I have a confession to make. I have been unfaithful to my country, or more specifically to Democracy. I have not cheated on it, but I have been like a very bad lover and have taken it for granted for years. I was the lover who always assumed that it would hold its value and virtue when I briefly stopped in for a quickie every two to four years. I have even flirted with other forms of government. I have been tempted by Strong men, and by socialists, I have admired governments in other countries, and thought they look, well should we say…even sexy.

Now like any faithless lover, I can list reasons. Lets start with the fact that Democracy has not always been true to me. When I was a child and first introduced to it, I was enthralled with the one person one vote line. Democracy looked like a free form dancer showing a lot of skin. Yet, it was sadly a mirage. American democracy is unhappily instead a representative democracy. We do not truly vote for a president, instead we vote to tell our elected electors how they should vote for the President. We do not vote on laws, no matter how important, instead we vote for representatives that then go and vote on our behalf. They of course, can vote exactly opposite to what we wanted them to do. We also typically have to make a choice in a two party system between dumb and dumber between bad and less bad. In other words we often have to vote while holding our nose. Pew..

There is also the fact that democracy is still deeply flawed. We as a country have made many, many bad mistakes and have done evil things, and then a few years later done them all over again. Just rinse and repeat, over and over again.

Despite all that however, I still love our democracy. As I have been reminded over and over again that we are still “striving to form a more perfect union.” Yes we can continue to strive.

So what now? With the election of the yellow Dorito who prance across the stage throwing molotov cocktails, I have found the error of my ways. I am not the penitent lover who has found that love, like a marriage needs daily work. Democracy needs constant .. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly work. We can not simply vote every two or four years. We need to work on a daily basis to make it work. We need to go to legislative meetings, we need to vote on local, county, State, and National elections. We must pester our elected officials. We need to text, email, call them about issues large and small. We must look at budgets, we must read, we must advocate. We must make phone calls, talk to neighbors, talk at public meetings, drive people to the polls, work at the polls, and do everything we can to keep our system working. We must also demand change. We will never have a more perfect union if we are not demanding it change to meet the needs of all of us.

So in 2016, as a I held the pen in my hand to vote, I thought briefly of voting for the chaos candidate, for the Dorito. Simply because he would shake things up. I am forever grateful I did not vote for him. Because he did not just shake things up, he has broken things. So as you vote tomorrow, remember that our Country our Democracy will not survive four more years. The reason is I know that I am not the only faithless member of our democracy. I am most likely talking directly to you, and when you are faithless that means you will not fight to keep Democracy alive.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 11/2/2020

Some say,

(sorry, White people say),

we can not judge the residents of the past by today’s standards.

So does it work that way in heaven?

Seriously,

does it?

When those souls stand around in heaven attending on God,

do the souls of the slave owner and the slaves,

have separate areas?

Or,

are they divided by angels?

You know,

to keep the heavenly peace?

.

You would think the slave owners would be burning in hell,

but if you can’t judge the slave owner –

by the standards of today,

they all, we are told,

(again by White people),

believed they would be in heaven,

as they were doing God’s work.

.

So would they be?

.

If,

yes,

does the enslaved mother,

whose husband was killed by the Master,

whose children were sold and taken from her,

except for the one raped and murdered by the Master,

does she,

have to stand next to that Master’s soul…

and not say a word?

Does she have to hold her tongue?

Does she have to be silenced,

even in heaven,

the way she was on earth?

Does her Master’s privilege allow her to be silenced again,

even when next to the Lord?

Can she not beseech the Lord for justice?

Or,

does she have to silently stand,

next to that, I guess, blessed soul,

for all eternity?

Wishing she could be anywhere else…but in heaven.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 10/18/2020

The political divide in America can be explained by a basic story. You are a white, non college-educated man. You are standing in a long, long line waiting for what you deserve. When some distance in front of you someone starts letting, Blacks, Hispanics, women, refugees, and even illegal immigrants in the line in front of you. Then you see it is your own government doing this. The rage you feel fuels the Republican right.

