Tag Archives: voter suppression

IN THE RING

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Simply waiting will not do at all.

When did simply waiting

accomplish anything at all?

Yogis pose in silent waiting,

fingers touching in connection.

While we who simply wait

have no connection at all,

and lose ourselves 

in self-destruction when we fall

within the ring where the fight is set

by the one percent and big tech bros

placing their weight and cash

heavily upon our backs

until the fight is so unfair

we realize we have not a prayer.

Church pews sit empty.

The fight is on every screen.

We fail to realize we are in the ring.

We cannot simply watch the fight.

Simply waiting cannot make all right.

We will go down with the count

toppled by high winds, fire, and flood.

The severe cold will freeze life’s blood.

Recognize we are in the fight.

We have always been in, to our chagrin,

fighting for our very lives;

while being entertained to silence

and static acceptance of violence.

Simply waiting did not stop slavery,

Jim Crow, voter suppression, child abuse,

sexual harassment and women’s subjugation.

This has always been the fight of our nation.

This is not a new fight we watch as battles

in the ring to see which latest victim falls.

We cannot simply watch from the sidelines

because it is us inside the ring.

It is we who shall fall.

We the people shall participate.

We the people shall win or lose.

Do not sit in your corner. 

Don’t throw in the towel.

Get up and fight. It is not too late.

Then get to the polls and vote to win.

All bets are on you. Gloves at the ready, and grin!

Then prepare for the backlash, 

one worse than the one before.

Get in the fight again.Knock your opponent to the floor

with such a strong vote he cannot rise.

Put him down for the count forevermore.

Then raise your gloves high and stand tall.

Simply waiting will not do at all.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

ELECTIONS

The tree must come down.

It’s stump must be ground.

Know this,though.

Its roots continue to grow.

The lines we rely upon

To stay safe and strong

Will remain under threat

If we rejoice and forget

The threat those roots make

If we do not stay awake.

The tree may be gone.

But the threat still goes on.

We can take down the tree.

But, stay by me.

We must stay alert and fight,

the tree’s shadows alight.

It takes time for roots to die.

It takes time for truth to replace a lie.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

STRETCH

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How good is good?

How far does it stretch?

As far as a lie?

Good asks questions,

while evil denies.

Who looks stronger?

The one who seems not to know

and questions everything as it goes?

Or the one who never answers,

never pauses to reflect,

never shows another respect?

How skewed is our thinking?

How screwed are our lives?

Good reaches upward

while evil takes a dive.

How do we climb 

from such evil depths?

How good is good?

How far does it stretch?

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PRESS, THE ATTACK

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Writing in the dark

is hard, requires balance,

leaning on insight.

Things do not smell right

despite heightened sense of smell

and story to tell.

Writing in the dark

makes hard to appreciate

journalists who fall.

Things are now hidden 

behind false information.

See? Nothing at all.

And, so it goes down:

free speech, free press, redress.

Democracy Dark!

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

I hold my tongue.

It takes strength I do not have.

Whimpers escape

On shattered breaths,

In silent screams.

The fight worries my soul,

Battle weary and choking,

On words held tight inside.

Once the scream begins

I doubt I could stop.

I wait for your speech.

I yearn for your promise

To stop the authoritarian

Who has taken over our house,

Emptied its vaults,

Stolen its wealth,

Sold its power

To the highest bidders.

So, I write. That I can do

While I wait for you.

To me, this nothing new.

Do you believe me now?

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

IT IS ALWAYS IN THE NUMBERS

Reports indicate attendance at NO KINGS events is somewhere between 5.2-8.2 billion persons. It is possibly much larger than any assumed count. For example. If one counts those registered with organizations who counted attendees, one simply gets a flat number of those who bothered to join through the organization. I registered and reported my attendance. By the time I attended three more persons joined me. They remain uncounted officially. I am sure this is true for families and friends of most attendees.

In the past, for individual rallies, law enforcement using drones mapped the crowd and made estimates using “so many persons per square inch” of their photos to create crowd attendance figures. While major big cities may have done so, mine did not. Local news did not. nor did Law enforcement in my locality. I am certain this happened in much of small town America. So when these numbers are posted, assume they are sorely undercounted. 

