How we’re feeling

How are you? Fine? Really? I don’t believe it. Nobody’s fine right now.

I wanted to communicate some good news today, but I couldn’t find any. Some things do give me hope for the long term. Short-term, with Trump doing all the harm he can, the world ignoring climate change, and the virus running rampant through the US, I got nothin’.

It’s not my personal situation. I’m way luckier than most Americans: so far, so good. I just get panic attacks several times a week and fight depression every day. But money is no more of a problem than usual and nobody I love is sick. We’re all just having panic attacks and fighting depression.

If a household didn’t depend on my health, I’d have been in the street with Black Lives Matter for a month. There is joy and uplift in a crowd like that, gathered for a righteous purpose and determined to be peaceful in spite of the worst police can do. There is community, creativity, relief in taking action together. I’m very grateful to all those who do show up, and a little envious. I miss that feeling.

I miss a lot of things, a lot of people. I’ve been missing peace of mind since the 2016 presidential election. None of my friends has slept well since then. Now it’s hard to escape the feeling of nightmare while we’re wide awake.

So how do we get back to feeling okay? Counting blessings helps; so does counting breaths, and slowing them down when we’re anxious. Communicating with people we love. Being in nature, which remains beautiful. Making things, whether it’s music or masks or gardens.

What helps me most is remembering that the real problem is not individual people but the culture we have created. And culture changes all the time. We each change it, with every word and act, everything we buy or avoid buying, our tones of voice and our body language, even what we click and like on social media.

What becomes of humanity is up to humans. We can move toward destruction, or we can move toward sustainability and loving-kindness. We know what we must do. I believe we might yet even do it.

The stock market isn’t the economy

The stock market dropped in late March when it hit Americans all at once (except Trump, who knew months before) that COVID-19 was a deadly plague which demanded a quick response. The real economy, where people go to work and get paid, and then go out and spend their money, largely shut down. Suddenly 1 out of 4 Americans was out of a job.

The stock market has recovered. The real economy has not. Why does Dow Jones seem not to care that the Jones family can’t pay the rent? Because the Jones family is not rich and does not own stock. They are the poor relations that the Dow does its best to ignore.

But another stock market crash is almost inevitable. The Jones family’s unemployment checks will run out. They will not be able to find new jobs. No matter how much Trump denies it (and because of his denial), COVID-19 is raging through the US and people are rightly afraid to start their businesses back up. The Jones family’s landlord will stop forgiving the rent, because he can’t afford to pay his mortgage without getting it. They are all in danger of losing their homes.

The only reason the stock market cares about the 40 million Americans who have lost their jobs is that pretty soon, those people will stop spending money, because they won’t have any.

The capitalist economy depends on the American consumer. Nonstop advertising has trained us to want new things constantly. We buy every plastic gimcrack and follow every new fashion. Without our shopping, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.

That house of cards hasn’t been sheltering most people very well anyhow. Capitalism only works if you have capital. Put another way, it takes money to make money. People who have never had a chance to accumulate wealth, like most Americans of color and those born into the lower classes, get stuck in jobs that don’t pay enough to live on. When the real economy shuts down, they have no savings and no collateral.

The US is about to face hunger and homelessness on a scale we have not experienced since the Depression of the 1930s. The federal government under Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded to the Depression with laws, jobs programs, and public works projects known as the New Deal. Slowly, the New Deal programs put Americans back on their feet.

We know the only Jones that Trump cares about is the Dow. He is perfectly willing for the rest of the Joneses to die of coronavirus, or lose their homes, or starve, as long as his rich buddies continue to make more money. With a normal president, Americans could expect the federal government to help us get through these bundled crises. Now we know we can’t expect any help until we elect a new president. If we lose everything meanwhile? Trump will just call us losers.

Magical thinking

I believe in magic. I’ve seen it happen. Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, said: “Magic’s just science that we don’t understand yet.” In this case, the science is mob psychology. I’ve seen ugly crowds turn beautiful.

Once, long ago, I was at a huge outdoor rock concert. It was a hot day. Then it rained and the wind came up. People got cold. Some started to tear down the arena’s concession stands so they could make bonfires of the wood. The most aggressive vandals surrounded the fires. The mood was violent and mean.

