...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights – foto by Smith
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted December 10, 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
(I’m going to have to come up with a sneaky snappy title for the blog or else no one will even stop by.)
~ ~ ~
These 30 articles (which I’ve posted below) written by fair, thoughtful, moral humans 63 years ago enumerating the universal rights of every single person on earth seem intuitive, logical and self-evident.
Unfortunately I cannot think of a single government or corporation who honor them in spirit or deed.
These words are also serious and numerous without any laugh tracks or applause signs or mind-candy graphics, which means most who need these protections will not read them because they shy from the educative since it is boring.
Too many of us look up the class money chain and salivate with envy while looking down the money class chain with contempt and disgust.
We forget we’re all human, all portions of the great all . . . whatever affects a single human or animal or any portion of the planet affects everything we have and are as well as the very ground upon which we live and the ecosystem from which we seek substance and shelter.
Seems to me we’re all pissing upstream and then complaining about the taste and color of the water we drink downstream.
In the long run, doing right is better for the planet, better for each of us, and actually cheaper over the long haul.
Plus if there is an after-life called Heaven and Hell, most of us are seriously Hell-fluxed for the greedy thoughtless selfish ways we’ve lived, thought and taught because far too many of us accept this current “is” over possible “could” and moral “should”. After all, the “would” IS up to us.
~ ~ ~
ARTICLE 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
ARTICLE 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
ARTICLE 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
ARTICLE 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
ARTICLE 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
ARTICLE 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
ARTICLE 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
ARTICLE 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
ARTICLE 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
ARTICLE 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
ARTICLE 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
ARTICLE 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
ARTICLE 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
ARTICLE 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
ARTICLE 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
ARTICLE 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
ARTICLE 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
ARTICLE 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
ARTICLE 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
ARTICLE 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
ARTICLE 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
ARTICLE 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
ARTICLE 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
ARTICLE 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
ARTICLE 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
ARTICLE 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
ARTICLE 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
ARTICLE 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Ten years ago when I first watched the hijackers crash two airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers, my first response was awe at how people with no army, no money, no war equipment and few soldiers had turned the might of the mightiest military power on the planet against itself by simply using our own commercial airplanes to attack one of the world’s biggest symbols of capitalism.
I’m not forgetting or forgiving their murder of almost 3.000 civilians. Killing civilians is an abomination no matter who does it and is to be condemned whether done by terrorists, drug dealers, armies, nations, world organizations, corporations, the police, or legalized prison executioners.
But their terrorist tactics themselves were brilliant. Now I know this kind of thinking is not going to read well with the corporate-news fed, but if the situation were reversed and we’d successfully attacked the world’s biggest arms supplier terrorist nation who had been bombing our civilians, we’d be making movies and hit records about it.
Fact is, since 1950, the USA has been the major aggressor in the world — we’ve continuously bombed and invaded sovereign nations without declaring war, we’ve assassinated other country’s leaders, we’ve kidnapped citizens of foreign countries and tortured them, we’ve fomented coups, we’ve declared illegal embargoes on entire nations and killed half a million children in the process.
The USA is the biggest maker and seller of weapons of mass destruction in the world; ipso facto, we’re the largest terrorist organization. And yet our defense budget is bigger than the rest of the world’s defense budgets combined.
Recent government cables revealed U.S. soldiers in Iraq handcuffed 10 citizens — a 70 year old woman, a 5 month baby, 4 toddlers under 5 and 4 civilians — then shot them in the head and called down an air strike to destroy evidence of their actions. The Iraqi government complained and we ignored them.
If other countries did this to us, we’d fight back. So I understand why we were attacked — it was simple retribution for all the brown-red-yellow-black-skinned people we have killed and are still killing around the world ever since we moved to North America and started in on the Indians and the Mexicans.
The bad joke here is fewer than 3,000 Americans died in the towers . . . George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have killed more than 3,000 Americans in their retaliation, not to mention murdering over one million Iraqi civilians which is exceptionally perverse because Iraq had nothing to do with either 9-1-1 or weapons of mass destruction.
Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Gonzalez, Yoo, Rice, Tenant and scores more should be on trial right now for torture and war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead most of them are on book tours raking in big bucks and yucks.
As for me, the sound of Americans cheering the deaths of yellow-brown-red-black skinned people causes unpleasant tension between what I see and what I was taught to believe we stood for as a people. Christians who kill and then strut in blood step bragging strike me as somewhat hypocritical.
