18 Sunday Jun 2017
Posted in Poetry, United States
Father said not to worry about anything.
He was working to provide for my needs.
And I believed him.
Father said he would never let anyone hurt me.
He was there to protect me, Mother, and my brother Paul.
And I believed him.
Father said not to worry about climate change;
the science is still debatable.
And I believed him.
Father said the abortion of an unborn child is an abomination.
Life is sacred. Only God can take a life.
And I believed him. Continue reading
22 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in Nature and the Environment, United States
Saturday, April 22nd, is Earth Day 2017. The theme is: Environmental & Climate Science Literacy. The three-year campaign begins with a March for Science rally on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It will bring together scientists and supporters to demand that our leaders recognize the scientific truths across all disciplines, including climate change and other environmental issues.
“We need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet,” says Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. “Environmental and climate literacy is the engine not only for creating green voters and advancing environmental and climate laws and policies but also for accelerating green technologies and jobs.”
Earth Day Network is publishing Earth Day and Teach-In toolkits online that lay out steps for holding a successful event. To learn more about Earth Day Network and March for Science go to www.earthday.org.
16 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in Poetry, United States
I am Mother.
Created by Father.
A complex scientific birthing process, they say.
I weighed over twenty-one thousand pounds at birth.
Father spared no expense;
he happily paid the $314 million.
I carried you for nine months
in the womb, my child.
I almost lost you, you know.
They closed the clinic
where I used to get healthcare.
I am Mother.
Created by Father.
My over-pressure waves obliterate
everything & everyone within a one-mile radius.
Look at me with awe & trepidation.
I am Death.
Where is Father?
I am cold & hungry, Mother.
He abandoned us, my child—
to pursue his dreams
of dominating the world.
I am Mother.
Created by Father.
He dropped me from the sky
to plummet to the earth.
My body detonated into gazillion atoms.
My soul became a black hole.
I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am invincible.
Created in Father’s image.
I am Mother of All Bombs. Continue reading
09 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in United States
Tags
Capitalism run amok, European Refugee Crisis, Humanitarianism, Raytheon Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, Syria, Syrian Children Refugees, Warfare
On Thursday night, April 3rd, our president unilaterally and without congressional approval launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on a Syrian airbase, the alleged site of a chemical attack that targeted innocent civilians. The dust had not yet settled. No United Nations investigation of the heinous crime was conducted to determine the type of chemical weapons used and the perpetrators. But we – the defenders of democracy, peace, freedom, and humanitarianism – know, beyond all doubt, that Syria’s brutal dictator was responsible.
After killing innocent children and beautiful babies, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had to be sent a strong message. Military power is strength. Money is no problem. Continue reading
19 Sunday Mar 2017
Posted in Relationships, United States
When a dear friend dies…
Wine shared to hail the New Year
turns tepid water.
Springs of poetic wisdom
lost down a sinkhole.
Summer strolls along the beach
end at the ocean’s edge.
Mementos stoke nostalgia
amid falling leaves.
Rain erases footprints carved
along pathways uncharted.
12 Sunday Feb 2017
Posted in Nature and the Environment, United States
Tags
Corporate capitalist elite, Environmental Protection, Limits of global capitalist economic system, Scott Pruitt, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Our global capitalist economic system has brought us to the edge of an abyss. If we want more jobs, the corporate capitalist elite tells us, we must reduce environmental regulations that increase their operational costs and make their products less competitive in the global marketplace. They say the same about financial regulations and employee wages. But those are other interrelated issues. I want to focus here on the environment.
The word “environment” seems to have lost its meaning for those of us, like myself, who live in large urban centers and have a greater say in state and federal policies, regulating our environmental protections. Far removed from our natural world, we can control the temperature within our homes, offices, and commercial and entertainment centers. We obtain our food and beverages, including purified bottled water, at our local farmers’ market, grocery store, or wholesale and retail supermarkets. The “environment” upon which our lives depend may seem distant and of little importance to urban dwellers.
Let’s gut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the corporate capitalists or their puppets in government tell us. Let’s slash its workforce and budget. Its strangling the U.S. economy and impeding job growth. (What they really mean is that the EPA regulations hamper their growth and reduce their profits.) Continue reading
29 Sunday Jan 2017
Posted in United States
Tags
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), International trade, US Imports from Mexico 2006-2015, US trade war with Mexico, US-Mexico border wall expansion, US-Mexico relations
Our newly inaugurated president is intent on keeping his campaign promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” along our southern border and have Mexico pay for it. At an estimated cost of $12 to $15 billion, the wall will be over 994 miles long. About 621 miles of fences or other barriers already exist. Intended to deter rapists, drug dealers, and illegal immigrants, the wall of contention has developed into a trade war with Mexico.
During his first week in office, President Trump triggered a fight with Mexico via Twitter. If Mexico wasn’t willing to foot the bill for the border wall, the Mexican president should cancel his scheduled visit to Washington.
