The night is a thief
In broad daylight.
Forget the truth is a lie
When stated outright
In broad daylight.
Forget the con is a blight
When played out
In plain sight.
Moving the thimbles
Hiding the blight
Is thievery.
Then, change the rules
To make it all right.
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
The dream that is America
died during the night.
The right to vote
and have that vote count
was gone with the dawn.
While I was sleeping
Lady Liberty lay weeping
at the second insurrection
which eroded the protection
of the democracy
we rely upon.
Democracy was killed in dark of night,
the moon’s reflected light
not strong enough
to stop the rape
of her freedoms.
We awaken worn and weary
from brittle dreams
to a new reality
forged in heated nightmares.
Dreams fade over time.
Nightmares hang on.
How long before we forget
the dream that was America?
Rest In Peace, Lady Liberty.
I cannot.
Filed under Uncategorized
There were rivers to cross,
then oceans;
and hills to climb,
then mountains.
Common language was lost
in failed use.
New languages grew
in its place.
The Tower of Babel could not be built,
but lay waiting,
for the day
boundaries could be crossed
minute by minute.
Applications translate
while we communicate.
Photos bound oceans.
News climbs mountains.
We build a common language
internetted, and interconnected.
No more need for State’s Rights when we
can all see a shared reality.
A united people is difficult to control
so Republicans lose their party
to the control of the trolls
who lay waiting under the bridges
we cross to meet one another.
And Right where we cross
they argue State’s Rights
to obfuscate and create
The United States of Babel,
making it impossible
to Build Back Better,
or vote.
And they do not stop at our borders.
Right wing trolls mine under the bridges
which unite the world’s democracies,
creating Towers of Babel
across the earth.
Filed under Uncategorized
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.
OUT OF THE PIT
12-18-2021
We yearn to turn corners
while we burn
for familiar faces
and easy spaces
where change is paced
and we can remain sedate.
But, transformation
of a dying nation,
shaken to its foundation
can never feel safe
by standing in place,
while violence and fear
obscure all we hold dear.
Using both brains and brawn
we must soldier on
crossing boundaries beyond
those we set long before the big con,
like filibusters and indictments
of former president’s incitements;
until our path is no longer blocked
by those who should be locked
up.
Up, look up!
It is the only way to climb out of the pit.
Climb, even though Republicans sit
on their hands, hands out for any bit
of coin, or power, unwilling to admit
failure. They only look down, sit down,
lock down the march to save the crown
jewel that is the republic where world-wide freedom is sown.
This is not the time to count the cost
of what it takes to regain what we have lost.
Up! Up! Look up!eoublican apart
Filed under Uncategorized
As a small child, I asked my Dad who served in WWII why soldiers called the Japanese “Japs” and worse names; and he explained: it is hard to kill another person, almost impossible to take human life. So soldiers use derogatory names which denigrate opposing soldiers to non-human status. Only after depriving the opposite side of their humanity can you kill them.
I noticed this during the Vietnam-Nam war when we used “ gooks ”. During the Iraq war, we used “towel heads” etc.
This is also what we did to justify slavery, using a word I can never utter, but so ingrained I do not need to tell you what it is. It is the same word we use to justify police brutality and murder of our fellow citizens. It is the word we use to justify our taking of Black lives ability to survive and thrive from cradle to grave post-slavery.
We may not use the word aloud but it has become part of our lexicon.
Some wars go on for hundreds of years. Some wars do not end by bringing home soldiers. But this war must end now. We must “bring back” law enforcement. To a place it has never been.
Instead, it has returned to the slave era of trackers searching out and punishing runners.
Instead we have a president, Vice-President, Attorney General and much of our populace, including police unions who have militarized our law enforcement. Instead, they militarize common citizens and encourage private militias armed for war.
It is no coincidence that we have allowed this to happen. Defund the militarization of law enforcement. Stop the militarization of private militias. End the war.
Filed under Uncategorized
Hire A Better Liar,by Louise Annarino,2-14-2014
The art of deception is a dark art
measured in small paces
inch by inch
by small people,Citizens United,
who would constrict our knowledge
and deny our freedom to decide
for ourselves where truth resides.