You know, for a book whose main tenant is Thou Shalt Not Kill, there’s certainly a lot of blood shed under its aegis.
The uneven line twixt right and wrong – foto by Smith
I played a Youtube video and an ad appeared offering me lawyers to handle a bad hip replacement. Just exactly how does Youtube know I got a hip replacement four months ago?
I click on a restricted movie trailer ad which asks when I was born and I lie and it tells me sorry, no such person exists in your zip code with that birth date. How does a movie mogul know my address and age without me telling them my name?
Think about it – they know who you are, where you live, your sex and age, most your interests and friends, and pretty much everything you’ve purchased lately . . . and they know it IMMEDIATELY. They don’t have to go search a data base after you type in your birth date because as soon as you sign on, they tag you, link to your database entry, follow you every click you make on every page you view — all in real time. And they do this simultaneously with millions, perhaps billions of people EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE DAY WITH ALL OF US AT THE SAME TIME.
The commercial hardware and interconnected linkage required boggles my mind but what really blows me away is the software programming involved — first, how do they know it’s me when I sign on? Isn’t that invasion of privacy? I mean, I know they can track my IP address which according to the internet “can often be used to identify the region or country from which a computer is connecting to the Internet. An IP address can sometimes be used to show the user’s general location.” But we have two computers here on one cable port — just how do the hip replacement advertisers know it’s me and not my wife signing on?
There are a lot of laws protecting our privacy, and I don’t believe the computer people or the bankers or the ad agencies or any government agency is obeying a single one of them. They know who you are, your health-medical-financial-purchasing history, and probably what time you get up and how long it takes you to brush your teeth. And if you blog, they keep a record of keywords in case you’re either a potential future customer or terrorist. In a 1994 interview, Mark Weber asked me, “*Do the walls have ears?” “Not as many as the TV and the telephone. If you come to THEIR attention, you’re dead meat.” I replied.
Our Government and our Corporations are pretty much one and the same thing — law-breaking, spying, thieving, bullying thugs in bed together licking each other in ecstasy as they roll abound in the illegal data they’ve siphoned from us in their never ending hope of sucking up all our money and killing every single anti-authoritarian thought we might have.
These people are not nice, not moral, do not have any interest in our best interests, care for nothing but the stench of raw unbridled power and the stink of mooooooore money, too much money, money on top of money, money fluxing money most foul, and all the useless shallow surface stuff it can buy.
Of course bottom line this 1984 Big Brother and BIGGER CORPORATIONS world we live in is not going to go away or get better or ever become a lawful endeavor because the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. The only hope for folk now is to be born out of a hospital and spend the rest of their life off the grid — no registering for school, electricity, voting, credit cards, insurance, magazine subscriptions – no IRS or Medicare or Social Security . . . and even if you can pull that off, they’re still going to capture your face in their data base with their biometric and face-capturing software via the millions of surveillance and secret cameras hung everywhere in stores, banks, on streets, etc. . . . and once your face is theirs and they see no official government tags attached, they’ll slap you in a special interest file and track you down and eat you just for practice.
Welcome to the new world, much stickier wicket than the old world.
On a lighter note, what do we the consumer people know? My cell fone just rang. I replied with a cheery Hello. Long pause until a polite middle-aged woman said cautiously, “Is this K-Mart?” “No,” I replied, laughing joyously, “it’s not.” She apologized sweetly and I left her with a chuckling “No problem.” Then I sat and laughed, glad I wasn’t K-mart, glad she was so nice, glad I was gentle, and hopeful my morning laughter NOT at her expense rides with her throughout the rest of the day making her just a wee bit happier . . . because if that happens, my joyous laughter raising her sprits could spread a little extra lightness to whomever she interacts with the rest of the day. After all, we’re all ripples on the cosmic pool.
The Corporate Mean
The promised land of milk and honey
Hides the men of scars and shame
Who came they say to slay their dragon
Yet slayed to stay the same
Sleep creeps like Jason’s wool
Down shelf enchanted eyes
Devolved from Mammon’s muse
These self selected wise
Inside their phantom rooms
In fairy tale castles
Devoid of viable dooms
As integrated assholes
They sway
Illusion’s lies
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” – Warren Buffett, billionaire
There’s been an ever-increasing fundamental lack of morality and fair play in America that has exponentially worsened these past 50 years, what with the top 1% of the population owning 40% of all the money and CEOs making $500 for each $1 a worker gets.
