Stop it!

This poem, written by my father Eugene V. Etler on the eve of World War 2 presciently foresees the consequences of the intransigence of  the bourgeois democracies of his time in their refusal to fight the spectre of fascism then stalking Europe's corridors. By letting Spain succumb to Franco's fascist minions the fate of millions who would eventually die on the killing fields of Europe and Asia and in the ovens of Germany was sealed. 

Tragically we are living in similar times. But the enemies of the world's people now reside in Washington D.C. and the capitals of supposedly democratic Europe rather than the axis capitals of Berlin, Rome and Tokyo. The US and its NATO henchmen have inherited the mantle of Hitler and Mussolini, Franco and Tojo.

So once again, 75 years later, the world's people must raise their voices in unison and shout ----

Stop it!

In the name of humanity

What is this all about?

The papers declaring

The papers, as if, gloating

Barcelona is falling

Barcelona has fallen.

What is this all about

Who is victorious

And who are the dead?

Franco's armies push on!

Who stands in the background?

Who saves Spain from its death?

Are we the people –

Reading

Of Hitler's joy

And Mussolini's threats?

Are we the people

Reading

France stands aside

England cautious – saves her hide.

In the name of humanity

What is this all about?

Are we but the readers of papers

The puppets pulled by the silent wordings

Of scrupulous papers rejoicing

The downfall – the end of a country?

Why do we sit and shed the bitter tears?

The unfinished sighs?

The collapse of all feeling

Reading and hearing

Spain is about to die.

In the name of humanity

What is this all about?

Millions are starving

Babes are crying

Send your money

Feed a mouth

Fill a stomach.

Is this the way

To stem the tide

Let your conscience ride?

Send a dollar

Push aside

The thought

My country betrayed me

It closed its eyes

To the betrayal

Of a sister country.

For the telegrams we did send

The demonstrations we did hold

The speeches spoken

The parades protesting

The boys who fought

All this –

Yes, the people spoke –

And our country ignored us –

Death, it said, to Democracy

We will not lift the embargo.

Oh, God, in the name of humanity

What is this all about?

The airways acclaiming

The victory march,

The ministers, of countries, reciting

The funeral march.

This is the end of three years battle

This is what we fought for

Overwhelming defeat

The devil made cry

Of people – Die!

This is the end of three years battle.

Democracies – look to your fate!

Rome, Berlin – have made it too late

For you to change your course.

France, England, America, accept your fate.

Over the map of Europe

Will crawl the fingers of hate.

The Devil perched

War God

Destruction

Spain is Dead.

In the name of humanity

What is this all about?

If Spain is dead

Then long live Spain?

If Democracy is dying

Then let it die?

If the terror of fascism is coming

Then let it come?

If the dark ages are once more to be with us –

Let them come?

If we are all to meet destruction's end –

Let it meet us?

Crowded together?

For shelter?

Dying men?

This is what we have lived for?

Our parents of the past

Seeds of our living

This is what you have given birth to?

And planned for?

Cowardly men

Unfit to live

Morality uncrowned

Insanity crowned

Strutters of war

Demagogues of crime

Uplifted to a Godly halo

Long live our leaders

Death to the people.

In the name of humanity

What is this all about?

Has Spain met defeat?

Is this the end

Must we say farewell

Is Spain now Austria

Is Spain Czechoslovakia

Is it finished

Have the dead died in vain

Have we still time

To stem the tide?

Cry you voices of the people

Let the consciences of the world hear you.

Spain must be saved!

The embargo must be lifted!

France to the fore!

England's lion roar!

Defeat of Chamberlain!

Down with Daladier!

Where is the people's front?

Sanctions against Germany

The same to Italy.

Together

Oh, God, yes

Together

Let it ring out

Let it be heard

One God almighty shout

The world together

You – the people of the world –

China

Spain

Italy

Japan

France

America

England

Germany

All you countries

North and South

East and West

Of Asia, Africa

Europe and America

Together

Cry it out

You must

You must

Stop Fascism

In the name of humanity

Stop it!

Peace in Harlem
--Eugene V. Etler

Another of my father's poems that is as relevant today as the day it was written. In the 1930s Father Divine captivated his multi-racial audiences. Both black and white worshipers swooned to his sermons. Father Divine, like other charismatic leaders, was neither all good nor all bad. He did good works but also deflected people away from engaging in the active struggle for social and economic justice.

Wikipedia states: Father Divine claimed to be God. Some contemporary critics also claimed he was a charlatan, and some suppose him to be one of the first modern cult leaders. However, Father Divine made numerous contributions toward his followers' economic independence and racial equality. Father Divine was a contemporary of other religious leaders at that time such as Daddy Grace, Charles Harrison Mason, Noble Drew Ali and James F. Jones also known as Prophet Jones. Another minister by the name of Jones would play a significant part in a brief struggle to gain control of the Peace Mission following Divine's death - Jim Jones, of the 'apostolic socialist' movement Peoples Temple.

What follows is the poem "Peace in Harlem" that captures the contradictory nature of Father Divines mission.

Peace in Harlem -- Eugene V. Etler

There is a new kind of peace to be found
And that is in Harlem.
It is a peace that is wonderful.
A peace that wrecks havoc
With the human mind.
It's a peace that's set to a rhythm
It's a peace that cries
Let's escape from this everyday life
Let us enter into the realm of our minds.

Let us forget hunger and poverty
And forget that we are the down trodden.
For we will find ourselves equalized in the cry of ----- Peace -----
Peace – Father – Peace.

Peace!
God is wonderful
And Father Divine is God.

