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.
Where you go in your dreams
Is best walked barefoot.
Feel the surface you trod,hard or soft,
Rough or smooth,
Hot or cold.
Learn the truth, grounded and sure
So lies cannot find you unaware,
Unready, unable to discern
The truth you need to know
To find your way on ground that is real
And leads to the place you need to go.
A place you neither want nor expect
But need to be. The temple of honesty.
Barefoot. Grounded. Free.
Filed under POETRY
The blinds have been opened. But, I sit in the dark.
Another morning at the table, set for one.
Alone in thoughtful reverie, with nowhere to run.
Heaving from grief and sorrow, viewed on every screen.
We are all aging fast before the onslaught
of armed men, masked and acting obscene.
This is not some video game we are playing,
detached and watching, divorced from reality.
When did Americans stop believing
what their own eyes could clearly see?
It did not just happen. It is not new.
It happened many years ago.
Americans took flight in fright
from the reality unfolding before their eyes.
How we came to this fraught moment
is actually, not a great surprise.
People of color best know the story.
Wages stagnated and prices rose.
Profits soared for those “in the know”.
Americans ignored responsibility
and entertained themselves endlessly.
While women and girls became commodities;
and discounted people, un-housed and un-fed
roamed the streets living in dread.
Soldiers returning home from un-named wars
and too many tours, stopped being cared for.
Now fake soldiers, cowardly cruel, take their cue
from technocrats and bureaucrats
seeking wealth and power.
There is no man of the hour calling the shots.
This is not what all this evil is about.
We did not get here led by a single man;
nor by a single party, nor political stance.
We got here as the great pirates planned,
as we entertained ourselves with games of chance.
We could have noticed where we were headed
with a single, wake-full, glance.
But we were led on a merry dance.
And the dance no longer matters, as we die
at the feet of civil disorder.
We rise up and listen to new voices.
We now have limited choices.
But, still we can open our eyes
and seize the prize, once earned
by those who have gone before us.
Lift voices of hope and power
into a freedom-seekers’ chorus.
Early morning risers are a breed apart.
They insist upon rising in the dark.
Their tattered dreams soon forgotten
they move to uncover windows;
not to simply let in the coming light
but, to first, acknowledge the night.
Darkness holds little mystery
to those who accept the misery
of what they watched unfold the day before,
and to believe the new day’s light will restore
balance, fairness, wisdom, hope and more.
Surely, the sun will shine on goodness
and love will once more rise with sun’s rays?
Such hopes can only be born in the dark.
Once sun rises and bathes us in her light
we forget the need for change we felt,
we hungered for, we fought for through the night.
Like babes in dark wombs we struggle to alight.
We yearn to be free of darkness and held tight.
Such memories of those first moments
are waiting to be born now in this morn’s sunlight.
Those who wake and walk in darkness know,
once more of us awake, all can soon be set aright.
Sleep catches me unaware
Reading in my chair.
A loud noise as a commercial airs
Awakens me from nightmares.
No, it is the news that intrudes
On waking dreams sharp and crude.
I have been awake more than I knew
Unable to tell what is untrue or true.
And so, I read some more
Of an entire reality to explore.
I try hard to understand and accept
A new reality in a democracy kept
Captive without due process of law
Which exposes all of our flaws.
Racism breathes deep and still
With a long-ignored strong will.
We too easily pretend
it has nothing to do with us, my friend.
Lie once and it becomes then
easier to lie again and again.
And we have lied for centuries now.
Shame beads sweat on every brow.
Cognitive dissonance
Makes us create distance
From truth, facts and connection.
Shamelessness offers protection.
Too many are willing to deny
What is clear to the clear-eyed.
I see no end in sight
And remain sleepless night after night.
Filed under POETRY
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?
Dear Us:
Did you ever hear of the Golden Rule? “Treat others as you would be treated.” When asked which of the ten commandments Moses shared with the Israelites was the most important, Jesus advised questioners to “Love others as I have loved you.” In the 60s, even non-believers of any religion, or of even the existent of God, followed the precept “Lead with your heart.” “Flower children” believed in love, for everyone, at all times. And those were turbulent times. We watched freedom riders maimed and killed, their busses set on fire, their murdered bodies hidden and buried in shallow graves. We watched the perpetrators of violence go free; the Citizen Councils ( marketing change for KKK) often included law enforcement and local judges. This is the America currently referred to when Trump supporters urge us all to “Make America Great Again.” They no longer wear white robes nor hide their faces. They wear red ties, dark suits and sometimes red hats.They pretend to be news anchors on FOX News and elsewhere. They pretend to be president like Elon Musk. The delivery system of hate may have changed; the racism and sexism have not. We are experiencing a backlash to the progress made over the past 50 years. It took 50 years for it to grow this strong.