Then a friend of mine stepped up to a fire, warmed his hands, and loudly praised the people who had built it. “This is so great, thank you! We’re all freezing and this feels wonderful! What a terrific idea!” He kept shouting this sort of thing while more people crowded around the fire. Now the original vandals began to feel like heroes. Others helped them take the stands apart and build more fires. Tension evaporated. Once again we were brothers and sisters enjoying the music together.

Late this spring, after a Minneapolis policeman murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the black community erupted in protest, releasing tension that had built up over lifetimes of racist abuse. As crowds demonstrated against police brutality, the police demonstrated their brutality. Some people at the fringes of the protests broke into stores; some set fire to police cars and a station where police had fled the scene.

Newscasters predicted riots. Trump clearly hoped for the start of a race war. But over the next few days and weeks, some kind of magic happened. In spite of, or maybe because of, the protesters’ justified rage and the horrific over-reaction by most police, the protests became not wilder but calmer. They grew. They focused. They spread worldwide.

These big, diverse, articulate crowds cannot stay in the streets forever. They have, however, inspired shifts in public awareness, media coverage, and even state budgets and laws that should, that must, result in deep and permanent change. Fighting racism is a battle with many fronts: jails and prisons, schools and workplaces, neighborhoods and legislatures. The work ahead of us is enormous. But our society seems to be ready to take it on, at last.

“Magical thinking” is defined as the belief that our thoughts can cause changes in the real world. When our thoughts have no actual consequences, such a belief is delusional. Yet I have seen people’s thoughts change the world, not just once but many times.

There is such a thing as magic. There is evil magic, like the spell the fascist far right has cast over too many people in too many countries. The worst kind of magic has convinced many people that we have no power to make a difference, that only the very rich or famous can affect our culture. But there is also good magic, the magic of our shared ideals. Let us never give up hope of changing the world together. Magic is in the hearts of the people.

Don’t just fight. Win.

The rebellion now taking place in many American cities has been building for a long time. Trump made it inevitable. Remember when he encouraged police not to “be too nice” when putting “thugs into the back of a paddy wagon” in 2017? He told them not to keep suspects from getting hurt by helping them duck as they enter the cop car: “You could take the hand away.” This is only one of many times Trump has incited police violence. He goads his followers to injure protesters and members of the press. His racism is beyond question.

Then the pandemic increased the pressure on everybody, but especially on black communities. Not only are people of color disproportionately in front-line positions, from hospitals to grocery stores, but services in their neighborhoods have been cut, and cut, and cut, so they don’t have the resources they need to stay safe. Housing is overcrowded. Community health centers have disappeared. Food deserts in cities mean they spend more money for worse diets. Their air is polluted, their water is toxic, public transportation won’t get them to where jobs are…The list of injustices is too long for this blog.

Over the past few weeks, on top of a tremendous death rate from COVID-19, on top of people’s desperation from their money running out with no help in sight, on top of endless stories about white police murdering unarmed black people, some especially shocking videos have emerged. One is of two white men chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery for jogging while black. One is of a white woman, Amy Cooper, calling the cops to report a black man was threatening her life, when he was just asking her politely to put her dog on a leash as the park required. And then, the last straw, the one of George Floyd getting strangled to death while in handcuffs by a white cop kneeling on his neck. In none of these incidents has justice been done.

Peaceful protests get ignored. Even if hundreds of thousands hit the streets, the media generally pay no attention unless things turn violent. The movement for justice has many voices but no single leader, so media usually interview some random bystander instead of just reading the damn signs. It’s a terrible truth that a city has to burn before our society really takes notice.

And what kind of action will result? Nothing good under Trump, we can be sure. He would love a race war. He could impose martial law and cancel the election he suspects he will lose. Cities burning distract people from his constant mistakes, provocations, and lies.

The violence against black people has been ongoing and remorseless. Black people can’t stop racism on their own, even with all their intelligence, persistence, and courage. White people have to show up for the rebellion. This is not only a fight for racial justice. It’s a fight for the rights of all of us to be equal under the law, no matter our ethnicity or gender or class, no matter where we live or how much money we have. It’s a fight for the soul of America. No one group can do it alone. We must stand together if we’re going to win.

