BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

Barbwire Archives

Site map
Corporate Propaganda Research Archive

Inauguration day crept up so cruelly cold you could understand how it killed William Henry Harrison.

A light wind atomized bursts of freshly fallen snow across the vast field of expectant faces.

Was it the sun or the new president's words which caromed off the airborne crystals and transmuted the moist, icy air into a multimedia assault on the senses?

Was I there, or was I dreaming?

JANUARY 20, 2014

I stand before you today as aware of the pain in the nation as I am of the closeness of the coldness gripping my breath.

The dank hand of doubt today clutches the throat of the country that seemed so very sure of itself such a very short time ago.

Somehow, a great spirit has been dulled by the accumulated demons of the day. The greatest nation of the century now sits beggarly by with time on its idle hands.

I have felt hungry hands eager for labor, lusting to create new wonders of worth for the world to see.

I pledge this president and this government to filling those extended hands with the tools and the fuel with which to forge a renewed nation.

With clear heads on our shoulders and purposeful resolve in our hearts, we shall proceed to refresh and renew our national promise.

Our progress has only paused, not passed into the hands of others.

Can the United States continue to lead in a world where every little group pursues only narrow self interest?

Yes, but only by honest example. Let us not be so arrogant as to think we deserve nationhood simply because we were born in a united country.

That union was twice birthed in blood and preserved by fire. We must not let it become extinguished in the sea of self doubt which afflicts a woefully large number of our brethren around the globe.

I have walked amazed through the streets of Los Angeles and so many other great cities, cities today perhaps in name only.

Have we become a country in name only?

Everywhere, I have witnessed people erecting fences and building barriers between themselves and others who might speak or dress a little differently.

This is the anti-work of pernicious minds and idle hands.

The government of this country has been too long removed like a stain from the fabric of its people.

Rather than being woven from the same warp and woof, it has too often chosen to be a government of and for itself.

The treasury has been looted and national purpose perverted by tarnished knights inventing dragons to slay.

How many died in those pursuits? How many children were never born because their mothers and fathers died as children themselves?

The nation has paid dearly for overuse of the iron fist.

Now, we must pay again to cure this deadly comedy committed in the name of making a safer planet.

Let that price be paid, but let this be enough.

Let the word go forth from this time and place that our future shall be one of eliminating want, of subordinating greed, of serving true need, of succumbing to the better angels of our nature.

This president extends his open hand in this cold season of wishes for hope.

To this great work let us once again pledge our lives, our fortune and our sacred honor.

DEAR TRIBUNITES: John F. Kennedy, Jr., read the complete 12-29-1991 original from which the above was taken.

SUPPORT THE RETURN OF COMMUNITY TV. Support the cause at Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

Keep sending show suggestions.

Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned good, education, i-Guns, gay Olympics and wild mustangs as canned goods.

Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accounts for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important.

Happy Thanksgibleting to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every newspaper in Nevada.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... JFK, Jr.: Hope dies hard and yet springs eternal Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 7-25-1999 Your better life today had President Kennedy lived Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 12-28-1997 The bloody guns of October fire on November Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-7-2013 Sparks Tribune Let's persuade Apple to start making i-Guns here Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-24-2013 Sparks Tribune Death on the job: Nevada workers remain cheap and disposable Updates on two Laborers' Local 169 members killed and two injured on I-80 Worker dies trimming trees at MGM's Mirage on Las Vegas Strip ...and more ammo.. Four Immigration Reform Marches in Reno Nov. 23 Nevada Day Required Reading The Lady in the Red Dress The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983 The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously Barbano on the Barbwire plots new TV season Barbwire Special Web Edition / 10-21-2013 Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series ...and more ammo yet The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Annual César Chávez Celebration War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart We Don't Need No Education Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins