Friday, February 09, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
I Don't Know Why This Saddens Me So
but Anna Nicole Smith died today. I felt sorry for her because her son died at such a young age and in such a tragic way. What a sad,sad tale.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The End of Silence
Elaine Brown
Have you ever stood
In the darkness of night
Screaming silently
You're a man
Have you ever hoped that
a time would come
when your voice could be heard
In a noon-day sun
Have you waited so long
'Til your unheard song
Has stripped away your very soul.
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
Has a cry to live
When your brain is dead
Made your body tremble so.
And have unseen chains
Of too many years
Hurt you so bad 'til you can't
Shed tears
Have so many vows
From so many mouths
Made you know that words
Are just words
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
You know that dignity
Not just equality
Is what makes a man a man
And so you laugh at laws
Passed by a silly lot
That tell you to give thanks
For what you've already
Got
And you can't go on
with this time-worn song
That just won't change the way
You feel.
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
You don't want to think
You just want to drink
Both the sweet wine and the gall
You been burning inside
For so long a while
'Til Your old time grin
is now a crazed man's smile
And the goal's so clear
And the time so near
You'll make it or
You'll break the plow
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
Yes it's time you know
Who you really are
And not try whitewash the truth.
You're a man you see
And a man must be
Whatever he'll be or he
won't be free
If he's bound up so tight
He'll hold back the night
And their won't be no light
For day
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men.
Have you ever stood
In the darkness of night
Screaming silently
You're a man
Have you ever hoped that
a time would come
when your voice could be heard
In a noon-day sun
Have you waited so long
'Til your unheard song
Has stripped away your very soul.
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
Has a cry to live
When your brain is dead
Made your body tremble so.
And have unseen chains
Of too many years
Hurt you so bad 'til you can't
Shed tears
Have so many vows
From so many mouths
Made you know that words
Are just words
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
You know that dignity
Not just equality
Is what makes a man a man
And so you laugh at laws
Passed by a silly lot
That tell you to give thanks
For what you've already
Got
And you can't go on
with this time-worn song
That just won't change the way
You feel.
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
You don't want to think
You just want to drink
Both the sweet wine and the gall
You been burning inside
For so long a while
'Til Your old time grin
is now a crazed man's smile
And the goal's so clear
And the time so near
You'll make it or
You'll break the plow
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men
Yes it's time you know
Who you really are
And not try whitewash the truth.
You're a man you see
And a man must be
Whatever he'll be or he
won't be free
If he's bound up so tight
He'll hold back the night
And their won't be no light
For day
Well then, believe it my friend
That this silence will end
We'll just have to get guns
and be men.
FREE THE PANTHER 8
Title: FREE THE 8 PANTHER VETS ON LOCKDOWNTime Frame: UNTIL VICTORY IS WON!Plan of Action: Make phone calls, write letters, attend hearings/meetings/rallies, broadly distribute information, provide financial support and resources towards the struggle for the release of 8 senior citizen Freedom Fighters.Eight former Black Panthers were arrested January 23, 2007 in California, New York and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, and Hank Jones were arrested in California. Francisco Torres was arrested in Queens, New York. Harold Taylor was arrested in Florida. Two men charged have been held as political prisoners for over 30 years – Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim are both in New York State prisons. A ninth man -- Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth – is still being sought. The men were charged with the murder of Sgt. John Young and conspiracy that encompasses numerous acts between 1968 and 1973.Harold Taylor and John Bowman (recently deceased) as well as Ruben Scott (thought to be a government witness) were first charged in 1975. But a judge tossed out the charges, finding that Taylor and his two co-defendants made confessions after police in New Orleans tortured them for several days employing electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation.Purpose of Action: Let the world know of this federal witchhunt, harassment and kidnappings, as proof that this government will terrorize and torture freedom fighters, even in their senior years, to continue their war against those who dared to ever take a stand for the people.Bail Hearing and ArraignmentSet for Feb. 14, 2007The first court hearing for the four defendants who live in California-Richard Brown, Hank Jones, Richard O'Neal, and Ray Boudreaux-was held in San Francisco Superior Court on January 29, 2007. They are presently being held on bail of $3 million to $5 million each (!). Their arraignment and a bail reduction hearing was carried over until February 14 at 9:00 a.m.The Superior Court is at 850 Bryant Street in SF.ParticipateHow you can make a difference today:1. Attend the arraignment and bail reduction hearing on Valentine's Day at San Francisco Superior Court. These men need to get bailed out, which is impossible with the present absurd bail amounts.2. Write these Brothas and ask them what their specific needs may be (i.e. commissary, books, etc.). We must support them and let their captors know that they have folks on the outside looking out for them.3. Stay posted on ongoing developments and Action Alerts by subscribing to cdhrsupport's e-mail list (address below) as well as websites in solidarity with these men.Addresses:Bro. Herman Bell# 79C-0262, Sullivan Correctional Facility, Box 116, Riverside Drive,Fallsburg, New York 12733-0116Bro. Ray Boudreaux2301300, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco CA 94103.Bro. Richard Brown2300819, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco CA 94103.Bro. Henry (Hank) Jones2301301, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco CA 94103.Bro. Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom), # 77A4283, Auburn Correctional Facility, 135 State Street, P.O. Box 618, Auburn, NY 13024Bro. Richard O'Neal2300818, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco CA 94103Bro. Harold Taylor#07-00944, 5600 Nehi Road, Panama City, FL 32404Bro. Francisco Torres,#349071576, 1515 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370.(taken from http://www.cdhrsupport.org/)Goals and OutcomesGoals:1. To make the release of these men a global issue.2. To expose this government's campaign of terror against hundreds of U.S. political prisoners, prisoners of war, and exiles.Outcomes:1. To achieve full acquittal of all charges on these freedom fighters, and completely clear Bro. John Bowman's name in connection with this.2. To raise the demand for amnesty for all US freedom fighters by building an even stronger movement!=================CHECK THESE WEBSITES REGULARLY!:http://www.cdhrsupport.org/ (sign up for e-mail list!)
From Venezuelanalysis.com
Communications Minister Rejects CPJ Report on Venezuela
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
Venezuela’s Minister of Communications and Information, Willian Lara, yesterday rejected a report by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) which accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of “controlling, intimidating and censoring the media.”
The “Attacks on the Press” report by the New York-based CPJ, which calls itself “an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide” and which is funded by individuals, corporations and foundations, identified Chavez and his Russian counterpart President Putin among the worst offenders stating, “Presidents Chavez and Putin represent a generation of sophisticated, elected leaders who have created a legal framework to control, intimidate, and censor the news media,” according to the news agency AFP.
In response Lara stated, “The report by the self-proclaimed Committee for the Protection of Journalists is a rehash of the same old anti-governmental propaganda used by forces of the opposition through its television companies, radio stations, and newspapers since 1999,” according to the state news agency, ABN.
“Its falseness is patent when we observe the absolute freedom -even to spread lies for political ends- with which the press operates in Venezuela,” Lara added.
According to the CPJ report, “The rise of 'democratators' -- popularly elected autocrats -- is alarming because it represents a new model for government control.”
Lara hit back saying that Chavez was the most tolerant of all Venezuelan presidents in Venezuela’s democratic era, and pointed out that Chavez did not suspend constitutional guarantees following the short-lived military coup against his government in April 2002, or during the two month long opposition-led oil strike in December 2002.
Lara’s response to the CPJ report comes in the wake of widespread criticism of the government’s decision announced in December last year not to renew the broadcast license for the privately-owned RCTV television channel, which expires in May this year.
In June 2006, the government announced it would be evaluating broadcasters’ adherence to the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, and warned that licenses up for review in 2007 might not be renewed. According to this media regulation law, passed in November 2004, violations of the law’s provisions can lead to fines and, in extreme cases, to a temporary or even permanent suspension of broadcast licenses.
CPJ immediately condemned the announcement saying, “We urge President Chavez to abstain from making these kinds of threatening commentaries, which inhibit the work of the press,” according to AFP. International media groups such as Paris-based Reporters without Borders and the International Press Institute also expressed their concern at the decision. The government argues it has good reason not to renew RCTV’s license, saying the channel was one of the main protagonists in the organization and execution of the 2002 coup, and actively misinformed the public during the coup when it claimed that Chavez government supporters were shooting at opposition demonstrators. The channel also hosted exclusive interviews with coup plotters and is accused by the government of failing to provide news coverage of the anti-coup demonstrators who took to the streets in support of Chavez, broadcasting cartoons instead. To top it all off, RCTV’s reputation as a coup-plotting channel stems from its support for the December 2002 oil strike, an attempt to force Chavez from office.
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
Venezuela’s Minister of Communications and Information, Willian Lara, yesterday rejected a report by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) which accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of “controlling, intimidating and censoring the media.”
The “Attacks on the Press” report by the New York-based CPJ, which calls itself “an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide” and which is funded by individuals, corporations and foundations, identified Chavez and his Russian counterpart President Putin among the worst offenders stating, “Presidents Chavez and Putin represent a generation of sophisticated, elected leaders who have created a legal framework to control, intimidate, and censor the news media,” according to the news agency AFP.
In response Lara stated, “The report by the self-proclaimed Committee for the Protection of Journalists is a rehash of the same old anti-governmental propaganda used by forces of the opposition through its television companies, radio stations, and newspapers since 1999,” according to the state news agency, ABN.
“Its falseness is patent when we observe the absolute freedom -even to spread lies for political ends- with which the press operates in Venezuela,” Lara added.
According to the CPJ report, “The rise of 'democratators' -- popularly elected autocrats -- is alarming because it represents a new model for government control.”
Lara hit back saying that Chavez was the most tolerant of all Venezuelan presidents in Venezuela’s democratic era, and pointed out that Chavez did not suspend constitutional guarantees following the short-lived military coup against his government in April 2002, or during the two month long opposition-led oil strike in December 2002.
Lara’s response to the CPJ report comes in the wake of widespread criticism of the government’s decision announced in December last year not to renew the broadcast license for the privately-owned RCTV television channel, which expires in May this year.
In June 2006, the government announced it would be evaluating broadcasters’ adherence to the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, and warned that licenses up for review in 2007 might not be renewed. According to this media regulation law, passed in November 2004, violations of the law’s provisions can lead to fines and, in extreme cases, to a temporary or even permanent suspension of broadcast licenses.
CPJ immediately condemned the announcement saying, “We urge President Chavez to abstain from making these kinds of threatening commentaries, which inhibit the work of the press,” according to AFP. International media groups such as Paris-based Reporters without Borders and the International Press Institute also expressed their concern at the decision. The government argues it has good reason not to renew RCTV’s license, saying the channel was one of the main protagonists in the organization and execution of the 2002 coup, and actively misinformed the public during the coup when it claimed that Chavez government supporters were shooting at opposition demonstrators. The channel also hosted exclusive interviews with coup plotters and is accused by the government of failing to provide news coverage of the anti-coup demonstrators who took to the streets in support of Chavez, broadcasting cartoons instead. To top it all off, RCTV’s reputation as a coup-plotting channel stems from its support for the December 2002 oil strike, an attempt to force Chavez from office.
Yes
I just rebought The Waiting to Exhale CD. Two previous copies went missing(with some suspected places of where they went) and it was definitely a gaping hole in my music collection.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
This Is How It Works
TLC
Not everybody knows just how to do it
Some just learn it on the way
Once you get it right, ain't nothin to it
If you wanna get it right, you gotta learn to pace
Make it smooth, take your time
Make it groove, in, out, in
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss, Kiss my ---,
ah, ah, ah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Some guys think they know the answers
Everybody knows how to make you scream
If most guys took time out their fantasies
Maybe we could stop our make believe
Make it smooth, take your time
Make it groove, in ,out, in
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss,
Kiss my ---, ah, ah, ah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Ready set go, you don't have to know
We can take forever, learn together any flow
Touch me slow, watch it grow
Kiss the tip, gently flow, be my ho and take the show
We can watch it in slo mo, when the sweet & lo drips
Don't forget to let me wet my finger tips
Write love letters back & forth across your lips
Spread my hips, count to eighty, eighty ways, eighty trips
Make it smooth, take you time
One time for you mind, two times if ya tense baby let it unwind
Make it groove, in, out, in
Three counts let it bou--nce to the motherfucking ounce
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss
Here we go, now you know, 4th down, let if flow back around come on Kiss my --- Kiss my, kiss my , mm-wah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Not everybody knows just how to do it
Some just learn it on the way
Once you get it right, ain't nothin to it
If you wanna get it right, you gotta learn to pace
Make it smooth, take your time
Make it groove, in, out, in
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss, Kiss my ---,
ah, ah, ah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Some guys think they know the answers
Everybody knows how to make you scream
If most guys took time out their fantasies
Maybe we could stop our make believe
Make it smooth, take your time
Make it groove, in ,out, in
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss,
Kiss my ---, ah, ah, ah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Ready set go, you don't have to know
We can take forever, learn together any flow
Touch me slow, watch it grow
Kiss the tip, gently flow, be my ho and take the show
We can watch it in slo mo, when the sweet & lo drips
Don't forget to let me wet my finger tips
Write love letters back & forth across your lips
Spread my hips, count to eighty, eighty ways, eighty trips
Make it smooth, take you time
One time for you mind, two times if ya tense baby let it unwind
Make it groove, in, out, in
Three counts let it bou--nce to the motherfucking ounce
Make it last, kiss, kiss, kiss
Here we go, now you know, 4th down, let if flow back around come on Kiss my --- Kiss my, kiss my , mm-wah
This is how it works
Wrap your hands around my body
This is how it works
Go due south and
This is how it works
Melt yourself into my body
This is how it works
Kiss my mouth
Everything
Mary J. Blige
My everything, everything, everything
You are my everything, you are my everything
You, my everything
It's all because of you
I'm never sad and blue
You brighten up my day
In your own special way
Whenever you're around
I'm never feeling down
You are my trusted friend
On you I can depend
You take me away from the pain and you bring me paradise
And then on a cloudy day, you brought sunshine into my life
It never occurred to me, the first time I saw your face
I would fall so deep in love that your love can't be replaced
You are my (you are) everything (you are my everything)
Love so good (love so good, so good, so good, so good) only you can bring
You are my (you are my) everything
You are everything, and everything is you
My darling, only you can make my dreams come true
And every night I pray you'll never go away
I promise I will try until the day I die
To treat you like a king cause you are my everything
(When your loving me) with your loving arms around me
(When your loving me) said i feel so safe about security
(When your loving me) forever oooo i want you to hold me
my every every every everything everything
(Repeat Chorus til End)
Take me away
[fading]
My everything, everything, everything
You are my everything, you are my everything
You, my everything
It's all because of you
I'm never sad and blue
You brighten up my day
In your own special way
Whenever you're around
I'm never feeling down
You are my trusted friend
On you I can depend
You take me away from the pain and you bring me paradise
And then on a cloudy day, you brought sunshine into my life
It never occurred to me, the first time I saw your face
I would fall so deep in love that your love can't be replaced
You are my (you are) everything (you are my everything)
Love so good (love so good, so good, so good, so good) only you can bring
You are my (you are my) everything
You are everything, and everything is you
My darling, only you can make my dreams come true
And every night I pray you'll never go away
I promise I will try until the day I die
To treat you like a king cause you are my everything
(When your loving me) with your loving arms around me
(When your loving me) said i feel so safe about security
(When your loving me) forever oooo i want you to hold me
my every every every everything everything
(Repeat Chorus til End)
Take me away
[fading]
An Update on Ortega in Nicauragua
I certainly haven't been keeping up completely-but it is great news that Daniel Ortega won his election in Nicauragua!
