my current favorite quotes on my facebook page:

I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.
~ Socrates

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

It's not that complicated. The good guys are the ones who want more people to vote. The bad guys are the ones who want fewer people to vote.
~Joel Finkelstein

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.
~ Theodore Roosevelt

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
~ Mark Twain

It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know that just ain't so.
~ Artemus Ward

No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead.
~ John Stuart Mill

The only way some of us exercise our minds is by jumping to conclusions.
~ Cullen Hightower

NEVER underestimate an opponent.
~ Sunzi

Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
~ Voltaire

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
~ Francis Bacon

You really only know when you know little; doubt grows with knowledge.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
~ Albert Einstein

All firm belief is a sickness.
~ Francis Picabia

Believe those who seek truth. Doubt those who find it.
~ Andre Gide

Doubt is the yeast of cognition.
~ Alessandro Morandotti

Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
~ Pablo Picasso

The truth alone has never made anyone free. It is only doubt which will bring mental emancipation.
~ Anton LaVey

A witty saying proves nothing.
~ Voltaire

Words are the source of misunderstandings.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

waste no words.
~ david matthew

Our natural benevolence accounts, in great part, for the origin of morality.
~ David Hume

An unjust law is itself a species of violence.
~ Gandhi

Poverty is the worst form of violence.
~ Gandhi

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.
~ Gandhi

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
~ Gandhi

The day we see the truth and do not speak is the day we begin to die.
~ Martin Luther King

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
~ Martin Luther King

The time is always right to do what’s right.
~ Martin Luther King

Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.
~ Martin Luther King

We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
~ Martin Luther King

Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
~ Martin Luther King

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
~ Martin Luther King

I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom.
~ Martin Luther King

In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.
~ Martin Luther King

The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
~ Martin Luther King

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
~ Martin Luther King

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
~ Martin Luther King

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
~ Martin Luther King

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
~ Martin Luther King

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
~ Martin Luther King

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
~ Martin Luther King

There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
~ Martin Luther King

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.
~ Martin Luther King

The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these".
~ Martin Luther King

In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent. The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich. We are inevitably our brothers' keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality.
~ Martin Luther King

... no nation can claim victory in war. A so-called limited war will leave little more than a calamitous legacy of human suffering, political turmoil, and spiritual disillusionment.
~ Martin Luther King

We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.
~ Martin Luther King

The course of true love never did run smooth.
~ Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

We are such stuff
as dreams are made on, and our little life
is rounded with a sleep.
~ Shakespeare, The Tempest

Empathy is the mortar that holds society together.
~ Chuck Close

here's a poem i wrote the day the cops that beat rodney king got acquitted and the riots started:

THE VERDICT

if you make a tool
& it does the job
& you use it
long as you can
till it gets old
& starts to fall apart
& doesn't work well
& even makes you risk
getting hurt
if you use it
what do you do?

you take a good look
& see if you can fix it
& if you can
you fix it
& if you can't
you throw it away
& make a new tool

4/92

in simi valley in april 1992, 3 LA cops were found not guilty and the jury failed to reach a verdict for the fourth. the riots that followed caused 53 deaths and 2000 injuries and destroyed 600 buildings.

regarding the march 1991 incident, wikipedia says:

King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest. He suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations. In a negligence claim filed with the city, King alleged he had suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma." Blood and urine samples taken from King five hours after his arrest showed that he could be presumed intoxicated under California law. The tests also showed traces of marijuana (26 ng/ml), but no indication of PCP or any other illegal drug. At Pacifica Hospital, where King was taken for initial treatment, nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged about the number of times King had been hit. King sued the city over the beating, settling for $3.8 million.

his book, just published in april to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the trial, will undoubtedly and ironically be a bestseller.


‎"Can we all just get along?"


