Can you tell me why
We hurl stereotypes
Onto the backs of refugees
Fleeing equal terrors,
Seeking equal favor,
Hoping for survival?
Can you tell me
Why we blindfold
Our fearful eyes
With stories of savages
And thugs unless
Those in flight look like
You or I ?
Filed under POETRY
Some days the shame and disappointment
strangles words ready
to erupt and disrupt all sensibility.
I am without tranquility.
In the Sixties racial stereotypes
hung heavy from the tree
of white supremacy.
The weight of reality
hung heavy on the children of Africa,
torn from loving arms and proud history.
The little ones feared my touch
on nappy-haired heads
I clasped with love until they trusted
my joy in the texture of their lives.
“I am Black and I am proud!”,
I taught them to say.
And teaching hope along the way
offered the chance to redraw destinies
and reclaim equal possibilities.
These children reclaimed rights,
led the good fight,
worked hard for their rights
and mine.
Yours, too, women and LGBTQ.
But, white backlash has been fierce
at every step of the way.
And when it seemed victory grew near
hatred and stereotypes born in fear
and insecure ego led by id unleashed
terror, once held in check
but never defeated;
allowed to fester and grow more intense.
Where did hope go?
To video recordings on cell phones
disclosing what had been hidden from sight
that white supremacy maintained tight
control of its wealth and power with stealth.
Police treating white children with dignity
As they attacked a Black children with immunity.
The mall was crowded. People filmed it all.
It went viral.
And still, there are those who see justice
instead of racism.
Who argue they acted according to normal protocol
instead of racial stereotypes.
Sixty years from the sixties
and I still rejoice in the phrase
“ I am Black and I am proud!”.
Sixty years from the sixties
and I still feel shame and disappointment
in my whiteness, and that of my country
Filed under POETRY
We forget we are animals
defined by our biology,
determined in our theology
to become gods.
We claim supremacy
in our ability to reason.
Thus, science is treason
to our basest animality.
There is no true supremacy
in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,
but a leader holding back
its basest urges so they thrive.
Their is no supremacy among ants
plundering crumbs left behind
by birds with greater speed
after picnickers have had their feed.
Like puppies, birds and ants
we seek opportunity
and shared camaraderie
in order to survive.
Supremacy would deplete our strength,
interrupt the flow of shared effort,
deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.
It would make us less and steal our comfort.
Science steps in to stop such a fray
using reason to light our way.
Science untended
leaves a world upended.
Viral storms circle the globe
behind fires and drought,
rain and flood,
leaving illness and death.
Economies fall before we do
onto bended knees of recovery.
Myths replace stories
as reason loses glory.
We forget we are animals at our own peril.
We must forgo supremacy
to sustain democracy.
We must remember who we are.
The Hidden Holocaust
Where does it hide?
In a banned book?
In a tight fist?
In a churned stomach?
In a dark heart?
In a silent scream?
In a glob of spit?
In a twisted tongue?
In a sullen laugh?
In an uncomfortable joke?
In a smiling smirk?
In a bank vault?
In a legal decision?
In a police cruiser?
In hospital ward?
In a school room?
In a news room?
In you?
In me?
Where does hate hide?
The lonely artist is not a fiction but a prediction
of the lonely lover
awaiting to discover
who we are.
I do not know you, do I ?
How could I when I do not yet know myself?
I see you. I hear you.
You are there.
In your eyes I see myself
as a reflection,
with it inherent loss of my full energy
and being, lost in your gaze.
This leaves me lost and dazed.
All you give me is a reflection of myself.
It is not enough.
It lacks your energy. Your being
you keep for yourself,
leaving me alone, grasping air.
Perhaps this is why we choose
to love only those who appear
most like our selves.
Disenchanted when all we are
able to embrace
is the reflected self.
Give me your true self.
Give me your art
not something set apart,
but different from me.
This is the value of diversity.
This love beyond self
only comes when we see
more than our own reflection,
are given new energy,
the energy of you.
Fear keeps us apart.
We fear knowing who we are.
We fear knowing who you are.
Fearing if we love you,
we will only see
our lessened selves.
Filed under POETRY
How many deaths lie at the feet
Of a man of complete
lies and depravity?
Can any human conceive
men who lack all humanity?
The Emperor Wore No Clothes
but, only the child could see
through the pomposity
to the naked truth
that we cannot trust
ourselves.
If we cannot trust ourselves,
then whom can we trust?
This is the basis of democracy.
Every vote must count.
The young ones shout it out
above the crowd of those who doubt
and wither, while justice dithers.
Have we forgotten the lessons
if middle class construction
which formed the base
of The City On The Hill,
under which the bones of slaves
are buried?
Time to Build Back Better
and bury the depraved instead.
Filed under POETRY
Saving face
By creating truth
Is the only means of escape
From harsh reality
For those whose core
Is thinned and weak
By lack of moral exercise.
Bread and circuse
Did Rome in.
History ignored
Is repeated evermore.
Distraction through attraction
Diverts the gaze, the ear, the tongue.
This is who we live among.
Doing what is correct
Does not reflect the Right
Constantly claiming false
It’s moral might
Over those whose outrage
Threatens their control,
Their wealth, their privilege.
New faces in new places
Where they were not allowed before
Distort the world view
Of the autocratic few.