“The US has a $60 billion dollar deficit with Mexico,” President Trump tweeted. “It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost.” Continue reading
15 Sunday Jan 2017
Posted in United States
Tags
Civil resistance, Jeremy Brecher, Social mobilization, Social Self-Defense, The One Percent, Trumpism
Los Angeles is a fascinating place to live for its diversity of peoples. In the shopping mall, on the Santa Monica pier, the Venice Beach boardwalk (above photo), and other public spaces, I blend in with the crowd. I am at home amidst the range of skin color pigments and English-speaking accents.
In spite of our rich cultural diversity, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia still circulate beneath our thin skin. At a local coffee shop, I’ve had to wait much longer for my coffee than my white companion. At a writers’ meeting, a white female club member told me not to touch her. “It’s offensive,” she said with an angry tone.
On a sunny, windy, Sunday morning in Santa Monica, someone in a passing vehicle threw water in my face as I crossed the busy boulevard. Was it the color of my skin that the stranger considered offensive or was it the colorful Indian print dress and shawl I was wearing? I’ll never know. Continue reading
01 Sunday Jan 2017
Posted in United States
Year 2016 began with the death of my friend and neighbor Benny on January 4. Every day, I looked out onto our desolate courtyard. Gone were the moments spent with Benny, his wife, and their nature-loving daughter.
I wasn’t alone in my grief. In the Middle East where our endless wars of terror ground on without mercy, death was everywhere. No family was spared. Collective grief saturated the air. Wailing mothers shattered the light. Traumatized orphaned children roamed the rubble of a stolen future.
How many more people must lose their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones for our freedom, comfort, and security? What are the consequences for the pain we inflict with impunity on women, children, and other civilians? Where is our moral compass?
The disintegration of my son’s marriage came two days after the news of Benny’s death. After my emotional struggle to let go of my son, his sudden return home disrupted the space (emotional and physical) I had created for myself in his absence. Watching my son’s battle to realign his life, while still clinging to his love for his estranged wife, frittered away at my inner peace.
During our 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, I observed the disintegration of our two-party political system. Both parties were in crisis. My disappointment at having my favored candidate lose the nomination for the Democratic Party shattered my hope for meaningful change. Whichever presidential candidate won the top post meant a loss for we the people.
The discovery of cancer cells in one of her lungs turned the life of a close friend on its head and threw mine off balance. Over the months that followed, experimental and other treatments didn’t prevent the spread of the cancerous cells to other areas of her body. Cancer sucked the joy from the time we spent together.
During his bid for the presidency, the Republican candidate unleashed cancerous cells of bigotry, hatred, misogyny, and xenophobia. This virulent cancer infected the heart and lungs of our nation. Millions of Americans can’t breathe under oppressive police force and an economic system that puts profits before people.
While we fought each other over our perceived differences and imagined threats, Year 2016 was the hottest year since NASA started recording global temperatures 136 years ago. In California, we entered our sixth year of drought. We also battled 7,200 wildfires that burned almost 570,000 acres across the state. Ice sheets on land and sea continued to melt at rates faster than those predicted by our climate scientists.
Thanks to my sons, supportive neighbors, and friends, I have survived the dark days of Year 2016. I send out a big ‘thank you’ to my blogger friends who brightened my days and buoyed up my belief in our human capacity for compassion and love for the other. Working together, we the people have won many battles in Year 2016 across America and worldwide against powerful transnational corporations who put their profits before life. We cannot give up.
18 Sunday Dec 2016
Posted in Social Injustice, United States
Tags
American politics, Lynching of African Americans, Make America White Again, Native American Genocide, Toxic Lake Okeechobee, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Wounded Knee Massacre
Metaphors are important tools in a writer’s word-box. “Draining the swamp” is a powerful metaphor put to excellent use by our President-elect during his campaign for our nation’s top post. He has promised to rid our government of entrenched cronies who only serve their own self-interests and those of their masters and facilitators. We-the-people can drown in the swamp for all they care.
As our President-elect begins draining the swamp, he has skimmed only the surface scum and dead leaves and, based on his latest selections for his cabinet and other top administration posts, has made room for more toxic detritus.
The swamp extends across America. In some places, it’s dense and putrid with the carcasses upon which we have built our nation. Are we ready to drain the swamp? Some among us want to make America white again. When was that? Was that after we had decimated the Native Indian populations who inhabited these lands thousands of years before the white man’s arrival? Their carcasses rest at the bottom of the swamp.
What about the African slaves and their descendants whose forced labor built this nation? Their carcasses form another layer in the bottom of the swamp.
What about the successive waves of black, brown, white, and yellow immigrants who labored under inhumane conditions to fuel our industrial revolution? Their carcasses intermingle below the surface of the swamp.
It’s easy to skim the surface of the swamp of toxic algae and decaying vegetation. Are we ready to go deeper? Are we ready to drain the swamp?
Are we ready to face our barbarity and callousness towards those we have deemed a threat, worthless, inferior, or dispensable?
Are we ready to ratify that all men and women are created equal and deserve the same treatment and opportunities for their growth and prosperity?
Are we ready to let go of our selfish desires and work together to save ourselves from becoming yet another layer of the swamp?
Draining the swamp will be tough and soul-searching work. It will test the human capacity for openness, forgiveness, sharing, kindness, compassion, and love. It will require a collective effort.
Are you ready to join me in draining the swamp?