Our country’s infrastructure — bridges, sewers. waterways, roads — is crumbling and this theft of wealth is destroying the psyche of the bottom 99% of Americans. If something isn’t done soon, it’s going to lead to the poor taking up arms and reclaiming what’s due from the rich via blood and bullets.
If we’d just tax the rich, make the corporations pay their fair share, and cut the defense budget in half, we’d have more than enough money to put our unemployed to work fixing our infrastructure, give all Americans health care coverage, pay for proper education for all, and have money left over to reduce our debt.
This ain’t rocket science folks, so what’s the problem — you do well in this country, you need to do right by this country. It is scum-sucking bottom-feeder cowardly to take and not pay your fair share.
It is pure criminal the way the wealthiest 1% and the corporations steal from us all and kill the planet in the process. We need to seize their assets and jail them for theft, treason, and crimes against humanity.
Past Lies and Poverty
Old wonders shrink, grow tame in time
The new fear hangs on
In quiet desperation, quit of desire
Like the shadow of a crowded
Culture in which each
Declare their innocence
In straight unfocused silence
It is there
The smell of unwashed
Dishes smug in the stench of our
Unclean shame
Like a salesman’s under breath
Fishy, stale
The deep teal, the tiled resonance
Of hungers on top of hungers
— Smith, 1985
“In 1970, CEOs made $25 for every $1 the average worker made. Today CEOs make $90 for every $1 the average worker makes. But if you incorporate CEO benefits, stock options, perks and bonuses, today CEOs make $500 for each $1 the average worker gets.” — from “The Richest 1% Have Captured America’s Wealth — What’s It Going to Take to Get It Back? The U.S. already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis — and it’s gotten even worse“. — February 17, 2010 . . . this is part II of David DeGraw’s report, “The Economic Elite vs. People of the USA.” alternet.org/economy/145705/the_richest_1%25_have_captured_america%27s_wealth_–_what%27s_it_going_to_take_to_get_it_back.
“The Wealth Distribution – In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%.” — sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html.
The land of the greed, the home of the grave – foto by Smith
I appreciate the headline name, “Rebuild the Dream.” I think we need to rebuild the dream and I am glad that commondreams.org is focusing more on positive action rather than despair in this headline.
In the video, Van Jones said, “We are being lied to.” I can sympathize with where I think he is coming from. I think he means well. But I think the phrase “we are being lied to” is a phrase that seems to arouse anger. I can understand why one might wish to feel anger. And I can understand that people seem to want to strike back at injustices.
On a spiritual level, I wish for anger to not be aroused, but instead, cooperation, healing, transcending labels and fixing the situations in this country and the world. I also think that it is appropriate to discuss things in a more complete manner and have sound “bits” rather than “bites.”
I understand the challenges of communicating in a more complete manner though! So, I wish for Van Jones to be successful in engaging people to focus on dreaming, and I wish for these people to be able to transcend anger and feel compassion so that they can engage even more people and help heal our country and the world. I am also not sure that Jones’s points are entirely accurate, but I know he has good intent.
It is understandable why many would perceive the words, “America is broke” as accurate considering the deficit and debt of the United States. On a spiritual and fundamentally practical level, though, the United States has the ability to heal its situation–I believe fairly quickly–by stopping funding of the military and military contractors and/or transforming the military and military contractors into agencies and businesses that implement sustainable infrastructure in an ethical manner inside the United States.
Also, were the United States government to make reparation payments to the countries of the world it has invaded, these countries could also develop sustainable infrastructures for themselves.
There are more complications to the phrase, “America is broke” when one considers the history of actions, debt and deficit in terms of parties that are in power in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government, and the particular institutions and corporations and areas that the parties seem to want to invest in and/or fund. However, I am reasonably sure that most reading this particular page are aware of this history so I will not go into it now.
On a metaphorical level and practically implementable level, I love the phrase, “America is not broke.” Jones goes on to point out that were the rich to pay a fair share of taxes, this would help the economy. I believe this to be true and good within a practical threshold of understanding.
The second “lie” Van Jones addressed is the sentence, “Asking the super-rich to pay taxes hurts America’s economy.” Based on the history of economics worldwide, I agree with Van Jones in that that sentence about the super-rich is not accurate. The disparity of wealth that the United States is experiencing has harmed the vast majority of people living in the United States, and has had a significant harmful impact on the people living in other countries as well. I ask for the extreme disparity to be removed. I also ask for free trade agreements between countries to be removed, and instead for fair trade to be implemented. But I ask that the fair trade is implemented in such a way that the biosphere can survive, heal and thrive–in other words, for sustainability.