Father Divine is God -----

Yes, brothers and sisters
I came under the fold
Under the fold of Father Divine
And I'm here
And I say
Father Divine is wonderful.

He plucked me from the streets
And he made me what I am today
A good woman
Yes, brothers and sisters, a good woman.

What was I
A thief
And what am I today?
A good woman.

Father Divine
Blessed be his name.
He took me from the streets.
He fed me and clothed me
And he showed me a light
And he showed me how to fight
That evil of sin -----

Yes, he took me in
And he fed me
And he clothed me
And he showed me
The heavenly path.
Yes, brothers
Yes, sisters
He gave new birth to me.

Oh, yes.
I was reborn
And God did it
And God is
Father Divine.

And I'm here and I say
Sing your praises
To him -----

He is wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful -----
Peace – brothers
Peace – sisters.

Oh, Father
Oh, Lord
Your presence is mine.
You're here.
You've entered my sinful body.
You've bathed me
With the light of your presence
And I thank you,
I thank you, I thank you –
Oh, Father -----
You are wonderful!

Father Divine is a lovely thing
  Father Divine is a holy thing.
Father Divine is a lovely thing
  Father Divine is a holy thing.

And the darkness of the bodies
Printed gaily in the dresses
Swaying to the rhythm
Escaping to the rhythm
Of -----
It's wonderful to be in love with Father Divine
It's wonderful to be in love with him.
And over and over and over
To the clapping of the hands
And the beating of the feet
And the swaying of the bodies
And the lightning in the eyes
Oh, it's wonderful to be in love with father
It's wonderful to be in love with him.

Oh, the madness and the rhythm
The fanaticism and the rhythm.
What are we and where are we
Down below in this cellar?
What is this –
Swaying of the bodies
Contortions of the bodies
Confessions of the souls
Cleansing of the souls?

Is this something mad
Or is this something wonderful?

Perceive -----

Father Divine is God
And a little child shall lead them.

Father lifted me
When nothing else would help.

For it's Father  Father  Father
    Father  Father  Father
That re-echoes in your ears
And brings your blood
Pulsing to a million fears
For it's Father  Father  Father
    Father  Father  Father
Look at our tears
Our tears
Forming into a flood
Noah's flood
For the love of you --- Oh, Father!

It's Father Divine that you eat
And it's He that you sleep
And it's He that you love.
Oh, it's Father  Father  Father
    Father  Father  Father
Listen to your children
Listen to your children calling -----

And it's beat
And it's clap
To the rhythm
Of the Lord
To the Lord
Our Father
Father Divine.

And you can't keep quiet
And you must keep moving
Sing  Sing  Sing  Sing
And it's the piano
And it's the drum
African piano
African drum
Together
It's rhythm
Rhythm
God's rhythm
Oh, body get a moving
Sway body
It's the Lord that's in you
And you go to shake
You can't keep quiet
That's rhythm
God's rhythm got a hold of you
Just got a hold of you
And it's calling for you to shake
God is calling

Father is calling
Oh, listen to us Father
We feel you Father
And -----

I love to feel Father's love
Flowing through my veins
 love to feel Father's love
Flowing through my veins -----

Father Divine is wonderful
And Father Divine is God -----

Oh, Father
Father

Peace!

Peace is found in Harlem
A new kind of peace
And Harlem has flocked
And taken to their bosoms
Peace as their byword
For happiness.

Yes, Harlem has escaped
No more is hunger a problem
Though the belly is empty.
No more is sickness a problem
Though pestilence stalks its way
Through Harlem's streets.
Yes, poverty is gone
And Harlem starves
But life is wonderful
Wonderful
For a new messiah has risen
Father ----- Father Divine


Peace!

Into the Fire

Long Live The Egyptian Revolution:  July 25th -

Into the Fire
by 13 Senses



Come on, come on
Put your hands into the fire
Explain, explain
As I turn and meet the power
This time, This time
Turning white and senses dire
Pull up, pull up
From one extreme to another
From the summer to the spring
From the mountain to the air
From Samaritan to sin
And it’s waiting on the end
Come on, come on
Put your hands into the fire
Explain, explain
As I turn and meet the power
This time, This time
Turning white and sense dire
Pull up, pull up
From one extreme to another
From the summer to the spring
From the mountain to the air
From Samaritan to sin
And it’s waiting on the end
and now I’m alone I’m looking out
I’m looking in, way down
The lights are dim
and now I’m alone I’m looking out
I’m looking in, way down
The lights are dim
Ooooh
Come on, come on
Put your hands into the fire
Come on, come on

To the Tyrants of the World

The inspiring movement of the Arab people continues to gain strength. Today the Egyptian people have joined their Tunisian sisters and brothers in marching against the tyrants who have oppressed them. One of the features of this mass movement is that the protesters have been chanting the poem Ela Toghat Al Alaam ("To the Tyrants of the World") written by the famous Tunisian poet Abul Qassim Al Shabbi.

To the Tyrants of the World
by Abul Qassim Al Shabbi

Here is a version sung by Arabic songstress Latifa



Oppressive tyrant...
Lover of darkness...
Enemy of life...
You have ridiculed innocent people's wounds
Your palm is soaked with their blood
You deformed the magic of existence
And planted the seeds of sorrow in the fields
Wait, don’t be fooled by the spring, the clearness of the sky or the light of dawn
For on the horizon looms the forboding darkness, the rumbling thunder and the blowing winds
Beware for below the ash there is fire and he who grows thorns will reap wounds
You have harvested the heads of mankind and the flowers of hope
You have watered the heart of the Earth with blood
And it has been soaked with tears until drunk
The river of blood will sweep you away and the fiery storm will devour you

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

Who Would Jesus Bomb?
---David Rovics

I've seen you in the markets
I've seen you in the streets
And at your political convention
Talking of your crusade
Talking of your nation
And other things too terrible to mention
And you proclaim your Christianity
You proclaim your love of God
You talk of apple pie and mom
Well I've just got one question
And I want an answer
Tell me, who would Jesus bomb?

