progressiveissuesblog

I am feeling strangely, wonderfully calm and at peace today.

More than I have in years – 4 years to be exact.

Not just because of what I heard,

but more so because of what I did not hear.

I did not hear that Covid-19 was a hoax.

I did not hear that man-made Climate Change was a hoax.

I did not hear that our beautiful wild lands should be exploited for what’s beneath them.

I did not hear that the election was a fraud.

I did not hear that Democrats want to destroy our freedom.

I did not hear that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.

I did not hear that white supremacists

and those chanting “Jews will not replace us”

were among the “good people.”

I did not hear that Trump was a very stable genius,

smarter than the generals and the scientists,

and only he could fix what was broken.

I did not hear an incessantly whining president.

Oh my gosh. What a beautiful day. Thank you, Lord.

Jack Malki of Rossmore, CA 2021-01-20

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

There may be trouble ahead. But while there’s music and moonlight And love and romance, Let’s face the music and dance.

Before the fiddlers have fled, Before they ask us to pay the bill, And while we still have the chance, Let’s face the music and dance.

Soon, we’ll be without the moon. Humming a different tune, and then There may be teardrops to shed So while there’s moonlight and music And love and romance.

Let’s face the music and dance.

Read to Music

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

Memorial Day, 2016 American soldiers dead,

their history forgotten

except by those who knew and loved them,

their roots in pride and patriotism,

in family, as sons and daughters, siblings and spouses.

Blane D. Bussell, 2016.

Another Memorial Day, a day to memorialize.

And here we meet at a Memorial to memory,

neither antiwar memorial nor peace,

neither pride nor shame,

neither beauty nor duty,

but merely a place of cleansing remembrance.

John D. Gerrie, 2016.

Matthew Q. McClintock, 2016.

Another Memorial Day, like a star in the universe.

One star among many, a dim light amongst the dark,

too dim to be seen in Washington, DC,

too dim to be seen in Baghdad or Kabul,

way too dim to be seen in Syria,

way way too dim for ISIL.

Nathaniel H. McDavitt, 2016.

Louis F. Cardin, 2016.

Charles H. Keating IV, 2016.

David A. Bauders, 2016.

Another Memorial Day, a candle in the night.

Our leaders see it as an enemy in search of us,

our Congress sees it as mirage, ghostly unreal,

our generals see it as a threat, a fatal weakness,

most Americans do not see it at all, myopic, blind.

Connor A. McQuagge, 2016, age 19.

Another Memorial Day, another name,

one more but not the last in 2016,

only last until another day, another night,

another candle shining light on an entire Hill of names,

thousands among millions more I cannot name —

tens of thousands of Afghan civilians dead,

millions of Iraqi civilians dead,

children, children, children dead,

children I do not know,

children I will never know,

children just like mine, and I cannot name a single one.

Yet a desert star shining brightly in their desert night

also shines on us and our sun shines down on them,

both to light the Way from the Cradle to our Hill,

from a beginning to an end,

which our Hill must be if we are ever to know their names,

for they are here.

Our soldiers are here.

On our Hill. Today.

Memorial Day. Memories.

Remember them Stars in the universe.

Candles in the night.

Sunlight. I do not know their names,

but I know ours,

and ours on Memorial Day

the same as theirs — say one, say all.

Fred Norman’s book, A Hill of Poems, is a collection of the poems he has written and read each year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day at the The Crosses of Lafayette in California.

The memorial is a visible reminder of the thousands of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The property which can be seen from the freeway was donated by Johnson and Louise Clark. Since the fall of 2006, volunteers install a cross for each soldier, maintain the site, and regularly update a large sign with the number of deaths. The twice yearly events include music, poetry readings, and speeches to pay respect to those who have died and continue to die in these wars.

Fred Norman, born in 1936, is a veteran with ten years of service in the Marines and Air Force. After the military he went to college and majored in Chinese Studies and later obtained an MA in Writing. He has worked for newspapers, taught, and had a job in programming before he retired. He is a poet for peace. All the sales from his book go to maintenance for the Crosses of Lafayette.

Fred Norman’s Book, A Hill of Poems

Fred Norman Poetry at the Lafayette Crosses

Fred’s Poem

Interview with Poet Fred Norman

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

Today, March 19, 2020, marks the 17th anniversary of Shock and Awe, the most recent imperialist assault on Iraq by the United States. Even as we struggle in these times, we must recognize that we do not struggle alone. That there are those worldwide that ache and cry out for peace. And that we, as children of empire, are in a unique and powerful position – to create that peace. I dedicate this piece to my veteran comrades, including but certainly not limited to Emily Yates, Matthew Hoh, Mike Prysner, Ryan Endicott, Daniel Lee and Mike Camp.

What If They Held a War

On a jungle wall, in embittered scrawl – these words shouted out to the fall… We are the unwilling lead by the unqualified doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful

in the cradle of civilization – savage acts from the “civilized” is this where we die?

on a dirt road – kicking up dust –

Read and hear more

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

Corporations, our country they do run. A Democratic one, I know of none!

It’s our jobs, India & China are receiving. NAFTA, GATT & WTO, oh so deceiving!

Bankrupt our country, they are quickly making. Our public resources, privatized & ripe for the taking!

Big business Nine, the people naught. A Supreme Court with so little thought!

Standardize and trivalize our public education. Intelligent thinking, that’s held under suspicion!

Freedom, Justice & Civil Rights we once cherished. The Patriot Act and now they are banished!

News media cheer corporate greed & wars. Freedom of speech quashed as advertising soars!

Indians, slaves, Rwandans, Armenians & Jews, Genocide victims all. Joined now by Palestinians, Haitians & Iranians, War Crimes I call!

World war, Cold war, Drug war, Terrorist war. Neverending war or just plain addiction to war!

