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Oval Office is the place.
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Tag Archives: Republican Party
THROUGH-LINES
Before amendments,
only white men could vote
under a constitution meant
to protect white male power
and their wealth to control the hour.
The hours of Women’s Labor.
The hours of Black Labor.
The hours of Asian Labor
on railroads crossing the nation
with white men’s wealth protected
in box cars, from southern fields
and northern industries.
Oh, we can easily see
why Originalist judges seek
to turn back time and make weak
the power gained by women’s suffrage,
African-American civil rights fights,
and Japanese reparation gains.
Each accomplishment a refrain
against white male supremacy.
There is a through-line of meritocracy
from serfdom and caste
until at last
white men must choose
which they love more;
their country or their power,
their countrymen or their wealth.
There is no stealth
as they seek to regain
what they once owned.
The rest of us!
Think
“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” – Voltaire
Filed under POLITICS
HOLY SATURDAY
Time hangs suspended in the tomb,
rolled back behind a solid stone
chasing thoughts away
of what occurred yesterday.
Shrouded in a mystery
foretold by history
evil reaches across the space
where fearing loss of power
the great losers rage by the hour.
We helped create our own purgatory,
where all we do is worry
rather than embrace the true reality
we not so suddenly face.
We must roll away the stone
and bring truth home;
look at what we have done
and what we have failed to do.
The stillness of this day must renew
a strength we once embraced with pride.
Now we cower and we hide.
Are we so fearful and so weak
we dare not take a peak
into our shaking souls to see
the selves we have come to be?
Only we. Only we. Only we
becomes our litany.
Only we can stop the hate
that acts upon the institutions
we must rely upon
to uphold law and seek justice
to protect all of us
and this country we proclaim to be
the seat of freedom and democracy.
We must open up our eyes
and roll away the lies
that block this holy space
where salvation will arise.
Vote away the hate.
it is not too late.
Campaign Music
No single note is discordant.
No single vote voiced is wrong.
How the songwriter
puts the notes together
determines the song.
Our brains fine-tune our ears
to listen for the meaning
of words carried on the notes.
Some songs lift our spirits
to reach a higher cause.
Some songs depress our spirits
and make our hearts pause
with the fear of the other
we hated all along.
Some songs get us on our feet
to dance together, smile and sing.
Some songs hold us in our seats
ready to shout out in defeat.
The songs which truly make us strong
Are those we can rely upon
to offer hope, and love, and peace.
How the notes are brought together means everything.
The music that is America
is hard to sing if notes
are not treasured,
So many notes over so many years
from so many places refugees fled in fear
of famine, crime and even war.
We have sung the song of safety and of freedom,
welcoming all to our shore.
Songs that open minds and hearts
are the best place to start
a journey to a better future;
unlike the songs meant to keep us apart.
So many discordant notes
strung together create chaos,
not a strong and lovely song.
Filed under POETRY
PAIN
Pain changes all.
It puckers lips which can no longer speak.
It furrows brows and narrows the view.
It buckles the knees, threatens our fall.
There is so much pain everywhere,
enough to spare, too much to bear.
Pain always wants out,
it erupts in a shout,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Does anyone hear?
Too many continue
to pour salt in the wound.
Too few seem to care.
Too many press fingers on spots
that pulse too hot
until pain explodes and we drop
to our knees as we plead,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Human angels run by
and try not to cry
as they sound the alarm
and beg to succeed
in stopping the harm.
U.N. food trucks are bombed.
Opposition leaders are killed.
Weather tells stories
to gain our attention.
The earth pleads as do we,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Filed under POETRY
UNDERSTATED
There is so little that is understated now.
No more elegant lifting of a single brow.
Excited stammers and caustic frowns
by the faithless Republican clowns
who mimic a man who would wear a crown.
There is no thoughtful, errudite display.
There is only posing false, and evil, play.
Trumped up hearings day-by-day
now hold sway hiding reality away.
He does not lead; but, is just a toy
they use as an effective ploy
to take away power from the many
so they can hold on to every penny
they have gained by writing rules
to benefit themselves and other fools
who overlook their history
and their sworn oaths and holy duty.
What games are played out every day.
While we are left to hope and pray.
And legislation is torn to shreds
that protected us lying in our beds
believing we could face another day,
and see more laws added to hold harm at bay.
They play on fears which they create,
their greed for money and power to satiate.
Vote before it is too late
and democracy is no longer ours to celebrate.