Maybe Jesus would bomb the Syrians
'Cause they're not Jews like him
Maybe Jesus would bomb the Afghans
On some kind of vengeful whim
Maybe Jesus would drive an M1 tank
And he would shoot Saddam
Tell me, who would Jesus bomb?

I've seen you on the TV
And on the battleships
I've seen you in the house upon the hill
And I've heard you talking
About making the world safer
And about all the men you have to kill
And you speak so glibly
About your civilization
And how you have the moral higher ground
While halfway around the world
Your explosives smash the buildings
Ah, if you could only hear the sound

But maybe Jesus would sell land mines
And turn on his electric chair
Maybe Jesus would show no compassion
For his enemies in the lands way over there
Maybe Jesus would have flown the planes
That killed the kids in Viet Nam
Tell me, who would Jesus bomb

Yes I hear you shout with confidence
As you praise the lord
And you talk about this God you know so well
And you talk of Armageddon
And your final victory
When all the evil forces go to hell
Well you'd best hope you've chosen wisely
On the right side of the lord
And when you die your conscience it is clear
You'd best hope that your atom bombs
Are better than the sword
At the time when your reckoning is here

'Cause I don't think Jesus would send gunships into Bethlehem
Or jets to raze the towns of Timorese
I don't think Jesus would lend money to dictators
Or drive those SUV's
And I don't think Jesus would ever have dropped
A single ounce of napalm
So tell me, who would Jesus bomb?

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
---Bob Dylan


Madeleine Peyroux

I’ve seen love go by my door
It’s never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow.
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin’s not right it’s wrong
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love,
It’s always hit me from below.
This time around it’s more correct
Right on target, so direct,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Purple clover, Queen Anne’s lace,
Crimson hair across your face,
You could make me cry if you don’t know.
Can’t remember what I was thinkin’ of
You might be spoilin’ me too much, love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Flowers on the hillside, bloomin’ crazy,
Crickets talkin’ back and forth in rhyme,
Blue river runnin’ slow and lazy,
I could stay with you forever and never realize the time.

Situations have ended sad,
Relationships have all been bad.
Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud.
But there’s no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m doin’,
Stayin’ far behind without you.
Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m sayin’,
Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin’ to.

I’ll look for you in old Honolulu,
San Francisco, Ashtabula,
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know.
But I’ll see you in the sky above,
In the tall grass, in the ones I love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Life is Sweet

Life is Sweet
---Natalie Merchant



It's a pity
It's a crying shame
He pulled you down again
How painful it must be
To bruise so easily
Inside

It's a pity
It's a downright crime
It happens all the time
You want to stay little daddy's girl
You want to hide from a vicious world
Outside
Don't cry
You know the tears will do no good
So dry your eyes

Oh, your daddy
He's the iron man
Battleship wrecked on dry land
Your mamma
She's a bitter bride
She'll never be satisfied
Do you know?
And that's not right

But don't cry
You know the tears will do no good
So dry your eyes

Oh, they told you life is hard
Misery from the start
It's dull
It's slow
It's painful

But, I'll tell you life is sweet
Inspite of the misery
There's so much more to be grateful

Well, who do you believe?
Who will you listen to?
Who will it be?
'Cause it's high time that you decide
In your own mind

I've tried to comfort you
I've tried to tell you to be patient
They are blind
And they can't see

Fortune gonna come one day
They're all gonna fade away
Your daddy, the war machine
and
Your momma, the long and suffering
Prisioner of what she can not see

For they told you life is hard
Misery from the start
It's dull
It's slow
It's painful

But, I'll tell you life is sweet
Inspite of the misery
There's so much more to be grateful

So, who will you believe?
Who will you listen to?
Who will it be?
Because it's high time that you decide
It's time to make up your own
your own state of mind

Oh, they told you that life is long
Be thankful when it's done
Don't ask for more
be grateful

But, I'll tell you life is short
Be thankful
Because before you know
It will be over
'Cause life is sweet
Life is, oh, so very short
Life is sweet
And life is, oh, so very short
Life is sweet

And life is sweet
And life is sweet

My Skin

My Skin
--Natalie Merchant



Take a look at my body
Look at my hands
There's so much here that I don't understand
Your face say these promises
Whispered like prayers
I don't need them
Because I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable
Well, content loves the silence
It thrives in the dark
With fine winding tendrils
That strangle the heart
They say that promises sweeten the blow
But I don't need them, no
I don't need them
I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable
I'm the slow dying flower
In the frost killing hour
Sweet turning sour and untouchable
Oh, I need the darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
Oh, I need this
I need a lullaby
A kiss good night
Angel sweet love of my life
Oh, I need this
I'm the slow dying flower
In the frost killing hour
Sweet turning sour and untouchable
Do you remember the way that you touched me before
All the trembling sweetness I loved and adored
Your face saving promises whispered like prayers
I don't need them
Oh, I need the darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
Oh, I need this
I need a lullaby
A kiss good night
Angel sweet love of my life
Oh, I need this
Well is it dark enough
Can you see me
Do you want me
Can you reach me
Oh, I'm leaving
You better shut your mouth
And hold your breath
And kiss me now
And catch your death
Oh, I mean this
Oh, I mean this

Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind

Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind
---Simin Behbahani (2009)(Translated by Kaveh Safa and Farzaneh Milani)

If the flames of anger rise any higher in this land
Your name on your tombstone will be covered with dirt.