*This is how to use privilege: White women protecting black demonstrators from police in Louisville, Kentucky*

Are you too good to vote Democratic?

The only way we can stop Trump is to vote him out in November. It’s horrible that the Wall Street Democrats picked Joe Biden, by far the worst of the 29 Democratic candidates. He’s definitely gropey, possibly rapey, and beyond a doubt incoherent, mentally failing, and unpersuasive. Do we really have to vote for this guy if he’s the nominee?

Yes, sadly, we do. The alternatives are to vote for a third-party candidate, or refuse to vote. Either alternative will bring us a second term of Trump. If you think the US or humanity could survive that, you have not been paying attention for at least 3-1/2 years.

A little recent historical background. In 2000, the race was between Al Gore, an early climate change visionary, and clueless George W. Bush, who brought on the Great Recession of 2008. Gore won 48.38% of the popular vote. W won 47.87%. Ralph Nader, running on the Green Party ticket, won 2.74%, votes that might have tipped the race to Gore. Eventually Gore lost the Electoral College vote 271/266, because the Supreme Court majority of judges appointed by W’s daddy stopped the vote recount in Florida.

If Gore had been president instead of W, we’d be far better equipped to deal with catastrophic climate change. Taxes would be easier on working people and harder on the rich. The US might have responded to 9/11 with global police action instead of two unprovoked and unfunded wars. We also might have avoided the vast “Homeland Security” surveillance apparatus that has focused on peaceable American Muslims and ignored the real threat, White Supremacists.

In 2016, again, third-party voters might have tipped the race. Hillary Clinton got 48% of the popular vote. Trump got 46%. Libertarian Gary Johnson got 3% and Green Party Jill Stein got 1%. Johnson and Stein knew quite well what a disaster Trump would be. The only reason they kept running was ego. Their supporters thought they were avoiding moral compromise by voting third party. We all paid a heavy price for their purity.

Let’s call bullshit on non-voting as well as third parties. 40% of eligible voters do not cast a ballot. Most of these non-voters lean Democratic. They think their vote won’t make a difference; or they think both parties are too corrupt to support; or they’re too busy or tired or distracted to bother. As a group, non-voters are younger, poorer, and less white than voters. The people who don’t vote are exactly the ones who could use the most help from the federal government: affordable health care, housing, and education.

The Blue Wave in 2018 pushed progressives into the heart of the Democratic party. (Thanks again, black women!) This year, we can begin real change in the right direction. But not if we vote third party and not if we fail to vote. Don’t let them divide us. Stand together. Vote Blue.

Listen to scientists

So the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) put out a report with detailed guidelines on how the states can re-open as safely as possible. The report was supposed to be published on May 1, but Trump shelved it. The stock market just loves when he does stuff like that. The hell with the lives of the non-rich. What matters is the welfare of the rich and Trump’s re-election. The rest of us can just die. He doesn’t care, and if anybody around him shows signs of caring, he’ll fire them.

Trump has told the CDC to shut up. He thinks Americans want him, not the truth. From the May 4 issue of the New Yorker, The Pandemic Protocol by Charles Duhigg: A former high-ranking CDC official said: “We could have saved so many more lives. We have the best public-health agency in the world, and we know how to persuade people to do what they need to do. Instead, we’re ignoring everything we’ve learned over the past century.”

Trump’s original idea was to let COVID-19 “wash over” the country, killing as many as it liked. He knew the super-rich would buy themselves isolation and safety, but business would continue to make them richer, ensuring his re-election. From the start of his 2016 campaign, too many credulous Americans have fallen for his con job, thinking he cared what became of them. Many still can’t admit they were fooled. He doesn’t even care about his most committed followers, urging them to be “warriors” in his battle against truth and science. They crowd in the streets unmasked and are bound to bring the deadly pandemic home with them.

Please don’t celebrate the inevitable sickness and death among Trump’s volunteers (or paid agitators). For many years, they have been lied to by corporate-controlled, right-wing media — Fox, Clear Channel, and Sinclair; by cynical, ignorant preachers; and by a showman who has mastered every con artist trick without the disadvantage of a conscience. They aren’t warriors. They are sheep being led to slaughter. Racist sheep, misogynist sheep, but sheep.

