MAGA Roller Coaster

We are trapped on a roller coaster
A Great America roller coaster
A Great America again roller coaster.
It’s like an airliner:
the front carriage is first class
reserved for those with the means and wealth
to make their ride both thrilling and fun.
The rest of us sit behind
And because it is an “again” roller coaster
in an echo of a past better forgotten
those with darker skin sit in the back.

The train starts at a high elevation
amid blue skies and hope for the future.
We obediently board and take our seats
and start the descent.
At first there are a few rises
which excite those in first class
though others of us look beyond
and view the steady decline
always spiraling to the right
Not the right of correct,
not the right of inalienable rights,
the right that rhymes with white,
and with night.

We pass through a dark tunnel
and when we emerge we see
the carriages have separated,
become divided.
Those in the lead are on a different track
heading up another incline
while we continue down.
An angry voice sounds telling us
that it is the brown people behind
who are pushing us ever faster.
People around me are shouting with rage.
I turn to look
but no longer see those cars.

I struggle to look ahead
hoping for clear skies
But a mist surrounds the future.
Where does the ride end?

Another Election Year

Edit post-election. Well, that didn't work out for me so well.

Pause a moment for poor Donald Trump,
His ratings are in quite a slump.
Oh what a world
To be beat by a girl,
And not even one he can hump.

__________________

The question is who has the temperament
To hold down the office of President.
The middle night tweets,
The people he cheats,
The answer just should be self-evident.

__________________

And then we come to Mike Pence
His debate answers caused me to wince.
I'm at a loss
Does he not know his boss
Spews hate-talk that makes little sense?

__________________

The issue of Hillary's e-mail
Opposition regards it a key fail
Don't rise to the bait
Of the mongers of hate,
The true issue is that she's female.

Havisham Revisited

The layer of dust that lies on the table

Seen not by the eyes which are no longer able

To tell real from imagined, or cold fact from fiction.

She sees his ghost daily: her private affliction.

No change can be made, no fix,  no repair.

She sits now alone and in silent despair

Drinks to the past and the one here no longer;

Loss not accepted does not make one stronger.

As are the roses her soul has been wilted

Long years ago by his death was she jilted.

No strangers can help, they are not allowed in

To the sacred domain come only the kin.

Her Pip, her Estella, the two she controls

Should bend to her will, remain in their roles.

But they must conspire in order to save her

Be it not that they will remain in her favor.

© 2013 Carolyn Cannon

Give me an O. Give me an S. Give me a F.

Now take away the S.  What's it spell?

We have seen two plays at the the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this month: neither of them Shakespeare, both of them recent history.  "Recent" defined as being within our lifetime.

The first was All The Way, as in "with LBJ".   It is a story about that period of time between the assassination of JFK and the 1964 presidential election when Johnson was both president by default and running for the office on his own.   Principally it deals with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the deals that were made for the cloture vote to end the filibuster of the bill.   This marked the defection of the southern Dixiecrats from the Democratic Party.  We are old enough to have been politically aware during this period, and the characterizations and language brought back memories.  Martin Luther King was there, as was J. Edgar Hoover, Strom Thurmond, and Everett Dirksen of the great booming voice.  There were items which we were not aware of: like the fact that the deal to pass the act included water for Nevada and Arizona.

Well worth seeing, and from the comments from the young people sitting in front of us a period in our country which many could benefit from learning more about.

____________________________________________________________

Then yesterday . . .

We saw Party People.

Words cannot describe.  When the play was over, the audience filed out in utter silence.  We did not speak until we reached the parking garage, at which point Tom mused that he was surprised the play wasn't censored by the government.

On the surface, it is about a reunion of Black Panther and Young Lord activists from the 60's and 70's.   They are brought back by a nephew of a Puerto Rican Young Lord (Jimmy AKA Primo) and a "Panther Cub" (Malique - sp?).  The story is told in song, dance, and poetry.

Once again, it brought back memories: "Hey Hey LBJ, How many Kids have you Killed Today?"

It has set thoughts to bouncing around in my head.

The Revolution Was Televised . . . but was it a success?   Are things better now than they were at the end of the 70's?  We have even more disparity now in the classes and in wealth distribution.   The public education system has been crumbling since that time.   Look at the unemployment numbers, especially of African-American males.

In 2008 I had hoped we now lived in a new post-racial society.  Instead it appears that there is more animosity toward those who are "different".

So why is there not more activism now?   Why is there not revolt in the streets?

Possible answer: drugs.   That begs the question: is the "war on drugs" real?   It is in the best interests of those in power that the lower classes be kept . . .  busy.  Disengaged.  Uninvolved.  Uneducated.  Disinterested in voting.   The "opiate of the masses" is not religion but is truly opiates (heroin) or other drugs: meth, "bath salts", take your choice.   Is this why we still lock up offenders, taking them out of society, rather than spending less overall with treatment programs?

It bothers me that the action taken by so many those decades ago and the sacrifices they made have made so little difference in the long run.

