If I had a dollar for every time I have been queried about where does my passion for history come from, well, ostensibly, I would be materially wealthy.
By a vast majority, I am unequivocally informed that history is BORING.
We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told…. That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Imagine vast and beautiful savannah grasslands as two million wildebeest migrate from the Serengeti National Park in the Mara region of Tanzania to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. This trip is 3,000km in length, and represents, in many ways, the very best of what Africa has to offer the international community.
Yesterday, in an anti-climatic manner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his speech/lecture in front of a joint session of the USA congress.
His topic -- to paraphrase -- "Iran is the greatest threat to world stability; war, bombing and destruction are the only answers."
Ok, ok. He didn't verbatim state the above text, but what is one to infer?
“I’ve come here today to tell you we don’t have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better. We don’t have to gamble with our future and with our children’s future."
The answer is, as John McCain once gleefully sang: Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran. What other conclusions can be drawn from Netanyahu? He tells us negotiations will not work, sanctions will not work forever, engagement will fail. So, what else can be on the table? Passive observation?
I don't think so. War is the subterfuge of the speech.
You may recall, Bibi once told congress back in 2002 that Saddam was the world's biggest threat and regime change was the only answer.
And today the United States must destroy the same regime because a nuclear-armed Saddam will place the security of our entire world at risk. And make no mistake about it — if and once Saddam has nuclear weapons, it is only a matter of time before those weapons will be used.
Two decades ago, it was possible to thwart Saddam’s nuclear ambitions by bombing a single installation. But today, nothing less than dismantling his regime will do, because Saddam’s nuclear program has fundamentally changed in those two decades. He no longer needs one large reactor to produce the deadly material necessary for atomic bombs. He can produce it in centrifuges the size of washing machines that can be hidden throughout the country. And I want to remind you that Iraq is a very big country. It is not the size of Monte Carlo. It is a big country. And I believe that even free and unfettered inspections will not uncover these portable manufacturing sites of death. source
Sidebar: Don't these folks realize we now live in the digital age and we can google their track record?
Anyway, as history has proven, the biggest world and regional winner of removing Saddam was a more empowered Iran. I hasten to think who would replace a wounded Iran. A more radicalized ISIS?
Even among the lowest of low bottom feeders in this mostly dishonorable profession, Rudy Giuliani has the distinction of being the scum de la scum (and I am being kind -- no really I am).
Rudy G seems to thrive on being the consummate and designated jerk in whatever room he enters. He will say or do anything to bring about attention. So much so, Rudy's kids have been known to cringe when pop grabs the mic -- that is when they are not shoplifting.
Brother Ossie Davis spoke these eloquent words of homage -- almost 50 years ago -- at the funeral of El Hajj Malik Shabazz -- aka Malcolm X.
Malcolm X
Born: May 19, 1925
Assassinated: February 21, 1965
Here—at this final hour, in this quiet place—Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes—extinguished now, and gone from us forever.
For Harlem is where he worked and where he struggled and fought—his home of homes, where his heart was, and where his people are—and it is, therefore, most fitting that we meet once again—in Harlem—to share these last moments with him.
Just when you thought it was safe to watch a music award show again, Kanye strikes once more.
Who can forget his mic grabbing 2009 MTV awards rant at the expense of Taylor Swift for winning best video over Beyoncé?
"Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!."
At this year's Grammys, the overbearing man-child had another Taylor Swift moment -- well almost -- when this time Beyoncé lost album of the year award to Beck
