Funny how hearing something new can suddenly help you clarify some thoughts and ideas. In this case, they helped me read through some lines and statements I commonly hear to realize how racist they are. I’m usually pretty good at sniffing out BS but this one just was routinely getting past my radar. The scenario is that some African-American man or women, or child is shot or killed by the police, purposely, accidently, or whatever. Of course there is the usual BS, or not, about what did or did not happen prior to it. Then of course, often there is a statement, true or false, that the person had some type of criminal record. Now I have always known that this was racist, but I never quite grasped how racist it is, until I realized that they don’t do the same thing to WHITE PEOPLE. If some white person is involved in the same event. Yes there will be the usual BS, or not, about what did or did not happen prior to it. But what you don’t hear is the “Well in 1978 he was arrested for speeding” or “She once got a ticket for jay walking in NY City.” or the ominous given those two statements “We have it off the record that she had some past police involvement.” BUT that is exactly what will happen if the victim is African-Americans or Hispanic. Because what the F&^% difference does it make. It’s like you go into surgery for a cancer, and die on the table. Then the hospital says well in 1982 he had a hangnail removed. So…. Well see then its not our fault. We don’t do that to White people because it won’t work, but it’s done to African-Americans and Hispanics because people say “Well yah, I guess that hang nail surgery explains it all.”
Bookends
I think its very fitting
that my oldest sibling
and my youngest niece
share the same birthday
She is also the youngest daughter
of my youngest brother
of which I have three.
As does he.
My oldest sibling
is also my oldest sister,
of which I have four.
So I am bookended by age and beauty.
What I know about the two
is that they both strongly resemble their fathers
and of course their mothers.
Though my niece’s father is my brother
and his father my father.
What they also have in common
is a love of tigers,
Although my sister loved Daniel tiger
and my niece likes to pretend to be a tiger.
Tonight they will both fall asleep
One in Vermont, one in NY
And while they sleep.
I bet both of their fathers
will send them kisses tonight.
Sounds of Silence in an Election Year
Just listened to Disturbed’s version of The Sound of Silence. It made me thing that in this election season these words from Simon and Garfunkel sound incredibly true.
“And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening “
I think that sums up pretty well the current state of political discourse in America, or certainly the last few debates. What we end up with when there is so much noise but no-one listening is in a way silence.
Then there are these lines
“”Fools,” said I, “you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows “
Yes I would say we have a form of cancer. Which results in
“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made”
You can pick your candidate of choice for that line.
So what to do, have a good talk or argument with a friend about these topics. Its the only way to actually have a conversation and to break that sound of silence.
Opposites 1
Winning is not the opposite of losing,
Because you can win for losing.
You can also lose by winning,
and…
win by losing.
You can win, win, and not lose, lose.
You can also lose, and by losing win.
If you lost your first tooth,
did you win when you new tooth came in?
When you lost your virginity,
Did you win you virility?
If you can lose your mind,
can you win your mind?
If I really think of it,
the opposite of winning…
is probably not even trying.
Snatches of conversations at First Friday at the Hungerford Building
Brass monkeys & mamosas
I did some collage workshops
There probably on photo paper
It’s seriously lippi
Every time I come here
Wow
It’s two flight of stairs
There gorgeous it’s beautiful
We are looking for ice cream
Let’s find out
Don’t trust my opinion
“The truth” Sarah Koenig from Serial
“Whether he told the truth about what he did, and whether there’s truth in what he told, because those are two different questions.”
From Sarah Koenig from Serial Season 2 Episode 6 5 O’Clock Shadow.
Walden by Thoreau
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet.”
Thoreau in Walden.
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root”
From Walden by Henry David Thoreau
“For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility. ”
The pain
Sometimes the ones who should love us the most,
cause us the greatest pain.
Soul searing, hair pulling, breast beating pain,
So much pain, we want to tear the world apart.
Yet…
And yet…
It is their loss.
For you are alive,
for you have value.
Now you can hold on to that hurt and pain,
You can let that person control you through their actions
Even when they are gone, they can still control you.
or…
or…
you can let those screams out,
let those tears flow,
then like a sapling lifting its first leaf after the forest fire,
Begin to grow.
Grow gloriously…
Lift those branches towards the sun.
Become the person you want to be..
Not the person they tried to make you.
leavingleavesineaves 