50 experiments

Since the USA has no effective federal leadership, saving us from COVID-19 is now up to the states. So we have 50 experiments in progress; more, really, with many cities setting their own quarantine or “opening” rules. By mid-July, we’ll be seeing graphs of preliminary results. The numbers will still be shaky. No one besides Trump projects that enough testing will happen by then to show us who has the virus. Most likely, given our dangerously idiotic President, the USA will still be #1 – in COVID cases as well as military spending.

There are many things states simply cannot do on their own. They can’t get good prices buying masks and tests, since the federal government refuses to use its massive power to bargain for all; instead, the feds are forcing states to compete with them and one another, and then stealing state supplies. States can’t get food dumped by farmers unable to access their usual markets to the hungry people who need it in other states. They can’t set firm guidelines for the American people to follow and believe in. They can’t raise enough taxes from the richest to keep their people from starving, being evicted, or getting their utilities shut off.

This patchwork of state experiments is bound to cost a lot of lives. States will open too soon, see deaths skyrocket, and have to go back to quarantine. According to new data from the University of Pennsylvania, relaxing lockdown orders too soon could cost 233,000 lives.

If some people insist on their freedom to ignore safety precautions, other people will be free to die.

A rational, science-based nation-wide plan for re-opening safely would save much confusion and many lives. Wouldn’t it be great if the states could unite somehow? If we could form a union across the US? Like create a United States of America?

Oh…right…

Trump is Killing Us

He’s been killing people right along. An incomplete list: victims of hate crimes, which his hateful rhetoric encourages; refugees sent back home to the deadly gang violence they tried to flee; the Kurds, after he deserted them in Syria; children stolen from their immigrant families who died in US custody; women who died from bungled illegal abortions when they couldn’t get legal ones; poor people unable to get health care because he’s cut Obamacare as much as he can; and these days, many thousands from COVID-19 who might be alive if he had taken action in January instead of March.

Now the federal government is stockpiling PPE (personal protection equipment) by outbidding states and even just taking stuff the states have managed to buy. Trump wants states to be “nice” to him before he gives them any of it, no matter how much their people need it. States should not have to bid for PPE. The federal government should be doing all that work, locating and buying it, and distributing it to states as needed, not according to how much their governors are willing to kiss his ass.

Really, they think we have to choose between liberty and COVID-19? Aren't people free to decide we want to stay healthy?

Worst of all perhaps, Trump has been pushing the “opening” of the country, an end to the virus quarantine, and encouraging his followers to protest the lockdowns of their states. This in spite of overwhelming evidence that it is far too soon to go back to business as usual. We are still in the midst of a surge. All the numbers we see are way too low, since so few tests are available. Opening back up too soon will mean a huge spike in sickness and death.

But the man who is supposed to protect this country does not care how many of us die. The sad truth is that though healthcare workers, police and firefighters are literally dying to keep us safe, the world’s most powerful person only cares about getting re-elected.

Too much, too soon

I’m afraid people will be forced to go back to work, if they can find a job. Some jobs will be available to replace “essential workers” from grocery stores, hospitals, and delivery services who fall sick. There might soon be more. Too many Trump supporters are echoing his demand for “re-opening” the US economy whether or not it is safe to do so.

There is simply not enough protective gear to make workplaces safe, even the ones that have remained open. But if you’re out of money, you might have to work, no matter the danger. The one-time $1200 payout from the federal government can’t keep households going for more than a few weeks, and not everybody got one. They should be sending everyone $2000 a month and paying for all necessary health care. But… Trump.

Amazon tv ads praise workers for their courage but company fails to provide protective gear.

Opening the country long before we are ready will only set up the next big wave of the pandemic. Trump does not care how many of us die. Most big corporations also do not care how many of us die, in spite of their recent deluge of commercials thanking front-line workers. Judging from the mask-free faces I see in public, a lot of ordinary people seem not to care either. They might just be in denial, but that’s not a good excuse.

So far, Amazon is not adequately protecting its workers.