HungryBlues Post on First Reagan Campaign
1980 Recording of Reagan at Neshoba County Fair Found
Last week the Neshoba Democrat reported the discovery of a recording of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign kickoff speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi.
While we wait to find out whether there will be public access to Reagan’s speech, it may be informative to peer into the place where Reagan spoke. Melina was at the 2005 Neshoba County Fair, just one month after Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman:
The Neshoba County Fair’s most famous role is as a venue for Mississippi political speakers. There are only 2.8 million people in the state, and a lot of the most important ones like to hang out at the Fair in their expensive hovels, so as a result, any Mississippi politician who is seriously stumping for office has to put on his shirtsleeves and take a turn sweating it out at the outdoor podium. It’s traditional. Sometimes it’s not just Mississippians who show up to pay their dues — none other than Ronald Reagan kicked off his first presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair. This year was not an election year, so the schedulers tried to book current and former elected officials to speak. The turnout was great. There were about four former state governors who showed up, as well as the current one, which made for an astonishing sight….
Before any governors spoke, the state attorney general Jim Hood had spoken - briefly, but intensely. He was the one who made the decision to re-open the case of the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, which had ended only a few weeks before in Neshoba County with the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, a native Neshoban. My boss was very apprehensive that he would not get any support from the audience when he spoke or that he might even be booed.
Well, he was not booed, but there was no standing ovation either. He got a little polite applause when he came up to the podium, but in the noisy outside auditorium, wood-hewn benches under a roof with fair-goers milling all around, you could hear a pin drop when he began to speak. And he didn’t mince words. “Aren’t you proud of Mississippi?” he started off. “Aren’t you proud to be from Neshoba County and proud to know that Mississippi did the right thing?”
The audience seemed, I’d say, maybe a little bit proud. They did clap, a little bit. But many of them sat very, very quietly, thinking who knows what. Overt racism is not in fashion in Mississippi politics. You just get these little crypto-racist moments … and also this weird overall attitude toward their history: as far as I can tell, the general mentality of white politicians and of many white Mississippians is that they work very hard to believe that there were never any Klan members and lynching-watchers and quiet racists among their parents and friends and family. They kind of like to think that Killen and the other men who murdered the civil rights workers were evil men from a little evil space ship, who made landfall in Neshoba county, did their evil deeds without any knowledge or support from the community, and were either brought to justice or quietly disappeared somewhere (perhaps to their evil home planet) where they are far too far away for the arm of justice to reach. And so, we should put the past behind us. And so, Mississippi and her fair native (non space-ship-based) citizens have nothing to be ashamed of. And so, everything is fine now and equal now. And so, it’s not very nice of Attorney General Jim Hood to go on bringing it up, even if he is praising Mississippians for “doing what was right.”
Essentially, they’re fighting a battle to avoid historical context. Holocaust eduation is mandatory in Mississippi public schools. Civil rights history education is not.
Neshoba County is 20% black, and Mississippi is 36% black. But I only saw about two black families visiting the fair the entire day I was there, and one local said that she thought that *none* of the cabins were owned by black families. But it’s not that they’re not there –it’s that they’re not guests, not visitors. Black people maintain the fair grounds. They drive the horses in the harness races that fairgoers bet on.
The current governor was the last to speak. He is this big red-faced guy who, rumor has it, is planning to run for president in 2008…. He gave a cheerful speech about his his successes (after a year and a half in office, he claims, job creation rates are at their highest since 1999) and declared Mississippi to be the safest state in the country for the unborn. He was also the only governor to not mention the trial at all. I guess he thinks it’s over and done with, and that everyone should just be looking toward the future.
This long excerpt includes the parts of Melina’s account that relate most directly to what I cover here, but there is quite a bit more, and it is all worth reading.
In 1980 Neshoba County’s only claim to fame was as the location where a band of Klansmen murdered James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman on June 21, 1964. As noted in the Neshoba Democrat article about the Reagan recording,
Reagan’s visit to the Fair was his first public appearance following his nomination with over 30,000 said to be in attendance.
Before the assembled throng, the presidential hopeful declared:
I believe in states’ rights. I believe that we’ve distorted the balance of our government by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to the federal establishment.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson has rightly called this a battle cry, the launching of the Reagan revolution, a coded promise to “roll the clock back to the pre-civil rights days when blacks, minorities and women knew their place.”
Last week the Neshoba Democrat reported the discovery of a recording of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign kickoff speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi.
While we wait to find out whether there will be public access to Reagan’s speech, it may be informative to peer into the place where Reagan spoke. Melina was at the 2005 Neshoba County Fair, just one month after Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman:
The Neshoba County Fair’s most famous role is as a venue for Mississippi political speakers. There are only 2.8 million people in the state, and a lot of the most important ones like to hang out at the Fair in their expensive hovels, so as a result, any Mississippi politician who is seriously stumping for office has to put on his shirtsleeves and take a turn sweating it out at the outdoor podium. It’s traditional. Sometimes it’s not just Mississippians who show up to pay their dues — none other than Ronald Reagan kicked off his first presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair. This year was not an election year, so the schedulers tried to book current and former elected officials to speak. The turnout was great. There were about four former state governors who showed up, as well as the current one, which made for an astonishing sight….
Before any governors spoke, the state attorney general Jim Hood had spoken - briefly, but intensely. He was the one who made the decision to re-open the case of the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, which had ended only a few weeks before in Neshoba County with the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, a native Neshoban. My boss was very apprehensive that he would not get any support from the audience when he spoke or that he might even be booed.
Well, he was not booed, but there was no standing ovation either. He got a little polite applause when he came up to the podium, but in the noisy outside auditorium, wood-hewn benches under a roof with fair-goers milling all around, you could hear a pin drop when he began to speak. And he didn’t mince words. “Aren’t you proud of Mississippi?” he started off. “Aren’t you proud to be from Neshoba County and proud to know that Mississippi did the right thing?”
The audience seemed, I’d say, maybe a little bit proud. They did clap, a little bit. But many of them sat very, very quietly, thinking who knows what. Overt racism is not in fashion in Mississippi politics. You just get these little crypto-racist moments … and also this weird overall attitude toward their history: as far as I can tell, the general mentality of white politicians and of many white Mississippians is that they work very hard to believe that there were never any Klan members and lynching-watchers and quiet racists among their parents and friends and family. They kind of like to think that Killen and the other men who murdered the civil rights workers were evil men from a little evil space ship, who made landfall in Neshoba county, did their evil deeds without any knowledge or support from the community, and were either brought to justice or quietly disappeared somewhere (perhaps to their evil home planet) where they are far too far away for the arm of justice to reach. And so, we should put the past behind us. And so, Mississippi and her fair native (non space-ship-based) citizens have nothing to be ashamed of. And so, everything is fine now and equal now. And so, it’s not very nice of Attorney General Jim Hood to go on bringing it up, even if he is praising Mississippians for “doing what was right.”
Essentially, they’re fighting a battle to avoid historical context. Holocaust eduation is mandatory in Mississippi public schools. Civil rights history education is not.
Neshoba County is 20% black, and Mississippi is 36% black. But I only saw about two black families visiting the fair the entire day I was there, and one local said that she thought that *none* of the cabins were owned by black families. But it’s not that they’re not there –it’s that they’re not guests, not visitors. Black people maintain the fair grounds. They drive the horses in the harness races that fairgoers bet on.
The current governor was the last to speak. He is this big red-faced guy who, rumor has it, is planning to run for president in 2008…. He gave a cheerful speech about his his successes (after a year and a half in office, he claims, job creation rates are at their highest since 1999) and declared Mississippi to be the safest state in the country for the unborn. He was also the only governor to not mention the trial at all. I guess he thinks it’s over and done with, and that everyone should just be looking toward the future.
This long excerpt includes the parts of Melina’s account that relate most directly to what I cover here, but there is quite a bit more, and it is all worth reading.
In 1980 Neshoba County’s only claim to fame was as the location where a band of Klansmen murdered James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman on June 21, 1964. As noted in the Neshoba Democrat article about the Reagan recording,
Reagan’s visit to the Fair was his first public appearance following his nomination with over 30,000 said to be in attendance.
Before the assembled throng, the presidential hopeful declared:
I believe in states’ rights. I believe that we’ve distorted the balance of our government by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to the federal establishment.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson has rightly called this a battle cry, the launching of the Reagan revolution, a coded promise to “roll the clock back to the pre-civil rights days when blacks, minorities and women knew their place.”
Also From Hungry Blues
Money for Meals for Public Housing Residents Going to DC!
I received this email from Bill Quigley today. Bill Quigley is one of the lawyers for the public housing residents in New Orleans who have brought a class action suit against HANO and HUD to stop the planned demolitions of their homes. Please consider helping out.
From: bill quigleyDate: Jan 31, 2007 11:13 AMSubject: Raising $ for Meals for Public Housing Residents Going to DC!
Friends:
On Sunday morning, about 50 public housing residents will be boarding a bus to go to DC where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to NOLA. They will return Wednesday.
The residents have taken time off of work, had to make their own arrangements for child care, and the like. The bus trip and a place to stay will be donated.
But people still need to eat. This is a very long bus ride.
I estimate that people will need at least $50 per person to eat during the trip up and back.
This is a chance for the rest of us who are not going with our sisters and brothers to show our solidarity with them.
Please donate as much as you can to help pay for meals.
I will collect the money and distribute it directly to the residents as they board the bus. Please send or deliver donations (preferably cash or check made out to me) to me at:
Loyola Law ClinicRoom 120 (Law School)526 Pine StNew Orleans, LA 70118
I will send out an email listing everyone who donated.
Show your support - and pitch in please.
Peace,
Bill Quigley
For more information on the class action suit and the public housing residents’ fight for justice, see the justiceforneworleans.org, a website of the Loyola Law Clinic.
I received this email from Bill Quigley today. Bill Quigley is one of the lawyers for the public housing residents in New Orleans who have brought a class action suit against HANO and HUD to stop the planned demolitions of their homes. Please consider helping out.
From: bill quigley
Friends:
On Sunday morning, about 50 public housing residents will be boarding a bus to go to DC where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to NOLA. They will return Wednesday.
The residents have taken time off of work, had to make their own arrangements for child care, and the like. The bus trip and a place to stay will be donated.
But people still need to eat. This is a very long bus ride.
I estimate that people will need at least $50 per person to eat during the trip up and back.
This is a chance for the rest of us who are not going with our sisters and brothers to show our solidarity with them.
Please donate as much as you can to help pay for meals.
I will collect the money and distribute it directly to the residents as they board the bus. Please send or deliver donations (preferably cash or check made out to me) to me at:
Loyola Law ClinicRoom 120 (Law School)526 Pine StNew Orleans, LA 70118
I will send out an email listing everyone who donated.
Show your support - and pitch in please.
Peace,
Bill Quigley
For more information on the class action suit and the public housing residents’ fight for justice, see the justiceforneworleans.org, a website of the Loyola Law Clinic.
From HungryBlues
Ask Barney Frank to Let New Orleans Public Housing Residents Speak THIS TUESDAY (2/6)
ACTION ALERT
Without any input from New Orleans public housing residents, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has approved plans to demolish thousands of livable public housing apartments in New Orleans.