RIP

really behind here. on may 17 i read 3 poems in the bombay room at the chestnut hill hotel. in order they were FILL 'N TH BLANKS, OUR/NATION ALL & THEM/OFF-KEY, and TRADITIONL FAMLY VALUES. since i've posted them before this, you can read them here and here, along with a free bonus.

bayard rustin's 100th birthday

one of the greats!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin

Bayard Rustin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org

Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights. "Bayard" is pronounced to rhyme with hired.

jim crow redux

pennsylvania is now the 32nd state to pass a voter ID law. it amounts to a de facto poll tax, since eligible voters with no acceptable proof of identity or residence must spend money to obtain such proof. a study at NYU law school indicated that "11% of voting-age American citizens—and an even greater percentage of African American, low-income, and older citizens—do not have current and valid government-issued photo IDs." poll taxes were made unconstitutional in 1964.

the state has had two jim crow laws before. the first, passed in 1869, prohibited black children from attending school in pittsburgh. the 2nd, in 1956, required adoption applicants to state their race. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_ID_laws

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jim_Crow_law_examples_by_State

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/citizens_without_proof_stands_strong/
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

Corbett signs voter ID into law

hillary clinton in 1994 on right wing ideologues

Reporter: You told Peter Maier that there are right-wing radical ideologues who don't want people to have health care in this country. Who are you talking about? Who are these folks?

Mrs. Clinton: Well, you know I think they are a combination of the same kind of people who have been around in our country since its beginnings, the sort of ideologically-opposed who think that nobody should get anything from anybody else. And there's a streak of that in American politics. There always has been.

There are people who opposed social security, opposed civil rights, opposed minimum wage, opposed Medicare, opposed Medicaid. I mean at every step along the way, there is this small core of people who do not believe that government should do anything. Now they're the same people who drive down highways paid for by government funds. They are the same people who love the Defense Department which is funded by government money, but they have a different mind set when it comes to social policy in trying to be a compassionate and caring nation.

Then there are the people who for opportunistic reasons are opposing health care reform both because it is in their financial interest to do so because they want to be able to maintain the status quo and they are not above inciting other people to be very emotional about helping them to sustain their favored position. And then there are those who are for political reasons opposing health care reform because there are lots of people who don't want any changes and particularly don't want changes by this President to occur.

Now, most of the people I've just described are ones who pull the strings of others and inflame people by making charges of socialized medicine, for example, or the government is going to take over the health care system. And there's a very well-organized and well-financed effort to convey that message so that, for example, when you see people protesting in the streets as we saw a couple of weeks ago, as I personally saw in Seattle, they were there in large measure because they'd been inflamed by a local radio talk show host who finds it in his own personal financial opportunistic interest to take this position. I had no idea whether the man was insured or not, but he inflames people who are sitting at home that somehow the Clintons are going to take over the government and they're going to find themselves without a doctor or whatever their arguments are.

And if you talk to these people very often they don't have a clue about what health care reform is about. They are responding to these emotional kinds of attacks. And I just think that's part and parcel of what you always find when you look at moments of a lot of change converging at the same point in American history. You will find that strain of people. And I think it's very unfortunate, but it's something that is part of our political scene.

What I do not like and what I find regrettable is the amount of hatred that is being conveyed and really injected into our political system. I don't have any problem with anybody disagreeing with this President on any policy position. I don't have a problem with any member of Congress opposing health care reform because he doesn't think it's a good idea or he wants to use it as a political weapon. I mean, that's politics.

But this personal, vicious hatred that for the time being is aimed primarily at the President, and to a lesser extent myself, I think is very dangerous for our political process. And I think those who are encouraging it should think long and hard about the consequences of such encouragement. And in a free society, certainly people are free to say or do what they think furthers their political agenda.

But we have to draw the line on violence, and you have to draw the line on protests that incite violence. And a lot of the talk that is coming out is, to me, very sad, and I think we'll have very unfortunate consequences for our entire body politic and not just for this Administration. [more]

thinkprogress

JC Penney CEO: ‘Ellen Represents
The Values Of Our Company’

JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson spoke out this morning in defense of the company’s new partnership with Ellen DeGeneres. The conservative group One Million Moms has called for a boycott against the store for “jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon,” but both JC Penney and DeGeneres have defended the partnership. Johnson told CBS News that he sees no controversy.... [more]

wikipedia
mitt's daddy, george...