I was a resident student advisor (RA) at Lincoln Tower on the OSU campus in Columbus, Ohio in the late sixties and early 70s. I was also a student activist. I had to become one because I believed in the Golden Rule. I watched Black students, Jewish students and women students derided and demeaned. I was privy to racist commentary because white students assumed they could say them to my white face with my full agreement. White men also felt safe making sexist comments to me despite the fact I was a woman. As an Italian-American I was sometimes mistaken for Jewish and heard my share of anti-semitic remarks. Much of the time such hate-talk was passed off as a joke. Whenever I heard the joke I stopped the speaker and explained nothing they said was funny, nor factual. I demanded such language never be used while in my presence. Those who just joined in to feel safe in the crowd became serious and apologized. The bullies did not apologize. But they shut up. “Stand up to shut them up” became part of every day life on campus. That is activism at its core.
I had a few empty suites on my floor due to an on-going criminal investigation. A mentally ill student was on trial for arson, having set fire in a suite the year before. Once the case was resolved, those suites were re-opened and spaces filled, as were other vacancies on my floor. Who moved in to those spaces? Black women looking for a safe space. Some had repeatedly been locked out of their rooms by white roommates. Several had threatening notes nailed to their door; threats to rape or kill them because they were Black. Most were ostracized and demeaned daily by white roommates. Their complaint to Student Affairs fell on deaf ears. When the spaces opened on my floor, they found refuge there.
Our dorm was typical for OSU where Black students made up a tiny percentage of the student population. My floor was unique. I held floor meetings to discuss expectations that we would all follow the Golden Rule. When I saw or heard of a racial incident I immediately intervened. Soon, I was doing racial mediation on a regular basis. Black women entered the elevator and experienced white women moving close to the emergency call button, with hand hovering, ready to cry for help from women just like themselves returning exhausted from a day of classes ? Time for mediation! Call everyone together and talk it through. Day after day. Incident after incident. It was exhausting for the Black women, and the Black men who visited them, to face daily racial challenges and outright discrimination.
Another RA and two students worked with me to develop a racial mediation program in our dorm. Whenever the Student Judicial Council was handed a case involving a white student and a Black student in dispute, it was handed off to us to mediate the conflict. Our efforts were not always welcomed, but we persisted. Incidents of violence, write-ups to judiciary, and racial conflict decreased. Today, this program would be outlawed by the President who gleefully extorts OSU by threatening loss of education grants and federal funds for programs and research. OSU has caved to the bullies. OSU is not standing up to shut up the racism. It would cost money. And money is god in America, and on college campuses.
OSU is caving to racists and bullies again. And, not just OSU. Columbia University, indeed nearly all colleges and universities, if not all, are caving to racist bullies under the guise of following the law, accepting the lawless and illegal actions of the current administration. Following the law would require universities to protect the free speech rights of faculty and students, to abide by employment contracts and civil service laws to protect both administrative employees and faculty. Universities with law schools had readily-available experts to stand up, speak out and take action. I was an Associate Director of Law at Ohio University. There is a national organization of such attorneys. Why are they so silent? Why have university presidents and provosts not joined arms to defend their campuses against illegal searches and seizures of students? Why did Columbia University not come to the aid of Mahmoud Khalil and his family? If they did so in any way, it was neither apparent nor sufficient.
The Poster Boy President leading the racist mob of greedy Americans spoke at the DOJ recently. His racist and personal attacks on lawyers, prosecutors and judges, was accepted and even cheered. Racism and greed cross all boundaries and sexual preferences, exist within every profession, religion and community group. It is a constant and persistent threat to the principles of democracy. Those whose racism had been laid low, who crawled under rocks to hide their sins, have crawled back out, empowered by the greed for wealth and power, threatened by those they spurn who have finally found success on a more equal path, and undermined by their own sense of failure despite the promise of an American Dream. Instead of blaming the greedy power-brokers of industry, banking and finance, politics and education they blame their fellow victims. Their racism blinds them to truth, and they willingly embrace false-hoods and disinformation. They would not recognize a fact if it stared them in the face. They would prefer to attack the fact and the experts offering the truth of the fact.