MA Residents Can Help Make New Orleans Public Housing Residents Heard
Please call Representative Barney Frank today and ask him to guarantee two slots for New Orleans public housing residents to speak at this Tuesday’s (Feb. 6) meeting of the House Committee on Financial Services. Representative Frank is Chair of the Financial Services Committee, which has oversight of HUD.
Call Barney Frank now at 202-225-5931 (DC office) or 617-332-3920 (District Office, Newton).
(Make sure you let Frank’s staff know if you are his constituents from the 4th Congressional District of MA. In Metro Boston that includes Brookline and Newton.)
On Sunday morning, February 4, fifty New Orleans public housing residents boarded a bus to Washington, DC, where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to New Orleans.
The residents have taken time off from work, made arrangements for childcare and have made other sacrifices in hopes that they will be allowed to speak about their desire and their right to return to their homes. Please take a few minutes out of your day to call Representative Frank and let him know you want the New Orleans public housing residents to speak at the House Financial Services Committee meeting this Tuesday, February 6.
For more information, visit the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network:
Fact Sheet: http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/30
Condition of the Projects (includes photos): http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/10
4th Congressional District: http:// fairhousingnetwork.org/node/8
ACTION ALERT
Without any input from New Orleans public housing residents, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has approved plans to demolish thousands of livable public housing apartments in New Orleans.
MA Residents Can Help Make New Orleans Public Housing Residents Heard
Please call Representative Barney Frank today and ask him to guarantee two slots for New Orleans public housing residents to speak at this Tuesday’s (Feb. 6) meeting of the House Committee on Financial Services. Representative Frank is Chair of the Financial Services Committee, which has oversight of HUD.
Call Barney Frank now at 202-225-5931 (DC office) or 617-332-3920 (District Office, Newton).
(Make sure you let Frank’s staff know if you are his constituents from the 4th Congressional District of MA. In Metro Boston that includes Brookline and Newton.)
On Sunday morning, February 4, fifty New Orleans public housing residents boarded a bus to Washington, DC, where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to New Orleans.
The residents have taken time off from work, made arrangements for childcare and have made other sacrifices in hopes that they will be allowed to speak about their desire and their right to return to their homes. Please take a few minutes out of your day to call Representative Frank and let him know you want the New Orleans public housing residents to speak at the House Financial Services Committee meeting this Tuesday, February 6.
For more information, visit the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network:
Fact Sheet: http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/30
Condition of the Projects (includes photos): http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/10
4th Congressional District: http:// fairhousingnetwork.org/node/8
U.S. Involved in Kidnapping of Iranian Official
This was on the newswire this morning. This comes not to long after several Iranian diplomats were illegally detained in Iraq and admist growing talk amongst people in the knew that the United States intends to widen the war in Iraq into Iran. Write your congresspeople, write the white house and tell them this must stop!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Strangefruit
Billy Holiday
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Something to Think About
It was pointed out to me tonight that the U.S. and the British may be using their old methods of divide and conquer in Iraq amongst the Shiite and Sunnis.
Tainted Love
Sometimes I feel
I've got to
Run away
I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night (chorus)
Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love
Now I know
I've got to
Run away
I've got to
Get away
You don't really want
IT any more from me
To make things right
You need someone to hold you tight
And you'LL think love is to pray
But I'm sorry I don't pray that way (chorus...)
Don't touch me please I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you though you hurt me so
Now I'm going to pack my things and go
Tainted love, tainted love (x2)
Touch me baby, tainted love (x2)
Tainted love (x3)
I've got to
Run away
I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night (chorus)
Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love
Now I know
I've got to
Run away
I've got to
Get away
You don't really want
IT any more from me
To make things right
You need someone to hold you tight
And you'LL think love is to pray
But I'm sorry I don't pray that way (chorus...)
Don't touch me please I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you though you hurt me so
Now I'm going to pack my things and go
Tainted love, tainted love (x2)
Touch me baby, tainted love (x2)
Tainted love (x3)
My Oscar Picks
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Leonardo DiCaprio in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Gosling in “Half Nelson” (THINKFilm)
Peter O’Toole in “Venus” (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)
Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jackie Earle Haley in “Little Children” (New Line)
Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Helen Mirren in “The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox)
Kate Winslet in “Little Children” (New Line)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Adriana Barraza in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”(Paramount Classics and Participant Productions) Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”(Buena Vista)Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount)Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale
Best motion picture of the year
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films ProductionAlejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)A Warner Bros. Pictures Production Graham King, Producer
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)A DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures ProductionClint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, Producers
“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)A Big Beach/Bona Fide ProductionDavid T. Friendly, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub, Producers
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)A Granada ProductionAndy Harries, Christine Langan and Tracey Seaward, Producers
Leonardo DiCaprio in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Gosling in “Half Nelson” (THINKFilm)
Peter O’Toole in “Venus” (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)
Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jackie Earle Haley in “Little Children” (New Line)
Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Helen Mirren in “The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox)
Kate Winslet in “Little Children” (New Line)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Adriana Barraza in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”(Paramount Classics and Participant Productions) Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”(Buena Vista)Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount)Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale
Best motion picture of the year
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films ProductionAlejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)A Warner Bros. Pictures Production Graham King, Producer
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)A DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures ProductionClint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, Producers
“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)A Big Beach/Bona Fide ProductionDavid T. Friendly, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub, Producers
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)A Granada ProductionAndy Harries, Christine Langan and Tracey Seaward, Producers
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Sittin' Up In My Room
Brandy
Seems like ever since, the first day we met
There is no one else I think of more than you
Can't seem to forget, can't get you out my head
Cause the verdicts in I'm crazy over you
How can one be down, tell me where to start
Cause everytime you smile, I feel tremors in my heart
I have but one concern, how can I get with you
Til my day comes, here's what I'm gonna do.
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Pray that you'll invest, in my happiness
All it takes is just one simple call from you
Turn my heart around, if I'm making ground
Pretty baby please, tell me if I'm getting through
Tell me what is up
You see I need to know
Tell if I'm far, or if I'm getting close
I have but one concern, and that one concern is you
Til I'm with you, here's what I'm gonna do
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
How can one be down, tell me where to start
Cause everytime you smile, I feel tremors in my heart
I have but one concern, how can i get with you
Til my day comes, here's what I'm gonna do
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Seems like ever since, the first day we met
There is no one else I think of more than you
Can't seem to forget, can't get you out my head
Cause the verdicts in I'm crazy over you
How can one be down, tell me where to start
Cause everytime you smile, I feel tremors in my heart
I have but one concern, how can I get with you
Til my day comes, here's what I'm gonna do.
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Pray that you'll invest, in my happiness
All it takes is just one simple call from you
Turn my heart around, if I'm making ground
Pretty baby please, tell me if I'm getting through
Tell me what is up
You see I need to know
Tell if I'm far, or if I'm getting close
I have but one concern, and that one concern is you
Til I'm with you, here's what I'm gonna do
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
How can one be down, tell me where to start
Cause everytime you smile, I feel tremors in my heart
I have but one concern, how can i get with you
Til my day comes, here's what I'm gonna do
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
Be sittin up in my room
Back here thinkin bout you
I must confess, I'm a mess for you
It Hurts Like Hell
Aretha
Oh baby
Oh oh babe
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh baby
Love was always supposed to be
Something wonderful to me
To watch it grow inside yourself
To feel your heart beside itself
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know you've given all you can)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(You do your best but it's still much too sad)
Sometimes the pain is just too much, oh oh
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
True love, it has no hiding place
It's not something you just put away
It's always there inside of you
Oh, and it shows in everything you do
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know you've given it your best)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(You feel a thousand miles from happiness)
Sometimes the pain is just too much, oh oh oh
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
Oh oh, oh oh
Here we are, the two of us
So full of love, so little trust
But dying for some tenderness
Ohh, but too afraid to take the step
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know what it can put you through)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(There's nothing funny if it's killing you)
Sometimes the pain is just too much
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
I know if there is any chance
For us to find our happiness
We've got to learn to let it go
Ohh, forget all the pain we know
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(Sometimes it hurts so bad, baby)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(Sometimes it hurts to even laugh, oh)
And it hurts like hell, that's the way
Oh baby, that's the way it feels
Yeah, yeah,
oh, yeah
Oh baby
Oh oh babe
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh baby
Love was always supposed to be
Something wonderful to me
To watch it grow inside yourself
To feel your heart beside itself
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know you've given all you can)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(You do your best but it's still much too sad)
Sometimes the pain is just too much, oh oh
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
True love, it has no hiding place
It's not something you just put away
It's always there inside of you
Oh, and it shows in everything you do
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know you've given it your best)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(You feel a thousand miles from happiness)
Sometimes the pain is just too much, oh oh oh
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
Oh oh, oh oh
Here we are, the two of us
So full of love, so little trust
But dying for some tenderness
Ohh, but too afraid to take the step
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(When you know what it can put you through)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(There's nothing funny if it's killing you)
Sometimes the pain is just too much
And it hurts like hell, that's the way it feels
I know if there is any chance
For us to find our happiness
We've got to learn to let it go
Ohh, forget all the pain we know
Sometimes it hurts to love so bad
(Sometimes it hurts so bad, baby)
Sometimes it hurts to even laugh
(Sometimes it hurts to even laugh, oh)
And it hurts like hell, that's the way
Oh baby, that's the way it feels
Yeah, yeah,
oh, yeah
Let It Flow--Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton
First thing monday morning
Im gonna pack my tears away
Got no cause to look back
Im lookin for me a better day
You see the thing bout love
Is that its not enough
If the only thing it brings you is pain
There comes a time when we could all make a
Change
Just let go
And let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Everythings gonna work out right, yknow
Let go, and let it flow,
let it flow, let it flow
Just let it go
Dont nobody want no broke heart
And dont nobody want no two time losers
Aint nobody gonna love you like you are
If you take whatever he brings your way
You see the thing of it
Is we deserve respect
But we cant demand respect without change
There comes a time when we must go our own way
Just let go
And let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Everythings gonna work out right, yknow
Let go, and let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Just let it go
Sometimes love it can work out right
Sometimes youll never know
But if it brings only pain in your life
Dont be afraid to let it go
First thing monday morning
Im gonna pack my tears away
Got no cause to look back
Im lookin for me a better day
You see the thing bout love
Is that its not enough
If the only thing it brings you is pain
There comes a time when we could all make a
Change
Just let go
And let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Everythings gonna work out right, yknow
Let go, and let it flow,
let it flow, let it flow
Just let it go
Dont nobody want no broke heart
And dont nobody want no two time losers
Aint nobody gonna love you like you are
If you take whatever he brings your way
You see the thing of it
Is we deserve respect
But we cant demand respect without change
There comes a time when we must go our own way
Just let go
And let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Everythings gonna work out right, yknow
Let go, and let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Just let it go
Sometimes love it can work out right
Sometimes youll never know
But if it brings only pain in your life
Dont be afraid to let it go
Friday, February 02, 2007
The Case of Lt. Watada
You can read about Lt. Watada, whose mother Carolyn Ho spoke here today, at this link.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Report on Chicago Budget Cuts and Their Fundamental Blow to Healthcare by Mildred Williamson
On the evening of Tuesday, January 23, 2007, I came early to the public hearing on the proposed Cook County Budget that was held at the Cook County Markham Courthouse. I was encouraged by the strong attendance and enthusiastic and determined crowd of participants. There were people in wheel chairs, and many walking with canes, in addition to the many ordinary workers just seeking to be heard and to participate in the meeting. The majority of the 1000+ people there could not participate in the democratic process because the room was much too small to accommodate all of those in attendance. There was no remote audio-visual transmittal of the proceedings, which prevented many people who had signed up in advance to speak, from even hearing their names to come forward. Needless to say, there was no way for the forthcoming speakers to hear what the other speakers were saying, in order to revise or further tailor their remarks to prevent redundancy. Most important, however, is that a potential "E2" situation was unfolding in that, the crowd became so large and so tightly packed together around a single staircase, in increasingly uncomfortable heat conditions, that were it not for the alertness of several Cook County officers and the fact that many in attendance were knowledgeable healthcare workers on public safety and injury prevention, serious problems could have occurred. As it was, I saw several people become overheated, faint, and many left just because they became frustrated about being packed in such close quarters, unable to hear or see the proceedings or, being unable to sit down anywhere for respite. Some people left in frustration, without providing their testimony. Even members of the press were disallowed into the meeting room until more than an hour had passed of deliberations. You and all of the other Commissioners had to know that attendance would be higher than usual due to the circumstances surrounding this budget proposal. A larger, disabled accessible, well-ventilated space should have been secured to accommodate all who wanted to participate, even for those whose sole desire was to just be there and listen. A small meeting space at this time, or at any time sends a message to the people that their participation is not welcome, and that their democratic rights mean nothing. For the record, I am deeply opposed to the proposed Cook County budget as presented, and I will say more about that at the next proposed hearing, to be sure. However, right now, I have the added burden of being ashamed at veteran elected officials for being so insensitive to the democratic process and the right of ordinary people to be respected and heard. From this point on - I plead with you to choose venues that respect the rights and needs of people to be heard and without user-unfriendly barriers of spaces too small, inadequate audio-visual assistance, no language translation, no sign language and too little consideration for those with mild to serious physical impairments. What happened last night was unacceptable and potentially dangerous from a public safety standpoint. It should never happen again.