Romney entered politics by participating in a state constitutional convention to rewrite the Michigan Constitution during 1961–1962. He was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962 and was re-elected by increasingly large margins in 1964 and 1966. Romney worked to overhaul the state's financial and revenue structure, culminating in Michigan's first state income tax, and greatly expanded the size of state government. Romney was a strong supporter of the American Civil Rights Movement. He briefly represented moderate Republicans against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 U.S. presidential election. He requested the intervention of federal troops during the 1967 Detroit riot.

Romney was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1968. While initially a front-runner, he proved an ineffective campaigner, and fell behind Richard Nixon in polls. Following a mid-1967 remark that his earlier support for the Vietnam War had been due to a "brainwashing" by U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam, his campaign faltered even more, and he withdrew from the contest in early 1968. Once elected president, Nixon appointed Romney Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Romney's ambitious plans for housing production increases for the poor, and for open housing to desegregate suburbs, were modestly successful but often thwarted by Nixon. Romney left the administration at the start of Nixon's second term in 1973. [more]

seems kinda — dare i say it? — liberal to me...

npr

Washington State Lawmakers
OK Gay Marriage

Lawmakers in Washington state voted Wednesday to legalize gay marriage, a move that would make the state the sixth in the nation to allow same-sex couples to wed.

The Washington move came a day after California's ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional. [more]

Secret money is funding more election ads

APNewsBreak: Komen official quits breast cancer charity over Planned Parenthood dispute

Calif. same-sex marriage ban ruled unconstitutional

wapo

it should be clear by now that DC will never be a state, no matter if it's right or wrong.

suggestion: make the district of columbia a maryland congressional district for federal elections only. DC would get a vote in the US house as part of MD's delegation. DC residents would vote for MD's US senators and have their presidential votes counted into MD's total. both parties get something: dems get a house vote and greater chance of electing 2 senators (which they've done anyway every time since they last lost in 1980), but they lose at least 2 electoral votes. without some such compromise, the GOP will always find a way to block representation for citizens who live in the capital.

from aclu eml

This Monday, the Justice Department will make a big decision. And, we need you to act immediately so that it will be a decision that protects voting rights.

The ACLU has been sounding the alarm about a wave of laws passed across the country aimed at throwing roadblocks in the path of people trying to exercise their right to vote. One particularly offensive voter ID law was recently enacted in South Carolina — a state with a history of racial discrimination in voting. That state's voting law changes must be approved by the Department of Justice before they can take effect.

A decision is due on South Carolina's highly discriminatory voter ID law by August 29th. There are 178,000 people — a disproportionate number of them low-income and African-Americans — registered to vote in South Carolina whose right to vote is under threat because they don't have government-issued photo IDs.

Urge Attorney General Holder to enforce the Voting Rights Act and refuse to clear South Carolina's outrageous effort to make it harder for citizens to exercise their right to vote.

The South Carolina decision will tell us just how aggressively the Department of Justice intends to protect one of our most fundamental freedoms — the right to cast a ballot for the candidates of our choice.

This wave of voter suppression laws is a thinly-disguised effort to shape the electorate for the critically important 2012 elections. Purposely making it harder for some segments of the voting population to cast their vote is a cynical political strategy that can never be tolerated.

In the months ahead, we're going to have to fight in state after state to protect voting rights. But, it all starts with the impending South Carolina decision.

Urge the Justice Department to take a strong stand in defense of voting rights by refusing to clear the way for South Carolina's outrageous effort to suppress the vote.

Remember, this key decision could come at any time in the next few days. So, please urge the Attorney General and the Justice Department to actively protect voting rights today.

i put the 4th paragraph from the bottom into bold type. it's a key analysis of the hypocritical right wing strategy of voter suppression.

going slow

Mississippi schools get tough on bullies

...a video circulating the Internet showed a special needs child in a north Mississippi district being punched in the face.

And in Yazoo County a couple of years ago, a girl carried a gun onto the school bus because she said she had been the victim of bullying, one of the instances lawmakers used to illustrate the need for a stricter law.

Bullying doesn't apply only to students, either: Moss Point's high school principal was recently fired in part for alleged bullying of a subordinate.

In response to the rising problem, Mississippi last year passed a new, tougher anti-bullying law. The law requires that all districts have a policy and procedure prohibiting bullying under any conditions. Teachers and coaches, under the law, are required to report any suspected bullying to administrators.

