https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/opinion/readers/2024/06/01/letter-to-the-editor-supco-justices-alito-and-thomas-should-be-removed-and-disbarred-for-actions/73884703007/
Filed under Uncategorized
KEEP ON ROLLING
Life is a circle
which rolls back along itself
in never-ending movement,
its motion so slow
we cannot see where it goes.
But going forward it is.
It reaches goals a mile a minute,
gaining speed on downward slopes.
Only then do we notice
the movement at all.
We roll with the punches
over new terrain,
fearing any moment we may fall.
But the circle keeps on rolling,
circling from beginning to end
then back again, moving forward
all the while, where wheels
are allowed to move freely.
There are those whose lack
of courage and curiosity
try to put on the brakes
and stop life’s relentless spin
into the future we cannot see,
looking backward as the wheel
spins forward over and over again.
Their fear grows with each
forward motion
drowning in an ocean
of doubt and uncertainty.
They confuse beginnings with ends.
It is difficult to see
when so small we all be.
we look right and we look left;
too small to see
a wheel as large as infinity.
But never doubt, my friends.
We keep on rolling, rolling, rolling
moving forward over and over again.
Our progressive movement
is not a fall,
from grace;
we are always in
the best place;
This time is simply
a new start after all.
We shall come through
as we always do
to new places
with new faces
new beginnings
that never end
but circle on,
and on again.
THIRTY-FOUR
More reasons to reach
for the alarm clock.
Defendant is in the dock.
Blaring guilt says the jury.
Still, reason to worry.
The only reason is written
on the forms, not by the fox
who has destroyed all norms.
No reason spoken
by the House Speaker,
who seeks to make law weaker.
The alarm keeps ringing
to wake us up,
beyond the nightmare
of so many corrupt.
Shut off the alarm.
Time to get up.
Time to reason and face the day
and stop the bullies
who dream of getting their way.
Thirty-four reasons
will not go away.
Thirty-four reasons
to wake up smiling today.
USE YOUR WORDS
How often we tell children
“Use your words.”
But, we forget too easily
that words have power
only if they are heard,
and not dismissed breezily.
Men decided long ago
not to listen to women.
So many lies are told
to quiet women’s voices.
Eve has never been forgiven
for opening men’s eyes
to painful truths.
Women’s voices are not more shrill.
Women’s screams are not made
to give men their thrills.
Women’s truths are too often
pushed aside to save male pride.
Doors are slammed shut
against voices women can trust.
“Use your words?”
How soon we forget.
Pain is the great motivator
of forgetfulness.
It deadens speech.
It silences words.
Bullies remind us of our pain
to shut our mouths
and drown truth out.
“Use your words!”
Do not forget their power
in the kitchen, in the bedroom,
in the schoolroom, in the boardroom.
“Use your words,” minute by minute,
hour after hour, until the day comes
you can vote your own power
to “use your words.”
Filed under POETRY
BEHOLD THE SKY
The river of color flows through the sky
weaving its way beneath and between
all that is seen and unseen.
Undulations of colors entwine
the energy of the divine
with the hopes of humankind.
We fear the sky’s fall
bending our knees
hiding our eyes,
until we lose sight
of the wonder of it all.
Motion and change delight
and yet, we cannot grasp hold
of what is before our sight.
And this loss of control over the diversity
and complexity of colorful skies
entraps and belies
a sense of self so small
it frightens us all.
The skies are not falling
simply because its colors shift.
The movement within the sky
can never send us adrift.
Gravity holds us all together,
keeps us spinning, it is true;
but, never allows us to go too far, too fast.
It helps make the moments last
until we can understand
what we stand under,
an open sky which belongs to all.
Look up and behold the sky.
Reach up to touch the clouds.
Dance in the wind, bathe in the rain.
Never lose hope ever again.
Filed under POETRY
Where Are the Bar Associations ?
by Louise Annarino, J.D., former attorney at Legal Aid Society of Columbus, Ohio ; Former Associate Director of Legal Affairs at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio; former Assistant Attorney General of the State of Ohio; now retired from the practice of law.
Both Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have engaged in insurrectionist activities, or at very least the appearance of their support of it ; not simply by ignoring and thus supporting calls to state legislators to create false electors ( Thomas’ wife Ginny) and by flying insurrectionist flag on his front lawn (Alito), but by refusing to rule in a timely fashion on issues surrounding attempts to overturn the 2020 election, impeding the resolution and manipulating the outcome contrary to procedural and substantive precedent. Both have also undermined the required judicial impartiality by ruling on cases of “friends” supplying them with expensive gifts and trips.