I Cried Real Tears Today
I cried real tears today over the death of Molly Ivins. She was one of our most valiant warriors. Someone I could look to whenever I felt the need to retreat or turn to cynicism. She was a powerful voice and one that constantly cut George Bush down to size. Why? Why?Why?
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
What a Horrible Loss, Sidney Sheldon died at 89
Sidney Sheldon was a wonderful writer. I enjoyed several of his books, most especially Master of the Game. Wow, what a story that was! He was a great talent.
Iraq
Nixon ignored the people during the Vietnam War and said that he would not be swayed by public protest. Bush has said that he won't listen to Congress? Kings have been deposed and beheaded for less. I think it is time we start talking impeachement. Katrina alone ought to drive that man out of office.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Global Warming
These people can keep arguing that there is no global warming, but when we all end up dead we will see.
Monday, January 29, 2007
One thing I had been thinking about was that I have never been good at forming clubs. When I was in the fourth grade on, I would always start these clubs, but they never lasted for very long. Among them I started several writing circles(those were always fun), a gossip club, and the last I started a Bronte Society when I was in high school. I was totally something else. My writing circles went well, but my friend S got mad and the club disbanded because we appointed her secretary and kept telling her to "fax this."
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Four Women
Nina Simone
My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is wooly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
It's been inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah
My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me
My name is SIFFRONIA
My name is Siffronia
My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
And my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me
My name is Sweet Thing
My name is Sweet Thing
My skin is brown
My manner is tough
I'll kill the first mother I see
My life has been rough
I'm awfully bitter these days
because my parents were slaves
what do they call me
My
name
is
PEACHES!
My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is wooly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
It's been inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah
My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me
My name is SIFFRONIA
My name is Siffronia
My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
And my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me
My name is Sweet Thing
My name is Sweet Thing
My skin is brown
My manner is tough
I'll kill the first mother I see
My life has been rough
I'm awfully bitter these days
because my parents were slaves
what do they call me
My
name
is
PEACHES!
See Line Woman
Nina Simone
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah yeah
alright ye
see-line woman
she drink coffee
she drink tea
and then go home
see-line woman
see-line woman
dressed in green
wears silk stockings
with golden seams
see-line woman
see-line woman
dressed in redmake a man lose his head
see-line womansee-line woman
black dress on
for a thousand dollars
she wail and she moan
see-line woman
wiggle wiggle
turn like a cat
wink at a man
and he wink back
now child
see-line woman
empty his pockets
and wreck his days
make him love her
and she'll fly away
see-line woman
take it on out now
empty his pockets
and she wreck his days
and she make him love her
then she sure fly away
she got a black dress on
for a thousand dollars
she wail and she moan...
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah yeah
alright ye
see-line woman
she drink coffee
she drink tea
and then go home
see-line woman
see-line woman
dressed in green
wears silk stockings
with golden seams
see-line woman
see-line woman
dressed in redmake a man lose his head
see-line womansee-line woman
black dress on
for a thousand dollars
she wail and she moan
see-line woman
wiggle wiggle
turn like a cat
wink at a man
and he wink back
now child
see-line woman
empty his pockets
and wreck his days
make him love her
and she'll fly away
see-line woman
take it on out now
empty his pockets
and she wreck his days
and she make him love her
then she sure fly away
she got a black dress on
for a thousand dollars
she wail and she moan...
Saga of Jenny
Kurt Weill
Jenny made her mind up when she was three
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas day
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
She lost one dad and mother, a sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve
That into foreign languages she would delve
But at seventeen to Vassar, it was quite a blow
That in twenty-seven languages she couldn't say no
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
To Jenny I'm beholden, her heart was big and golden
But she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up at twenty-two
To get herself a husband was the thing to do
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs
And she got herself a husband--but he wasn't hers
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
Deserved a bed of roses, but history discloses
That she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one
She would write her memoirs before she was done
The very day her book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in some thirty-three states
Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five
She would live to be the oldest woman alive
But gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six
Jenny points a moral with which you cannot quarrel,
Makes a lot of common sense--Jenny and her saga prove that you're gaga
If you don't keep sitting on the fence
Jenny and her story point the way to glory
To all man and womankind
Anyone with vision comes to this decision--
Don't make up your mind
Jenny made her mind up when she was three
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas day
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
She lost one dad and mother, a sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve
That into foreign languages she would delve
But at seventeen to Vassar, it was quite a blow
That in twenty-seven languages she couldn't say no
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
To Jenny I'm beholden, her heart was big and golden
But she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up at twenty-two
To get herself a husband was the thing to do
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs
And she got herself a husband--but he wasn't hers
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
Deserved a bed of roses, but history discloses
That she would make up her mind
Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one
She would write her memoirs before she was done
The very day her book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in some thirty-three states
Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five
She would live to be the oldest woman alive
But gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six
Jenny points a moral with which you cannot quarrel,
Makes a lot of common sense--Jenny and her saga prove that you're gaga
If you don't keep sitting on the fence
Jenny and her story point the way to glory
To all man and womankind
Anyone with vision comes to this decision--
Don't make up your mind
Saturday, January 27, 2007
I was just thinking about how I do nothing but wait all of the time, however that thought led me to thinking of something,. At my cousin Voncile's funeral the minster gave a wonderful sermon on waiting and it is something I must always remember. Wait means to be of service. When you are waiting, you are to be of service. God that is a wonderful revelation.
UNCF Tribute to Aretha
Fantasia rocked the fuck out of Rock Steady at the UNCF tribute to Aretha Franklin. Chaka was powerful with RESPECT!
This is a Great Interview with the Poet Ai
It felt very inclusive, I think, for a lot of people.
Yeah. And for Native Americans and Indians -- well, we just call ourselves Indians here; I'm vice president of the Native American faculty, too, so I have a lot of duties now here -- so it was another win for them, too, and for Oklahoma, which is a state that's had a lot of problems, like the Oklahoma City bombing. You know, that's the thing about minority faculty that I don't know if people understand: you are not simply filling one role; you don't go to a school just as a faculty member. You have duties. Like I am standing in for Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians at my school, generally, because I'm the only minority faculty in the English Department.
Seriously?
Yeah. There's a man from India, but that's it.
Is that something that you choose?
What? To help? To stand in?
To be there, as opposed to someplace where you would...
Oh! Well, I was here as a visitor, just for a year, and then when I won the Book Award, they offered me tenure starting in January. So I won the Book Award in November, and they offered me a full professorship with tenure in January. And I was like, "Well, Ai, a bird in the hand, you know... this is a really good offer." So I thought, well, I'll just take it. So I sort of ... they made it so fast, I sort of didn't think about it. And I'm here doing research on my Indian family. I'm not done with my research, and they gave me a lot of money, too, so you know, it's a good deal! There are probably other places I'd like. I wouldn't mind being in Arizona, but Arizona didn't make me an offer! And I'm doin' okay. I don't know. Oklahoma certainly has its share of bigotry, which I feel I have certainly experienced. I haven't talked to the powers-that-be about it, but I certainly feel that there's some out there, and I'm not used to the kinds of encounter here, and some of it has been anti-Indian. [laughs] So I'm gettin' it from everywhere! I talked to this taxi driver about it, 'cause she's trying to find her Cherokee grandmother. She said, "Oh, they're very prejudiced towards Indians here." And I said, "Well, why?" And she said, "Well, they think they have everything." I said, "Well, they lost everything!" So there's definitely some of that in my area of Oklahoma.
The resentment?
Oh yeah, I've heard that. Well, I've certainly had some problems; let's just put it like that. Some racial, and some sexual. It's a mix, when you're minority faculty and a woman, because it's race and sex. I'm not trouble-free.
Do you feel that from the other side, too, where you get exoticized as a woman of color, and given all sorts of exotic praise or put up as window dressing?
Oh, I'm sure it happens. I don't think I'm getting that here actually, which I guess is a compliment to the place. But I have sometimes wondered about the amount of praise I was getting. Slightly. [laughs] But it always happens, when you're a minority. I don't think I've been over-praised; I write good poems. I just think of it like that. I don't question it too much.
I never think of myself as a token. Anytime people try to make me one, I just reject it. I never really capitalized on my minority status. I didn't really want to do that. There were instances when I was younger when I certainly could have done that. I'm not an enrolled tribe member now, but I'd mentioned it in a magazine somewhere, and Indian people wrote me and stuff, but it seemed like I have so many mixtures, it wasn't right of me to capitalize on my Indian blood. And that might have been skewed, you know, I might have been wrong, but it's been proved to me since I moved here that it's not too late, and it's your family, so you have a right. I have a right to go in there and say, "I have this and that Indian blood."
It's real interesting here, 'cause my experience with the family background is not uncommon here; things that happened in my family are rather common here, and that's been good for me to see. Like, for instance, some of the Indian women married with whites and didn't get on the rolls, because they didn't want to be on the rolls. They wanted to be safe, didn't want to be Indian. And you would think, like when I was in Arizona, my opinion would have been, "Oh, that's bad; they were ashamed." But since I moved to Oklahoma and I can understand the historical circumstances, I understand that, and I'm not judging people for what they did then. They were trying to survive. But it raises interesting moral questions, and in some of my research I have to get the case files, and one family said they had a Choctaw mother, so they rushed out to Mississippi when they were doing the final rolls, and they tried to get on them. And the Choctaw/Chickasaw people questioned them over and over again. They would say, "Well, how does she look?" They got real down to it. They would say, "Was her hair kinky or straight?" I mean, it was totally naked. Over and over again, they'd describe her. She sounded Indian to me, but they went as far as to forge a letter from a Chief, saying she was Indian. They did bad things, and a lot of the names were similar to my family names. [laughs] I said, "Oh, they're pretty under-handed here; hmmmm, they could be family!" Two of the sons were in the Confederate Army, okay? So that would have been something. In the end, not enough names matched up, so they weren't my family, but they were denied tribal membership. But how would I have dealt with that? Two sons in the Confederate Army, for god's sake!
So there's a lot of interesting stuff in Oklahoma. They had slaves, too, you know, the "five civilized tribes," so there's all the different roles and mixtures, and it's just fascinating. So there is a rhyme or reason for my being here. I almost feel my great-grandfather, like the ghosts are out there. There are still things being hashed over today that began back when, on the Trail of Tears, for instance. If you tap into your ancestors, if you tap into the ghosts of these ancestors, they are still doing things. They are still saying, "Granddaughter, I want you to look into this for me." That's the way I feel about my great-grandfather, sometimes. He's saying, "You know, I want you to check on this; check on these mineral rights to this land that we have." So I'm looking for a deed, 'cause they sold the land, but they kept the mineral rights. It's all kinds of stuff here; it's just totally rich.
Sounds a little like the stuff that you touched on in "Passing Through."
Yeah, although I fictionalized it, so it's a woman who's half White. But yeah, that poem was sort of opening the door to what I'm actually working on for a memoir, for my own history. But, as far as I can tell, there wasn't any rape involved in what went on with my family's mixing; they willingly went to the other side or whatever, so that's interesting, too. But I don't know all the details. I have to track everything. I don't know whether I'll ever learn everything, but I'm trying to track some things down.
One woman here is Creek, and her grandmother was at Indian school when a White man married her when she was 12, and it was to get her land, see. So it's possible that my great-great-grandmother may not have even been married to this man, but she had a child with him. But it may have been that he had another wife; that's what I'm trying to zero in on. A White wife, see. Some of them had two and three families. One of the White men I looked at, he had several Choctaw wives. [laughs] He divorced one, and they said, "Why did you divorce?" He said, "I wanna get me another one!" It was weird like that. It was weird stuff! And then the last letter in his file is from one of the Choctaw wives, and they said, "Well, we understand he's a fugitive from justice." And I said, "Oh, could be my family; it's so wild!" It was really wild, you know.
These are your people?
[laughs] These are people I was hopin' might be my relatives! No, I haven't found them. You know, I'm lookin' up family names and a lot of times you get one name that's the same, and you don't know until you send for the case file from the national archives. Then you have all the information. So one name might be a family name, but then when you look at all the other wives, sons and daughters, they don't match up, right, so it's not your family.
And this will be your first novel?
Well, memoir. I wrote that novel, but it hasn't come out. I haven't dealt with my family history at all yet, so it'll all be in the memoir. It's so fascinating and interesting, it's kind of a riveting tale. I think it will be. It'll be part history, part memoir. There's not a whole lot out there about mixed-race people in the Old West in this area, so I thought I'd touch on a lot of things.
How will it be to have yourself as your subject for the first time?
It'll be okay. I sort of am a fictionalized subject in my novel, actually. I'm a character, and so is my mother, and my grandmother, my ancestors. But I don't know what's going to happen with that, because my editor keeps telling me it's not ready, and I don't want to do a re-write, so it's just in limbo. [laughs] I sold it, but I collected half the advance.
You don't care whether it's published?
Well, yeah, but I had to sort of let it go. I was upset for a while; I was real upset. But now, it's been so long since I sold it -- I think I sold it in '94 -- but it wasn't finished. It was only half-way through, I think. In '97, when I was in Boulder, I sent what I considered to be my final draft, and then she told me it wasn't ready, and then I was mad, and I didn't do anything for two years. Then after I won the Book Award, I had interest from other publishers, see, and then I told my editor, and she said, "Well, let me read it again." Then she thought it still needs works. It's at an agency, but I haven't signed with the agency, and they thought they could piggy-back with the memoir, so they were waiting for the memoir. So anyway, I don't know I'll do. Oh well. [laughs] It has interracial sex in it, so I wonder if that might be a problem. It shouldn't, but, you know.
