 with his wife and continued work as an engineer until in 1990 he opened his own insurance agency, Harrington’s Insurance, and in 1996, he started a financial advisor company, Centre Street Financial Services, Inc. Harrington has served on the Brockton City Council for the past 20 years, including as City Council President three separate times. The next general election is in November of this year.

Brockton High School is home to 4,200 students. 80% of graduating seniors are admitted to colleges. The Brockton city school system is the 4th largest in Massachusetts, with approximately 19,000 students enrolled as of 2005. The Phoenix Alternative Programs serve approximately 200 students who have otherwise been expelled from the Brockton school system. Brockton’s other alternative school, is the Champion Charter Public high school for out-of-school youth that have either dropped out or have been set back for attendance reasons.

Representing the 9th district of Plymouth is Rep. Thomas P. Kennedy (D), Rep. Chrsitine E. Canavan (D) is the 10th district representative and Rep. Geraldine Creedon (D) is Plymouth county’s 11th district representative. Serving the second district Senate seat for Plymouth and Bristol is Sen. Robert S. Creedon, Jr.

Journalism 008

"Exoticism is generally defined as the attraction for a civilization -- manners, climate, social behavior, clothing -- foreign to our own, far from us in time or space..."
--- Gilles de Van

Poetry 3

Chestpounding (pt.1)

As I witness sunsets
Grant Jersey a power
Neither Edison nor Watt could have ever fathomed,
I'm visited by candlelit memories
Of solitary sparks,

Singular moments
Where the light of the heart
Was able to eclipse a mind
Accustomed to the dark,

And waves run
Their salt-scented fingernails
Across the backdrop of big-city
Nightlife blackboards...

(pt.2)

Where today’s lessons
Earmark
Tomorrow’s guesses for sea’s to
Part,
And the clouds chase the streams
Of our undying manifest dreams,

Screaming,

"Go west my son
And you will find the mothers
From which we’ve come,
You’ll find the one in the rest
And rest in the one,

And listen to the crazy one’s
For signs of things to come",

Because as an adolescent
Our lessons are filled with questions,
And now that time has unleashed its blessing,
We turn from searching to stressing,
Looking for the next dollar from the next man,
So eager to holler at him
We forget to listen...

(pt. 3)

So we gotta regroup
And meditate,
Make moves
And make them straight
To the point, we ain't got time to chase,
Because as soon as we take a breath
And attempt to rest our case,
We're faced with a case
Leading to the arrest of our breath,
And they wonder why we're stressed,
Pledging allegiance to fighting our debt,
Pounding our chests
Praying that there are still breaths left.

Copyright 2006