You have become a babbling loudmouth.
Your insolent ranting, something to joke about.

The lies you have found, you have woven together.
The rope you have crafted, you will find around your neck.

Pride has swollen your head, your faith has grown blind.
The elephant that falls will not rise.

Stop this extravagance, this reckless throwing of my country to the wind.
The grim-faced rising cloud, will grovel at the swamp's feet.

Stop this screaming, mayhem, and blood shed.
Stop doing what makes God's creatures mourn with tears.

My curses will not be upon you, as in their fulfillment.
My enemies' afflictions also cause me pain.

You may wish to have me burned , or decide to stone me.
But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.

Christians Murdered Indians

Christians Murdered Indians
---Corporate Avenger

Even in the initial stages of contact between European Christians and Native Indian people the stage was set for ethnocentrism, and the attitude towards the Indians was that of Christian superiority. The Indians were read a proclamation in Spanish which they had no hope of understanding, they had no hope of understanding the death sentence they were being read, and it went something like this:

"We ask and require you to acknowledge the church as the ruler and superior of the whole world and the high priest called pope and in his name the king of Spain as lords of this land. If you submit we shall receive you in all love and charity and shall leave you, your wives and children and your lands free without servitude, but if you do not submit we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you, we shall take you and your wives and your children and shall make slaves of them and we shall take away your goods and shall do you all the harm and damage we can."

2000 years ago we were all tribal.
Then came the missionaries with their fucking bible.
1492 began the termination
The holocaust of our Indian nations
Yeah, with Christian love and a moral authority
They killed our medicine men and stole our country
I never claimed this shit was poetry
It's just the fucking lies of Christianity
You will pray to the lord and get down on your knees
Here's a cross for your back and the coughing disease
Though you helped us survive we will laugh while you bleed
Then deny what we did, write our own history
We will kidnap your children and cut off their hair
Silence their language and outlaw their prayers
Beat them blind until they believe
In the blood of Jesus Christ our king
Christians murdered Indians
Columbus murdered children and now we have a holiday
Still you want to deny your history
Look to the sky for your god to justify
As you commit cultural genocide
Christians came and the natives they did hang
13 at a time for Jesus and his gang
We are the ones you had to dehumanize
So your murder and greed could be justified
The belly of the church is full
With the blood of all those heathen fools
Who would not receive the gift of Christ?
So we burned them as a sacrifice
To our baby killing god above
To our mother church and all her love
We will steal their gods and subjugate
Those who don't believe we'll ahnilate

"The Spaniards made bets as to who would slit a man in two or cut of his head with one blow. They tore babies from their mother's breast by their feet and dashed their head against the rocks. They hanged Indians by thirteen in honor and reverence for their redeemer and their twelve apostles. They put wood underneath and with fire burned the Indians alive."

Christians murdered Indians
We believe in the earth, the sky and dreams
The universe and the creator who gave us these
The sacred gift of life and human beings
That makes you perpetrate the hate to ahnilate
So here I am the savage civilized
Voice of the dead and my ancestor's cries
And like the ghosts of this land you can't erase
I see blood on the hands of the master race.
500 years of manifest destiny
500 years of resistance to the enemy
You have faith in the rivers, the mountains, the trees
We've a murdering god to replace all of these
With the blood of forgiveness you too can be free
Or the wrath of Jehovah you're sure to receive
We will baptize you with the blood of the lamb
With the sword and the gospel we will conquer your land
You will join our church and be glad to be saved
Or we'll slaughter your children and your women we'll rape.
Christians murdered Indians
I see blood on the hands of the master race.

The Backlash Blues

This was one of the last of Langston Hughes' protest poems before his death in 1967. The backlash is the white racist reaction to the US civil rights movement which began around 1964 with increased racist attacks on blacks in the US, the war in Vietnam and the subsequent diminishing of prospects for fairer society for the American poor. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was born in Missouri and grew up in Kansas. Despite his often lonely childhood, a dislocated family and the experience of racist contempt, he became an internationally renowned writer, one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s. The Backlash Blues was made into a song, sung by Nina Simone.



The Backlash Blues
by Langston Hughes

Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash,
Just who do you think I am?
You raise my taxes, freeze my wages,
Send my son to Vietnam.

You give me second class houses,
Second class schools.
Do you think that colored folks
Are just second class fools?

When I try to find a job
To earn a little cash,
All you got to offer
Is a white backlash.

But the world is big,
Big and bright and round--
And it's full of folks like me who are
Black, Yellow, Beige, and Brown.

Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash,
What do you think I got to lose?
I'm gonna leave you, Mister Backlash,
Singing your mean old backlash blues.

You're the one
Will have the blues.
not me--
Wait and see!

Let America be America again

We've made great strides over the last 70 years, but too much of what Langston Hughes wrote in 1938 is apropos today as well as then.

Let America be America again (1938)
--- Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

Dr. Martin Luther King

"Gil Scott-Heron was ... a key figure in the movement to create a holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. He's got a new book coming out called Last Holiday, all about the history behind the holiday. He talked with us about how Stevie Wonder toured the country back in the 80's trying to convince the country at that time that this needed to happen. Scott-Heron was with him on that tour."

--- NPR The Bryan Park Project 2008/01

Dr. Martin Luther King
--- Gil Scott-Heron (2008)

I suppose that I had honestly never given much thought
As to how much of a battle would have to be fought
To get most Americans to agree and to say
That there actually should be a black holiday.