Not anymore, though. The interracial movement is very strong now.
Well, that's what I'm dealing with. The novel is called Black Blood, and it turns on how much Black blood these people have, in the novel. [laughs] So how did they get mixed? By having sex with somebody in another race; that's how! But I think my memoir is really gonna be good. [laughs] If she ever finishes her research! I could go on and on; I guess you could tell. [laughs] It's weird because the past is living for me. I was brought up short in Austin, because I mentioned a rancher my great-grandfather used to work for in Texas, and a woman came up after and said, "I haven't heard those names in years!" He was one of those cattle kings, right, and the day of the cattle king is over, but to me it's living. I hadn't really thought about how much in the past that is. To me it's like it was yesterday.
Is that part of what you've described as "psychohistory"?
Well, no, psychohistory is more like ascribing some kind of psychological reason for an historical event. At least, that's how I think of it. But in the end, I might actually touch on some of that in my work -- maybe by saying, "Why did a relative not get on the rolls" or whatever. So anyway, I probably deviated from your question. And you're not payin' me for this interview, either!
No, ma'am!
Well, let's wrap it up, honey; it's almost 5! [laughs] What else did you want to ask?
Just a couple of questions. What do you see as the relation between history and poetry, or between poet and historian?
Well, I guess I sort of touched on that in the last conversation, right? The Greeks used to take a poet to battle with them, so the poet would stand on a hill or something and record the battle. And I do think of that as sort of my role sometimes. You know, we are observers sometimes, rather than participants. But other times we're participants/observers. I felt that way in Austin. I almost hated to leave. I went down for this book festival which is chaired by Laura Bush, so it was fascinating to be there and to have protests going on -- the festival was at the capital. At that time, I really did feel like it was almost Grecian, in that I was a poet and I was observing, and who knows, I might write something, sometime.
That was a remarkable event.
You know, I was supposed to have an interview with her; she was interviewing four writers, and it was going to be on an NBC affiliate. And that morning, as they drove off to the ranch, I thought, "Well, I guess there'll be no interview." And I thought maybe she wanted to interview me because I was born Texas, but I did win the Book Award -- that's how I haven't quite absorbed how big a prize that was. That was a really major award, and I'm sort of a representative of poetry now, in a way that I hadn't been before.
You were. But now there's larger recognition.
Yeah, definitely. I got so much press, you know. I went to the ceremony, week before last in New York, when Lucille Clifton won, and it was nothing like the year before. The press were everywhere for that 50th anniversary. There were press at this one, but they seemed to be everywhere the year before. I imagine Oprah being there had something to do with it, too, but we got a lot more attention I think last year. Plus, the press were all involved in the election this year. So that really was the year to win, for me anyway. It was a great year to win.
What do you think about Lucille Clifton winning this year?
Oh, I think it was great for her to win. I feel like she really has given a lot to poetry.
It's the first time two women of color have won, back to back.
I know! I was thinking about that, and I was saying, "Next year, that probably won't happen." [laughs] 'Cause someone somewhere is probably fussin' about it. You know they are. Well, Lucille Clifton is well-liked in poetry, she really is. She writes good poems, and she's a really nice person. It was great to see her win; it really was. We still didn't know, when we were sitting at our little table waiting for them to announce the winner, any prize you really don't know. I guessed; right before, my friend said, "Who do you think will win?" and I said, "Lucille." But until that moment, I wasn't sure, 'cause you don't know. Some people, I guess it's obvious, and others it isn't. Sometimes, when I'm judging things, you pick your finalists, and then, if it's close, then it's really tough. You have to keep reading and reading and reading. Sometimes that's really hard; sometimes when I judge I wish I could give more than one.
What do you consider the most important relationships between teaching and writing? You know, a lot of people say writing can't be taught.
Well, you certainly can teach students what makes a good poem and what makes a bad poem, and you can teach them how to write a good poem. It can be taught. For your gifted students, that's a whole other thing. But it can be argued that the raw talent is already there. You can teach somebody how to construct a good poem; you can teach someone how to read a poem; and how to tell if what they're reading qualifies as good or bad or mediocre. So there are definitely things that can be taught. And it also teaches discipline. I feel like the discipline that you learn in being able to sit down and concentrate on one subject and craft something can be carried over into other areas of your life. And that's what I try to teach my beginning students, many of whom are not going to be writers. Our beginning writing here is a Humanities course, so we often have many students who are just taking writing as a one-time deal. I really do think some things can be taught.
Your poem "Pentecost" ends with the lines, "If you suffer from the grave/ you can kill from it." This is the only published poem you've dedicated to yourself. Why?
[laughs] Oh, yeah, well, I was younger then! I guess I was into this Zapata thing back when. I got into Mexican history and I was reading a lot, and I was remembering that movie from years ago. To me, he was a hero. See, it was more like, not the reality, but the character I created that I was into. Now this is so old I don't know that I even remember exactly what was going on at the time, in my mind. It was just a long time ago.
You've never dedicated another poem to yourself.
No, I wouldn't today, I don't think.
Out of humility, or what?
Oh, I don't know. I guess I would, if I wanted to. Maybe I thought that was the be-all and end-all for Ai at the time, but I certainly don't think there's a be-all and end-all now.
To be a revolutionary?
No, it wasn't literal at all.
Iconographically.
Maybe. I don't know what I meant. Sorry! I can't help you! It was thirty... how many years ago was that? '78? '77? There's a lot of water under that bridge. A lot of poverty-stricken summers for Ai.
Really?
Yeah! I was pretty broke, before I got this job. I was so broke, they sent a grad student to get me, [laughs] and I had to use his credit card; I had to buy stuff on his credit card. The dean lent me a thousand dollars, when I got here, so I could rent an apartment. I was totally broke.
Last year!?
Yeah! I hadn't taught since Colorado. I couldn't get a job.
Get out.
No, I'm not kidding you; it was horrible.
And you went from that to winning the National Book Award.
Yeah. [laughs] But I had to sell my whole poetry collection to survive. I have hardly any books of poetry left. I would have to buy someone else's collection. I called this guy I sold them to, and I think he sold my stuff. So I have to begin again. And many of them were old, signed copies. It's really sad, but I guess it's okay.
So that's what you meant when you said that you'd worked off all your bad karma.
Yeah, I guess I have! I mean, it was horrible. I had a horrible time, beginning in Boulder, the second year. I couldn't afford the rent. I had to get out of there and go to Arizona. It's really a fuckin' nightmare. But Baby Ai can pay it now!
Isn't that strange - to go from a position of not being able to negotiate for yourself, to being able to get what you need done.
Yeah! I would say some guardian angel somewhere was lookin' down on Baby Ai.
Yeah. And for Native Americans and Indians -- well, we just call ourselves Indians here; I'm vice president of the Native American faculty, too, so I have a lot of duties now here -- so it was another win for them, too, and for Oklahoma, which is a state that's had a lot of problems, like the Oklahoma City bombing. You know, that's the thing about minority faculty that I don't know if people understand: you are not simply filling one role; you don't go to a school just as a faculty member. You have duties. Like I am standing in for Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians at my school, generally, because I'm the only minority faculty in the English Department.
Seriously?
Yeah. There's a man from India, but that's it.
Is that something that you choose?
What? To help? To stand in?
To be there, as opposed to someplace where you would...
Oh! Well, I was here as a visitor, just for a year, and then when I won the Book Award, they offered me tenure starting in January. So I won the Book Award in November, and they offered me a full professorship with tenure in January. And I was like, "Well, Ai, a bird in the hand, you know... this is a really good offer." So I thought, well, I'll just take it. So I sort of ... they made it so fast, I sort of didn't think about it. And I'm here doing research on my Indian family. I'm not done with my research, and they gave me a lot of money, too, so you know, it's a good deal! There are probably other places I'd like. I wouldn't mind being in Arizona, but Arizona didn't make me an offer! And I'm doin' okay. I don't know. Oklahoma certainly has its share of bigotry, which I feel I have certainly experienced. I haven't talked to the powers-that-be about it, but I certainly feel that there's some out there, and I'm not used to the kinds of encounter here, and some of it has been anti-Indian. [laughs] So I'm gettin' it from everywhere! I talked to this taxi driver about it, 'cause she's trying to find her Cherokee grandmother. She said, "Oh, they're very prejudiced towards Indians here." And I said, "Well, why?" And she said, "Well, they think they have everything." I said, "Well, they lost everything!" So there's definitely some of that in my area of Oklahoma.
The resentment?
Oh yeah, I've heard that. Well, I've certainly had some problems; let's just put it like that. Some racial, and some sexual. It's a mix, when you're minority faculty and a woman, because it's race and sex. I'm not trouble-free.
Do you feel that from the other side, too, where you get exoticized as a woman of color, and given all sorts of exotic praise or put up as window dressing?
Oh, I'm sure it happens. I don't think I'm getting that here actually, which I guess is a compliment to the place. But I have sometimes wondered about the amount of praise I was getting. Slightly. [laughs] But it always happens, when you're a minority. I don't think I've been over-praised; I write good poems. I just think of it like that. I don't question it too much.
I never think of myself as a token. Anytime people try to make me one, I just reject it. I never really capitalized on my minority status. I didn't really want to do that. There were instances when I was younger when I certainly could have done that. I'm not an enrolled tribe member now, but I'd mentioned it in a magazine somewhere, and Indian people wrote me and stuff, but it seemed like I have so many mixtures, it wasn't right of me to capitalize on my Indian blood. And that might have been skewed, you know, I might have been wrong, but it's been proved to me since I moved here that it's not too late, and it's your family, so you have a right. I have a right to go in there and say, "I have this and that Indian blood."
It's real interesting here, 'cause my experience with the family background is not uncommon here; things that happened in my family are rather common here, and that's been good for me to see. Like, for instance, some of the Indian women married with whites and didn't get on the rolls, because they didn't want to be on the rolls. They wanted to be safe, didn't want to be Indian. And you would think, like when I was in Arizona, my opinion would have been, "Oh, that's bad; they were ashamed." But since I moved to Oklahoma and I can understand the historical circumstances, I understand that, and I'm not judging people for what they did then. They were trying to survive. But it raises interesting moral questions, and in some of my research I have to get the case files, and one family said they had a Choctaw mother, so they rushed out to Mississippi when they were doing the final rolls, and they tried to get on them. And the Choctaw/Chickasaw people questioned them over and over again. They would say, "Well, how does she look?" They got real down to it. They would say, "Was her hair kinky or straight?" I mean, it was totally naked. Over and over again, they'd describe her. She sounded Indian to me, but they went as far as to forge a letter from a Chief, saying she was Indian. They did bad things, and a lot of the names were similar to my family names. [laughs] I said, "Oh, they're pretty under-handed here; hmmmm, they could be family!" Two of the sons were in the Confederate Army, okay? So that would have been something. In the end, not enough names matched up, so they weren't my family, but they were denied tribal membership. But how would I have dealt with that? Two sons in the Confederate Army, for god's sake!
So there's a lot of interesting stuff in Oklahoma. They had slaves, too, you know, the "five civilized tribes," so there's all the different roles and mixtures, and it's just fascinating. So there is a rhyme or reason for my being here. I almost feel my great-grandfather, like the ghosts are out there. There are still things being hashed over today that began back when, on the Trail of Tears, for instance. If you tap into your ancestors, if you tap into the ghosts of these ancestors, they are still doing things. They are still saying, "Granddaughter, I want you to look into this for me." That's the way I feel about my great-grandfather, sometimes. He's saying, "You know, I want you to check on this; check on these mineral rights to this land that we have." So I'm looking for a deed, 'cause they sold the land, but they kept the mineral rights. It's all kinds of stuff here; it's just totally rich.
Sounds a little like the stuff that you touched on in "Passing Through."
Yeah, although I fictionalized it, so it's a woman who's half White. But yeah, that poem was sort of opening the door to what I'm actually working on for a memoir, for my own history. But, as far as I can tell, there wasn't any rape involved in what went on with my family's mixing; they willingly went to the other side or whatever, so that's interesting, too. But I don't know all the details. I have to track everything. I don't know whether I'll ever learn everything, but I'm trying to track some things down.
One woman here is Creek, and her grandmother was at Indian school when a White man married her when she was 12, and it was to get her land, see. So it's possible that my great-great-grandmother may not have even been married to this man, but she had a child with him. But it may have been that he had another wife; that's what I'm trying to zero in on. A White wife, see. Some of them had two and three families. One of the White men I looked at, he had several Choctaw wives. [laughs] He divorced one, and they said, "Why did you divorce?" He said, "I wanna get me another one!" It was weird like that. It was weird stuff! And then the last letter in his file is from one of the Choctaw wives, and they said, "Well, we understand he's a fugitive from justice." And I said, "Oh, could be my family; it's so wild!" It was really wild, you know.
These are your people?
[laughs] These are people I was hopin' might be my relatives! No, I haven't found them. You know, I'm lookin' up family names and a lot of times you get one name that's the same, and you don't know until you send for the case file from the national archives. Then you have all the information. So one name might be a family name, but then when you look at all the other wives, sons and daughters, they don't match up, right, so it's not your family.
And this will be your first novel?