“Truth in Advertising” is an oxymoron.
Political or consumer goods,
it matters not.
Truth can be bought
on the open market
by secret buyers,Citizens United,
and hidden liars.
There is No War on Women,By Louise Annarino
There is no war on women. What we are watching play out is an age-old phenomenon of men who fear women’s sexual expression. Whether it is the Taliban, fundamentalist Muslims-Jews-Christians,or Mike Huckabee, the chastisement and need to control women springs from men’s fear of loss of their own control. I refuse to allow their fear to become my burden. I suggest they learn to handle it all, as I must handle my own fears. Their fear, their loss of control, is not my problem; but, they insist on making it so. I don’t call that a war. I call it fear mongering.
We use the word war too loosely. We enjoy hyperbole because it grabs our attention,holds our imagination, and allows us to believe we are heroes(another word used too loosely)fighting some grand battle. Anyone who has ever experienced war is insulted by this cavalier use of the word. Anyone who have ever acted heroically is appalled by its frequent use in today’s lexicon. As William Tecumseh Sherman who marched on Atlanta destroying all in his wake said in his address to the Michigan Military Academy in June 19, 1879, “You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!” (Battle Creek Enquirer and News,Nov.18,1933). I cannot use the word “war” to describe anything but war. Fear is not war; and, unless we name what is happening correctly, we cannot address the problem we face correctly.
This fear of male loss of control when faced with female sexual expression has biological roots. http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/how-male-female-brains-differ Men’s brains are structured with less ability to maintain rational thought while in the throes of emotion. Of course they fear women whose brains allow them to cry,laugh,orgasm and think at the same time. Whom should we blame for this? The Hebrews tell a story of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. Most of us have at least heard that story a time or two. There are two elements to that story: obedience to the male deity transferred to obedience to the first male, Adam. Who was to be obedient to these male prototypes? The woman. What do fig leaves have to do with the story? They are used to cover up human sexual expression, and thus control sexual expression which becomes sinful when the woman does not obey the man. That is what is going on today!
The Hebrews were not the first to tell such a story. Earlier cultures and religious traditions acknowledged the power of female sexuality; some accepted it and used it as an avenue to spiritual awakening a la the Vestal Virgins. Others fearfully suppressed it, a la female genital mutilation. We see vestiges of these practices today throughout our world. It is not only Mike Huckabee and Republican men who fear women. Democrats,Libertarians,Independents and a host of other men do, too. The men who do not fear women are able to trust and appreciate women, able to understand the biology of male/female differences without feeling inferior, and able to see diversity as an enriching experience,not one to be feared. There is that word “diversity” which too many of us fear. Such men exist within all political parties and religions.
Although I do not see such fear of women as merely a Republican issue, one must acknowledge that the Republican Party platforms have opposed Affirmative Action,our ONE effort to practice diversity; while the Democratic Party platform has embraced diversity.The Republican Party platform opposes women’s right to birth control and abortion,to freely manage her health needs to freely express her body’s sexuality; while the Democratic Party has embraced a woman’s right to choose how she uses her body sexually and how to protect her health. We cannot ignore that these two party positions are different, even though men are the same biological creatures, dealing with the same fears in both parties.
As a woman,I am not satisfied with the behavior of men in either party. It is not enough to add women to the mix, when the men make all the final decisions, and too often ignore and disparage our female voices. When women’s only strength comes from a separate women’s caucus, whose leaders are the strongest and wisest and most experienced political activists I know, rather than being hired into positions of political power we know we still have a long way to go. We may have “come a long way baby”,finally being allowed to participate in the race; but, the race officials-funders-judges are still men who too often control our political expression. The words men use to describe their view of women is not the problem. Their fear of women’s full and free use of her power is the problem. Huckabee apologists are busy trying to reframe how to control women as if male manners need fixed. Instead, they should focus on facing their own fears and finding their courage in the face of female power and sexuality.
Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as Barack Obama, filibuster, obstruction, politics, racism, Republican Party