Now is the time to fight in the most passive possible way. Don’t show up. Don’t go to work. Don’t open your store. Stay home and wait for the tests and the gear. And when you have to go out, for all of our sakes, wear a mask.

Boston: 1, Fascists: 0

In August 2017, I attended one of my favorite events ever, in the big public park called Boston Common. I came home loving Boston, loving Antifa, loving Black Lives Matter. I loved all the random peaceniks and fighters for justice who showed up en masse. We were protesting a “free speech” demonstration designed to promote extreme right-wing ideology — in other words, fascism. That day, I even loved the Boston Police Department.

Boston showed up to support Black Lives Matter, and to face down the fascists who planned to rally. — *photo by Kathleen Gillespie*

In spite of organizers’ boasts, only about 50 Nazis came for the planned rally, so few they could all fit on the bandstand. They were surrounded by about 40,000 people on the anti-Nazi side. The crowd was peaceful, diverse, friendly, and happy. The signs were passionate and clever. The police did their job, and they did it well as far as I could see.

I watched some coverage of the demonstration after it was over and was puzzled to see how the news focused on the few arrests and some scuffles where the paths of Nazis and protesters came too close together. How did they miss the monster party that the rest of us experienced? They described the atmosphere as “tense,” but 99% of us weren’t tense at all. We felt fantastic. Boston showed up to boo the haters out of our town, and we did it in style.

A few memorable moments: one or two of the fascists somehow got past the police barricades and were walking among the main crowd, some of whom as you might predict were following the guys and yelling at them. But other anti-Nazis kept them surrounded and safe until they could rejoin their pathetic little herd. That was a beautiful thing to see.

People handed out bottles of cold water. Others shared cake. It had been suggested by some that lefties should stay home, avoid making any trouble. But if you don’t show up to protest Nazis, when are you going to show up?

Another moment: when the tens of thousands who started marching in Roxbury arrived at Boston Common, the tens of thousands of anti-fascists already there raised a huge cheer and chanted “Black Lives Matter” as they joined us. There was no tension. There was joy and celebration.

Finally the Nazis gave up their platform and slunk offstage and out of the Common with their police escort. A few voices lifted from the surrounding crowd, then more and more joined in, until all of us were singing together, over and over: Na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.

Put Women in Charge

We’re in an early stage of civilization, if we survive it. We’re going through a dramatic adolescence, as a species learning how to organize itself. We’re like bees before hives, or ants before hills. We’re hormonal, lust-driven, reckless, grabbing what we want without regard for consequences, taking chances with our lives as though we were immortal, invulnerable. These are our crazy teenage years. Clearly this is no way to run a planet.

We’ve been ruled by testosterone – that surge and scourge of teenage boys, our culture’s ideal essence, source of so much activity and trouble. Male aggression has been our operating force. It’s a great force – it gets things done – but it needs to be balanced. Estrogen provides the balance.

Without female nurturing, there’s too much aggression and the fear and hatred it can engender for society to function. We fall apart from our unrestrained aggression. Caring is the side of our humanity that has been suppressed, discouraged, discounted, disrespected. We have mocked loving as weakness. So we become, as a society, sicker, more poisoned by the imbalance in our natures. Women are the cure, or part of the cure, for what ails us – not the gender so much as the repository of ideas and values we store under the rubric “woman.”

So just as the voices of young and old, white and black, all genders, all classes, are required in order for our species to understand our situation, so the presence of women in our politics is a sign of improving health. Balance, which is peace, which is harmony, health, and wellbeing, must be restored, or maybe, as a new era dawns, achieved.

It has always seemed to me that women are going to have to lead the way toward real revolution. Not the violent kind, which is just more of the same damn thing, but true revolution – big change in the right direction.

I don’t think women are naturally better than men. It’s just that for centuries, women have been the custodians of the values our culture now desperately needs. It is mostly women who take care of children, the sick, and the elderly. It is mostly women who teach. It is mostly women who clean up men’s messes. Not being allowed to speak, we have been forced to learn how to listen. Not having access to power, we have learned what it feels like to be powerless. Women have learned to have compassion the hard way. Now we need to show the world how it’s done.

