An Angel Was Here: Wangari Muta Maathai (1940–2011)

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai

(See Path of the Warrior)

The Passing of a Humming Bird (A Tribute To Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai)

The bird hummed where eagles feared,
Sang the taboo words,
Tuned to the emancipation of masses,
With an ecstatic difference.

She walked where angels feared,
Talked the language of the voiceless,
When the breeze blew against all odds
And put on a brave march.

As the dawn for our liberation – the Second Birth,
She stood for the truth, with fearless attitude,
And earned a viper’s wrath.
The bird lifted the land high above,
When she held the coveted prize,
For the quest in restoring our dignity,
And we all shouted in her praise.

She fought for you, me and us,
And made us proud,
Our future was restored,
At last, as it ignites our heritage.

Then the wind blew so hard,
That it was too difficult to steer,
Or perch on the nearest tree.
The wing could not move further,
And the sun finally rested on her,
Before, just before the dawn.

The daughter of the African cause,
The tigress that pounces,
The mother of restoring our dashed hope,
The fertility of the land,
The peace beacon of Kenya, Africa, the earth.

- mburu kamau

May you rest in peace, good sister, and help us all along the way......


OneLove


:::MME:::

Musings

 “The United States is morally bankrupt and spiritually broken. The problem is not that we have strayed from our founding principles, but that we are still operating on those principles – delusional notions about manifest destiny, American exceptionalism, the right to take more than our share of the world’s resources by whatever means necessary. As the United States grew in wealth and power, bounty for the chosen came at the cost of misery for the many.

After World War II, as the United States became the central character not just in the Americas but on the world stage, the principles didn’t change. US foreign policy sought to deepen and extend US power around the world, especially in the energy-rich and strategically crucial Middle East; always with an eye on derailing any Third World societies’ attempts to pursue a course of independent development outside the US sphere; and containing the possibility of challenges to US dominance from other powerful states.

Empires rarely learn in time, because power tends to dull people’s capacity for critical self-reflection. While ascending to power, empires believe themselves to be invincible. While declining in power, they cling desperately to old myths of remembered glory."

~Prof. Robert Jensen 

OneLove

:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "Terrorist" by Mhara Costello

Just a Word
 
‘Terrorist’ is just a word, one I wish I’d never heard
When it’s used to vilify, without the need to question why
Only fools would swift condemn, that which has not befallen them
Until you know what lies behind, the actions of a tortured mind
Thank your God for sparing you, the suffering others have lived through

Where are the cries of just demand, for Arabs driven from their land?
Blame the victim, turn the cheek, praise the bully, kick the weak!
Mock the man who truth does speak
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, greed, corruption, torture, lies!
Blair invasion, sly persuasion, annihilation, massacred nation
Keep on running, karma’s coming!

Money talks, truth walks, oil spills, greed kills
Tide is turning, London’s burning!
Bombs will fall and blood will flow, as sure as my own name I know
Until corrupt dictators go, brutal, rotten, to the core
Their day has come, they rule no more

Show me the man who will not fight, to save his child, his home, his right!
You can call him what you like, you’re not in his sorry plight
Cowards stay and Martyrs go, I know not where, but this I know
Speak your truth and stand your ground, fight your corner
When all around, point the finger, purse the lips, pin the label, ‘Terrorist’!

Just a word, but one that sticks, even when the cap don’t fit
But for the grace of God go I, remember that, before you cry
False accusation, names of shame, at those who may not be to blame,
Their crime, refused to play the game, of meek acceptance, dumbing down,
Your life, your choice; Warrior / Clown



Stay awake...

:::MME:::

A Post-Human Interrogation

(Have you ever wondered what a future race of beings would say about us (humans)after we have left the scene? I have a feeling they would probably judge us by the way we trashed the planet & destroyed ourselves in the process.)

OneLove

:::MME:::

The Chumps Who Crashed The World

PART 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

This is an excellent documentary which examines the people and machinations around the globe that were behind the financial collapse of 2008 which is still affecting us all.

Absorb...

OneLove

:::MME:::

MME's Jam of the Day

One of my favorite jams from one of the best natural-born tenors who left way too soon, Washington D.C's own, Ronnie Dyson.

OneLove

:::MME::: 

Poet's Nook: "truth" by Gwendolyn Brooks

And if sun comes

How shall we greet him?

Shall we not dread him,

Shall we not fear him

After so lengthy a

Session with shade?

 

Though we have wept for him,

Though we have prayed

All through the night-years—

What if we wake one shimmering morning to

Hear the fierce hammering

Of his firm knuckles

Hard on the door?