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' . . .

Reading list

9. Currently re-reading Jane Eyre. I first (and last) read it at 12 or 13. I enjoyed it then, but appreciate it now. Not only can I capture the nuances, but I enjoy the language. It's so lovely, it's like reading poetry only better. I wonder how a movie can do it justice.

I came across this phrase last night:

"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

Haven't we known that to be true? Note that the book is 165 years old but it brought to mind a recent article I read:

Intelligence Study Links Low I.Q. To Prejudice, Racism, Conservatism

I am still more inclined to think that it is a lack of education rather than IQ per se. But then it can be hard to divorce the two. People with higher native intelligence might seek more education, and education in turns fosters intelligence. Chicken or egg?

There are people whom I consort with almost daily who bare their prejudices openly and proudly. I am ashamed to say that I rarely speak out against the slurs or "jokes" though I always take them under advisement in what they say about the speaker. Their circles of friends share a common educational level and prejudices and I doubt they realize there are those who think differently.

Another quote from Jane Eyre, this one from the preface:

"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion."

And the lack of a formal education is no excuse. Those who read and explore new ideas can self-educate.

Code is Poetry

Tweeted by Chris Knight via Ask Leo on FB:

Programmers who apply for a coding job: Your spelling & sentence structure on your resume... is also a CODE. :-)

This started a long rambling train of thought for me during yesterday's morning commute. I have kept the "Code is Poetry" wordpress tag at the bottom of the site because it has always appealed to me. Code is poetry is poetic is code is words is structure . . .

As I have matured (which sounds so much better than "aged") I have grown to appreciate poetry much more than I did in long-ago English classes. And the books and authors I appreciate are generally those with interesting and unique sentence structure and word play. I immerse myself and wallow in the words with a happy smile on my face, as the dogs do when they find something delicious in the pasture.

Some favorites that come to mind: All the Pretty Horses for the long rambling train-of-thought sentences. Everything is Illuminated for the English-as-second language word play. Lolita for the alliteration (how can someone named Carolyn Cannon who has Cardigan Corgis not love alliteration?)

When I write myself I try to take time and choose words and structure carefully and with precision.

And then there's what I get paid to do in real life:

V3$ = Z$ \ HOLD$ = MID$(V3$,A3%(10,1)+1,A3%(11,1)-A3%(10,1)) W2 = VAL(MID$(V3$,A3%(8,1)+1,A3%(9,1)-A3%(8,1))) IF W2=0 OR HOLD$<>SPACE$(LEN(HOLD$)) THEN GOTO NEXT.SITE IF MID$(V3$,A3%(3,1)+1,A3%(4,1)-A3%(3,1))<>AGDAY$ THEN GOTO NEXT.SITE TP$ = MID$(V3$,A3%(9,1)+1,A3%(10,1)-A3%(9,1)) IF INV%>0 FOR I% = 1 TO INV% IF LEFT$(INVNO$(I%),1)=TP$ INV$ = INVNO$(I%) \ GOTO FOUND.INV IFEND NEXT I% IFEND OK% = -1 WHILE OK%<0 INV$ = RPAD$(TP$&STR$(NXT),B4(4)) Z0% = 9 \ Z1 = 0 \ Z2% = 0 \ Z1$ = INV$ \ GOSUB BASE IF Z9%>0 NXT = NXT+1 \ IF NXT>999999.0 THEN NXT = 1 ELSE \ OK% = 1 IFEND \ WEND FOUND.INV:Z0% = 4 \ Z1 = 0 \ Z2% = 0 \ Z1$ = INV$ \ GOSUB BASE OF% = Z9% \ IF OF%=0 INV% = INV%+1 \ INVNO$(INV%) = INV$ V4$ = SPACE$(B4(5)) V4$ = OVR$(V4$,1,A4%(2,1),V$&"00") V4$ = OVR$(V4$,A4%(2,1)+1,A4%(3,1)-A4%(2,1),AGDAY$)

Now: isn't that a pretty snippet? That's from building the repetitive monitoring invoices at the day job.

More National Poetry

Derivative quote:

You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into law Obama ran around all over the country saying, "Hey, you know, I'm looking around. The earth hadn't opened up. There's no Armageddon out there. The birds are still chirping." I think the earth has opened up. God may have replied. This volcano in Iceland has grounded more airplanes -- airspace has more affected -- than even after 9/11 because of this plume, because of this ash cloud over Northern and Western Europe. . . . I don't know whether it's a rebirth or Armageddon. Hopefully it's a rebirth, God speaking.

And my response:

I know of this fellow named Rush

Whose mouth is too subject to gush.

His brain it was leaking

when he heard God speaking.

Most times I just want him to hush.

National Poetry Month

It really is: check it out on poets.org.  I haven't regaled you all with "national poetry" in a while and I just couldn't resist.  But for some reason my favorite form of national poetry comes in the form of a Limerick.  Perhaps it's the Irish in my genetic makeup?

So today, in honor of the following quote:

Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that “whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”

Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it.