The Democrats see that line but see that various groups were never allowed to even get into the line. They were denied access. They were left out when the line started, and they need a place in that line. So letting people into the line, and not at the end of the line is what is right and fair. After all, the government stopped them from getting in the line in the first place.

I have been in many races where there are only a few port-a-johns and long, long lines. I have also been at races, where there are hundreds of port-a-johns of all colors and thousands of runners, and if there are lines, they are very, very short.

We live in the wealthiest country in the world. Why do we have lines? The false narrative is the line, and where we are. WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME LINE. There DOES NOT NEED TO BE A LINE. The system we have makes the line. The system we have lets others fly or drive to the front of the line. They let others charge us for being in the line.

If I catch a fish without a license, I can be fined. If they poison the entire river and kill all the fish, they get bigger tax credits and tax breaks. If I protest the line, they build the jail to keep me there while having everyone else in line pay for my keep and the jail.

So ask yourself why are you even standing in the line? Why aren’t you demanding the rules are changed? Why aren’t you making that change happen?

There was a wall in Germany. The people took it down. Change can happen. You, you and me can be the change that makes it happen.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 10/10/2020

I still stumble upon something of yours –

a sock,

a receipt,

a misplaced dream,

and it seems you are here.

.

I go through old papers and photos,

looking,

always looking for you.

.

I catch a glimpse,

a taste,

a smell.

.

I try to put these pieces together,

to put you back together, to put you back.

to put you back.

.

Here,

with,

me.

.

It is as if you were at the door, looking in,

but I turn and.

.

the leaves blow in the cool Fall air

.

The woods are dark.

.

Someday I will enter that line of trees to look for you.

.

but for now,

I will try, to stop trying to put the pieces back.

.

I know,

you told me,

I know.

.

You would not want me to enter those woods,

before,

my own cold winter comes.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 10/10/2020

When someone says “nice house, bet you got nice stuff in there.” Then later they say “I bet it would be easy to break into”, then later you see them staking out your house. Then they tell you they are going to break into your house.” Then they tell you how they will break into your house.” Then you come home and your house is broken into. Who is at fault?

When the President, says he wants 8 more years. When the President says repeatedly he wants 8 more years. When the president starts dismantling the locks to protect voting, by destroying the USPS. When the RNC, his best friend, starts legally trying to suppress the vote. When his old campaign is found to have suppressed black voting and the vote. ‘ When the Supreme Court is making a much larger number of emergency rulings in favor of Trump (they require no hearings and no written opinions). When his allies in the Senate will put in place a 6th conservative Supreme Court Justice prior to the election, so she can vote on his attempts to overturn the election. When he tells his brown shirts (the Proud Boys) to stand down and be ready. When he encourages illegal voting. When he tells his gun-wielding supporters to go into election sites to act as poll watchers, to suppress the vote and voting by BIPOC. When he finally claims he won, when he lost, and illegally claims a second term, and the Court supports him. Who is at fault?

We are – for not stopping this right now. We can shush this down. We can demand change. We can march on Washington. We can do sits ins and shut down the government. We can shut down the economy. We can stop a Supreme Court process until after the election. We can vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats down the ballot. We can stop our house, our country from being plundered. We can give money to the people reporting the stories we need to read. We can fund the advocacy groups that do the work to keep democracy strong. #BidenHarris2020 #ProtectOurDemocracy #stopthesupremecourtnomination

You can help, start by donating to the ACLU. They are fighting our battles for our right to vote. #ACLU

© words by Daniel DeMarle 10/1/2020

Breathe.