Government officials just act like mindless sheep. But there is no outcry, the people seem all asleep!

Reagan-Contras, Bush-Noriega, Clinton-Waco, Bush-Osama & Bush-Saddam, this is all wacko!

Patriotic duty to support wars on Afghanistan & Iraq. Tortues and war crimes are suddenly back!

Even when evil people seize one’s Government. Yet you still wave the flag with endearment!

Are you a good patriot or perhaps a damn traitor? But in the end, each of us will face our maker!

9-11 attack done by Osama or was it run by Bush? Investigate yourself, it’s another clandestine ambush!

Jobs, social programs, freedoms gone, Replaced by slavery & Police State! Middle class, please look closely at the Third World, It’s soon to be your fate!

Reagan, Bush, Clinton & Gore, Bush-Cheney & Kerry are just more!

Corporate owned, the Repulicrats are all the same. So I’m voting for Nader, as otherwise I’d just be insane!

Michael Kerr May 9, 2004

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

Poet Amanda Gorman reads ‘The Hill We Climb’

Reaction To Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Poem

Amanda Gorman: Meet The First African-American Youth Poet Laureate | TODAY

The Obamas’ Conversation Amanda Gorman Heard at the Inauguration Poet Amanda Gorman revealed the amusing conversation between President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama she overheard at the Inauguration. The 22-year-old also talked about what it was like getting ready for the big day and how she felt becoming the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history.

Amanda Gorman Is Giving Americans Hope James Corden connects with Amanda Gorman, who captured the collective attention of Americans with her striking poem, “The Hill We Climb,” during the inauguration ceremony for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. James asks Amanda about her journey from being selected to standing at the podium delivering her art to the world. And Amanda talks about her coming children’s book, “Change Sings,” which is already atop the chart.

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Poetry of the People

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from Creating Better World

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry“, a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “To Anacreon in Heaven” (or “The Anacreontic Song”), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”, soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of U.S. officialdom. “Hail, Columbia” served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee“, whose melody is identical to “God Save the Queen“, the United Kingdom’s national anthem, also served as a de facto national anthem. Following the War of 1812 and subsequent U.S. wars, other songs emerged to compete for popularity at public events, among them “America the Beautiful“, which itself was being considered before 1931 as a candidate to become the national anthem of the United States.

Source : Wikipedia

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Complete version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key’s manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection.

The third stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner makes disparaging mention of blacks and demonstrates Key’s opinion of their seeking freedom at the time by escaping to the British, who promised them freedom from American enslavement.

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
‘Tis the star-spangled banner – O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Star Spangled Banner Lyrics

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Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland, who is best known for writing the lyrics for the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner“.

Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”; it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song “To Anacreon in Heaven“.

The third stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner makes disparaging mention of blacks and demonstrates Key’s opinion of their seeking freedom at the time by escaping to the British, who promised them freedom from American enslavement.

Key owned slaves from 1800, during which time abolitionists ridiculed his words, claiming that America was more like the “Land of the Free and Home of the Oppressed”. As District Attorney, he suppressed abolitionists and did not support an immediate end to slavery. He was also a leader of the American Colonization Society which sent freed slaves to Africa. He freed some of his slaves in the 1830s, paying one ex-slave as his farm foreman. He publicly criticized slavery and gave free legal representation to some slaves seeking freedom, but he also represented owners of runaway slaves.

Key was a founding member and active leader of the American Colonization Society (ACS), whose primary goal was to send free blacks to Africa. Though many free blacks were born in the United States by this time, historians argue that upper-class American society, of which Key was a part, could never “envision a multiracial society”.^[36] The ACS was not supported by most abolitionists or free blacks of the time, but the organization’s work would eventually lead to the creation of Liberia in 1847.

Source: Wikipedia

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from Creating Better World

Jill Stein

Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party‘s nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party‘s candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010. During her campaigns for President, she campaigned on the theme of a Green New Deal which included a number of reforms to address climate change, income inequality as well as civil and political rights reform. In 2012, Stein was on the ballot in 37 states and received 469,501 votes (0.36% of the popular vote). In 2016, she was on the ballot in 45 states and received 1,457,216 votes and 1.07% of the popular vote.

Jill Stein – Wikipedia

Jill Stein for President

Videos of Jill Stein

2016-12-13 What Jill Stein’s Recount Effort Actually Accomplished

Howie Hawkins

Howard Gresham Hawkins (born December 8, 1952) is an American trade unionist and environmental activist from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party’s presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election. His primary campaign issues included enacting an eco-socialist version of the Green New Deal, which he first proposed in 2010, and building a viable, independent working-class political and social movement in opposition to the Democratic and Republican parties and capitalism in general.

Hawkins has played leading roles in anti-war, anti-nuclear, and pro-worker movements since the 1960s. Hawkins is a retired teamster and construction worker; from 2001 until his retirement in 2017, Hawkins worked the night shift; unloading trucks for UPS.

Issues

Howie Hawkins for our Future | Green Ecosocialists 

Howie Hawkins – Wikipedia

Lisa Savage

U.S. Senate Maine Candidate

Lisa Savage is a teacher, organizer and grandmother from Solon, Maine who has spent decades fighting for people, planet and peace.

She’s running to give Mainers a Senator who will work for the people, not the powerful. As your voice in the Senate, Lisa will do what it takes to protect our children’s future and create a better world for all of us.

Lisa is proudly independent from the bipartisan establishment that’s bought and paid for by Wall Street, war contractors, fossil fuel giants, and big Pharma. As a sign of that independence, Lisa and the Maine Green Independent Party do not accept money or support of any kind from lobbyists, big corporate executives or super PACs.

Issues

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National Progressive Candidates

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from Creating Better World