But what a hell of a challenge
How far was Stevie willing to go
To make them pass an amendment
That had been left on the table ten years in a row.

I never doubted that Stevie was sincere
But how many minds had come together
In the past twelve years?

How many folks recognize how much America had to grow
And who else had been qualified to lead us where we had to go?

I liked the idea of a minister being around
When racing for such high stakes
To have his foot near the brakes.
Because of what really had gone down
Because America could have blown up
Before we ever had a chance to really say we had grown up.

Gandhi took non-violence with him when he died
Over here there was non-violence but only on one side
When white folks beat up and killed people that you knew
You decided to direct your anger at a building or two.

Instead of making the Old Testament a civil rights guide
And saying an eye for an eye would now be justified
We were told to accept that some white folks had no class
As opposed to condemning all the white folks en masse.

We determined that remaining peaceful was the best thing
And directing those feelings were men like Dr. King.

Through a storm of provocation to fight
We saw that in order to change America
You must change the law

We were called militant and radical and made to look bad
Because we were fighting for things that most Americans already had
But between what’s written and what’s done is the real thing
So America might not have made it without Dr. Martin Luther King.

Happy Birthday

A belated Martin Luther King Jr's birthday prop to the inimitable Stevie Wonder who more than anyone added the necessary impetus to make MLK's birthday a national holiday.



Happy Birthday
--- Stevie Wonder (1973)

You know it doesn't make much sense
There ought to be a law against
Anyone who takes offense
At a day in your celebration
'Cause we all know in our minds
That there ought to be a time
That we can set aside
To show just how much we love you
And I'm sure you will agree
It couldn't fit more perfectly
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

Chorus
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
(Repeat)

I just never understood
How a man who died for good
Could not have a day that would
Be set aside for his recognition
Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
That they should make it become an illusion
And we all know everything
That he stood for time will bring
For in peace our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King

Chorus
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
(Repeat)

Bridge
Why has there never been a holiday
Where peace is celebrated
all throughout the world

The time is overdue
For people like me and you
You know the way to truth
Is love and unity to all God's children
It should be a great event
And the whole day should be spent
In full remembrance
Of those who lived and died for the oneness of
all people
So let us all begin
We know that love can win
Let it out don't hold it in
Sing it loud as you can

Chorus
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
(4x)

(Background Stevie)
Happy birthday Ooh yeah
Happy birthday,
To you

We know the key to unity of all
People
Is in the dream that you had so
Long ago
That lives in all of the hearts
Of people
That believe in unity
We'll make the dream become
A reality
I know we will
Because our hearts tell us so

Pieces of a Man

Been listening to Gil Scott-Heron’s back catalog on YouTube. Can’t help but realize how irredeemable our society is. So many years have gone by and his songs are as relevant now as then, if anything it’s only gotten worse. We can’t live on hope we need real change and its not happening.



Pieces of a Man
--- Gil Scott-Heron (1970)

Jagged jigsaw pieces
Tossed about the room
I saw my grandma sweeping
With her old straw broom
But she didn't what she was doing
She could hardly understand
That she was really sweeping up..
Pieces of a man

I saw my daddy greet the mailman
And I heard the mailman say
"Now don't you take this letter to heart now Jimmy
Cause they've laid off nine others today"
But he didn't know what he was saying
He could hardly understand
That he was only talking to
Pieces of a man

I saw the thunder and heard the lightning!
And felt the burden of his shame
And for some unknown reason
He never turned my way

Pieces of that letter
Were tossed about that room
And now I hear the sound of sirens
Come knifing through the gloom
But they don't know what they are doing
They could hardly understand
That they're only arresting
Pieces of a man

I saw him go to pieces
I saw him go to pieces
He was always such a good man
He was always such a strong man
Yeah, I saw him go to pieces
I saw him go to pieces

The Great Imperialist State

How to cope living in the belly of the beast? Self-recognition may be the first necessary step.



Great Imperialist State
--- Simone White (2007)

There's a farmer in a distant country working on the land
A hat upon his head and a shovel in his hand
Till the soil plant the seed wait a while cut the leaf
And send another cup of tea to me

I'm a spoiled child of the great imperialist state
I cannot kill my meat nor grow the food upon my plate
I never walked a mile to the well, when the tap runs dry do tell
What will become of you and me

What will become of us, who will give us trust
Will you believe me when I say I never loved profiting from your pain
That I felt shame when I looked the other way
Woke up this morning, the revolution knocking down my door
Those capitalist pigs? No, they don't live here anymore
Slipped out the back door into my car how far can you drive how far

There's a farmer in a distant country working on the land
Food turned into flowers for the uptown florist stand
What you saved another paid to turn his soil into sand
The world will not deliver on demand

What will become of us who will give us trust
Will you believe me when I say I never loved profiting from your pain
That I felt shame when I looked the other way

Wilmington, Delaware

Substitute today’s headlines for those of 70 years ago. Substitute Gaza for Madrid. Substitute drones for planes, carrying their deadly payload to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, however, we and our allies are the aggressors. How many times have we heard the plaintive cries of those who want nothing more than to live their lives in peace and simple comfort surrounded by mudden walls as bombs fell first in Korea, then Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Laos, and El Salvador, and Guatemala, and Venezuela, and Iraq and Afghanistan. But now we not only make them but deliver them as well.

Wilmington, Delaware
--- Eugene V. Etler

And when it was over
And the planes had left
And all was quiet ---
The living and the dead ---
Life went on
Uninterrupted.

And those who fled for shelter
Embarked out into the sun
And they lifted their fists
And cursed
The flying planes.

