Forgotten Injustice

This is courtesy of my twitter friend @josnoopy I was not aware of this. What's past is far too often prologue. Shame on us again ...


 

The Truth of Jesus Christ

It breaks my heart to know Woody Guthrie is unknown to most young people. This is an amazing song. Note: U2 does a killer

rock version...

Resurrecting Jim Crow

     Read the Langston Hughes poem below. Then, get really pissed off at the lying bastards who want to reinstate Jim Crow laws, disenfranchise voters, and return
America to a time of segregation.

     Please make sure others see this post.

                                                  Will V Day Be Me Day Too 

Over There,
World War II.

Dear Fellow Americans,
I write this letter
Hoping times will be better
When this war
Is through.
I'm a Tan-skinned Yank
Driving a tank.
I ask, WILL V-DAY
BE ME-DAY, TOO?

I wear a U. S. uniform.
I've done the enemy much harm,
I've driven back
The Germans and the Japs,
From Burma to the Rhine.
On every battle line,
I've dropped defeat
Into the Fascists' laps.

I am a Negro American
Out to defend my land
Army, Navy, Air Corps--
I am there.
I take munitions through,
I fight--or stevedore, too.
I face death the same as you do
Everywhere.

I've seen my buddy lying
Where he fell.
I've watched him dying
I promised him that I would try
To make our land a land
Where his son could be a man--
And there'd be no Jim Crow birds
Left in our sky.

So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory's glow,
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who've waited--
Italians, Chinese, Danes--are liberated.
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I'm black?

Here in my own, my native land,
Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?
Will Dixie lynch me still
When I return?
Or will you comrades in arms
From the factories and the farms,
Have learned what this war
Was fought for us to learn?

When I take off my uniform,
Will I be safe from harm--
Or will you do me
As the Germans did the Jews?
When I've helped this world to save,
Shall I still be color's slave?
Or will Victory change
Your antiquated views?

You can't say I didn't fight
To smash the Fascists' might.
You can't say I wasn't with you
in each battle.
As a soldier, and a friend.
When this war comes to an end,
Will you herd me in a Jim Crow car
Like cattle?

Or will you stand up like a man
At home and take your stand
For Democracy?
That's all I ask of you.
When we lay the guns away
To celebrate
Our Victory Day
WILL V-DAY BE ME-DAY, TOO?
That's what I want to know.

Sincerely,
GI Joe.

Langston Hughes

Not Much to Like Really by Shannon

I Tweeted Sarah Palin and the RW Lost It's Mind

     I don't like Sarah Palin. That's no secret. In my opinion, she's an opportunistic, attention-whoring, propaganda-spreading grifter who uses her children as media props at every given opportunity; something she's been doing publicly since she became a VP candidate.  She did it again, recently, when Bill Maher made a tasteless joke about her son, Trig.
     I sent her an admittedly rudely worded tweet regarding my distaste for the practice, and the RW trolls went crazy flooding my feed with hate-filled, misspelling-riddled attacks about my "insensitivity" and "hate" for those with special needs. It doesn't matter that my tweet was clearly a comment about her parenting, not her child.
     Now. Let's clear something up. Bill Maher is a comedian. It's his job to be a dick and say outrageous things that get people's panties in a bunch. It gets him media attention, higher ratings for his show and better ticket sales for his appearances. Bill Maher needs people like Sarah Palin or he has no material.
     That being said, Sarah Palin needs Bill Maher. She might loathe what he says, but she welcomes the accompanying attention and support she gets after he says it, and she milks it for all it's worth. Otherwise, she would take the moral high ground by releasing a gracefully-worded statement to the press condemning his words and ignorance. Instead, Sarah takes to social media like a middle-schooler in a barrage of childish retaliatory tweets and Facebook posts.
     Something her mindless droves of fans are happy to follow in turn.

This post was copied, with permission, from http://www.cymraegspirit.blogspot.com/

I am a fan of Shannon's intelligence and writing ... follow her on twitter @nakedaxiom

Bill and Hill

" ... sure you reach across the aisle. Then, you get McConnell by the throat and squeeze the shit out of him..."

"... Bill, I understand you get more booty than Joseph Smith and Brigham Young put together ... and you're not even a Mormon..."

"... Bill, don't look now, but I swear to God Lindsey Graham has *Benghazi* tattooed on his forearm..."



  

Dear Mr President

I have but one question regarding recent revelations about your continuation of the Bush/Cheney abrogation of our people's civil liberties 

...  CAN YOU FUCKING READ

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

In Soft Moonlight

   In soft moonlight I come to my lover / she is the fertile valley where I dwell / she is the stars that light my path

  Her mouth is the river that feeds my soul … her eyes the fire that warms my nights

  I am the child who has searched … I am the man who has wandered / I am the lover who has found his way home

  Lie still my lover … you are mine … to taste … to smell … to exalt above all others … the woman I adore





Photograph by Eric Leslie

Shudder

I've always thought Eric Cantor was a bit warped. My guess is it would take a team of psychiatrists to unravel the implications of this photograph...

Socotra Island

Damn lucky Darwin didn't stumble upon Socotra Isaland ... Click the photo for a slide show...

Summer

                   ... the old mosquito 
                                         ... clings to the screen ... considers my arm         
                                    
                                                                        
                                                                                                   

Happy Memorial Day

I wrote this sometime back ... enjoy your fucking BBQ


... fallen heroes / swept clean death for the evening news
still ... wasn't there pain ... and flies / flies buzz the dead you know

Raped at Fourteen by Anonymous

Note From Cletis ~ This account is from a long time friend. I have not edited this in any respect ...  

It was the fall of 1975, I was 14 years old.  I had spent my whole summer babysitting for two little boys while their parents worked.  These were friends of my parents.  I continued to babysit whenever I was needed.

One rainy Saturday afternoon I was watching them while their parents went grocery shopping. When they returned, the father offered to drive me home so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain.

Once we were going down the road, he drove right past my parent’s house and continued to take me to a remote wooded spot. He stopped the car and raped me. I will not go into detail, but when he was finished, he told me I couldn't tell my parents because my dad would kill him and end up going to prison and then my family would lose everything without him.

In addition he would say I was lying and no one would believe me. So I kept my mouth shut.

After he dropped me off, I ran a hot bath, soaked and cried. I had been betrayed in the worst possible way.  Someone that I trusted, that my parents trusted took advantage of the situation.  In 1975, girls of 14 did not dress like they do today; I still wore my hair in ponytails and no makeup.  In addition, I was a tom-boy so I was very self-conscious of my changing body and opted to wear long baggy flannel shirts that would hide my development.  My future relationships with men were to say the least slightly skewed because of this. 

I write this not because I want your sympathy but because in light of the recent sexual assaults in the Air force and in Cleveland, it brought back with a rush, all those old feelings I had when I was 14. I can’t imagine what those poor girls in Cleveland will suffer mentally in their futures, nor the women who reported their assaults in the Air Force.  But I do know that until our society starts with how victims of sexual assault are treated during the whole process of bringing the offenders to justice, many more rapes will go unreported due to fear, self-loathing and a twisted belief that somehow, they asked for it.

There is nothing worse, I know.  Especially the betrayal of people you trusted, whose care you were in that should have ensured your safety.

Give a voice to those whose voice has been taken away.

Patrice and Stumpy #6

Click images to enlarge ... enjoy ...

     

Patrice and Stumpy Part #5

Click the image to enlarge ... enjoy ...