Nevertheless, no matter the total count, the wide extent of events across the country in red and blue states and cities, in small hamlets, on rural roadway intersections, outside nursing homes and senior care facilities is significant. And, such small groups are likely not part of the count. Yet, the fact they showed such resilience and disgust for what is happening and took to the streets gives us cause to hope we can face down fascism and remove those traitors to our core American beliefs and to our Constitution from office; from School Board, Board of Health, City and County commissioners, mayors and city council, to Congress and the White House. 

Local politics is sometime hard to unravel, especially for races where platitudes replace true positions and no party affiliation is required. We have tools those who came before us did not have, the internet and email addresses. Ask candidates for specific position statements. If they do not answer or provide gibberish, there is your answer. Be an informed voter. Help register new voters. Help motivate and take voters to the polls. We must now march to the polls as we marched through the streets. As Winston Churchill said, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Now, the hard work begins. Please remember the joy you felt on No Kings Day and let it propel you to even greater efforts. We now know for certain, what we believed. We are not alone.

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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS

DECONSTRUCTION

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

The streets were lined for blocks on end.

Signs reminded all who rejoiced to attend

Why they walked and talked and smiled and waved

At passing cars who braved delays

While drivers honked horns and shouted out

“Vote him out and make it a rout!”

Costumed critters danced to our delight

Knowing their freedom would give him a fright.

Deconstruct the lies we have been told.

Deconstruct the narrative being sold.

Deconstruct the bullie’s hold.

Deconstruct institutional mold.

Gather in peace the young and the old.

Stronger are you, more wise, more bold.

Deconstruct so we can rebuild

What he has destroyed with his minions’ lack of skill.

We know how to do this, and more.

We have done it many times before.

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

My thanks to my friends in Clintonville area of Columbus who helped me attend this moment of patriots’ challenge to the con men robbing the USA of its power, wealth, ideals and humanity. The lack of media coverage was appalling. The misrepresentation of attendance numbers cannot be challenged when media fails to provide images of the gatherings. A local station covered it AFTER it was over and crowds had dispersed. Another stated hundreds attended when it was actually thousands. We are here. We are resisting. We are going nowhere until the despotism and kidnapping of people and the Supreme Court, universities, news organizations, social media outlets, medical and public health Institutions… even our very language and the meaning of words and phrases has been brought to an end and freedom restored.

We shall not be silenced.

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Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS

IN THEIR STEPS

We walk with heroes

On paths of love for freedom.

Let us walk in peace.

Henry David Thoreau Poems > My poetic side

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NO KINGS DAY

Acrylic on canvass by Louise Annarino

The day begins with signs

Of all that any patriot finds

In need of expression

To resist oppression.

We line the streets

Feet deep

Only to meet

Aggression

From those who seek

Our suppression.

Gerrymandered districts

Are incomplete,

Unable to meet

Fair representation,

Denying the nation

one person one vote,

Intimidation afloat

In every state.

We pray it is not too late.

We pray our efforts matter.

We pray our mad-as-hatter

Administration

Stops destroying our beloved nation.

We sing. We dance. We shout.

This is what democracy is about.

No kings today.

No kings in any way.

No kings over courts’ justice.

No kings over any of us.

Every king eventually falls.

We do not want a king at all.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

WHAT WE’VE GOT

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Kent State taught us that white deaths matter more

than Black students shot at Jackson State the week before.

Will protests-to-come under attack by armed and masked militia

teach us that Brown and Black people under attack is indicia,

within the borders of a nation dedicated to the proposition

that all men are created equal to the oppression,

of rich men of ill will in hiding from congressional oversight

and protected by the US Supreme Court’s judicial might?

I see the writing on the wall, not graffiti, after all,

but executive orders illegal and ill-tended to destroy

the hoped-for dreams of every American girl and boy

not born into wealth, in no need of human labor

to offer enough cash to create a way to savor

all that life could offer a middle-class caste

now turned in serfdom, as in decades long past.

We are not in a culture war.

We are in a class war.

We are in war we thought civil war had ended.

Yet, we continue to watch the republic untended

by leaders who did not see the need to fight

and believed compromise with bullies was right.

Workers sold out over and over again.

Blocked in every effort to build strong unions.

Students sold out over and over again.

Blocked in every effort to get a sound education.

Children sold out over and over again.

Blocked in every effort to find safe protection.

None of us now treated with human affection.

None of us now safe in our streets or our beds.

None of able to take a breath without dread.

Whether you voted for this, or not.

This is what you wrought.

Now, this is what we’ve got.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS