Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
I remember him in the misted vision of toddler years
and again in girlhood, the booming voice on TV,
someone grown-ups talked about, eyelids flapped wide.
Elders huddled ''round the screen enraptured,
in fear for him, in awe.
I remember him.
His words swept the land, singing our passion.
Dogs growled in streets. Men in sheets.
Police battering my people. (Water, a weapon.)
Yet my people would rejoice... And mourn.
I remember him, a fearsome warrior crying peace,
a man--blemished by clay, the stain of sin as
any other, calling on the Rock--
Death''s sickle on his coat tails,
yet he spied glory.
Shall we walk again and remember him,
not as the Madison Aveners do,
but in solitude and hope
with acts of courage and compassion,
with lives of greater scope
carving fresh paths of righteousness?
I remember.
The big news of the week is the distortion, disinformation, and distraction by corporate media (with the help of the CIA) in order to mislead people and promote profit...oops wait, that's the big story every week....but it is more obvious than ever.
What are the big stories of the week? We all might answer differently. The story that has captured me is the Dakota protests. And the other protests...in our prisons, in Brazil, a world record protest in India, even at football games. Are the people waking up? We can hope. Meanwhile the US election creeps ever closer (feeling creepy too). The planet is still finite in a world economy based on unlimited growth.
Another week flew by. The Olympics started and Brazil (Brasil) pays a heavy price. Here they are in the midst of a coup by an oligarchy that can't even cheat their way to the presidency, so they just out right steal it. Public servants doing without pay to prop up the extensive costs of the games including security that abuses them. Then there's Turkey and Russia are joining forces after the coup, as we escalate attacks in Libya.
Weekly Watch
This is a new project and I would appreciate your thoughts about making the Weekly Watch more useful and pertinent. I hope you all can find something of interest below. Thanks to many of you for the links you contributed. Thanks to JcT for a home, and to Joe for his help and advice. Any great stories that didn't make it? Please add them in the comments below. This is an open thread which means you should chime in with any comment you wish to make.
Through much of my life, Sunday morning was the time to watch intelligent discussion of the weeks news on “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation”. The Sunday edition of the newspaper published its most detailed stories. Today the corporate media is doing its best to distract, distort, and mislead the public in order to maximize their profits by presenting their corporate propaganda as news. I think that is why many of us are here.