Well, memoir. I wrote that novel, but it hasn't come out. I haven't dealt with my family history at all yet, so it'll all be in the memoir. It's so fascinating and interesting, it's kind of a riveting tale. I think it will be. It'll be part history, part memoir. There's not a whole lot out there about mixed-race people in the Old West in this area, so I thought I'd touch on a lot of things.
How will it be to have yourself as your subject for the first time?
It'll be okay. I sort of am a fictionalized subject in my novel, actually. I'm a character, and so is my mother, and my grandmother, my ancestors. But I don't know what's going to happen with that, because my editor keeps telling me it's not ready, and I don't want to do a re-write, so it's just in limbo. [laughs] I sold it, but I collected half the advance.
You don't care whether it's published?
Well, yeah, but I had to sort of let it go. I was upset for a while; I was real upset. But now, it's been so long since I sold it -- I think I sold it in '94 -- but it wasn't finished. It was only half-way through, I think. In '97, when I was in Boulder, I sent what I considered to be my final draft, and then she told me it wasn't ready, and then I was mad, and I didn't do anything for two years. Then after I won the Book Award, I had interest from other publishers, see, and then I told my editor, and she said, "Well, let me read it again." Then she thought it still needs works. It's at an agency, but I haven't signed with the agency, and they thought they could piggy-back with the memoir, so they were waiting for the memoir. So anyway, I don't know I'll do. Oh well. [laughs] It has interracial sex in it, so I wonder if that might be a problem. It shouldn't, but, you know.
Not anymore, though. The interracial movement is very strong now.
Well, that's what I'm dealing with. The novel is called Black Blood, and it turns on how much Black blood these people have, in the novel. [laughs] So how did they get mixed? By having sex with somebody in another race; that's how! But I think my memoir is really gonna be good. [laughs] If she ever finishes her research! I could go on and on; I guess you could tell. [laughs] It's weird because the past is living for me. I was brought up short in Austin, because I mentioned a rancher my great-grandfather used to work for in Texas, and a woman came up after and said, "I haven't heard those names in years!" He was one of those cattle kings, right, and the day of the cattle king is over, but to me it's living. I hadn't really thought about how much in the past that is. To me it's like it was yesterday.
Is that part of what you've described as "psychohistory"?
Well, no, psychohistory is more like ascribing some kind of psychological reason for an historical event. At least, that's how I think of it. But in the end, I might actually touch on some of that in my work -- maybe by saying, "Why did a relative not get on the rolls" or whatever. So anyway, I probably deviated from your question. And you're not payin' me for this interview, either!
No, ma'am!
Well, let's wrap it up, honey; it's almost 5! [laughs] What else did you want to ask?
Just a couple of questions. What do you see as the relation between history and poetry, or between poet and historian?
Well, I guess I sort of touched on that in the last conversation, right? The Greeks used to take a poet to battle with them, so the poet would stand on a hill or something and record the battle. And I do think of that as sort of my role sometimes. You know, we are observers sometimes, rather than participants. But other times we're participants/observers. I felt that way in Austin. I almost hated to leave. I went down for this book festival which is chaired by Laura Bush, so it was fascinating to be there and to have protests going on -- the festival was at the capital. At that time, I really did feel like it was almost Grecian, in that I was a poet and I was observing, and who knows, I might write something, sometime.
That was a remarkable event.
You know, I was supposed to have an interview with her; she was interviewing four writers, and it was going to be on an NBC affiliate. And that morning, as they drove off to the ranch, I thought, "Well, I guess there'll be no interview." And I thought maybe she wanted to interview me because I was born Texas, but I did win the Book Award -- that's how I haven't quite absorbed how big a prize that was. That was a really major award, and I'm sort of a representative of poetry now, in a way that I hadn't been before.
You were. But now there's larger recognition.
Yeah, definitely. I got so much press, you know. I went to the ceremony, week before last in New York, when Lucille Clifton won, and it was nothing like the year before. The press were everywhere for that 50th anniversary. There were press at this one, but they seemed to be everywhere the year before. I imagine Oprah being there had something to do with it, too, but we got a lot more attention I think last year. Plus, the press were all involved in the election this year. So that really was the year to win, for me anyway. It was a great year to win.
What do you think about Lucille Clifton winning this year?
Oh, I think it was great for her to win. I feel like she really has given a lot to poetry.
It's the first time two women of color have won, back to back.
I know! I was thinking about that, and I was saying, "Next year, that probably won't happen." [laughs] 'Cause someone somewhere is probably fussin' about it. You know they are. Well, Lucille Clifton is well-liked in poetry, she really is. She writes good poems, and she's a really nice person. It was great to see her win; it really was. We still didn't know, when we were sitting at our little table waiting for them to announce the winner, any prize you really don't know. I guessed; right before, my friend said, "Who do you think will win?" and I said, "Lucille." But until that moment, I wasn't sure, 'cause you don't know. Some people, I guess it's obvious, and others it isn't. Sometimes, when I'm judging things, you pick your finalists, and then, if it's close, then it's really tough. You have to keep reading and reading and reading. Sometimes that's really hard; sometimes when I judge I wish I could give more than one.
What do you consider the most important relationships between teaching and writing? You know, a lot of people say writing can't be taught.
Well, you certainly can teach students what makes a good poem and what makes a bad poem, and you can teach them how to write a good poem. It can be taught. For your gifted students, that's a whole other thing. But it can be argued that the raw talent is already there. You can teach somebody how to construct a good poem; you can teach someone how to read a poem; and how to tell if what they're reading qualifies as good or bad or mediocre. So there are definitely things that can be taught. And it also teaches discipline. I feel like the discipline that you learn in being able to sit down and concentrate on one subject and craft something can be carried over into other areas of your life. And that's what I try to teach my beginning students, many of whom are not going to be writers. Our beginning writing here is a Humanities course, so we often have many students who are just taking writing as a one-time deal. I really do think some things can be taught.
Your poem "Pentecost" ends with the lines, "If you suffer from the grave/ you can kill from it." This is the only published poem you've dedicated to yourself. Why?
[laughs] Oh, yeah, well, I was younger then! I guess I was into this Zapata thing back when. I got into Mexican history and I was reading a lot, and I was remembering that movie from years ago. To me, he was a hero. See, it was more like, not the reality, but the character I created that I was into. Now this is so old I don't know that I even remember exactly what was going on at the time, in my mind. It was just a long time ago.
You've never dedicated another poem to yourself.
No, I wouldn't today, I don't think.
Out of humility, or what?
Oh, I don't know. I guess I would, if I wanted to. Maybe I thought that was the be-all and end-all for Ai at the time, but I certainly don't think there's a be-all and end-all now.
To be a revolutionary?
No, it wasn't literal at all.
Iconographically.
Maybe. I don't know what I meant. Sorry! I can't help you! It was thirty... how many years ago was that? '78? '77? There's a lot of water under that bridge. A lot of poverty-stricken summers for Ai.
Really?
Yeah! I was pretty broke, before I got this job. I was so broke, they sent a grad student to get me, [laughs] and I had to use his credit card; I had to buy stuff on his credit card. The dean lent me a thousand dollars, when I got here, so I could rent an apartment. I was totally broke.
Last year!?
Yeah! I hadn't taught since Colorado. I couldn't get a job.
Get out.
No, I'm not kidding you; it was horrible.
And you went from that to winning the National Book Award.
Yeah. [laughs] But I had to sell my whole poetry collection to survive. I have hardly any books of poetry left. I would have to buy someone else's collection. I called this guy I sold them to, and I think he sold my stuff. So I have to begin again. And many of them were old, signed copies. It's really sad, but I guess it's okay.
So that's what you meant when you said that you'd worked off all your bad karma.
Yeah, I guess I have! I mean, it was horrible. I had a horrible time, beginning in Boulder, the second year. I couldn't afford the rent. I had to get out of there and go to Arizona. It's really a fuckin' nightmare. But Baby Ai can pay it now!
Isn't that strange - to go from a position of not being able to negotiate for yourself, to being able to get what you need done.
Yeah! I would say some guardian angel somewhere was lookin' down on Baby Ai.
I'm A Little BlackBird Looking for a Bluebird--As Deciphered From The Josephine Baker Story
Josephine Baker
I'm a little blackbird looking for a bluebird oooh
even little blackbirds get a little lonesome ohhh
and blue
I've been all over from east to west
in search of someone to feather my nest
why don't I find one
the same way you do?
the answer must be
I am hoodoo...
I'm a little jazzboat looking for a rainbow through....
I'm a little blackbird looking for a bluebird oooh
even little blackbirds get a little lonesome ohhh
and blue
I've been all over from east to west
in search of someone to feather my nest
why don't I find one
the same way you do?
the answer must be
I am hoodoo...
I'm a little jazzboat looking for a rainbow through....
The Look of Love
Nina Simone
The look of love is in your eyes
a look your smile can't disguise
the look of love
is saying so much more than just words could ever say
and what my heart has heard, well it takes my breath away
I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
how long I have waited
waited just to love you, now that I have found you
don't ever go
You've got the Look of love, it's on your face
a look that time can't erase
be mine tonight
let this be
just the start of so many nights like this
let's take a lover's vow and then seal it with a kiss
I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
how long I have waited
waited just to love you, now that I have found you
don't ever go
don't ever go
I love you so
The look of love is in your eyes
a look your smile can't disguise
the look of love
is saying so much more than just words could ever say
and what my heart has heard, well it takes my breath away
I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
how long I have waited
waited just to love you, now that I have found you
don't ever go
You've got the Look of love, it's on your face
a look that time can't erase
be mine tonight
let this be
just the start of so many nights like this
let's take a lover's vow and then seal it with a kiss
I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
how long I have waited
waited just to love you, now that I have found you
don't ever go
don't ever go
I love you so
Friday, January 26, 2007
Everybody Says Don't
From The Broadway Album-Barbra Streisand
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't it isn't right
Don't is isn't nice
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't walk on the grass
Don't disturb the peace
Don't skate on the ice
Well i say do, i say,Walk on the grass it was meant to feel
I say sail till to the windmill
And if you fail you fail!
Everybody says don't Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't get out of line
When they say that then lady that's a sign
No times out of ten
Lady you are doing just fine.
Make just a ripple come on be brave
This time a ripple next time a wave
Sometimes you have to start small,
Climbing the tiniest wall
Maybe you're going to fall
But it is better than not starting at all.
Everybody says no stop
Musn't rock the boat musn't touch a thing
Everybody says don't
Everybody says wait
Everybody says can't fight city-hall
Can't upset the court
Can't laugh at the king!
Well i say try,I say,Laugh at the king or he'll make you cry
Loose your poise
Fall if you have to but lady make a noise...Yes!
Everybody says don't Everybody says can't
Everybody says wait around for miracles
That's the way the world is made
I insist on miracles if you do them,
Miracles might come true,
Then i say don't...
Don't be afraid!
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't it isn't right
Don't is isn't nice
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't walk on the grass
Don't disturb the peace
Don't skate on the ice
Well i say do, i say,Walk on the grass it was meant to feel
I say sail till to the windmill
And if you fail you fail!
Everybody says don't Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't get out of line
When they say that then lady that's a sign
No times out of ten
Lady you are doing just fine.
Make just a ripple come on be brave
This time a ripple next time a wave
Sometimes you have to start small,
Climbing the tiniest wall
Maybe you're going to fall
But it is better than not starting at all.
Everybody says no stop
Musn't rock the boat musn't touch a thing
Everybody says don't
Everybody says wait
Everybody says can't fight city-hall
Can't upset the court
Can't laugh at the king!
Well i say try,I say,Laugh at the king or he'll make you cry
Loose your poise
Fall if you have to but lady make a noise...Yes!
Everybody says don't Everybody says can't
Everybody says wait around for miracles
That's the way the world is made
I insist on miracles if you do them,
Miracles might come true,
Then i say don't...
Don't be afraid!
Some Enchanted Evening
From The Broadway Album-Barbra Streisand
Some enchanted evening
you may see a stranger
you may see a stranger across a crowded room
and somehow you know
you know even then
that somehow you'll see him again and again
some enchanted evening
someone may be laughing
you may hear him laughing across a crowded room
and night after night
as strange as it seems
the sound of his laughter will sing in your dreams
who can explain it? who can tell you why?
fools give you reasons, wise men never try
some enchanted evening when you find your true love
across a crowded room then fly to his side
and make him your own
or all through your life you will dream all alone
once you have found him
never let him go
once you have found him
neeveeer llleeett hiiiim
goooooooo
Some enchanted evening
you may see a stranger
you may see a stranger across a crowded room
and somehow you know
you know even then
that somehow you'll see him again and again
some enchanted evening
someone may be laughing
you may hear him laughing across a crowded room
and night after night
as strange as it seems
the sound of his laughter will sing in your dreams
who can explain it? who can tell you why?
fools give you reasons, wise men never try
some enchanted evening when you find your true love
across a crowded room then fly to his side
and make him your own
or all through your life you will dream all alone
once you have found him
never let him go
once you have found him
neeveeer llleeett hiiiim
goooooooo
Back to Broadway
I adore Barbra's Back to Broadway Album. I first got this album(on cassette) when it first came out in 1992. I used to play it all the time and there is such a beautiful collage of music with many beautiful and powerful messages.
Venezuela May Ask the U.S. Ambassador to Leave
Hugo Chavez has said the U.S. Ambassador has been trying to meddle in Venezuelan affairs and has told him he may ask him to leave. Haha! Viva Chavez!