It includes off-campus incidents such as school-bus and cyber bullying.

The onus is on principals to investigate each case.... [more]

Mississippi Goddam
(1963) Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That's it for now! see ya' later

belated birthday

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.


It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

read these at serenity yesterday

HANDWRITING ON THE FLAG

once young & foolish
hand on heart
we pledged our troth
to liberty & justice for all

then dream soured,became a sham
& ashamed we watched
a man demand a woman stand so he could sit
guardsmen block schoolhouse door
lunch counter service denied

only tip of ice we learned
as monsters surfaced from the deep
to unleash nightmare fire & blood

it can't happen here we hoped wished prayed
already too late
not just here but round the world
hydra tightens grip

it ties together,don't think it don't
sum of parts,parts of whole
all gift wrapped ready to roll

yellow ribbons stained in red
corrupt a banner thus adorned
mailed fists dripping gore
destroy a dream once adored

awake you sleepers if you can
make ribbons armbands painted black
& mourn the death of dream

11/91


BETWEEN MESOPOTAMIA & A HARD PLACE

where did your heart go,america?

once you cared for folk in need
now you merely feed your greed

once you tried to defend the weak
now you burn to protect a sheik

you were a place of promise & vision
love & joy & hope

now i see only denial,suspicion
hatred,sorrow,fear

know why we feel afraid & alone?
poisons fill air & water
ground gives off deadly gases
roads & bridges crumble
a few with power line their pockets
many with no place to go lose their homes
children starve or get bombed
& you turn your back on it all

you had the spirit of pioneers
dared cross prairie & mighty river
fought the force of storm & drought
forged new life in wilderness

if only we could go back in time
see how future used to look
& do what we must do
to make it come out that way

but a metaphor's not what it seems
& time machines belong to dreams
& no physician alive can cure
the sickness unto death

2/91

From King to Beck:
Big rally at Lincoln Memorial

WASHINGTON – Glenn Beck says it's just a coincidence his Restoring Honor rally on Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial will take place on the anniversary and at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. But he's hardly apologizing for the connection.

"This is going to be a moment that you'll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it," he says of the event featuring Sarah Palin and other conservative political and cultural figures. "This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement."

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beck wants to take back the civil rights movement...back to 1857....

wow! or is it whoa! or maybe even woe!

while researching my piece mentioning mlk and the gop two days ago, i stumbled on a lot of sites apparently dedicated to persuading african-americans that they ought to join the republican party.

their logic is pretty much always based on half-truths and incomplete history. one example was the claim that the gop passed the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of '65, because a higher percentage of gops voted for them. never mind the fact that the dems had such huge majorities in both houses that the number of dems voting for each bill was significantly greater than the number of gops, and both bills would've been dead if a lot of dems opposed them.

another conveniently-overlooked fact: those votes made the dems the party of civil rights, while gop presidential candidate barry goldwater voted against the 1964 act, so most of the segregationist dixiecrats left the dems and joined the gop, which welcomed them with open arms, and when the gop attained the senate majority in 1981 and again in 1995, they made dixiecrat leader strom thurmond president pro tempore!

i can't resist adding one more. one site gave republicans credit for brown v board because eisenhower appointed chief justice earl warren. in fact, it was a unanimous decision, and the other 8 justices were all appointed by either fdr or truman.

i don't think it very likely that many black americans will join the gop for a long, long time, because most of them know the truth.

Gay rights rallies nationwide over Calif. ban
By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON – Gay rights supporters in the first state to allow same-sex couples to exchange wedding vows gathered Saturday to protest the California vote that banned gay marriage there and to urge supporters not to quit the fight for the right to wed.

Crowds gathered near public buildings in small communities and major cities including New York, San Francisco and Chicago to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change.

"Civil marriages are a civil right, and we're going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens," Karen Amico said in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading "Don't Spread H8".

"We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly," said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston's City Hall Plaza. "We need equal rights across the country."

Massachusetts and Connecticut, which began same sex weddings this past week, are the only two states that allow gay marriage. All 30 states that have voted on gay marriage have enacted bans.

Protests following the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, have sometimes been angry and even violent, and demonstrators have targeted faiths that supported the ban, including the Mormon church.

