Category: Uncategorized

by Kathie MM

Advocates for peace and social justice continue their quest. You, too, can raise your voice to right wrongs and make a better world. Here’s information regarding a Global Day of Action that we are passing on to you.

On Monday, January 25th, HELP PUT AN END TO THE WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF YEMEN…

On this day, over 300 organizations, and countless individuals, in 17 countries will stand up and speak out for the end to the big role of the US and the UK in Saudi Arabia’s 6 years of horrible war on Yemen.

Global Day of Action—World says NO TO WAR ON YEMEN

World Says No to War on Yemen 25 Jan 2021 The shockingly under-reported war in Yemen has led to the death of 250,000 people and created the worst…

The killing of thousands of vulnerable civilians — many of them  children — has been possible with bombs and other support, supplied to Saudi Arabia primarily by the US, and the UK. When our 2 countries quit our involvement, (thanks in big part to speak-out actions from around the world,) this war by Saudi Arabia will end.

On this upcoming day of global protest, there are various ways you can participate, if you choose to. Our voices will matter, by acting as a reminder to Joe Biden to follow through on his pre-election statement that he will end the US role in this war.

The international organizers– groups like Stop the War, in the UK, and Action Corps in the US — are urging individuals and groups to take photos of themselves holding a sign, or photos of their events, big and small around the world–including in Brattleboro Vermont!)

The same day, Monday, at 2pm, there will be a GLOBAL ONLINE RALLY.

Register Here: World Says No to War on Yemen – Global Online Rally. The shockingly under-reported war in Yemen has led to the death of 250,000 people and created the worst humanita…

Online Global Rally at 2pm that day, Monday Jan 25th  For information and to register,  please click here. For actionsyou can take at home,  and for more info about the day, click here

by Gerard Sullivan

Mocking Bird perched

In the tall tired Pine

Sing a melody

So I won’t whine.

            May 7

Pink-Purple Magnolias

Busting and Cheery

But COVID Crisis

Has me feeling quite dreary

            May 7

Sit: Be still – Eyes closed

Hear the Birds’ Song

Feel the Sun & the Breeze

For this moment in time

Find Peace

            May 8

It’s raining – I’ve been watching the News

Not the best medicine – to improve my mood.

I’m feeling so lonely – I should be with You!

But I’m sitting here in a melancholy stew

This will end one day – Till then such a bore.

If It doesn’t end soon, my beard will hit the floor.

Like Rip Van Winkle, I will awake and be older.

And my Love for you will be stronger & bolder.

Until that day I’ll have to wait.

And suffer my COVID 19 Heartache ?

            May 8

I’m contemplating writing a book:  COVID 19, 100 WAYS TO KILL A DAY, And Get Very Little Accomplished

            May 10

Lone Piping Plover

Graces the Shore

Could he possibly be –

As lonely as me?

            May 14

Masked & 6 feet apart

Never thought I’d like to

Smell someone fart.

            May 22

Corona Days

Start too early

End too late.

            May 24

COVID 19 BLUES

I am sinking into a dull, monotonous routine.

The deeper I sink, the more lethargic I become-

      The more people annoy me.

Oh, to have the energy of a Sparrow.

            May 26

Magnolia Blossoms have come & gone away

As has Spring: March, April, and the month of May

How much longer will Corona stay?

            May 28

Alone I am

Alone I’ll be

COVID 19.

            May 31

Rains drives violently to the earth

Pop -Pop -Pop….

I lie in bed

Not asleep – Not Awake

Not alive – Not deceased

Pop-Pop-Pop

When will ambiguity stop?

When will Ambivalence stop?

The rain has stopped

When will affliction?

            June 11

There was no one to tell me I needed a haircut.

There was no one to compliment me on my haircut.

No one has been in my car.

I have not been in another person’s car.

I have not shared a meal with anyone.

I have not, in person, shared a meaningful conversation with anyone.

My longest encounter with a person is checking out at the grocery store.

I have not seen people smile.

I have not been to anyone’s home.

I have not been to the Library.

I have not been to the “Y”

I have not been to a concert, movie, or a play……

I have not watched a ballgame.

I have not been to a meeting.

I have not gone to work.

I may never return to work.

The only person who has touched me was the barber.

I have touched no one.

            June 14

Donald the Dump in the Garden of Roses

 Striking his usual poses

 In the background flags flew?

As the comb-over starts to unglue

A cheap thrill do I feel

As the hair starts to unpeel

I pray for a gust to reveal

The truth in the Garden of Roses

            June 16

A gray, warm, uncomfortable, COVID day

               Not much to do – Not much to say

            August 2

When I see people with masks, I feel sad

When I see people without masks I feel mad

Always feeling mad, or sad…

Will I ever feel glad?

August 20

         

Gerard Sullivan describes himself as a “”Melancholy Red Sox fan from the North Shore.”  

by Kathie Malley-Morrison

“What, to the American person of color, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”

Substitute the word “slave” for “person of color,” and you have a verbatim excerpt from an invited speech (What to a slave is the Fourth of July?) by highly respected abolitionist (and former slave) Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852.

There has been growing recognition in the United States of the extent to which Douglass’s words continue to ring true. Injustice prevails. Millions of Americans have been and still are denied not just life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but the common respect due to human beings and the basic fundamentals of a sustainable existence. For no reason other than the color of their skin.

Recognition of that reality has helped bring Douglass’s words back into prominence in an era when the evils of racism are thrusting themselves into our awareness daily. Indeed, it has become an annual event on the Boston Common. as well as in Brockton, MA, and elsewhere, to stage a joint reading of Douglass’s entire speech by members of the community. See, for example, this .

If you recognize the extent to which our country fails to live up to its highest ethical aspirations and obligations, please take some time this July 4 to read Douglass’s speech in its entirety. it’s available here .

Better yet, listen to this community reading in Brockton MA, where Douglass once lived, or this James Earl Jones reading.

Today’s fireworks should be in your own mind and heart, and should be aimed at living up to the promises of the Declaration of Independence. Become part of the dream Douglass envisioned as he ended his speech:

“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work…I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age….”