Charles
It was a dark, stormy night. The air was moist and the wind that frolicked around the trees in rushed curlicues bit into one’s skin the moment one stepped outside the door. I sat in the computer lab, chatting online and piecing together a story which sat unsure in the pit of my stomach. I saw him out of the corner of my eye as he approached. He came in with someone else, another Latino man, shorter, darker man and slightly heavier. Charles was tall and lanky, and what drew my eye to him was his beautiful pointed nose. As they sat down at the computer terminals opposite mine, I couldn’t help but to stare in his direction. He wore a tan colored tshirt and jeans, obviously just coming off of work, a baseball cap atop his head. My hands began to tremble and my heart raced as I silently swooned. I knew I had to speak to him. After a few minutes had passed, I decided to strike up a conversation. I worked on my story a few more minutes, adding a few sentences here and there, calming my nerves at the same time. I worked up the nerve and looked in his direction. He was casually joking around with the man sitting next to him, who I made out to be his brother-in-law. “How’s it going?” I asked, flashing a million dollar smile. He stopped to look at me, smiling back and spoke. “It’s good! It’s all good, real good. How are you?” I loved the melody of his voice. “I’m fine. What’s your name?” “Charles,” he said, the music still flowing out of his voice. “I’m David,” I replied, intoxicated by his energy. He extended his hand and we shook, a firm grip in his handshake. “ Do you live here at the complex?” I asked. “Yea. We live over in the corner there.” I nodded my acknowledgement of his answer. He put me at great ease and made me drunk with his jubilant spirit. “So what do you do here in town?” I asked, after enjoying his aura for a while. “I work construction. I just moved up here from El Paso to work for the Kings.” “Who are the Kings?” I asked, ignorant. “The people that own this place.” “Ah,” I said. I had lived there for five years and never known who owned the place. I asked him if he liked jazz and invited him to come and listen at the piano bar that played live jazz on Thursday nights. That was the beginning of my friendship with Charles. In that moment we began a slow, erotic dance encompassing friendship, one in which I would find a most incredible lover.That Thursday I arrived at the piano bar alone, coming from studying at the library on campus. I selected a table near the front and sat down to wait and see if Charles would come. The music started and the shrill keys of the piano burst into “When Sonny Gets Blue.” It was my favorite number. I closed my eyes and started to drift along with the music when I felt someone approaching me. I opened my eyes to see Charles standing next to the table, dressed in blue jeans and a tan shirt. He looked adorable. “Hey,” I said, pulling the chair out from the table for him to sit. “Hey there! Thanks for inviting me. I dig the music already.” He sat next to me. I could feel the bristle of the hairs on his arm against my skin. The song ended and they drifted into another number. The music was especially mellow that night and the atmosphere in the bar was loose and pleasantly bacchanalian. People were swaying and the feeling of the crowd was ambrosial. Charles began making cat-calls at intervals while the trumpet played. He broke the reserve of the typically cold, conservative room and I fell in love with him. That night, after the show was over, I rode home with Charles in his red, worn with age truck. My eyes were glued to the figure of his profile in the half, dark light. A smile crept up on my face. “ You enjoyed the show?” I asked. “Ahh, I loved it!” His face lit up. “I love live music, man. And Jazz is the greatest.” “I very much agree.” I said. “Would you like to go again next week?” I asked. “Sure thing man.” He said. We drove along a little bit in silence. “Do you mind if I light up one of these?” He asked, pulling a joint out from his glove compartment. “No, not at all.” He lit it and took several puffs. “Would you like a hit?” “No thanks,” I refused, nervous at never having tried anything like it before. He dropped me off at my apartment and made his way home. The night had been beautiful and pleasant. The next week, the aura of the club was free and open, and a soft light made the oak panels that made up the walls of the place glisten. The jazz band that played that night was on fire and the assembled crowd was soon on their feet, dancing. Charles stood out from the center of them. I got into the groove of the party and began dancing too. I felt lithe and moved in tune to the saxophone that formed the heartbeat of the music that was playing out on the floor. That night, I felt I had been taken to another level and I decided that I would make my interest in Charles known to him. After the show, I invited him back to my place to listen to some jazz. We climbed the three flights of stairs to my apartment and I ushered him in, turning on my stereo while I poured some wine. A great Jazz tune started to play, and as I brought him his wine, we began dancing, pulling in close as we moved to the beat. After the number was over, I asked him what he would like to hear as I was unsure of what to play. He was unsure as well, at which I invited him to come browse my music collection to see what he liked. He walked towards the counter where my CD collection sat and I sat my glass of wine down and followed him there. As I stood behind him, I was mesmerized by his scent and a river of sensation rocked my entire body. “You are really cute.” I said, a smile taking to my face. “Thanks,” he said, filtering through my CD collection, still floating off of the high of the evening. I placed my hand on his ass and turned slightly towards him. “Hey, no don’t do that. I’m straight,” he replied. The revelation threw me for a whirl. The feeling was still high, though I felt a bit dampened by his pronouncement. Something though, made me choose to continue my advances. He selected a CD and put it on to play, then we went to sit back on the couch. As the music played, I let my hand slip into his lap. For a few minutes, we simply continued to groove to the music and I felt him loosen a bit. As I reached the inside of his thigh he stopped me. “Hey, slow down their partner. I’m sorry I’m not much game tonight, but I like women.” “I see.” I said, retreating my hand slightly from his thigh. A few minutes later, the music still playing, I began to stroke his chest. “You’re really into me aren’t you?” He asked, a grin on his face. “ I am.” I replied honestly, my hand swirling around his chest and playing with his stomach through his shirt. I turned and kissed him. His mouth was sweet and I relished the sweetness of his lips, his tongue, and his throat. With both hands I began to roam his body and soon my mouth left his and went to his ear. “Oh my god, what’s happening here?” He asked as a frenzy started to form as we kissed and explored. “ Relax,,” I said. “It’s just two people appreciating each other.” “Is that all it is?” He asked as the front of his pants came open. “That’s all,” I replied. What had begun as a beautiful night, developed into a beautiful azure evening as Charles and I sailed the heights of his masculine glory. He began to get nervous as we went along. “Are your doors locked?” He asked. I reassured him as I kissed the inside of his thigh. Charles fretted for a few more moments and then fell into the web of our lovemaking. The night was beautiful. After hours passed, we slowly arose from the couch, rearranging our clothes. Charles prepared to go home. At the door, I embraced him, and he returned the embrace. “Do you want to go to the piano bar this Thursday?” I asked. “Sure!” he replied, his joviality returned a bit. “It’s a deal then. “I smiled, wanting to kiss him. I brushed his arm slightly then he left, headed towards his apartment at the back of the complex. I headed back towards my bed in a daze, completely in love, ecstatic that the night had turned out so beautifully.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Charge to Keep
I was looking at my Uncle's obituary and the headingi said, " A Charge Given- A Charge Served." What beautiful words.
A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.
To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!
Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!
Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall for ever die.
A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.
To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!
Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!
Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall for ever die.
Pirate Jenny
Nina Simone/Bertoldht Brecht
You people can watch while I'm scrubbing these floors
And I'm scrubbin' the floors while you're gawking
Maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell
In this crummy Southern town
In this crummy old hotel
But you'll never guess to who you're talkin'.
No. You couldn't ever guess to who you're talkin'.
Then one night there's a scream in the night
And you'll wonder who could that have been
And you see me kinda grinnin' while I'm scrubbin'
And you say, "What's she got to grin?"
I'll tell you.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
with a skull on its masthead will be coming in
You gentlemen can say, "Hey gal, finish them floors!
Get upstairs! What's wrong with you! Earn your keep here!
You toss me your tips
and look out to the ships
But I'm counting your heads
as I'm making the beds
Cuz there's nobody gonna sleep here, honey
Nobody
Nobody!
Then one night there's a scream in the night
And you say, "Who's that kicking up a row?"
And ya see me kinda starin' out the winda
And you say, "What's she got to stare at now?"
I'll tell ya.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
turns around in the harbor
shootin' guns from her bow
Now You gentlemen can wipe off that smile off your face
Cause every building in town is a flat one
This whole frickin' place will be down to the ground
Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and sound
And you yell, "Why do they spare that one?"
Yes.That's what you say.
"Why do they spare that one?"
All the night through, through the noise and to-do
You wonder who is that person that lives up there?
And you see me stepping out in the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair
And the ship
The Black Freighter
runs a flag up its masthead
and a cheer rings the air
By noontime the dock
is a-swarmin' with men
comin' out from the ghostly freighter
They move in the shadows
where no one can see
And they're chainin' up people
and they're bringin' em to me
askin' me,"Kill them NOW, or LATER?"
Askin' ME!"Kill them now, or later?"
Noon by the clock
and so still by the dock
You can hear a foghorn miles away
And in that quiet of death
I'll say, "Right now.Right now!"
Then they'll pile up the bodies
And I'll say,
"That'll learn ya!"
And the ship
The Black Freighter
disappears out to sea
And on it is
me
You people can watch while I'm scrubbing these floors
And I'm scrubbin' the floors while you're gawking
Maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell
In this crummy Southern town
In this crummy old hotel
But you'll never guess to who you're talkin'.
No. You couldn't ever guess to who you're talkin'.
Then one night there's a scream in the night
And you'll wonder who could that have been
And you see me kinda grinnin' while I'm scrubbin'
And you say, "What's she got to grin?"
I'll tell you.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
with a skull on its masthead will be coming in
You gentlemen can say, "Hey gal, finish them floors!
Get upstairs! What's wrong with you! Earn your keep here!
You toss me your tips
and look out to the ships
But I'm counting your heads
as I'm making the beds
Cuz there's nobody gonna sleep here, honey
Nobody
Nobody!
Then one night there's a scream in the night
And you say, "Who's that kicking up a row?"
And ya see me kinda starin' out the winda
And you say, "What's she got to stare at now?"
I'll tell ya.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
turns around in the harbor
shootin' guns from her bow
Now You gentlemen can wipe off that smile off your face
Cause every building in town is a flat one
This whole frickin' place will be down to the ground
Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and sound
And you yell, "Why do they spare that one?"
Yes.That's what you say.
"Why do they spare that one?"
All the night through, through the noise and to-do
You wonder who is that person that lives up there?
And you see me stepping out in the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair
And the ship
The Black Freighter
runs a flag up its masthead
and a cheer rings the air
By noontime the dock
is a-swarmin' with men
comin' out from the ghostly freighter
They move in the shadows
where no one can see
And they're chainin' up people
and they're bringin' em to me
askin' me,"Kill them NOW, or LATER?"
Askin' ME!"Kill them now, or later?"
Noon by the clock
and so still by the dock
You can hear a foghorn miles away
And in that quiet of death
I'll say, "Right now.Right now!"
Then they'll pile up the bodies
And I'll say,
"That'll learn ya!"
And the ship
The Black Freighter
disappears out to sea
And on it is
me
Oh, The Power Structure
So, they arrest this white man for killing blacks in 1964, I suppose to offset their arrest of BLA members. Hmm.....That doesnt even work.
NYU Students Sue Over Removal of Morales/Shakur Monument
Read about the lawsuit brought forth by NYU students about the removal of a marker honoring Guillermo Morales and Assata Shakur.
I just finished The Senator and the Socialite about the first Black U.S. senator, Blanche Bruce and the dynasty he founded. Fascinating book. I am still mulling it over in my head. One thing I definitely find about the Black upperclasses is that, as the multitude of them were the products of illegitimacy and white patronage, they are/were definitely not as patriarchal as their white counterparts.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Booker T. Washington
Self Reliance and Second Class citizenship be damned! I would have castrated that MF!
The Arrest of Six BLA Members
Such sad news as the police have harrassed and detained six former member of the Black Liberation Army. These people should be freed and should make their way to Cuba. God help them to overcome the wickedness of white people.
What I am Discovering
Indianapolis was a stomping ground for a lot of wealthy and well-to-do Blacks. Senator Blanche Bruce, and more so, his wife's family lived in Indianapolis during the last decades of the 19th century(Bruce only spent two years in Indianapolis). Also, Lena Horne had people living in Indianapolis. One of her uncles ran a newspaper there. Frederick Douglass was a constant visitor to Indy. There is definitely some rich history there to be discovered.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Oh My, The Connections
I had no clue that Eslanda Robeson, Paul Robeson's most wonderful and courageous spouse, was the granddaughter of Francis L. Cardozo. Cardozo was a very famous progressive educator and minister before and after the Civil War. He was a mulatto from South Carolina whose white father sent him to the University of Glasgow. He presided over Paul Lawrence Dunbar School in Washington D.C.
Monday, January 22, 2007
I Never Loved a Man(The Way that I Love You)
Aretha Franklin
You're a no good heart breaker
You're a liar and you're a cheat
And I don't know why
I let you do these things to me
My friends keep telling me
That you ain't no good
But oh, they don't know
That I'd leave you if I could
I guess I'm uptight
And I'm stuck like glue
Cause I ain't never
I ain't never, I ain't never, no, no (loved a man)
(The way that I, I love you)
Some time ago I thought
You had run out of fools
But I was so wrong
You got one that you'll never lose
The way you treat me is a shame
How could ya hurt me so bad
Baby, you know that I'm the best thing
That you ever had
Kiss me once again
Don'cha never, never say that we we're through
Cause I ain't never
Never, Never, no, no (loved a man)
(The way that I, I love you)
I can't sleep at night
And I can't eat a bite
I guess I'll never be free
Since you got, your hooks, in me
Whoa, oh, ohYeah!
