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To the Degenerate Party

9/30/2017

It seems that overnight (or in the morning) a tweetstorm erupted—in reaction to the matter of yesterday’s blog post here, and that video in particular.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has tweeted:

You’re going straight to hell,
@realDonaldTrump
No long lines for you.
Someone will say, “Right this way, sir.”
They’ll clear a path.

But of course it is not but one man. It is not even “but one party,” thought inevitably the backlash against San Juan’s mayor gives rise to thoughts as these:

To the Degenerate Party

Now is the time, if any, that this party
Of men that call themselves Republican
Ought to acknowledge, even to a man,
Even with the acknowledgement so tardy,

That they have proven themselves woefully
Inadequate, not just in governance,
But in fulfillment even at a glance
Of basic tenets of humanity.

How woefully they’ve failed, as citizens
Certainly but as individuals each
More greatly fallen short potential’s reach,
Torturing the last shred of innocence.

Ye devils! Ye are devils yet are men,
And so resemble me: if ye repent
Would it change tenor of the government?
And rehabilitate your conscience then?

Lord, I may not presume to judge; however,
Thee I beseech, if humankind must perish,
Let be uprooted this penchant nightmarish
Whereby hearts kill compassion to be clever.

A Plea for Puerto Rico

9/29/2017

This is a paraphrase of words spoken by Mayor of San Juan Carmin Yulín Cruz on Friday 29 September at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, with additions and subtractions introduced primarily to service the necessities of an iambic pentameter line.

These were the words of the mayor of San Juan:
Here we are dying, and I cannot fathom
The thought that this great nation cannot figure
Out the logistics for so small an island,
One hundred miles by thirty-five—so mayday,
We are in trouble.
FEMA has requested
Documentation, we have given them
Documentation, and they had the gall
To ask this morning, “Mayor, what are your
Priorities?” “Where have you been?” Indeed,
FEMA’s employees have been treated with
Utmost respect by me; I have been patient,
But there’s no time for patience anymore.
So I request the US president
To make sure that somebody is in charge
Up to the task of saving lives. They were
Up to the task, as well as they should be,
In Africa when the ebola virus
Came over, and in earthquake-sundered Haiti.
We are all part of one community
Of values that are shared—for saving lives.

So I will do what I never imagined
I would do: begging. I beg anyone—
Whoever can hear—to save us from dying.
If anybody out there is listening,
I tell you we are dying—being killed
By inefficiency, bureaucracy,
And we will make it with you or without,
Because what stands behind me all is due
To other people’s generosity.
This is what we received last night: four pallets
Of water, three of meals, and twelve of food
For infants—which I gave to Comerío
Where people have been drinking from a creek.

So I am finished with being polite,
Mad as hell with my people’s lives at stake,
For we are but one nation, maybe small,
But huge in dignity, zealous for life.
So I request the members of the press
To send a mayday call across the world.
Here we are dying. If we fail to get
The food and water into people’s hands,
We will see something close to genocide.
So therefore, Mr. President, I beg
You to take charge and save lives. That is one of
The founding principles of the US,
United States of North America.
If not, the world will see how we were treated,
And long remember, not even as though
Second-class citizens, but animals
To be disposed of and disposable.
Regard posterity: enough’s enough.

These were the words of the mayor of San Juan
Excoriating the corrupt indifference
Displayed in the inept crisis-response
Of federal government initiatives
One week after the hurricane made landfall,
Wreaking disaster and damage untold,
Poised to unfold, for all the world to see,
In an irreparable catastrophe.

Judge Gorsuch Takes a Victory Lap

9/28/2017

The judge goes on a “victory lap”
To celebrate the theft,
Judicial robes, red baseball cap—
What dignity is left?

“I’m very grateful to the man
Who stole this seat for me,”
Saith Gorsuch, “and to serve his clan
With partiality.

“Think not that justice is impartial
Or blind, whilst I am seated,
As lawyers facts and reasons marshall,
Their arguments entreated:

“Judicial matters I decide
Regardless of due process
And always take ‘the buttered side’
To please my party bosses.”

Judge Gorsuch likes to eat his toast
And have it just the same,
Though truth and fairness give the ghost
Up as he makes his claim.

Kneeling at the Anthem

9/25/2017

With Colin Kaepernick I stand
For what is right, and, standing, kneel,
Against injustice out-of-hand,
And toward compassion make appeal.

Detractors counsel violence
Against those who will not stand down,
And add, with further incidence,
New ills where former ills were sown.

The Constitution has enshrined
Free speech against the government
In principle—but they will blind
Themselves, and set new precedent,

By legislating it’s “okay”
To drive a car into a crowd
Of those who protest, by the way
Asserting murder is “allowed.”

