The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    barefooted's picture

    Here's To Us!

    By barefooted on Tue, 01/31/2017 - 9:12pm |

    Hi there, come on in.  No, it’s okay, there aren’t too many of us yet so you’re good.  Thanks!  That looks fabulous!  I’ll take it to the kitchen while you find a place to settle in … yeah, I know, my thoughts exactly.  But there’s plenty of time for that.  Oh!  You snuck in on me!  I’m so glad you’re here, I was really hoping you’d stop by tonight but I wasn’t sure.  You brought who?  Wonderful!  It’s been so long … give me a hug.  Okay!  You all know where to plant yourselves so head on in while I get everything together.  It’s food, drink and conversation tonight, folks … but if anyone touches the TV it’s gonna get ugly, just as a warning.  Hmm?  Take a guess.  We have to acknowledge him, talk about him, plan against him - but we will not watch his show tonight.  Save me a sturdy pillow cause I tend to punch hard.  What?  Very funny.

    My mood isn’t the best, but I imagine none of you have been exactly chipper lately.  You think so?  Let me sigh deeply a few times and think about that … I don’t know.  Laughing at me doesn’t help my frame of mind, people.  I mean I get what you’re saying; that we need to fight back consistently with our heads down and our fists up – did you hear what I said about my sturdy pillow?  But we fought the Republicans for what we considered to be forsaking the good of the country – are we saying that if our party does it it’s different?  I suppose … but … infrastructure maybe?  No?

    It’s not going to happen.  Trump is not going to be the “non-partisan-ish” malleable idiot that we thought might be our best chance.  I get it now, so stop yelling at me.  I got it a long time ago but I guess I was still hanging on to a thread attached to the audacity of hope.  Weird how meanings can be twisted, huh?  Today we have to be fired up and ready to go to fight against an endless barrage of everything ominously familiar as foreign.  What was presented and almost giddily unwrapped as a new beginning – hope and change! – is now an American citizen’s call to action against our administration.

    Maybe it was always supposed to be like this.  Maybe we’ve just been lazy for far too long … maybe it’s time to remember  - to prove - that we’re worth the suffering, hardship and hope of those before us who truly believed.  Maybe it’s time to redefine audacity.

    Here’s to us!

    Comments

    I’m troubled tonight,

    as I often am these days,

    by what I’m seeing.

     

    If I look inward,

    I’m told I am better off,

    but I don’t think so.

     

    Because what’s inside,

    what’s controlling my country,

    is what frightens me.

     

    Oh, don’t mind me.  Every once in awhile I just feel the need to put thoughts that are wandering around into some sort of order.


    by barefooted on Fri, 02/03/2017 - 11:05pm

    Barefooted... you are not alone ...

    Those "thoughts" that are "wandering around" in your mind? I've had many myself.

    Your simple piece here immediately took me back 47 years come this May.

    I'll never forget this young man that I wrote the following piece about back during the time it happened.

    We were both 23 years old. I was living in San Diego at the time.

    From: Silly as It Seems... They Were Minds


    I also had the solemn experience of semi-closure to attend the unveiling of the Peace Memorial in 2014.

    Please please please... take the time to read  and view the photos in the following.

    Niall Twohig | May 17, 2014 | San Diego Free Press Org

    Memory Against Forgetting: The May 1970 Peace Memorial at UCSD

    What would we do if we were transported across time to that moment in history?

    Maybe we can’t answer that question, but we can think about what we might want given the situation that confronted all of us: Many of us would want the war to end. We’d want others, whose vision was hardened to warfare, to recognize the injustices that we saw. We’d want peace, not as a hollow sign, but as a concrete alternative to an order premised on militarism, racism, sexism, and class exploitation.

    That’s what student activists wanted that May. They wanted a substantial peace built on brotherhood and sisterhood rather than on imperial hubris and violence. These students acted for that desire through individual and collective protests, each act a flashpoint in a larger constellation of struggle that grew into a nationwide strike that May.

    --snip--

    George Winne Jr. whose name is engraved alongside the student activists also acted upon this desire for peace. Forty-four years ago, on May 10, 1970, Winne lit himself on fire in this plaza as the ultimate sign of refusal to the war. He carried a sign that read, “In God’s Name, End the War”. Winne died the next day.

    --snip--

    Hearing the message that Winne and the student activists left us, we might take up the revolutionary task of remembering. As bearers of these memories, we can carry on the long march for peace, and when we reach our twilight years, we can pass the struggle on to those who would be the new bearers of the light.

    .

    This is the only photo I've ever been able to find of George.

    As the author Neill wrote, I still continue to seek "...substantial peace built on brotherhood and sisterhood rather than on imperial hubris and violence." George is watching.

    Barefoot... Remain strong in your convictions and maintain faith on your path...

    ~OGD~

     


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Sat, 02/04/2017 - 2:51pm

    Thank you, and ... Amen.


    by barefooted on Sat, 02/04/2017 - 10:42am

    OGD, thank you again for everything you wrote and expressed so eloquently above.  You've posted some of your poetry before and I've been negligent by not telling you just how beautifully you write. Your words are so expressive, so heartfelt, that it's impossible to deny the passion and sincerity behind them.  A life lived and shared through word and deed is precious - one unique piece at a time.

    Thank you again for sharing one of those pieces with me here. 


    by barefooted on Sat, 02/04/2017 - 9:51pm

    Barefooted....

    I'm sorry I missed this comment of yours.

    I just noticed the highlight under it in the Creative Corner.

    Thank you for YOUR kind words.

    They mean a lot...

    ~OGD~

    Oh and here... This is my dearly departed lifelong musical brother playing a tune we co-wrote years ago.

    And when you're dealing with someone else's feelings,
    Don't be cold as ice... Don't be cold as ice...

     

     

    Tears...


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Fri, 02/17/2017 - 3:44am

    Beautiful, OGD.  Thank you.


    by barefooted on Fri, 02/17/2017 - 1:52pm