For these were their mortal enemies
These fliers of destructive death.
The children they killed
The women and men
Their blood that washed
The walls of Madrid.

And the plaintive cry of a mother’s wail
The silent grief of a husband’s dead
The bewildered look of an orphaned child.
The whining snarl of a hungered dog ---
A chicken’s feather lost in the air.

Look to it citizens of Madrid
Reap your living
And mourn your dead.
You who survive ---
In order to survive ---
Must fight for your land ---
Sweep away your dead ---
And make room for the living.

Here a child --- Dead
Here a woman --- Dead
Here a soldier --- Dead
Here a citizen --- Dead
Bury them
In the soil to be
Planted as seeds of Democracy.

The planes are gone
And work’s to be done.
This is your work
No one to help you.
The world of civilization
Has turned its back.
This is your fight, it said,
We shall have nothing to do with it, it said.

Nothing at all, it said
Neutrality, it said
Non-intervention
Non-intervention
Non-intervention
Until its words screamed
Its blood message.

Let Spain fight its fight
And if Germany interferes
And Spain becomes Italy’s career
That’s their business ---
We wipe our hands
Of the whole affair.

That’s what the world has said to you.
Democracy is a pretty sounding word
And the world of civilization
Has claimed Democracy as its own
And the pretty sounding word
Has been translated now

Into

The living come the dead
God, but long live the dead.
Dead from the bombing
Of fascisms coming.
Dead from Democracy’s lie
Our Democracies led them to die.
Hold up their heads to the shame
Bodies made dead and maimed
Democracy’s new found fame.

This crime with fascism they must share
This bomb made --- where?
‘Tis true -----
Wilmington, Delaware.

Baby Killer

Taken from the headlines over 70 years ago, this poem reflects the perennial issues associated with the life cycle of the impoverished. As the abortion debate continues unabated let us remember the fate that once befell those most vulnerable amongst us beset with an unwanted pregnancy. The scenario depicted in this poem could once again become stark reality if our modern misogynists have their way.

Baby Killer
-- Eugene V. Etler

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

They take her before a judge and twelve true men
And seat her before the eyes of the staring mob.
And they point their fingers with the scorn of the right
And they say with their eyes – You killed your baby.
Your one hour baby
You killed your baby
And then they question – Why?

And this girl she sits and looks at them
And wonders, too, at the reasons why
She had a baby and though she did
Whose business is it but her own
That she killed it before it had a chance
Of growing and discovery the hardships
One has to go thru living.

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

Why? cries the court
You killed, cries the court
You took a life, cries the court
You must pay with your life, cries the court
With your life! With your life! With your life!
cries the court!

Why did you kill, cries the court
cries the press
cries the mob
cries a land
cries a world
cries a girl
Why did I kill
Why did I kill a baby that I did not want?

It was born, she sobs, without any help.
I felt a pain, a terrible pain, I couldn’t breathe,
I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t walk,
I felt as if I was going to die.
You’re going to have a kid, I cried.
You’re going to have a kid, I screamed.
You don’t want anyone to know, I yelled.
So I went to the bathroom and there my baby
There my baby was born to me
Born to me and I looked at it and cried
I cried, what are you doing here
Who asked for you
And what am I going to do
Am I going to do with you?
And I talked and cried to it –
And I looked at its face, its ugly face,
And I sobbed when I saw its face
I sobbed and I said, you don’t belong,
And I felt very weak and needed some air –
So grasping my baby I went upstairs
Up five flights of stairs
Till I came to the roof
And I looked down below
And I feeling so weak
I fainted!
I didn’t kill my baby!
I didn’t want it,
But, I did not kill it –
I fainted!
I fainted!
You hear, I did not kill it!
I fainted and it fell those five stories high
And its just as well it did die,
But I did not kill it!
I didn’t! I didn’t! I didn’t!

And the district Attorney, he, looks at this girl
This girl that they put on trial
For killing a baby she did not want.
And this District Attorney so wise in the ways of the law
This District Attorney who knows right from wrong
Looks at this girl and questions so wisely:

You did not kill your baby?
No, cries the girl and in her innocence means –
No, she did not want it; but she did not kill it.
Ah, cries the District Attorney and he shouts his point.
And cries for the world to hear -----
No, you did not want it – so you went to the roof
And threw it down and watched it hit the pavement
You killed a baby because you did not want it!

Sane, logical District Attorney --- summing his case
To the logical point
Of a law maker
Who would send a law breaker
To jail
Or his doom in the chair
Logical, sane, maker and holder of the law District Attorney.

They take a girl and put her on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

And the jury is wise
And the judge is wise
And the people is wise
The world is wise
And they condemn this girl
For her innocence in having a baby
And killing a baby
An hour old baby
A thing that did not know what it is to live.

Who is this girl?
What is this girl?
She epitomizes a world of girls
Caught in the clutches
Of a world that does not give a hooting damn
If they exist or don’t exist.

Her name is Mary Smith.
Take the stand Mary Smith.
What is your name Mary Smith?
Mary Smith ---
Ah, Mary Smith ---
How old are you, Mary Smith?
Seventeen!
Are you married, Mary Smith?
No!
Ah, she’s not married
And Mary Smith had a baby
An unwanted baby
A baby she killed!
You killed your baby, Mary Smith!
No!

Now, Mary Smith, I want to ask you a question ---
You know the father of your dead baby --- Mary Smith?
Yes!
Ah, you know the father of your dead baby --- Mary Smith.
Yes.
And who is the father?
And Mary Smith tells her story.