“Hating on America’s government – and wrecking America’s infrastructure – is patriotic” is the third idea Van Jones calls a lie. I can understand where he is coming from. From a peace perspective, though, I have seen that criticizing the government and wishing for peace has been called “unpatriotic” and “hateful to the United States” as well. I do not believe that criticism of the government and wishing for peace are hateful or unpatriotic.
I do believe that wrecking infrastructure can be hateful, but also can clear the way for a new, sustainable infrastructure that we need. We need an infrastructure for public transportation that has a negligible impact on the environment. We need a new and/or revitalized infrastructure for affordable healthcare for all people. We need for the disparity of wealth between the CEOs of insurance companies and the people who need healthcare to be reduced.
I would prefer it were the health insurance companies disbanded, but with a transition plan for the people who are employed by the companies so that they can obtain more ethical, sustainable work. I want for the CEOs of all companies who are rich to just decide to opt out, retire at a reasonable income, and stop exploiting people. So basically, I want a graceful, gentle parachute for the CEOs so that they and their families are not frightened. Preferably Gaia would provide this naturally for these people so that it just happens without a hitch.
I wish Van Jones success in getting people to engage in rebuilding the American Dream in a sustainable manner and with the goal of long term sustainability, and I ask that this vision include kindness, forgiveness, and that rebuilding include sustainability in terms of wages, health, and especially the environment.
I have sympathy for many of the organizations that Van Jones mentions: AFL-CIO, SEIU, MoveOn.org, etc. I have volunteered for an effort that SEIU has helped with, and have contributed to moveon.org even though I’d seen moveon.org as being aligned with the Democratic Party. I have great sympathy for many who vote for the Democratic Party but I also have a lot of criticism for the corporate funding and militarism promoted by the Democratic Party. However, I realize that the heart of progressives is still represented in many ways within the Democratic Party, and that the heart of good people is also represented in the Republican Party albeit manifested in unfortunate ways within both. We must recognize common ground, and in a way that is beneficial to the health of most, if not all people and the environment!
On July 5th, Van Jones invites us to go to rebuildthedream.com and share ideas. I think this is good.
There is criticism based on the history of political campaigns and parties, and this is mentioned in the threads of comments below this video but I think we also have to recognize that opportunites are born in mixed circumstance, and that action and progress can transcend circumstance.
Spiritually I like the words, “Contract for the American Dream.” I can see it as a way of making a covenant with a dream, a process similar to “making a covenant with God.” And I also see “reality” as a long dream, one that needs to be repaired, one that can be repaired.
I would like us to transcend “they” and “our” in the phrases “their turn” and “our turn” that Van Jones says. I would like “them” to be “us” and “us” to be “them.” I know this is so in so many ways. “We’re going to rebuild the movement that stands for liberty and justice for all,” Van Roy says at the end, and I think the “all” part if this is good and the intent is good. I’d also like for us to consider mercy.
So this is my long, yet brief analysis of this video!
I had greater hopes for you and am very disappointed and saddened by your policies and actions. I don’t know that I can really take anything you say seriously or in good faith anymore, and you have severely impacted my desire to vote for Democrats in the future. I’ve even canvassed for Democratic candidates but I don’t know that I can do this anymore.
I wish I had something positive to say about closure, etc. I wish for peace. But I wish people wouldn’t celebrate bin Ladin’s assassination with joy, and I wish you didn’t send me an email proudly touting celebrating the assassination. In the context of how the U.S. is so much more murderous to people in other countries than bin Ladin, this is difficult to tolerate, and I find this disingenuous.
I do understand that people of the U.S. wish to see our country as one that is on the moral high ground, and therefore great. This is a good wish. I wish it were true. I want it be true. Unfortunately, we are a perpetrator of aggression, aggression that suits U.S. and transnational corporations and the IMF’s deliberately oppressive financial policies.
So here is what I propose: if there is any true closure brought with bin Ladin’s death, I propose that it come in the form of dismantling these “wars on terror.”
Please withdraw troops and contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan and stop supporting the bombing of Libya. Please close the School of the Americas and Guantanamo Bay.