LIES
The universal lie is
that I never lie.
Always untrue.
We all lie.
We all do.
There are but two reasons why.
Knowing that is seeing true.
Knowing that may save you.
The first lie
may save your injury,
comfort your suffering,
grant you your freedom,
shelter and protect,
uplift and encourage,
open you to love.
The first lie is the oil over
troubled waters,
is the hidden key
to new discovery,
is the extra note to more harmony.
The first lie brings peace.
The first lie helps us see
we are part of loving community.
The second lie
causes injury,
increases suffering,
denies our freedom,
makes us feel unsafe.
Discourages our history
Berates new ideas,
closes us to love with hate.
The second lie is not
so noble as the first.
The first lie is for us.
The second lie is for the liar.
The first lie sets boundaries
to expand our sense
of love and creativity.
Its purpose is to protect.
The second lie has no “red lines”
it refuses to cross; but, only seeks
to sate the need of the second liar.
The second lie is for him, not us.
The second lie denies our right
to create connections and see the light
that fills all persons whose lives intersect.
It restricts any chance for us to connect.
The biggest liar of them all
is not the first, nor will be the last.
He is simply the liars’ poster boy.
And poster boys never last.
But the lies they tell persist
no matter how many resist
the pull of hate to the surface.
The greatest lie of all
is the one we tell ourselves
that we are somehow better,
somehow best.
We are liars, all.
If not we would have let him fall.
He would join other liars in jail.
Let up hope that soon
truth will finally prevail.
Filed under POETRY
FELLOW TRAVELERS
Cliches are used to describe
beliefs held by members of the tribe.
Fellow Travelers need never think.
They simply repeat without a blink.
They readily follow the scripted lines
which leaders lay down clean and fine
on minds at ease and entertained
by political games played again and again.
Fellow Travelers are nothing new.
Names have changed as hatred grew.
Stalin or Putin, Hitler or Ali Khamenei,
Leni Riefenstahl or Kelly Anne Conway,
Mitchell or Flynn, Himmler or Halloway,
Chamberlin or Trump, Goring or Meadows,
“Both sides are good people” and happy fellows.
No Fellow Traveler deserves a pass.
Two Party systems have paved the way
to allow us to defeat hate each voting day.
Until now, when an entire party has become
the Fellow Traveler of world leaders of hate
whose acts of oppression and crimes of war
remind us humanity has not come so far
as we imagined and hoped and prayed.
We must vote them out next election day.
Elections have never mattered more.
No Fellow Traveler can be allowed
to cross the threshold of Congress’ door.
No Fellow Traveler can take up residency
in The White House of our nation’s presidency.
No nation can remain free
whose voters cannot think independently.
Filed under POETRY
LOVE ‘EM OR HATE ‘EM
I have seen this hate before. I could not understand it then.I do not understand it now. When my mother lay dying it became clear to me that the only measure of a life is the ability to love. A body shriveled by cancer’s reach into every cell, wracked by pain, realizing death is near holds onto love, not life. Death’s grip is too fierce to break. But, the only thing death cannot destroy is love. I saw it in my dying mother’s eyes, reflected in my own. That love binds us still. It always will. So, no, I do not understand the need to hold onto hate when love is so much stronger. Love reveals our strength to us; hate, our weakness. Love displays our courage; hate, our cowardice. So, no, I do not understand hate.
As child of Italian immigrants, growing up in the 1950’s, in a neighborhood populated by two German immigrant families, dozens of Italian immigrants and a few Irish immigrants, I learned my place. Venturing too far away from the four block area adjacent to the railroad tracks we inhabited brought me to the Appalachian whites nearby, who could not afford to live anywhere else, so had to live near the despised and hated immigrants. Our Catholicism, a commonality of each immigrant group, did not endear us to “Americani”, either. We learned to ignore their taunts and sneers, threats and minor assaults with whatever weapon they wielded…a switch from a shrub, a golf ball, a pitched badminton racket, a rock. We were careful to avoid the “hoods” carrying switch blades. Skinned knees caused while running to escape and falling, split lips or bruises were not uncommon. To be clear, not all of those “Americani” participated in bully tactics; but, too few fully embraced us, and none defended us. I have seen this hate before. I have felt this hate before.