Listen, you jury
Listen, you court
Listen, you people
Listen, you world
You so wise who condemn this girl
For killing a baby she did not want.

A story of a girl who at the age of thirteen
Had to leave school and go to work
And the money she earned
Was not the money she earned
For this money had to go to her folks.

Innocent child of thirteen
Working and slaving under the tutorage
Of a boss, a foreman and a machine.
Turning out work and receiving for her work
A salary measly
Which she in return brings home to the folks..

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen – working in a factory.
Where are the pleasures that a girl needs?
Where are those things that a girl needs?
Clothes, cosmetics, friends and boys
Dates and pleasures of parties that a girl needs and wants.
Where are those things for a girl that works
Works all day and from the work she does
Receives in reality no pay at all.

Seventeen, attractive
Seventeen, a woman
Seventeen, feeling the urge of a woman
Seventeen, take away thirteen
Four years working
Four years slaving
Four years in a world
For an unmatured girl
Who should have been cloistered
Within the four walls of a school.

No security
Thus no ordinary pleasures
Meeting a fellow
An attractive fellow
A good time fellow
Who looks at a girl
And thinks of a mattress.

There is no harm!
We live but once!
There is no harm!
There is no harm!
There is no harm!

A kiss!
Bliss!
Biting of lips!
Body entwined into body
No ordinary pleasures
Extraordinary pleasures
With a fellow
Who thinks of a girl
As a mattress.

Mary Smith --- Seventeen
Four years in the world
Should know the ways of protection;
But Mary Smith who at the age of seventeen
If so inclined
Should have had the privilege
Of being secure
Of having an education
Of not being thrown
At the mercies
Of an uncompromising world.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen
Not knowing what it is to live
Oh, sensuous pleasures
Oh, world, oh, life
To create such a function
For we live but once
We live but once!
We live but once!

And Mary Smith wants to live
Mary Smith has discovered a new meaning for living
Mary Smith forced by a world into a new found ideology
For her existence.

We live but once ---
Live twice Mary Smith
Live thrice, Mary Smith.

And then -------

No! No! No!

You must marry me!
God, can’t you see
I’m going to have a baby!
Why didn’t you tell me
That this would happen to me!

And then ----------

No! No! No!

I didn’t know ---
How was I to know
That you have a wife
God, what’s going to happen to my life?

Mary Smith, stand up.
Face the jury, Mary Smith.
Mary Smith you are found guilty
For murder in the second degree.

Twelve wise men have spoken
So ----- Mary Smith ----- guilty -----
You condemn this girl!

Ah, stupid jury
Stupid judge
Stupid people
Stupid world
You can’t condemn Mary Smith!
You can’t condemn Mary Smith!
For in condemning Mary Smith
You condemn yourselves
For allowing all Mary Smiths
To start their lives
Their young innocent lives
At the age of adolescence
To work! To work! To work!

These are children who are humans
These are children who you call the future generation
The makers of our nation -----
So you take them from schools
And you place them to work.
You demoralize their minds
You shatter their lives
You wreck their bodies
You lead them astray
And then you condemn them
For something to which you led them.

Condemn Mary Smith
No! Condemn yourselves
For that’s what you do
When you condemn Mary Smith.

Mary Smith --- that girl you put on trial
For the killing of a baby she did not want.

All of a sudden we lost our most beloved

Oh the humanity. Now Haiti, but how many times has fate befallen the most vulnerable amongst us. So far this century, the Sumatran tsunami, earthquakes in Kashmir, Iran and Sichuan, China to name but a few. The following poem by Zhao Bo, published in the Chinese press after the Wenchuan, Sichuan quake in 2008 speaks the universal language of unfathomable sorrow and suffering that victims of natural disasters all face.

All of a sudden we lost our most beloved
-- Zhao Bo

All of a sudden we lost our most beloved
Becoming orphans,
We find above our heads all dark
Our world is changed
No one can answer what we ask
Our family, our beloved,
Your words yesterday still warm our hearts
We cannot understand what is happening,
and nature's cold-blood
We cannot live without you,
but reality is that we had to part
and now you are so very far away,
Can you still remember the happy days in our small yard
Wailing and crying,
We beg you not to leave us in the dark
We want to find you
However, one second, one minute, one hour passes
You cannot reply,
but we know you want to get back to us
You saved us, giving away your own life,
Until we were once again pulled out
Strong rays bring hopes
Are you praying for us, dear Mom
But how can you leave us to strangers, dear Mom
One day, two days, they say you will never be back, dear Mom
We promise not to annoy you anymore,
please don't go away, dear Mom
We are your children all our lives,
and we are missing you so much, dear Mom.

Artist's Protest (1936)

The poem below is a dramatic recreation of a incident in which WPA artists protested the dismissal of nearly 2000 of their ranks from WPA projects in NYC. As we enter into a new era in which a progressive social agenda has once again come to the fore, we must remember that the victories won during the New Deal, the spread of industrial unionism, the establishment of Social Security and later during the 1950s and 60s the civil rights, woman's and anti-war movements came about because people fought in the streets and the halls of justice, forcing their elective officials to respond accordingly. Read the contemporary newspaper account at the end of this post to get a flavor of the times when the poem was written.

Artist's Protest (1936)
-- Eugene V. Etler

There we were more than four hundred of us
Waiting to be received
So we could lay down our demands.

We should have known they wouldn’t see us
Well, we kind of expected it –
So we made up our minds to stay
Until we would be seen –
That was about four in the afternoon.

We made up our minds to stay the night thru
And the next day too –
We made up our minds to stay until we would be seen.