There’s a flip side to compassion, though. If we really want to alleviate suffering, we have to find ways to stop people from needlessly and cruelly making others suffer. When the struggle is nonviolent, and we’d better hope it is, humor is one of the best weapons we have against the oppressors. Let’s be funny when we can, and make it sting.

The Bible says the last shall be first. That sounds like women to me, especially poor women, and most especially women of color. Just because it’s in the Bible, doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Collateral Damage

You’re not responsible for the damage that you do
Somebody’s gotta clean up your mess, but it sure ain’t gonna be you
You’ll give yourself glory when you tell us the story
and some will believe it’s all true

But you don’t care, it’s collateral damage
You had a job to do, they just got in your way
They don’t count, they’re collateral damage
You take what you want, and make the rest of us pay

You praise capitalism, and you give free advice to the poor
They just have to work hard, you say, and they won’t be poor no more
Poor people shouldn’t need your help, they should be ashamed to ask
Meanwhile your accountant gets you out of paying any tax

But you don’t care, it’s collateral damage
Markets will rise, and then markets will fall
You say the poor shouldn’t be such sore losers
Didn’t they know that it’s winners take all

You’re a player in the arms trade, making real big bucks off war
You don’t worry yourself too much about what the war is for
You just like to blow things up and watch all the people run
It’s just like playing a video game once the killing has begun

And you don’t care, they’re collateral damage
None of them had a face or a name
Notch your belt, they’re collateral damage
After all, they’re just pawns in the game

Cruel Way to Run the World

If your family needs you, you will pull the plow
You’ll do anything for your children
You’ll become a slave in the rich man’s house
In the hope you’ll be able to save them

So you keep on going, working all the time,
Always on the edge of exhaustion,
Never finding time for your own life
Knowing you’re going to need some

It’s a cruel, cruel way to run the world

They don’t care how many people they use —
the Trumpers and the Koch brothers —
They keep us tired and they keep us confused
Blaming what’s wrong on each other

Aren’t you tired of just standing around
Waiting for something to change
We better decide to get serious now
We have our whole world to rearrange

Cause it’s a cruel cruel way to run the world

Wondering Blues

Everybody’s been bought and paid for
It makes us cynical and sad
Everybody’s worn out and weary
Too many years of getting mad

Hasn’t been justice, hasn’t been peace,
Righteous anger but no release
We know that violence is not the way
But how many dues do we have to pay
How many fallen along the way

Oh when, when will we get there
To the place where we can stand together
How do we take back the earth
How do we take back the earth

When are the meek gonna rise up
Wipe all the tears from our eyes
Give each other a hand up
When will people all stand up
And fight for our grandchildren’s lives
Figure out how to survive
This planet we’ve changed with our strange, strange ways

All the good people caring for people
Trying to make life better for all
So many struggling alone with their burdens
No one to catch them if they should fall

Our heroes are selling us sports cars
Our leaders are telling us lies
Our scientists tell us to worry
Our media tell us to buy

They’ve made us so ugly, so stupid,
They’ve taught us to fear and to hate
Let’s not sit down on our couches
And get up when it’s far too late

Oh when, when will we get there
To the place where we can stand together
How do we take back the earth
How do we take back the earth

Freedom Song

Things may be rocky
Things may be fine
Looks like we all have to
do some hard time

But deep in our hearts we are free, we are free
Deep in our hearts we are free

Don’t you despair, baby,
Don’t you give up
Whatever life gives you
drink deep from the cup

For deep in your heart you are free, you are free
Deep in your heart you are free

How can we keep falling
more behind each day
Doesn’t help to argue
Doesn’t help to pray
Can’t believe in heaven
Can’t see a way to thrive
Have to slave at two damn jobs
Just to stay alive

Too much to handle, babe,
too much to rise above.
But I can offer you
all of my love

For deep in our souls we are free, we are free
Deep in our souls we are free

Homeless Blues

A dollar bill is easy to give
It takes a thousand for a place to live
Give me a nickel, pay me a dime
Oh brother don’t you waste my time

Cause it’s a hard way
a hard way to get by
I keep on walking
but sometimes I wonder why

Once had a lover, once had a home
Now I got nothing to call my own
I tell you sister and I tell you true
You must be kind ’cause it could happen to you

