'…a major destabilizing influence'
These Black heroes of 9/11 valiantly battled terrorism. But the sacrifices of these Black heroes will receive no recognition during the commemorations around America for the 20th Anniversary of what is considered the most tragic terrorist attack ever conducted on American soil. These heroes, William Parker and his colleagues, confronted terrorists on 9/11 in defense …
Continue reading “Forgotten Black Heroes of 9/11 — More Evidence of Discriminatory Denial”
Take off your glasses Don’t smile That’s what they told me When I had my passport photo taken So I look like a drug smuggler That’s what they want I look tired and pissed And a little dangerous If I was security at an airport And I saw that face I would take me aside …
Continue reading “Passport photo followed by brief reflection”
Where is George W. Bush — the post-presidential, sensitive painter of humanity — when Joe Biden needs him? As chairman of the board of the US Constitution Center in Philadelphia, on Veterans’ Day 2018 Joe Biden arranged for Bush and his wife Laura to receive the coveted Liberty Medal for their work with veterans. Biden, …
I’m working with a young man Doing dreamwork. During our check-in I was fretting About the ravages of climate change world-wide And he looked at me and said, My friends and I refer to it as “climate catastrophe”. My neighbor told me That he was on a walk with His “kids” recently When he overheard …
Continue reading “So, I guess we’re f–ked?! Yes. . .and No. (a narrative poem)”
My boots are on the porch. They are not on the ground. I keep them on the porch When I am not in them. And I’m not in them. They are not working now, They are dreaming up an army Of boots on the ground Making gardens. Just hand me A moonbeam so I …
The flowers are in the bowl Because they caught on the mower I felt bad for them And placed them in the bowl In a little water This world is going to hell He said I know listen read this Don’t go to hell I said Too late he said After I read what he …
When will they ever learn, oh when will they ever learn? – Pete Seeger The scene of hundreds of desperate Afghanis running and trying absurdly to latch onto the skin of a massive C17 taxiing down a runway about to take off from Kabul Airport was the iconic image that stuck for me — like …
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer. -D.H. Lawrence One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. -Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit I had an interesting exchange recently with a man I met at my local Panera where I often have a breakfast sandwich …
My father’s father played his violin in the attic Where no one could see his tears. My great aunt (my father’s mother’s sister) kept Nubian goats And two squirrel monkeys in her sunroom That she would diaper and release when we visited. There is nothing like the sensation Of those tiny fingers searching your hair …
Another lost war! Another denial! The US actually began its war on the people of Afghanistan back during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, who foolishly followed the advice of his Russia-hating, rabidly anti-Communist Polish emigre National Security Director Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski, in mid-1979, successfully convinced the gullible Carter to launch Operation Cyclone, a $20-billion, 10-year …