“The opposite of poverty is not wealth. In too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.” Bryan Stevenson The world is rife with injustices that call for our attention and there are many social justice initiatives that bring people together to raise awareness, right wrongs, and offer sucor to the torn and weary. PROMOTING SOCIAL […]
“Pithy and powerful, poetry is a popular art form at protests and rallies. From the civil rights and women’s liberation movements to Black Lives Matter, poetry is commanding enough to gather crowds in a city square and compact enough to demand attention on social media. Speaking truth to power remains a crucial role of the poet […]
When I die, bury my body amid a pile of leaves, then go home. Plant clematis vines along fences, fill the rest of your yard with only native flowers that will desire compost— tend them lovingly, as though you had cared for me. —Michael Dickel ©2007 This poem is in the forthcoming collection of Michael […]
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel In 2011, The Bardo Group Beguines (The BeZine and Beguine Again) collected poems and other works […]
June 15, 2018 “Having the right priorities in a wrong world will humble you with a journey that only love can sustain.” Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life As I sorted through the sustainability submissions for this issue, I was struck by two things: a preponderance of both love and sadness. […]
The rest of the world sits in complete amazement that the US can’t come to grips with this problem. What regrets the forefathers must have. They were thinking muskets, not submachine guns. And they’d just come out of a revolution, not the general store. Luckily I know that those who comment here already know this.
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That’s all true, Peggy, and most people do recognize that. You’re right. However, changing things is not as simple as knowing the roots of the Second Amendment “right to bare arms.” That issue is not really what stands in the way of better gun control. Ninety percent of Americans want stricter gun-control laws and yet our legislators have chosen not to hear the voice of the people. The people are fighting the oligarics and the industry that manufactures guns, their army of lobbyists, the monied advocacy groups and the legislators who are in the pockets of industry and special interest groups. We are fighting the disassembling of our mental health system in the ’60s and problems with our education system and youth and adults who are disaffected, unhappy and without hope or employment for reasons too complicated to detail here. It is all much more complex and dirty than it might appear to be on the surface.
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Whoops! I meant to reply further and hit the “like” botton. LOL! … Actually, if you go to the Michael’s site and read his article in it’s entirety, you’ll see that he is severely castigating lawmakers for not respecting the will of the people.
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Jamie, your points are exactly right. We know this outside the USA, and we ache along with you and the government’s overall inability/unwillingness to fix the situation. Very dirty politics and industry indeed.
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Thank you, Peggy! xo
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NO to guns.
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OH, Jamie, the situation is so difficult.nwhat have we become as a culture? Or rather, what stops us collectively from facing our history and its aftermath? So very painful!
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Those are the essential questions. I wish – as so many of us do – that I had answers. Here’s what Sanders had to say. http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/sanders-reacts-to-ore-campus-shooting-536939587812
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