Old wonders shrink, grow tame in time
The new fear hangs on
In quiet desperation, quit of desire
Like the shadow of a crowded
Culture in which each
Declare their innocence
In straight unfocused silence
It is there
The smell of unwashed
Dishes smug in the stench of our
Unclean shame
Like a salesman’s underbreath
Fishy, stale
The deep teal, the tiled resonance
Of hungers on top of hungers
- Smith, 1985
Weird day yesterday. Lady is collecting petition signatures to repeal SB5, the recent anti-union anti-worker legislation our republican governor rammed through the republican congress to deny Ohio workers the right to bargain over wages, so we went to the May Day “We Are All Illegals” protest march in search of signatures. Of course it turns out that most the protesters were Communists and are not registered voters because they believe the system is rigged for the rich (what can I say – they’re right).
Afterward we attended a dinner with members of the Communist Party, and in between talk of music, poetry and art we listened to readings about revolution. Four of the members recognized me as a poet and long-time trouble-making artist, which certainly boosted my ego. When the radical left knows who you are, that’s genuine street cred.
At the end of the dinner, they all stood up and sang the Communist Internationale anthem with their arms raised, fists clenched. It was sweet, just like being in a movie.
Communist Internationale
Arise ye pris’ners of starvation
Arise ye wretched of the earth
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world’s in birth!
No more tradition’s chains shall bind us
Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall;
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We have been naught we shall be all.
(Refrain):
‘Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in his place
The International Union
shall be the human race.
‘Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in his place
The International Union
shall be the human race.
I found myself talking with Cheryl Lessin, a woman I’d admired for decades for burning an American flag during an anti-war protest 21 years ago. Even though the Supreme Court had ruled that burning the flag was a legal and protected form of free speech, the cops still arrested her and then committed perjury in court to get her convicted for inciting violence. Gotta love the cops the way they feel they can cheat and lie and kill and steal all in the name of justice and the American Way. (Actually cheating lying killing stealing pretty much IS the American Way – if not, why are we doing all those things in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya? It’s certainly the code of the Corporations our politicians work for).
Found this old article online:
Year Prison Sentence for Protester at Flag-Burning
The New York Times, December 29, 1990
“Inside a bitterly divided courtroom, a judge today sentenced a defiant avowed Communist to a year in prison for her actions as a member of a flag-burning protest in downtown Cleveland last summer.
“The 46-year-old defendant, Cheryl Lessin of Cleveland, who had been free on bond, was immediately taken to jail.
“Ms. Lessin was never charged with burning an American flag, an act that the United States Supreme Court has found to be constitutionally protected. Rather, she was convicted two months ago of inciting violence, a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
“At Ms. Lessin’s trial, two Cleveland police officers testified that on the day of the protest, in which about half a dozen demonstrators denounced the American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, Ms. Lessin ran through a crowd of bystanders on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, throwing punches and shouting obscenities. She denied this, and others at the protest, demonstrators and bystanders alike, testified that there had been no violence. Appeal Is Planned.”
(Her conviction was overturned after she spent over a month in Marysville Penitentiary . . . she was released after two appeals to higher courts because her original trial Judge was either ignorant or outright lied when he said the Supreme Court never ruled flag burning was legal. Her lawyer who mentioned in court that the Supreme Court had legalized flag burning was silenced by the judge and slapped with a contempt of court violation for telling truth to power. Long live Truth, Justice and the American Way!)
Our Public Servants
or
The needle men
the wee within
hides hollow
shadows small
Such slime
and sin
and grime
they grin
much mock the moral mall
In greed they grip
the public tit
Lick all
the wrong behinds
The useless twits
with inbred wits
use farts
to fuel their minds
Call down rehearsed
their red tape curse
in girth
of unknown tome
Whine
why alone
Mime
no known tones
But worse
they ALL tell lies
I am writing because it appears that the Democrats are actually supportive of cutting back Medicare and Medicaid, and I strongly, emphatically disagree with this position.
Cut defense spending instead. Our defense budget is larger than the rest of the world’s nations, combined.
When it comes to absolutely critical services, especially health care, which affects the mortality of people, I emphatically think that these services need to be nationalized.
Privatization is a means of extracting wealth from people and putting it in the pockets of the few, and it is not more efficient or less costly than nationalized health care.
Please do not support the Ryan budget proposal. It would move to a voucher system in 2022, forcing all seniors to purchase private insurance.
I cannot emphasize my feelings on this issue enough, having parents who are soon going to need to rely on Medicare and an older husband who uses it now, and for the first time in his life is able to obtain treatment for critical conditions. (He couldn’t afford health insurance before and was too “rich” to qualify for Medicaid.)
We paid for his cancer treatment out of pocket and it cost us most of our savings.
He has been in pain the past five years, severe pain, and now that he is finally on Medicare, he is able to get the hip replacement surgery he needs.