And it’s a hard way
a hard way to get by
I keep on walking
but sometimes I wonder why

Peppermint schnapps is my favorite treat
It helps to insulate me from the street
I play the Lottery — I plan to win —
I’ll buy a liter when my ship comes in

When I die and reach the Pearly Gate
I’m gonna find myself a heating grate
That’s the one thing for which I pray
Some place the cops can never chase me away

‘Cause it’s a hard way
a hard way to get by
I keep on trying
but sometimes I wonder why

It Says Meek, Not Stupid

The gentle have begun among us
working slow magic like the growing of roots,
deep magic like the flowing of blood or traffic.
The only thing that stands between them
and complete world domination
is the illusion that there is something
going on here besides naked apes and stuff.
It’s the dazzling varieties of stuff,
the infinite kinds of stuff everywhere on display
though mostly out of reach, that makes
the apes in charge seem invincible.
They have nearly everything, and the meek
believe that that makes a difference.
Surrounded by rooms of furniture,
by exquisite clothing, jewels, flowers,
by underlings to satisfy any whim,
with powers of life and death over other people,
the rulers are well defended.
But the meek have numbers. One day the meek will notice.
And then it will all be over in the twinkling of an eye.
They are meek, not stupid.
And they have already begun.

News Flash

Banditas with strollers and water pistols
shot the Minority Whip today
for whipping minorities.
They shot the Governor with
disappearing ink
for disappearing on poor people.
They hung the image
of a public servant
by his red power tie
for serving power
instead of the public.
They held up the Treasurer
for money to feed their children.
Nobody saw their faces.
Nobody knows their names.
All we know is
some of these mothers are angry.

Red White and Blues

America’s got the world on a string
We’ve got a little bit of everything
A little bit of freedom
A little bit of peace
A little bit of time living on our knees

We’ve got the red white & blues…oh baby, hang on

They say that the truth’s gonna make us free
If we just stay tuned to cable tv
A little bit of pagan
A little bit of Pope
But ever since Reagan, not a whole lot of hope

We have an election in the year 2020
When a few have taken what belongs to the many.
Afraid we’ve seen it again and again:
two more clueless old white men

We can’t seem to make our system work
Got a president who’s the world’s worst jerk
Gotta keep movin’
We just gotta try
Keep on tellin’ the whole world why
we got the red white & blues…ah, baby, hang on

Saturday Night Dead

Saturday Night Live, where are you
while doom is assembled and wheeled into place?
What are you thinking
while a few gorge and the rest go hungry?
While poets scream in the torture,
while our country sides against ordinary people to maintain the rich?
Whom do you talk to, where do you go
while we scramble, speechless, on the banks of Hell?

I wish
you would spend a week on the streets
talking with beggars and peddlers.
I wish
you would spend a week in state prison,
in El Salvador, the West Bank, the Gulag.

Subtle, brie-smooth, empty-hip,
what is it you seek?
Do something hard this week:
look at what hurts.
Your hair may be perfect, but blood
leaks from your ears.
Too-close-to-prime-time players,
your hearts are compromised.
Laughter that springs from nothing
leads to nothing.

Begin with the tears on another human’s cheek.
Look to the headlines that sour your breakfast.
Cowboys in subway stations,
prolife bombers, peaceable missiles,
hateful Christians, furious nuns,
crystalline rock stars, plasticine presidents,
children waking from nightmares of World War III,
children in camouflage playing GI Joe.

O speak of what’s real!
Lest you be smug and suave as your enemies,
hunger for a week.
Run for your life to the border.

You balance above us like acrobats,
tinsel stars in a black sky.
O share what is real!
Let your shambling crazies seek Welfare,
let your M.C. despair,
let your fresh-faced sexpots carry unwanted babies.
We hunger – we thirst – we demand from you
what is real.

O you whose luck and talent have opened for you
doors to the lives of others,
care what you take,
for love slumbers in the lives you enter
and what you seek with your whole being
it is possible you will wake.

In the desert, a thousand miles from television,
a black fetus stirs in the mother.
Speak to that baby.
Your voices carry on the winds of Chaos.
Speak what is real.

Alice T4

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