The Famous Stagecoach BBQ & Blues 

The Famous Stage Window 

Uke Man Rides the Stagecoach Saturday, April 2

Hey All!!
The Ukulele Man & his Prodigal Sons ride again!! Get on the Stagecoach and ride to South Bloomfield on Saturday, April 2!!
We’re playing the Stagecoach BBQ & Blues* ( http://www.stagecoachbbq.com/ ).
Our good friend and creative genius, Mr. Don Nelson, will open at 7:30, and we (all seven of us) go on at 8:30 and will play into the night!!!
It’ll be a great evening!! Please come and share!!
Yours - Ukulele Man
* P.S. We wrote and recorded the Stagecoach jingle you’ll hear on their website, and we’ll perform it for you Saturday (also, the “Jive Turkey” reference on the website is archaic and apocryphal ).

Flags Yes!! T-Shirts No!!!

Letter to the "Dispatch"

Some of us once thought our reactionary Columbus daily newspaper might have mellowed just a bit in the last few years. Well, the Dispatch is back!!

The Easter editorial admonishing Dublin students for wearing free speech T-shirts reeks:

“Distracting teachers and administrators from their important work is easy. Disrupting school is easy and initiating a free-speech argument is easiest of all . . . Putting school administrators in the middle of protests such as the one at Dublin Jerome is not an effective measure.”

Teachers and administrators who are distracted by students exercising their constitutional rights must have short attention spans. Moreover, it is the administrators who have put themselves, imposed their will, between the students and their rights.

But then, the defenders of the dominant status quo always blame their victims.

As for taking the easy way out, it’s much easier for the Dispatch to attack high school students – as it has several times of late – than attack the state legislature for refusing to follow the legitimate orders of our elected Supreme Court to correct unconstitutional school funding.

Thousands of hours and millions of dollars have been spent in just the way the Dispatch recommends: “educating themselves on the topic, joining the many organized groups that daily fight for causes, donating time and money to those causes and showing the grit to go door to door in their neighborhood, where selling band candy is easier than selling social change” to force the legislature to obey Ohio’s constitution and courts.

The Dispatch has yet to join the effort. Maybe it’s so easy only a child can do it .

Uke Man

Second Anniversary of Iraq War Protest 

The Illusion of Democracy Revisited

A while back Michael Terry wrote regarding my post of Sunday,
February 27 (below) :

“There will always be enough similarities between two nations to make silly simplistic comparisons like yours. Pretending there aren't serious differences won't make those differences vanish . . . Prejudice is a powerful rationalizer.”

Well, lets review. I said, "Our regional and national media often criticize government institutions [yep, just like ours does]." I also said, “While Putin [Bush] travels around with a contingent of reporters just as Bush [Putin] does, the Kremlin [White House] press pool is a handpicked group of reporters, most of whom work for the state [ the corporations] and the rest selected for their fidelity to the Kremlin's [White House’s] rules of the game. Helpful questions are often planted [No shit!? Just like here!!]. Unwelcome questions are not allowed [No shit!? Just like here!!]. And anyone who gets out of line can get out of the pool [No shit!? Just like here!!]” , and “Television channels air newscasts with fancy graphics but follow scripts approved by the Kremlin [their corporate masters and the political hacks they own].”

I guess that if Fox is fair and balanced, and the “major” networks really ask “hardball” questions, and fawning government-created “news” videos are both “journalism” and “ethical”; and if “reporters” like Jeff Gannon and Armstrong Williams are independant journalists, and Dan Rather wasn’t run off, and Maureen Dowd simply doesn’t merit a White House pass, and Helen Thomas deserved to be attacked for asking the “wrong” questions of the Boy Wonder? Then I guess I’m simplistic, prejudiced, and rationalizing.

The vaunted “freedom of the press” we supposedly have here (as opposed to Russia) is a sham. The best example I know is this: Katherine Graham is lionized as a hero for daring to print the facts of Watergate. She had taken over the Post after her husband’s death and lacked experience. Everyone involved warned her to drop the reporting on Watergate or the paper would be destroyed. Lacking experience, she went ahead.

She said, “What I essentially did was to put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes and step off the ledge. The surprise was that I landed on my feet.” She dared to tell the truth, and unexpectedly got by with it. If we had “freedom of the press,” who would ever worry about printing the truth about government in one’s newspaper? How could anyone be considered a hero for printing the truth?

Only in the absence of a free press could printing the truth about the government be a dangerous activity undertaken only by heroes.

Finally, if Terry thinks I’m prejudiced in favor of Russia, he’s got it wrong. The comparison is not intended to elevate Russian practice to the “sacred” level of American “freedom,” but to point out to folks blinded by chauvanism that the beam in their neighbor’s eye is in their own as well. It is much easier to see the painful truth in others than in ourselves. It’s those who can’t face up to the pain of self-recognition who turn to simplistic rationalization.

Columbus NION & "Ukuleles for Sanity" March 19 Protest!!

After weeks of planning and anticipation by Columbus NION, NION Youth OSU, and the Columbus Student Network; the gathering/march/ rally/ speeches/ protest/ benefit all came together Saturday, March 19.
One hundred and fifty people gathered at Goodale Park Saturday morning to song and speeches before moving on to the capitol building to meet with others in protest against the second year of war and the occupation in Iraq.
We oldsters were there, but the NION focus was on youth! Youth involvement in the planning and promotion and the action! Working for the present! Building for the future!
The youngsters were excited and energetic and strong - marching and chanting -forcefully making their way to the symbolic center of Ohio government – carrying with them the world (the NION globe), humanity’s and NION’s symbolic demand for a BETTER WORLD.
We were represented at the statehouse by NION Youth OSU’s Basak Durgun who was among those addressing the assemblage. She gave a rousing speech which incorporated the NION Pledge.
In the face of a damp, rainy, and windy afternoon, our voices were heard and our point was made.
“Ukuleles for Sanity” (in the guise of NION’s own “Ukulele Man”) did its part before the march and again that evening during the NION benefit held at Little Brother’s nightclub on North High Street.
An eventful and satisfying day and night!!