As a lawyer, as an educator, as a writer, I am heart-broken over the loss of my country, my Constitution and its guarantees of personal freedom for all persons who are in this country…no matter where they came from, or how they got here. That is the promise of America. That is the American Dream. Shopping for cheap goods because your existence only matters if those power-brokers can make a buck off you cannot fill the place freedom once filled within the American heart and psyche. Woke? Woke is what is required to survive the on-slaught against a free people who simply want to find a good-paying job, buy a house, feed and educate their family. The power-brokers want us to stay asleep. Like children, we are angels in our sleep, causing them no discomfort, and quietly staying out of their way as they take over our economy, our government institutions, our military, our banking system, our educational systems and local/public schools…even our post office!
Wake up, my fellow lawyers, my fellow professors, my fellow school teachers, my fellow social workers, my fellow counselors, my fellow retail workers, my fellow waitresses and caterers, my fellow babysitters, my fellow students, my fellow Catholics and people of faith, my fellow Americans. Wake up and stay woke! We have work to do, if we can stay awake to do it loudly and persistently. This is no time to lie down and feign sleep. God knows, none of us sleep well theses days.
Filed under COMMENTARY, FAMILY STORIES, POLITICS
I started to wake when I was two.
Before I knew
to look at anything or anyone
for something other than
who they were, or
what they could do.
Color, gender, wealth or age
meant nothing to me.
I was almost brand new.
I had no context to see
why such differences
should matter to me.
Mom and I were shopping
in the bargain basement
of the Five and Dime store
when I suddenly awakened in awe
to the most beautiful woman I ever saw.
“Mommy, I shouted with delight.
Look at the chocolate lady.”
The lady smiled. Mommy frowned.
She took my hand, turned me around,
and bending down
instructed me in a hushed voice,
“It is not nice to comment
on how anyone looks.”
The Lady saw my distress and guessed
I felt I had done something bad.
But, she smiled as if she were glad
and simply asked me with tender care,
“Do you like chocolate, little one?”
In joyful glee I replied “it is my very favorite thing.”
Mommy sighed, and apologized
for her daughter’s lack of manners.
“No need” was the reply.
And with a loving smile she knelt at my side.
“Thank you,” she said, “for seeing me
and thinking of me so lovingly.
And so I learned that day to stay awake
and notice all the wonderful people
surrounding me,
sharing love so easily.
Filed under FAMILY STORIES, POETRY
The Cold War taught school kids to “duck-and-cover”
to save their lives, not from bullets fired by fellow Americans;
But from Russian bombs put in place
to put America in its place
in every available space
where bombs could reach our shores.
President Kennedy intervened to stop the ships
carrying missiles to fill silos built in Cuba.
School kids stopped to pray that day
before being sent home to “be with their families.”
I recall that day when annihilation of my nation
became too real to hide away.
Khruschev shouted “We will bury you” as he beat his shoe
where he sat at a desk in the UN.
He foretold our future there and then.
He said we will “destroy you from within.”
That is when the great pirates began to grow rich
in their race shore to shore running
arms, and drugs, and sex slaves galore;
depositing money passed hand-to-hand
into banks off-shore until it washed up and over
the World Bank, its monolith waves too big to ignore.
The dish on American tables ran away with the spoon
feeding the greed of a growing American oligarchy.
It has taken my lifetime to measure
the true loss of America’s treasure
amassed in stealth by pirates dressed as lobbyists,
and PACS funded by dark money
who claim the false goal to live free in our fragile democracy,
our greatest wealth.
The pirates stole into control of our country
with entertainment instead of news.
Encouraging citizens to sleep and not be woke to the tragedy
of pirates placed within a government grown too thin
by tax cuts for the pirates like Trump, Vance, Bannon, Musk, Ramaswamy,
Hegseth, Gabbard, Alito and so many others.
Leaders now promise to deregulate all guards against their pirate theft.
And a sleeping nation nods “yes,” ignoring the pleas of true patriots, left bereft.
The pirates have opened the gates and our Ship of State is un-moored.
They smile and smirk with strong-men and must not be ignored.
We cannot simply give up and give in
watching our country destroyed from within,
while Putin and America’s pirates count coins and grin.
annarino writes 
DECONSTRUCTION
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.
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
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