Happy Birthday, Annie Mae.....

Grace.

Strength.

Courage.

You will never be forgotten.

 

How long will it take?

25 years???

50 years???

100 years????

500 years?????

Can't help but cling to a severe, bitter, burning curiosity that has been building with every decade I draw breath.

How much longer will it take to achieve total and complete racial equality??????  WHEN DOES THIS BULLSHIT RIDE END????

And people dare question my decision to not bring children into this world.

Can't help but feel such aching sorrow and anger for what happened to young Trayvon Martin, but he's not alone.  For any of us, Black, Red and Brown, who know full well what it's like to enter a store and have a guard follow you... 

what it's like to stand in elevator next to a white person and watch them clutch their purse or look nervously at you...

what it's like to drive or quietly walk in a wealthy neighborhood or a predominantly white neighborhood and get pulled over or followed by a twisted, paranoid soul like Trayvon's murderer... 

This child's murder truly is like a modern day lynching.  I can't help but think of my father as a little boy during Jim Crow in Louisiana, watching the body of a beloved cousin cut down from a tree after having been found hung by the klan.  No justice was ever received.  No police taking a stand by the victims, rejecting corruption and bigotry.  No killers ever held responsible.  No peace and ease reborn.  Just seeds of hatred and anger planted in the mind of a damaged little boy wondering why he lived in such a world that detested him for his skin color.

So, again...

How-the-fuck-much-longer will it take???

25 years??

50???   100???   1,000???????  What will be written in the history books (or implanted memory chip downloads) about the insanity of these times?

Where people had to fight for their rights to 

love the person they wanted to love...fight to worship the gods/goddesses they wanted to worship -- or fight for the right to NOT worship...fight to be proud and receive equal respect for the color of their skin and their cultural origins.  So much ground to cover. I usually try to keep a little hope burning and stay active...but it's times like this that I really deeply feel how Nina Simone and Fannie Lou Hamer used to say they were sick and tired of waiting for folks to wake up out of their racism and superiority delusions.   Sick and Tired.

And again, my thoughts turn back to young ones like Trayvon and so many others who have been cut down and silenced.  I can't help but wonder...

What if this kid was supposed to become the doctor who discovers the cure for AIDS?  Or cancer??

What if this kid was supposed to become a great artist and voice for social justice or a brilliant political leader??

So many possible futures and lost potential...gone in the instant of a gunshot.  This isn't just a matter of a wake up call for America.  This shit has been happening all around us, to so many of us since time immemorial.  It's a shout to STAY AWAKE -- put down the remote, stop obsessing over the Kardashians, the newest chatter about Tim Tebow and celebrities battling their weight issues.  GET  INVOLVED and take a stand whenever racial profiling and all other forms of inequality and discrimination appear in our lives.

**Click here for Amy Goodman & Democracy Now's coverage of Trayvon's case:

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2012/3/20

More than words can ever say.....

For all of the songs you sang....for all of the kisses you gave...for all the soups and magical frybread you made...for all the hope and inspiration you gave...for all the tears you soothed...for all the unconditional love you gave....for all the creativity, equality and compassion you nurtured...I love you dearly.  Happy Birthday, mom.  Rest well x0x0x0x   

                    Chi hullo li na billia chih  x0x0x

And here's one you loved by Nina: 

http://youtu.be/CiVDzTT4CbE


And one of Buffy's:
http://youtu.be/TJL7j8HCWWY

I'll always remember that sweet stomp dance you used to do: 
http://youtu.be/N1tTN-b5KHg

Creative thoughts for eternity....

"Nobody's free until everybody's free." 

"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."

"With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, 'cause that's what really happens."

                     Fannie Lou Hamer

              (October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977)

 

 

Almost 50 years ago tonight....

Dare to give a damn about what's happening right outside your door....and KEEP giving a damn.

On March 13th, 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally attacked and raped while trying to make it home from her late shift at work.  She would've been 77 years old this coming July.  Maybe still living a loving, committed relationship with her partner, Mary Ann...with grown children of their own...and loving grandchildren...or at least a crowd of beloved friends and other loved ones who cared for her as deeply as any of us care for the loved ones around us.  But on March 13th, 1964, her future was violently ripped away from her.  And a very large number of witnesses (some said it was around 38 people) heard her calls for help tucked away inside their safe apartments...but no one responded to her screams.  Not one.

Dare to care about the community you're living in.  Whether it's an apartment building in a densely populated big city or homes in the far-flung suburbs and rural areas, dare to give a damn and get to know the people living near/around you.  Fear, racism, xenophobia and ignorance have a mighty hold on our society that gets worse every day.  It's too easy to sink back behind our burglar bars and security doors and turn the tv or computer volume up to drown out the life around us.  As Kitty's case unfolded, there was no shortage of racist bigots who tried to use her murder as a wedge to keep blacks and whites divided and perpetuating the ideas of wild black men on the loose to rape and kill delicate, white women.  Men of ALL races commit violence, rape and murder against women of every race.  They did in Kitty's time and they STILL do today.  Many people still sink back in the quiet shadows when they see crimes being committed or hear screams outside their windows.  Dare to be different.  Dare to care.  Get to know your neighbors and dare to speak up when you see something bad happening.  Honor Kitty's memory and dare to care about the people in your community and the quality of life around you.

**If you've never heard her story before, please listen to this interview featuring her life partner, Mary Ann Zielonko, who lovingly speaks about her and the life they shared together.  So bittersweet: http://soundportraits.org/on-air/remembering_kitty_genovese/

What Would Jello Do?????

Some great thoughts on walking-our-talk, boycotts and this infuckinsanity we've all been watching for all of these years from blowhards like Limboob and other hateful media-savvy right-wingers.  I'm heartened to see the way people have really begun to mobilize, but I still can't help but wonder what the hell took so long.  Like the umpteenth, frothing racist statements he's said??  Like the umpteenth anti-gay jokes he's told??  Like the umpteenth anti-woman "feminazi" remarks he's made over all of these years???  Has anyone else been very careful about diving head-first into the warm, welcoming waters of schadenfreude as we're watching all of this shit unfold??  I'm sooooooo tempted. SOOOOOOOO extreeeeeemely tempted.  But I want to really see where the dust is going to settle.  This isn't over.  

One more from Davy....

Remember the trippy movie Head that The Monkees made? I've always loved this dance sequence and the story within the song. It has an even deeper impact now.  He was such a showman (and Toni Basil was pretty rad as his dance partner).