And somebody, some big shot or other,
He stood on a table and looked down at us –
And I felt like spitting in his eye.
For he looked down at us
With a sneer in his eye –
And when he spoke I felt like taking his neck in my hands
And stopping the words that seemed to push their way out of his neck.
For the words that he spoke
The words that he spoke to us
Us – who are trying to keep our jobs –
Fighting to keep our jobs – so we can keep ourselves
From falling into the dung heap of the jobless march.
The words that he spoke –
‘Why don’t you go home –
‘Nobody’s going to see you –
‘So it ain’t going to do you no good to hang around.
‘Go on home like good boys and girls –
‘And if you don’t – I’m warning you
‘That if you’re not out in an hour or two
‘I’m going to call the police.’

And the word police went stumbling thru the crowd
And somebody from the crowd yelled out –
‘Oh, yeah, well, policemen are sissies!’
And we all laughed and the man on the table
He turned all green and white
And his lips closed tight
Seeing that we were prepared to fight
For our jobs – our lousy jobs – our twenty-three eighty-six jobs.
And the minutes went by
And we linked our arms together into a human chain.
There the four hundred of us
Women and men
Chained together
In one united thought
Together we’ll fight for our jobs to keep our jobs.

And the minutes went by
And as the minutes went by
We began to chant a song of demand –
A song of demand
Which seemed to toss sand
Upon the wounds of the man
That stood on the table.
For he suddenly cried out –
“I warned you – I did.”
And we yelled back –
‘Why don’t they see us!
‘We’ll stay and only leave
‘When all pink slips are rescinded!
‘That we demand!’

And so there we stood as the minutes crept by
Armed together by a common thought
That we’d stand together
For we knew that thru unity
And only thru unity
Could we make administrators
people
a city
a nation
a world
See that we mean to keep our jobs
Because we need our jobs
To keep us from falling
Into the dung heap of the jobless march.

So closely knit together
Together we stood
Four hundred stood
Perched upon the eighth floor of a building
That stood a challenge to our jobs.

And then from below we heard the eerie song
Of sirens singing a song
Of police coming their way

And we knew the time had come
When we four hundred were to show
Our militancy
To an unsuspecting world.

‘We’ll stick together!’
We quoted to ourselves –
‘We won’t leave!’
We shouted to ourselves –
‘Policemen are sissies!’
We comforted ourselves –
‘Let them come!’
We defied them to ourselves –
We shall not be moved!’
We challenged ourselves.

And they came
Streaming into that room
Bluecoats streaming into that room
And we looked at them as one would look at an enemy –
And we tightened our grips amongst ourselves
Strengthening a human chain
A human chain made up of emotions
Far stronger than fists or clubs.

And the mouth of a bluecoat opened
And it tossed words out at us –
‘Why don’t youse go home,’ it said.
‘Why don’t youse be nice,’ it said
‘Youse is only makin’ trouble,’ it said.
‘Go home,’ it said.

And one of us in reply yelled, ‘We ain’t!’

And that about summed it all up in a nut shell.

‘Don’t youse know you’rse breakin’ the law,’
The mouth of the bluecoat opened and closed.
‘The W.P.A. only rented this place from nine to six
‘And your stayin’ here after six when you’rse told to leave
‘Only make youse breakin’ the law.’
Opened and closed the mouth of the bluecoat.

‘We’re not going to leave
‘We’re not going to leave
‘Until pink slips are rescinded!’

And above our chanting we heard a whistle
And we felt the warmth of bluecoats
Surging toward us!’
We linked our arms closer, tighter together
Welding ourselves solidified into a more forbearing human chain.

And then they tried to pull us one by one out of that chain
But we wouldn’t be moved.
We’ll show them our strength
Not the strength of brutality
But the strength of unity –
We won’t be moved!

They talk of Spain
And the terrors of fascism.
They condemn a Hitler
And act shocked
At the playful games
A Mussolini
Plays with the rights of a people.

And they tell us – American citizens
That we should be proud and glad
That we live in such a democracy
As America – the land of the free.

Well, those who talk
If they were but eye witnesses
To the goings-on – on the eighth floor
In a room surrounded by four walls and one door
A room enclosing four hundred souls
Brutally attacked by New York’s finest.

For clubs were being wielded
And fists were being used
And men were throwing curses
To the steady drip of worker’s blood.
And women were screeching defiance
To the steady beat of Cossack’s clubs.

Oh, yes, blood washed the floor
Blood – of workers’ blood washed the floor
Cleansing it of the trampled prints the police left.
And the cries of the men and women
Which re-echoed against the walls
Will remain to haunt those
Who had no desire to see
Men and women who demanded jobs.
Those men and women who remained
To meet the clubs of the law
As the clubs of the law
Met the bones of the people
Fighting for jobs.

And the curses of the cops
Intermingled with the defiant cries of workers
Spelt the doom of American democracy
For the smell of fascism stank its way thru that room
And the forceful clubs beat a wooden tattoo
Upon the skulls and bones of innocent workers.

The room that we entered was no more the same.
For desks were overturned
And typewriters battered to a pulp.
Papers spewed red by workers blood
As triumphantly cops dragged us out
And down the elevators
Into the yawning mouths
Of Black-Mirias.

Triumphantly cops marched us out
The brave bluecoats of New York’s finest –
They fought us with fists and clubs
While we fought together
Welded together
Into a human chain.
No, we were not defeated
We have just begun to fight.

So tossed into wagons
To be driven to stations
Battered and slaughtered by the fists and clubs
Of brutality
We struck a new note for freedom
And together we sang – America’
As deep in our hearts we knew
That the words betrayed us.

(Click on link to view NY Times article pdf))