Yeah!
I ain't never loved a man
I ain't never loved a man, baby
Ain't never had a man hurt me so bad
No
Well this is what I'm gonna do about it
You're a no good heart breaker
You're a liar and you're a cheat
And I don't know why
I let you do these things to me
My friends keep telling me
That you ain't no good
But oh, they don't know
That I'd leave you if I could
I guess I'm uptight
And I'm stuck like glue
Cause I ain't never
I ain't never, I ain't never, no, no (loved a man)
(The way that I, I love you)
Some time ago I thought
You had run out of fools
But I was so wrong
You got one that you'll never lose
The way you treat me is a shame
How could ya hurt me so bad
Baby, you know that I'm the best thing
That you ever had
Kiss me once again
Don'cha never, never say that we we're through
Cause I ain't never
Never, Never, no, no (loved a man)
(The way that I, I love you)
I can't sleep at night
And I can't eat a bite
I guess I'll never be free
Since you got, your hooks, in me
Whoa, oh, ohYeah!
Yeah!
I ain't never loved a man
I ain't never loved a man, baby
Ain't never had a man hurt me so bad
No
Well this is what I'm gonna do about it
Sunday, January 21, 2007
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
And I am telling you I'm not going.
You're the best man I'll ever know.
There's no way I can ever go.
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you.
I don't want to be free.
I'm staying, I'm staying,
And you, and you, you're gonna love me.
Ooh, you're gonna love me.
And I am telling you
I'm not going,
Even though the rough times are showing.
There's just no way, there's no way!
We're part of the same place,
We're part of the same time.
We both share the same blood.
We both have the same mind.
And time and time we have so much to share.
No! No, no, no, no, no!
I'm not waking up tomorrow morning
And finding that there's nobody there.
Darling, there's no way,
No, no, no, no way
I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you.
You see, there's just no way,
There's no way!
Tear down the mountains,
Yell, scream and shout.
You can say what you want,
I'm not walking out.
Stop all the rivers,Push, strike and kill.
I'm not gonna leave you,
There's no way I will!
And I am telling you
I'm not going.
You're the best man I'll ever know.
There's no way I can ever, ever go.
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you,
I'm not living without you.
I don't want to be free.
I'm staying, I'm staying,
And you, and you, and you,
you're gonna love me.
Ooh, you're gonna love me.
You're gonna love me!
You're the best man I'll ever know.
There's no way I can ever go.
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you.
I don't want to be free.
I'm staying, I'm staying,
And you, and you, you're gonna love me.
Ooh, you're gonna love me.
And I am telling you
I'm not going,
Even though the rough times are showing.
There's just no way, there's no way!
We're part of the same place,
We're part of the same time.
We both share the same blood.
We both have the same mind.
And time and time we have so much to share.
No! No, no, no, no, no!
I'm not waking up tomorrow morning
And finding that there's nobody there.
Darling, there's no way,
No, no, no, no way
I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you.
You see, there's just no way,
There's no way!
Tear down the mountains,
Yell, scream and shout.
You can say what you want,
I'm not walking out.
Stop all the rivers,Push, strike and kill.
I'm not gonna leave you,
There's no way I will!
And I am telling you
I'm not going.
You're the best man I'll ever know.
There's no way I can ever, ever go.
No, no, no, no way,
No, no, no, no way I'm living without you.
I'm not living without you,
I'm not living without you.
I don't want to be free.
I'm staying, I'm staying,
And you, and you, and you,
you're gonna love me.
Ooh, you're gonna love me.
You're gonna love me!
Dreamgirls
I saw Dreamgirls the other night. Great film! I see Oscar written all over Jennifer Hudson!
Grave, Brutal, and Unnecessary
25 troops killed in one day. How many Iraqis now? Oh what price men will pay for their evils.
The Turning Point
Nina Simone
See the little brown girl
She's as old as me
She looks just like chocolate
Oh mummy cant you see
We are both in first grade
She sits next to me
I took care of her mum
When she skinned her knee
She sang a song so pretty
On the jungle jim
When jimmy tried to hurt herI punched him in the chin
Mom can she come overTo play dolls with me
We could have such fun mum
Oh mum whatd you say
Why noy oh why not
Oh I see
See the little brown girl
She's as old as me
She looks just like chocolate
Oh mummy cant you see
We are both in first grade
She sits next to me
I took care of her mum
When she skinned her knee
She sang a song so pretty
On the jungle jim
When jimmy tried to hurt herI punched him in the chin
Mom can she come overTo play dolls with me
We could have such fun mum
Oh mum whatd you say
Why noy oh why not
Oh I see
The Other Woman
Nina Simone
The other woman finds time to manicure her nails
The other woman is perfect where her rival fails
And shes never seen with pin curls in her hair
The other woman enchantes her clothes with french perfume
The other woman keeps fresh cut flowers in each room
There are never toys thats scattered everywhere
And when her baby comes to call
He'll find her waiting like a lonesome queen
Cos when shes by his sideIts such a change from old routine
But the other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep
And as the years go by the other woman
Will spend her life alone
The other woman finds time to manicure her nails
The other woman is perfect where her rival fails
And shes never seen with pin curls in her hair
The other woman enchantes her clothes with french perfume
The other woman keeps fresh cut flowers in each room
There are never toys thats scattered everywhere
And when her baby comes to call
He'll find her waiting like a lonesome queen
Cos when shes by his sideIts such a change from old routine
But the other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep
And as the years go by the other woman
Will spend her life alone
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Don't Explain
Billie Holiday/Nina Simone
Hush now, don't explain
Just say you'll remain
Unless you're mad, don't explain
My love, don't explain
What is there to gain
Skip that lipstick
Don't explain
You know that I love you
And what loving does
All my thoughts are real
For I'm so completely yours
Try to hear folks chatter
And I know you cheat
Right or wrong, don't matter
When you're with me, sweet
Hush now, don't explain
You're my love and pain
My life's your love
Don't explain
Hush now, don't explain
Just say you'll remain
Unless you're mad, don't explain
My love, don't explain
What is there to gain
Skip that lipstick
Don't explain
You know that I love you
And what loving does
All my thoughts are real
For I'm so completely yours
Try to hear folks chatter
And I know you cheat
Right or wrong, don't matter
When you're with me, sweet
Hush now, don't explain
You're my love and pain
My life's your love
Don't explain
Friday, January 19, 2007
Robert Redford Speaks Out Against George Bush At Sundance-Brilliant Premiere of 'Chicago Ten'
At the opening of the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford courageously lambasted Bush on involving the United States in conflicts in Iraq. This year's sundance also premiered the film Chicago 10, which details the trials of the Chicago ten and Chicago seven, including Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale who were tried for inciting riots while protesting at the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
I So Love Nina Simone
The link above is to perhaps the best account of Nina Simone that I have found on the internet.
Roses and Rainbows--I Have Been Looking For This Song Forever!
Carole Bayer Sager/ Marvin Hamlisch
So here I am, alone again.
Not at all like I thought that it would be,
Guess I lost my way,
Seems like yesterday,
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
I only hope they'll get here soon.
Seems I've been waiting here forever,
Thinking that love would come for free,
Someone's still waiting for those roses and rainbows,
I hope that someone won't be me.
So let go now, you're on your own,
It's okay to be lonely now and then,
Open up your eyes,
You are much too wise,
If someone promises you sunshine....
YOU BETTER KNOW THERE'LL STILL BE RAIN!
If someone says he'll bring you roses and rainbows,
You'd better take a look again.
You'd better find out who you are girl,
Before you run to someone else,
instead of waiting for those roses and rainbows,
You'd better give them to yourself.
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
And now I know they're coming soon!
And now I'm ready for the sunshine,
And I'm as happy as can be,
And all my days are filled with roses and rainbows,
My life belongs to me!My life belongs, To me!
So here I am, alone again.
Not at all like I thought that it would be,
Guess I lost my way,
Seems like yesterday,
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
I only hope they'll get here soon.
Seems I've been waiting here forever,
Thinking that love would come for free,
Someone's still waiting for those roses and rainbows,
I hope that someone won't be me.
So let go now, you're on your own,
It's okay to be lonely now and then,
Open up your eyes,
You are much too wise,
If someone promises you sunshine....
YOU BETTER KNOW THERE'LL STILL BE RAIN!
If someone says he'll bring you roses and rainbows,
You'd better take a look again.
You'd better find out who you are girl,
Before you run to someone else,
instead of waiting for those roses and rainbows,
You'd better give them to yourself.
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
And now I know they're coming soon!
And now I'm ready for the sunshine,
And I'm as happy as can be,
And all my days are filled with roses and rainbows,
My life belongs to me!My life belongs, To me!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Not While I'm Around
Barbra/Stephen Sondheim from Sweeney Todd
Nothing's gonna harm you
Not while I'm around
Nothing's gonna harm you
No sir, not while I'm around
Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays
I'll send them howling, I don't care, I've got ways
No one's gonna hurt you
No one's gonna dare,
Others can desert you
Not to worry, whistle I'll be there
Demons'll charm you with a smile for awhile
But in time
Nothing can harm you, not while I'm around.
Being close and being clever
Ain't like being true,
I don't need to, I would never Hide a thing from you
Like some
No one's gonna hurt you
No one's gonna dare
Others can desert you
Not a worry, whistle I'll be there
Demons'll charm you with a smile for awhile
But in time
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around
Not while I'm around
Nothing's gonna harm you
Not while I'm around
Nothing's gonna harm you
No sir, not while I'm around
Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays
I'll send them howling, I don't care, I've got ways
No one's gonna hurt you
No one's gonna dare,
Others can desert you
Not to worry, whistle I'll be there
Demons'll charm you with a smile for awhile
But in time
Nothing can harm you, not while I'm around.
Being close and being clever
Ain't like being true,
I don't need to, I would never Hide a thing from you
Like some
No one's gonna hurt you
No one's gonna dare
Others can desert you
Not a worry, whistle I'll be there
Demons'll charm you with a smile for awhile
But in time
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around
Not while I'm around
Ordinary Miracles
Barbra Streisand--I don't know why I've never posted these lyrics
Change can come on tiptoe
Love is where it starts
It resides, often hides
Deep within our hearts
And just as
Pebbles make a mountain,
Raindrops make a sea,
One day at a time
Change begins with you and me,
Ordinary miracles
Happen all around,
Just by giving and receiving
Comes belonging and believing,
Every sun that rises
Never rose before,
Each new day leads the way
Through a different door,
And we can all be quiet heroes
Living quiet days,
Walking through the world
Changing it in quiet ways,
Ordinary miracles
Like candles in the dark,
Each and every one of us
Lights a spark,
And the walls can tumble
And the mountains can move,
The winds and the tide can turn,
Yes, ordinary miracles
One for every star,
No lightning bolt or clap or thunder
Only joy and quiet wonder,
Endless possibilities
Right before our eyes,Oh, see the way a miracle multiplies,Now hope can spring eternally
Plant it and it grows,
Love is all that’s necessary
Lovin’, it’s extraordinary
Why,
Makes ordinary miracles
every blessed day.
Change can come on tiptoe
Love is where it starts
It resides, often hides
Deep within our hearts
And just as
Pebbles make a mountain,
Raindrops make a sea,
One day at a time
Change begins with you and me,
Ordinary miracles
Happen all around,
Just by giving and receiving
Comes belonging and believing,
Every sun that rises
Never rose before,
Each new day leads the way
Through a different door,
And we can all be quiet heroes
Living quiet days,
Walking through the world
Changing it in quiet ways,
Ordinary miracles
Like candles in the dark,
Each and every one of us
Lights a spark,
And the walls can tumble
And the mountains can move,
The winds and the tide can turn,
Yes, ordinary miracles
One for every star,
No lightning bolt or clap or thunder
Only joy and quiet wonder,
Endless possibilities
Right before our eyes,Oh, see the way a miracle multiplies,Now hope can spring eternally
Plant it and it grows,
Love is all that’s necessary
Lovin’, it’s extraordinary
Why,
Makes ordinary miracles
every blessed day.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The New York Times Knows It is Full of Shit
They went to Stanley Crouch to ask for an "assessment" of Amiri Baraka. Ha! Whatever, these people are such bullshit--and they better learn to leave Baraka alone.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Support Kennedy in Stopping Bush
Senator Ted Kennedy is introducing legislation into Congress that would allow Bush's ability to manipulate and maneuver the armed services. Everyone must support this legislation!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
How Does the Wine Taste?
Barbra Streisand
How does the wine taste?
Does it stain your lips?
What is the fruit-like? Just beyond my finger tips?
Just out of reach I see so much I cannot taste and mustn't touch
Tied to my little world My safe little world
What would it be like If I broke the string?
Would it be lovely And a little frightening?
There is so much I've never understood
How does the wine taste? Is it good?
How does the wine taste? Does it make you glow?
How does the wine taste? How does the wine taste?
How does the wine taste?
I think I know! Ooom...
How does the wine taste?
Does it stain your lips?
What is the fruit-like? Just beyond my finger tips?
Just out of reach I see so much I cannot taste and mustn't touch
Tied to my little world My safe little world
What would it be like If I broke the string?
Would it be lovely And a little frightening?
There is so much I've never understood
How does the wine taste? Is it good?
How does the wine taste? Does it make you glow?
How does the wine taste? How does the wine taste?
How does the wine taste?
I think I know! Ooom...
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