One of the most beautiful sounds in the world is a breath

breathe

the first breath of a newborn

breathe

the tickilsh breath of your father zerbertining your baby belly

breathe

the anxious breath of your first kiss with your first crush

breathe

the inhalation after you come up from a deep dive

breathe

the shallow breath of your lover sleeping next to you

breathe

your gasping breathe as you push for that final contraction

breathe

the baby breaths of your infant as they nurse

breathe

the last breaths of your dying parents

breathe

the breath right before your start to cry as that former baby now says I do.

breathe

your last breath on your last day, in your last hour

bre….
…
..
.
.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/30/2020

The issue is not the Supreme Court, the pandemic, the protests, the right to abortion, or any of the very real and significant issues before us.  The absolute real reason you need to remove Trump and the Republicans from the Senate is all about tipping points, irreversible chain reactions, and unknown feedback loops. It’s about 1.5 degree global temperature rise, and that we have maybe 6 more years.  We may have already written our species death sentence.  If nothing is done, and they have four more years to not only do nothing but to actually make things worse, we certainly will have.

Vote on November 3rd, as if your future depended on it, because it does.

© words by  Dan DeMarle 9/21/2020

If I told you someone said something nice to me, you would say ‘oh that was nice.’ Yet if I told you someone said something racist to me, you would blame me and want a 1000 questions answered. If you can believe the first, why can’t you believe the second?  I am the same person in both situations.  You and your attitude and beliefs are what is different. Don’t ask me to explain it or prove it to you, I am the victim, ask yourself instead what is wrong with you?

© words by  Dan DeMarle 9/21/2020

Snarky post warning!!! I love the complete ignorance of anyone who lives in America, or is an American abroad, who says I don’t do politics!! You live in a democracy. Everything you do is about politics. You turn on a TV (FCC regulated), you pick up a phone (FTC, state and local taxes), you get in your car (oh boy to many federal agencies), you drive your car (again to many federal agencies, federal laws, and state laws), you drive on a road (who built it, who maintains it, federal, state, and various local dollars), you cross a bridge (OMG way too many federal, state, and local regulations and money), you go to the grocery store (building codes, building permits, federal and state regulations let alone all of those regulations related to its building and whether it was union or nonunion work), you buy a tomato from Argentina (OMG internal laws, federal law, state laws, etc… etc… etc..) Who makes those laws, who negotiates those trade deals, what judges rule on those disputes. Oh I know take a deep sigh (what’s in that air you breathe who regulates the pollutants), take a drink of water (OMG regulations, thank God, or you could be in Flint all over again). Then turn off your social media (regulations) turn off the light (OMG where do you live, near Canada? Where’s your power coming from, international treaties, federal laws, state laws, business laws, environmental regulations, fees, taxes). So sure when you say you don’t do politics, all your saying is you don’t want any power in any of this and guess what, that is exactly what they want. They won, you lost. Sucker….

Don’t be a sucker! Register, and Vote November 3rd.

Why is it that,

the names of Fort Sumter,

Bull Run,

Shiloh,

and Gettysburg,

resound even today

after more than a century and a half?

Yet, what happened in 1919 during the red summer

leaves a resounding blankness.

Two years before the Tulsa Massacre,

America ran red with black blood.

From April to December Whites attacked blacks

many black servicemen returning from World War I.

The city streets ran red.

Tennessee, Georgia

Florida, West Virginia,

Mississippi, South Carolina

Arkansas, Connecticut,

Maryland, Arizona

Pennsylvania, Alabama

Texas, Arkansas

New York, Louisiana

Nebraska, Kentucky,

Delaware, and even Syracuse NY.

Even the famed Buffalo Soldiers,

were attacked by local police in Bisbee, Arizona.

In Elaine, Arkansas when black sharecroppers tried to unionize,

white militias came from miles around.

At the end, 100 to 237 blacks and 5 whites lay dead.

When Southern Justice came in,

seventy nine black people were tried and all convicted by,

all white juries and 12 were sentenced to death for murder.

So when someone tries to raise that rebel flag,

When someone wants to tell you “all lives matter”,

Just remember the red summer,

Remember that no whites went on trial in Elaine, Arkansas.

Then when you say that could not have happened again,

Then read about Tulsa,

Tuskegee,

Emmett Till,

those four young girls in Birmingham,

then remember,

Philando,

Sandra,

Ahmaud,

George,

Breonna

and Daniel Prude.

Do not tell me it can’t happen again,

because it is happening everyday.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/15/2020