It takes strong core
Muscles to stand tall
Before the attack of falsehood
Destroys us all.
Filed under POETRY
GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW
1-15-2022
I held grief at bay
in tightened fists
determined not to allow
its escape, until I lay
it down upon the page,
Where it sapped my strength.
Taking up the pen
is little help today
when the nib etches lines
of grief about my brow,
too close to allow the flow
of ink upon the page.
Democracy means more to those
More recently saved upon its shores.
The lands of autocrats and hypocrites,
we thought, had been left
behind, beyond our pained sight;
now resurrected by the Republican right.
A Right reinforced by clerics bent
on reasserting ties long rent
between church and state,
Now reinstated by the Court
and pro-life misogynist dictum
making women victims.
The Right backlash to Obama
is a fierce and hateful trauma
which dares to take away
our diversity and our vote,
our personhood and culture,
our history and democracy.
Grief is still heavy today
but less than yesterday.
Today ink flows steadily,
freely, hopefully daring leaders
to find the courage to save the vote,
and this beloved country.
annarino writes 
Fearful little men
I cannot capitalize the word “ men” in the title. I do not refer to honorable and secure men; but only to insecure little men who must bully others and prey on the weak to prove they are bigger than they are. What they fear is our seeing the truth of who they are, our recognizing their cowardice. At heart they are frauds, con men. It does not matter, in the end, what condition led them to conclude they must cover up fear. Brave men act honorably despite fear. That is called courage: admitting fear, facing it, overcoming it. Refusing to admit fear, conning others to believe they fear nothing, succumbing to fear is called cowardice.
What we see happening on every front around the world is a fraud by cowardly and fearful bullies, supported by dishonorable men who have found fraud a cover for hanging onto great wealth. Dishonorable men hide behind bullies. Honorable men call them out.
Much of the fear of bullies is fear of being seen. White men( and women) know to fear the knowledge held by people of color who have been denied access to wealth and power by dishonorable white people. People who face the threat of harm pay more attention to those threatening their well-being. abused children and women, for example, have a heightened sense and are poised for defense in a way those privileged to have led safe lives need not.
The world has been awakening to past threats which denied human rights to too many since the Declaration of Human Rights, the creation of the United Nations,; and, the example of human rights leaders such as Ghandi, Mandela, and Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.. the feminist and gay rights movements have also posed a threat to white male bullies and misogynists. The Holocaust awakened western democracies to the dangers of anti-semitism. These waves of awakening threaten the hold of the wealthy and empowered, who may not themselves be bullies. But, those among this group who are dishonorable support the bullies without acknowledging their responsibility to those threatened with harm.
The first group of bullies includes persons such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, “ strongmen” on every continent. They are weak and fearful men who cannot accept responsibility for their self-perceived weakness which they hide through braggadocio, fraud and deception. The second group includes persons who push bullies to the front as “ leaders” to hide their own weaknesses and fears, and maintain their hold on wealth and power.
What we are watching in Ukraine is an example of a bully without honor committing a fraud, rewriting history, pretending to be a strong man by preying on others he can subjugate for his and others’ benefit. He is allowed to do this because of that second group, the dishonorable holders of wealth and power: banks, financial institutions, Swift, nations run by strongmen, Right wing media talking heads, heads of state, legislators.
It takes honor and courage to be a democratic republic, the strength to believe in yourself and fellow citizens despite your fears and theirs. Cowards prefer autocracies, undemocratic institutions, and oppressive denial of human rights. It takes honor and courage to speak truth to power as a member of a political party or legislative body. It takes honor and courage to follow and enforce the rule of law. Too often, dishonorable cowards use police forces and judges to guard bullies from legal consequences, and to enforce subjugation of those they fear. We refer to these acts as “ abuse of power.” Those abused by the justice system see more clearly the truth behind the dishonorable seeking only power and wealth.
The same principles driving Putin to subjugate Ukraine are those which drive the Republican Party. This is not new. But, it has been in place for so many years that we who are privileged to avoid the bullies( no one can entirely)for most of our lives have been all too willing to ignore the abuse of others. Racism and sexism are not new. The honorable and courageous among us recognize and admit this despite our fear that we are complicit in the fraud of white supremacy.
I think the reason the invasion of Ukraine is so troubling is not only that Trump,Manafort, Flynn, the Devos family and other American oligarchs, the Republican Party, and FOX TV ( it is not a news station) supported, and continue to support Putin’s agenda in Ukraine. It is far worse. This is a world-wide agenda to undermine democratic institutions and human rights in every city in every country.
Those of us who value honor must oppose this fraud against humanity with courage and persistence. President Biden is right that this will not be easy, that it will take time. My heart aches for the pain, suffering and death being aggressively visited upon Ukraine which will occur in the meantime, the number of African-Americans and other persons of color who will be abused in the meantime, the number of young people who will feed the coffers of oligarchs by the sale of guns and drugs as they die from school shootings and overdoses.
Follow the money. Connect the dots. And for all of us, for every democracy stand together and speak out. Register and vote. Challenge every con and lie. Protect the electoral process. Do not stand silent before the bullies. Have courage! Hold honor dear.
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Tagged as bullies, courage, cowards, democracy, fear, human rights, racism, sexism, UKRAINE, USA, voting rights