My parents explained that hate is not universal. Only cowards and ignorant fools cling to hate. Most people know how to love. Thus, we were admonished to never hate anyone. Stay strong. Show love no matter what. Be brave. Never start a fight; but, never run from one. Stand up to bullies. They are weak, fearful cowards and will back down. Hate is not endemic to white people, nor to any group. But, within every group there are cowards…bold, brassy, loud and stupid cowards. We held our ground at the playground. We ignored the jokes and jibes. We ducked the projectiles. We moved forward when told to get back, staring with fierce determination to continue to swing, to play ball, to run races. We seldom allowed hate to stop our games and ruin our fun. I learned to withhold my smirk when I saw the bully fall back and slink away. I learned to love despite the hate directed my way. I invited the bully to stay and play. Some did. Thus, we broke the force that would have driven us away from enjoying our childhood. We grew strong, fearless and full of hope for better days.
The recent anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought back these childhood memories. When the announcement of his death came over our PA system every class adjourned to the chapel at our Catholic high school. We prayed the rosary together. We prayed for comfort, peace and love in our country. Then, we were sent home to grieve with our families. I gathered my books, not knowing what to expect next, and when school might resume. Across the street was a public junior high school. As I walked by on my way home, clad in my school uniform identifying me as a Catholic, one by one, several public school students shouted at me, “We finally killed him!” “He got what was coming to all you filthy Catholics !” “ This is what happens to Catholics who don’t know their place.” I remember these taunts and all the others. They are tattooed on my heart and on my brain. I even can feel the look of confusion on my puckered brow, wondering how these young kids could hold so much hate for their own president, and for me, a total stranger who had done them no harm. How could they so dishonor the wonderful country we shared, and its democratic principles. No one is more aware of or more grateful for American principles than immigrants are. These long-time inhabitants seemed not to recognize such values at all.
That was then. This is now. Ignorant people still cling to their hate. But the indifference to the haters, the lack of comment rebuking haters which I expected but sadly never heard led to this day. Now, hate is fueled by the right wing of the Republican Party, and not condemned by its members. Worse, its chosen presidential candidate, whose first election succeeded because of, if not regardless of, his hate-spewed speech and hate-filled acts toward people of color, women and non-Christians is further encouraged to continue hate-filled policies and practices which will kill our democracy as surely as it killed Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy. I have seen this hate before. I did understand it then. I do not understand it now.
I always knew I became a lawyer to stand in the way of those who blocked programs, policies and practices which honor diversity and seek justice for all. I would be in position where such efforts could be implemented and enforced. Only now, do I understand it was my armor to protect that child in me who still believes that good can prevail once we are willing to stand up to bullies; whether that bully is a landlord, bank, or company. The law is the bulwark against hate and harm, against greed and abuse of power. Now, I watch my beloved Law and its Courts undermined by those bullies by Republicans in state legislatures and the U.S.Congress, by Republican governors and secretaries of state and states attorneys general who support a bully as their fund-raising cheer-leader to cover their own dark deeds. The alternatives are not to choose between two evils; but, to choose good over evil. To choose love over hate. I watch the silent white supremacists alongside them allow them free rein. People of Color, Native Americans, immigrants have always known the Law favored the wealthy and powerful, majority of them white men. Now, we all recognize the system that has been in place for so long. As a nation we are reaping what we allowed to be sown. I still do not understand the hate that has allowed this to go on for so long. But, I will still fight such hate with love; until my dying breath…then beyond.
I know how to survive bullies. I am not worried for myself. I watch my country try to survive the bullies, those they eat dinner with at their private clubs who are shocked by what they see…what the oppressed have always seen. Yet, they stay silent or act entertained. Or worse yet, they choose to ignore what they have not wanted to notice. It is my countrymen whom I hope will uphold its constitution, its citizens I hope will stand up to bullies and vote them out of office before it is too late. The power of bullies’ wealth can be overcome by our numbers, if we vote. That is a big if. Mobilize, register, transport and assist voters to the polls. Write Letters to the Editors. Speak out on social media to friends and family. Meet your neighbors and recruit their support for the efforts it will take to stay the course of a democratic republic. I do not understand the hate. I never will. It does not matter. What matters is I will not allow hate to rule my country, nor anyone in it. I choose love, a love embodied in a country which puts no man above the law, and believes all men are created equal, with unalienable rights. I took an oath to uphold the constitution. I took an oath to love.
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as Biden, bullying, christ, courts, electtions, hate, immigration, Jesus, law, love, ove, racism, religious intolerance, Republican Party, sexism, trump