The Scene of the Crime - Bush tries to read speech at "Veterans Memorial" while all the while screwing Veterans (and everyone esle!! ['cept his buds!] ). 

Hee, hee - Hard work!!!

Hey!!
Just got back from the DEMO!! Duh-byuh came to my little town (Columbus – I used to live there – Circleville, now) to talk about smoke (coal smoke – smoke, yes; but he avoided the mirrors). Amazingly, the CEO of a big, stinky utility-money-grubber spoke highly of him. Well, that’s good enough for me.
Bush read his speech at the “Veterans’ Memorial” building (see picture), just east of the homeless shelter. Someone should remind him that it’s “Veterans,” not “Veterinarians” Memorial, and that “memorial” does not refer to a Jewish candelabra, and - most importantly - that the majority of us are not his dogs, suitable and ready for neutering.
The rabble was not admitted, but I hear that the Boy President & Emperor of the World wants what he wants!!! and he wants it NOW!!!
Pride cometh before a fall! Maybe the next time God talks with Duh- byuh, He'll warn him about that; otherwise - as Malcolm said, the chickens will be coming home to roost!!! - Uke Man

letter: Columbus Dispatch attacks principled kid & his Pop

To the Editor,

Who researched the “Quixotic quest” editorial?
The law does NOT require anyone to take the proficiency tests. If one chooses not to take the test, one is NOT breaking the law, and simply will not be given a diploma. Any student who gets good grades and has met graduation requirements but is denied a diploma will have little problem getting into higher education programs (e.g. see how home-schooled kids progress to higher education).
Not only has John Wood NOT broken any laws, but he has also NOT hurt his future educational opportunities.
Likewise, under the actual circumstances I’ve just described, George Wood, John’s father and principal, should be honored for raising a thoughtful and courageous son, and – even more so – for supporting him in the face of the criticism he must have known would be coming (the “Dispatch” providing only a bit of the likely whole).
John and George’s sin is not “breaking the law,” but “not playing ball.” Their behavior (perfectly legal, honorable behavior) challenges the compassionately conservative conventional wisdom inherent in the editorials criticism that: without these tests, schools can’t “see how well students are doing” (never mind that I, a sixty year old man took tests in my childhood throughout my school years and then gave those tests to my students for decades, LONG before the proficiency tests were conceived; and never mind that teachers just might be able to tell – on their own – “how well students are doing”).
John and George also indirectly challenge the sophistry, repeated by the editorial, that “minority and low-income students” fare badly because they (as "W" put it) “face the soft bigotry of low expectations.” It is so much preferable to believe that if only schools would “have a greater interest in reaching out to every child to help him succeed,” the effects of racism, discrimination, poverty, class divisions and all the problems associated with those four horsemen could be overcome. It would certainly be cheaper than actually addressing the problems directly – and much more politically expedient.
Finally, and coming back to the research behind this editorial, that 99% passing figure must be either wrong or one of those legendary statistics (as in “Lies, damned lies, and statistics’). You may have noticed that our illustrious governor and his colleagues met recently (along with some big-money-dilberts such as Bill Gates) and beat their breasts over both the number of dropouts and inadequate student performance.
Oh, too many dropouts!! How to fix it? Make the tests “more rigorous”; that’ll fix it. In any case, with a very high dropout/non-graduating student population, it seems likely to me that the 99% figure relates only to those left AFTER thousands have given up on trying to meet the “Man’s” ( the business Man’s) demands.
Like the governors, the “Dispatch” seems more interested in selling the agenda than in solving the problem.
Oh yeah, one more thing: when will I see the editorial criticizing legislators, who have “a duty to uphold the state’s laws and not make a mockery of them,” for ignoring the legal order of the Ohio Supreme Court? And how about criticizing the court for its craven refusal to enforce its own order?
Or does the vaunted notion of “a Nation of Laws!!” apply only to the little people, easy targets like John and George?
Yours - Uke Man

Steve "The Folkie" Horn 

Uke Man presents: Steve the Folkie Night

Hey Folks and Folkies and Music-lovers and Lefties,
Saturday, March 12 is “Steve the Folkie Night at Shi-Sha’s.” Steve Horn will leave eastern Pennsylvania and find his way to Shi-Sha’s Lounge and Espresso Bar (2367 N. High Street right here in Columbus, Ahia!!) where he will share his creative talents with us.
The evening begins at 9:30 and will present FIVE (count them) FIVE acts - into the late hours. In addition to Steve will be Ukulele Man & Pete, Connie Harris, Don Nelson, and Fred Baily & Friends with Charlotte Curtis and Pam Raver. A great line-up!!
You don’t get a FOLK show like this very often; so, old and young hippies! Activists! peace-mongers! free-thinkers! & kindred souls! COME ENJOY!!
* * *

A little more about Steve:
On his yahoo group site Steve has this to say:

I'm a singer songwriter along the lines of Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie and a host of others - it's about what's going on in the world and commenting on it.A wobblie (member of the IWW), labor and labor history weave their way into my works along with a strong anit-war statement and distrust of government.
Joe Hill was probably one of the first protest singer/songwriters in the United States – he, too, was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and was killed for his union activities in Utah - although they persecuted him on a trumped up murder charge - anyhow that's Joe.