However, representatives of Join the Impact, which organized Saturday's demonstrations, asked supporters to be respectful and refrain from attacking other groups during the rallies.

The mood in Boston was generally upbeat, with attendees dancing and signing to the song "Respect." Signs cast the fight for gay marriage as the new civil rights movement, including one that read "Gay is the new black."

But anger over the ban and its backers was evident at the protests.

One sign in Chicago read: "Catholic Fascists Stay Out of Politics."

"I just found out that my state doesn't really think I'm a person," said Rose Aplustill, 21, a Boston University student from Los Osos, Calif., who was one of thousands at the Boston rally.

Planning for the nationwide protests was started by a Seattle blogger, Amy Balliett, just days after the California vote, which took away gay marriage rights that had been granted by the state's high court.

The idea rapidly spread online and Join the Impact predicted that Saturday's protests would involve tens of thousands of people in hundreds of communities.

In North Dakota, where voters in 2004 overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, low-key protests were held Saturday in Grand Forks and Fargo, where people lined a bridge carrying signs and flags.

"It's been very peaceful," said Josh Boschee, who helped organize the Fargo protest.

In Chicago, Keith Smith, 42, a postal worker, and his partner, Terry Romo, 34, a Wal-Mart store manager, had photos of their wedding ceremony which they held even though gay marriage is not legal in Illinois.

"We're not going to wait for no law," Smith said. "But time's going to be on our side and it's going to change."

little rock 50th coming up

Three years after the Supreme Court's Brown v Board of Education decision, which officially ended public-school segregation, a federal court ordered Little Rock to comply. On September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus defied the court, calling in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students--"The Little Rock Nine"--from entering the building. Ten days later in a meeting with President Eisenhower, Faubus agreed to use the National Guard to protect the African American teenagers, but on returning to Little Rock, he dismissed the troops, leaving the African American students exposed to an angry white mob. Within hours, the jeering, brick-throwing mob had beaten several reporters and smashed many of the school's windows and doors. By noon, local police were forced to evacuate the nine students.

When Faubus did not restore order, President Eisenhower dispatched 101st Airborne Division paratroopers to Little Rock and put the Arkansas National Guard under federal command. By 3am, soldiers surrounded the school, bayonets fixed.

Under federal protection, the "Little Rock Nine" finished out the school year. The following year, Faubus closed all the high schools, forcing the African American students to take correspondence courses or go to out-of-state schools. The school board reopened the schools in the fall of 1959, and despite more violence--for example, the bombing of one student's house--four of the nine students returned, this time protected by local police.

neither lib nor con

in the interest of full disclosure, let me say i don't consider myself either liberal or conservative.

i'm not trying to do a john kerry denial here. i agree with some of the values of both positions: the cons' respect for tradition and experience and the libs' concern for social justice, but i'm generally further left than a lib yet consider my position essentially moderate.

i'm more likely to agree with libs than cons on most issues, but i was very disappointed when many liberals supported lbj during the first years of the vietnam war, perhaps because they thought they had to back him across the board to avoid undermining his pro-civil-rights agenda.

the recent american rightward trend bucks history: the world has been getting more liberal for centuries.

conservative americans embraced the first neo-puritan revival (the "great awakening") in reaction to the far more liberal 18th century enlightenment that generated the liberty/equality philosophy of the american revolution. the loyalist tories of 230 years ago were cons. the conservative party in the UK is still called tory.

in the 19th century, liberals opposed slavery. (to oversimplify a paraphrase of browning's poem why i am a liberal: because slavery is wrong.) conservatives—with a few exceptions—supported it and used scripture to justify it.

i think i've heard that before ww2 there were isolationists on both right and left: when hitler invaded russia, the leftists advocated coming to stalin's aid, but right-wing isolationists favored germany, so they held out at least till pearl harbor.

libs have backed free public education, child labor laws, organized labor, workplace safety, 5-day and 40-hour work weeks, civil rights, women's rights, equal rights for gays, social security, minimum wage, integration of schools and public accomodations, medicare, and healthy ecology—all opposed or ignored by cons on abstract grounds like religion, fear of "big government," and states' rights.