Chief John Roberts has failed to stop such breach of legal ethics. It is time for Congress to impeach Alito and Thomas. The Republican members who support the insurrectionists and its leader, including Rep. Johnson will, of course block any such effort to save the Court and its integrity. They have time only to go to NY and attack the legal process in the criminal trial of the ex-president, lending their public support to the defendant. Republicans are relying on Alito to block any effort to hold Mr. Trump accountable.
It is time for the National Bar Association, and every local and state bar association to step up and abide by the oaths their members took to uphold the constitution and laws of every state and the United States of America. And, to uphold the legal ethics these members agreed to follow before they be allowed to appear before the bench and plead a case. Surely, every lawyer recognizes the need to do so. Why are the lawyers of this country remaining silent in the face of efforts to destroy the rule of law at every level of adjudication?
It is time for lawyers to join together and save the legal Justice system in this country.
Filed under Uncategorized
HIDDEN TRUTHS
On the lintel stone
of my grade school
above the entrance
children passed through
every day,
after we left church
where we gathered to pray,
were the words to guide us through
childhood to adulthood as the
the good sisters would say:
“Ye shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.”
Those words I reviewed
each night before I slept,
an examination of conscience
of my personal truth;
what I had done that day,
who I had shown myself to be,
to myself and others
I had met along the way.
Uneasy truths rose in my mind
of tasks left undone
so I could play;
unmet needs of others
who got in my way;
truths I wished would go away
so I could pretend to be
someone so much better
than you, and better than me.
It is not others we fear.
We only fear who we are,
deep inside
where our truth resides.
So, we hide away from ourselves
and fear discovery
that we are truly
not enough:
not good enough,
not strong enough,
not smart enough,
not wise enough,
not wealthy enough,
not educated enough,
not employed enough,
not courageous enough
to examine our conscience;
to own our thoughts and deeds,
to own our responsibility,
to own our need for love,
for passion,
for resilience,
for endurance,
for persistence.
Better to take time
to watch the game,
to drink at the bar,
to take the drug,
to avoid all blame
for what we refuse
to give away.
And the only way
this fraud can continue
is to become a con
like so many others.
Great con men become
our saving heroes
and allow us to blame
all The Others
in their name.
Filed under POETRY
SATURDAY MORNING ON TRIAL
Saturday morning;
dawn rises on a new day.
Saturn’s history at play
beyond ancient Rome’s sway.
We wonder if he will be made to pay
for destroying Saturnalia’s gifts.
This is no Christian’s Christmas Day
created to hide his pagan ways.
This Saturnus is defective ,made of clay
which changes shape day after day.
Inside the gas giant on display
in the heavens worlds away
raging storms churn and flay
rallying followers
drawn by his magnetic field
into icy rings that circle and shield
this Titan who seeks to wield
total power over the field;
not of wheat and grass and grain,
but of institutions threatened again
by fear and hate and retribution.
That is this Titan’s contribution.
He threatens every man, woman and child.
He devours even his infant son
held in his own arms but seen as a threat
to his control and power
which he worries over hour after hour.
This defective Saturn’s trials have just begun.
We wonder if courts will justice deal
before the Titan destroys all we love
because he cannot love, but only fear.
November votes bring new beginnings.
We can choose decency with heart;
choose freedom and love, or our end is near.
WRITING ON THE WALL
The swastika was painted on the outside gym wall.
Underneath the words
“Die, fish eaters, die.”
Anti-semitism is broad
and crosses lines
in so many ways.
Victims are sought among Jews,
Catholics, and Romany, too.
No one is excused
from the hate and need to show
that the hater is bigger, stronger,
in control of a world
they feel is out-of-control.
Seeing hate painted on my school
was frightening to see but not the end
of the feelings inside, the birth of my pride.
Cowards in the night sent me such fright.
Unleashing their hate, leashed my own.
There is no place for hate
in my world, nor yours.
Cowards and bullies never win.
They always over-extend.
Hate destroys them from the inside, not out.
Love builds up inside their victims, then out
it flows to every other sister and brother.
What do I know?
What do I fear?
Not a swastika, nor white hood.
I fear those who refuse to do good;
who remain silent and unmoving
in the face of a racism, sexism,
anti-semitism and hate speech;
who laugh at jokes meant to harm and disarm;
who refuse to recognize the alarm
screaming in protest and marching along
streets paved with prejudice and fear.
Who see the writing on the wall
and walk away to gated communities
and streets paved with gold.
They allow the old stories to take hold.
I walk the streets where the injured gather
amid the brave souls who know what matters,
and protect those under attack.
The brave who insist we take truth and love back.
annarino writes 