No man deserves a punishment
For free expression of his views—
The conscience is no accident
Though hypocrites strive to confuse.

To tolerate intolerance
Destroys all free society—
I stand with Colin, and advance
Through kneeling, the cause of the free.

The anthem is at best a song
Commemorative of deeds gone by—
But I determine right and wrong
Per evidence before my eye.

Those men who kneel, and will not stand,
Though it subverts some specious claim
To “white authority,” expand
Our freedoms, as they test the same.

Not for a Song

9/24/2017

“They said that I died for a song,
But that was not the case.
I died for justice, liberty,
And for the human race.

“I died that men, regardless of
The color of their skin,
Might have an equal chance, to know
Fair measure, lose or win.

“I died that men might speak their minds
Without fear of repression,
Protected by the law, despite
Wealth’s call for a concession,

“That men might stand for what is right
Or call out what is wrong,
Even like Colin Kaepernick—
For that, and not a song.”

When Civil Rights Get Relegated to Downtime (Away from Work)

9/24/2017

“They can do free speech on their own time.” (Steve Mnuchin)

The Anthem is a paid-for thing,
A “bought-and-sold” respect—
A job done after threatening,
Its innate charter wrecked.

If I must stand by force, not love,
To stand before my flag,
Even Fort Knox lacks gold enough
To put me in the bag.

I stood with pride, hand o’er my heart,
Before it was compelled,
But threats tear “mystic chords” apart
And meanings that were held.

When words become a noxious screed
And flags merely a “brand,”
An emblem emphasizing greed,
By God, I will not stand.

I Will Not Stand for the National Desecration

9/24/2017

Intrinsic value in the anthem
(Such as it was) has gotten drained
Because the President says “Can them,
Let protestors be shunned, disdained.”

If fealty unto the flag
Becomes a duty, done by force,
There’s little sentiment to brag,
Affection’s mystic bonds off-course.

Because his statement, as a man
Of conscience, I will not be banned
From voicing protest, as I can,
And furthermore, I will not stand.

#TakeAKnee

9/23/2017

“An entire family who has never displayed an ounce of courage—just shooting animals from afar—has particular contempt for those who do.” (Glenn Greenwald)

I stand with Colin Kaepernick and his right to protest,
Against the citizens who take our liberties in jest;
They “pledge allegiance to the flag” but it is to some “colors,”
While actual allegiance give to Manaforts not Muellers.

They tell him to “Get off the field” but I say to “Keep on!”
Insulting his integrity should never have been done—
These “slaves to color,” cowards all, to denigrate are quick,
But have less courage all combined than Colin Kaepernick.

Oh, you think public protest is an itty-bitty thing?
Or civil rights, equality, and justice second-string?
Get off the field yourselves, poseurs, for this is hallowed ground
Wherever firmly planted deeds of righteousness are found.

I take a knee with Kaepernick, and if he stands, I stand,
In service of a dignity you fail to understand,
That government of, by and for the people should not perish,
And deeds like Colin Kaepernick’s remain the ones to cherish.

Helpless Humanity

9/20/2017

Helpless humanity, you chose your fate,
Opting for opulence, beyond subsistence,
Wallowing in the luxury of hate,
When Christ preached love—however no one listens.

Not only Jesus Christ: so many seers
Were sent to bring humanity instruction,
But always greed endorses many fears,
And brings the Devil’s service great induction.

The pettiness, the wanton degradation
Which you inflict on all, because you grapple
With insincerities in infestation
Claiming your heart. I will not mourn this people.

Two Quotations Before I Close the Book

9/19/2017

The American Classics, by Denis Donoghue—one of several books I am flipping through by the author.

There was this, after proclaiming the “obvious faults” of the writing style of James Fenimore Cooper, as witnessed by contemporaries: “The prestige of Cooper as a major novelist is to be explained not by his literary power but by the need of American readers to feel that they have made their peace with the native Americans.” (I have not read Cooper, and this is not likely to entice me.)

Elsewhere he quotes the critic R.P. Blackmur from “The Politics of Human Power” (I have never read Blackmur, but snippets in passing): “There is a disorder vital to the individual which is fatal to society.”

<<Previous

To the Degenerate Party

To the Degenerate Party

A Plea for Puerto Rico

Judge Gorsuch Takes a Victory Lap

Kneeling at the Anthem

Not for a Song

When Civil Rights Get Relegated to Downtime (Away from Work)

I Will Not Stand for the National Desecration

#TakeAKnee

Helpless Humanity

Two Quotations Before I Close the Book

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