I bring you my offering.

I know of this gal name of Palin

Who thinks that our country's a-failin'.

No master of word,

She twists what she heard.

'Till sometimes it sets me to wailin'.

The Man in the Moon Turns Forty

Forty years ago
I looked forward to my senior year in high school
I was idealistic
I still want to be idealistic
I thought myself no longer a sophomore
Not knowing that most of us remain sophomoric
Our entire lives.

Forty years ago
I envisioned launching the future
While I remained earth-bound
I would send others to discover and report back
Now on Facebook
Were I to create a "How well do you know" quiz
I would fail my own.

Forty years ago
Our peers told us "go with the flow"
But life's river took us
To a sea of petty challenges
Which has kept us too busy
To dwell on past dreams
And present realities.

Forty years ago
Arthur Clarke had a vision of a computer
Tool turned tyrant
The computer remains a tool with no personality of its own
But tyrannical nevertheless
We stare at the screen every day hypnotized
By the data thereon.

Forty years ago
We watched in awe the fuzzy images
One of us stood on the moon.
Now there are those who deny it happened.
They accept with their faith
Only fables told from the pulpit
And decry science and fact.

Forty years ago
Robert Heinlein told tales of a Future History
Religious fanaticism prevailed.
I cannot fathom how it came to be true
Perhaps by sheer number
How ironic that those with no belief in the theory
May win the battle of evolution.

Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Cannon

Limerick

All my life I've worked hard to compete
To be part of the "liberal elite"
With wit that's keen
And Prius that's green
And Birkenstocks on my two feet.

Based on the Tom Buffenbarger quote:
"I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies" which is not new but I still muse about.

Now technically I'm currently wearing Keen sandals, drink my Peace Coffee black, and long for a trust fund so that I didn't have to work for a living . . .

But I have my Prius!

I think that I'll go buy some new Birkenstocks to go with the socks that I'm going to be knitting. Richelle talked me into going to a yarn store in Eugene and the knitting bug bit me again. I've never tried socks before so I'll let you know how that goes.

Not-so-intelligent Design

The hot flash:
an argument against
"Intelligent Design".

How intelligent is it
to design mature women as
sleep-deprived and irritable.

But perhaps it argues for
an old-fashioned male deity
who bears a grudge.

A grudge against Eve
for serving fruit for dinner
once too often.

We were told
our hormones ruled us
but now it’s the lack thereof.

Self-evident Truths

Images of the children
Yearning for Zion
But the children are not seen
only the white buses
proudly stenciled and labeled
as First Baptist buses.

White buses:
White for purity,
White for sanctity,
White for godliness,
White for holier-than-thou.
White for the truth.

We hold these truths to be self-evident
But what truths are self-evident?
All men are not created equal.
Those who set down the truths
did not consider women equal
nor men who differed from themselves.

Self-evident truth:
Murder is wrong.
Except government-sanctioned murder
Where the people who are killed
Are different from us
And of a different religion.

Self-evident truth:
Stealing is wrong.
Except government-sanctioned stealing
Where the children who are stolen
Are different from us
And of a different religion.

The children are held for ransom
Ransom for the beliefs of the mothers
And for their way of life.
Give up your ways
And believe as we do
And your children shall be returned.

The founding fathers who wrote the truths
Were many fathers for one country.
The stolen children were
Many children for each father.
Many mothers for each father,
Many mothers for each child.

It has been said
“It takes a village”
But not this village, no.
It should be the proper village
So that the children are not indoctrinated
But educated in only the proper truths.

Send to me your village of children
And I will educate them
With my own self-evident truths.
That men are not created equally,
That men are not equal,
That men are not created.

It has been said
“Judge not lest you be judged”
You condemn the parents
Yearning for Zion
For teaching the wrong truths
To their many children.

Children having children:
Texans look to yourselves.
Your own state publishes truths
Publishes them on the internet
And if we read it on the internet
It must be true.

In Texas it is written that
1 of every 16 seventeen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 27 sixteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 58 fifteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 967 thirteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 5280 twelve-year-olds or younger gets pregnant.

Self-evident truth:
Teen pregnancy is wrong
Teen marriage is wrong
But my own grandmother was wed
To her Texan at 16
And gave birth while still a teen.

Self-evident truth:
Polygamy is wrong.
But as I age
And the many tasks grow harder
I can see the advantages
In taking a sister-wife.

Copyright © 2008 by Carolyn Cannon

Ani

eah, so we're usually some of the oldest people at her concerts. I'm still young on the inside - but old enough to have been a folkie for 40 years.

She has a couple of great new songs out. One of my favorites from last night was "The Atom"
(click to watch the YouTube link; embedding was disabled). I learned yesterday that believe it or not some people don't know who Ani DiFranco is. If you're in that group, take time to listen to some of the other clips.

Opening for her last night were Animal Prufrock and Judy Grahn. Judy did the Alan Ginsberg thing . . . my favorite from her was "The Vampires of Empire".