 

Shall we not shudder?—

Shall we not flee

Into the shelter, the dear thick shelter

Of the familiar

Propitious haze?

 

Sweet is it, sweet is it

To sleep in the coolness

Of snug unawareness.

 

The dark hangs heavily

Over the eyes.

 

 

OneLove

:::MME::::

 

Countdown to a State Sanctioned Murder

Troy Davis

It's 2011, but I have to admit, it feels like we're still living under Jim Crow when African-Americans were hung & castrated for crimes where no evidence of wrong doing was needed or necessary. If your skin was/has been kissed by the sun, your ass had better run! In the case of Troy Davis, serious doubts about his guilt have arisen which should have been sufficient to stop his impending execution.


This entire case brought to mind the injustice of racism in the application of the death penalty. The fact of the matter is, many people privately denounce American justice as a travesty. Like "corporate philanthropy", "free trade" and "friendly fire", American justice is a blind-ass oxymoron--it disproportionately disfavors low income and non-white people, but pretends to be otherwise. (Check out The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides)

Can you imagine the damage if the real killer were to confess to the murder after Troy Davis' execution tonight?

(Judge Penny Freeseman could issue a stay of execution. Call her at 912-652-7252 or email her at pfreesemann@chathamcounty.org)

They still don't want to admit to the world that this isn't the best and the fairest and most equal justice system. And that they are guilty of railroading people into jail. They don't want to, or never will, admit these things. 

- Leonard Peltier

*****UPDATE: Troy Davis' execution was delayed tonight as the Supreme Court weighed arguments by Davis' legal team and the state of Georgia over whether he deserves a stay....Whoa! Woke up this morning  and found out that they went ahead with the state murder....American justice--Aint it grand?.

OneLove


:::MME:::

Musings

I would encourage people to look around them in their community and find an organization that is doing something that they believe in, even if that organization has only five people, or ten people, or twenty people, or a hundred people. 

And to look at history and understand that when change takes place it takes place as a result of large, large numbers of people doing little things unbeknownst to one another. 

And that history is very important for people to not get discouraged. Because if you look at history you see the way the labor movement was able to achieve things when it stuck to its guns, when it organized, when it resisted. 

Black people were able to change their condition when they fought back and when they organized. Same thing with the movement against the war in Vietnam, and the women's movement. History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. 

And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place.

— Howard Zinn, (1922-2010)

“The Force That Orders The Universe But Can’t Be Seen”

Watch Are We Safer? on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

This is a very informative FRONTLINE documentary by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Dana Priest, who examines the sprawling yet hidden terrorism-industrial complex that has developed exponentially in the wake of 9/11. Her report, Are We Safer? -- produced and directed by FRONTLINE veteran Michael Kirk (The Warning, Obama's Deal) -- explores the growing reach of homeland security into the lives of ordinary Americans. The late great Chalmers Johnson also did extensive research in this area which every concerned person should check out. It is quite instructive to take note of what President Eisenhower stated in his farewell speech in 1961 which strikes me a eerily prescient: 

“Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence, economic, political… even spiritual… is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

OneLove

:::MME:::

The Great Pillage

You have to ask yourself this question: Will mother Earth destroy us before we pillage and rape her to death?

OneLove

:::MME:::

MME'S Jam of the Day

This dude's distinctive soto voce vocals on top of soothing piano chords can take you out of this world. Quite a beautiful piece by Patrick Watson. Another standout track I like is his instrumental piece, "Sky Diving", which reminded me of the great Bob James. Check it out:








OneLove


:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "The Real Work" by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

~ Wendell Berry

 

 

OneLove

:::MME:::

 

 

Musings

(Big Bang)

 
When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me?

~Pascal

:::MME:::

The Four Horsemen

Living in the age of massive inequality, unfettered growth and profit seeking without social, ecological & political concerns, is pushing humanity to the brink of destruction. This documentary sheds light on how 99% of us have become mere pawns in the most massive, wickedly deceptive shell game in human history. Gathered here are 23 thinkers, advisers and Wall Street investors who expose the naked truth of human predation. (Four Horsemen = socially organized violence, debt, iniquity and poverty).

Demand that this movie plays in your area here. 

OneLove

:::MME:::

Imagine

Outside of documentaries and news, I don't watch  much else on TV. From time to time, however, I do tune in to talent shows to check out the raw, creative talents of people from all over. One performance that stands out for me was by a singer named Emmanuel Kelly. His story is remarkable to say the least, and the song he chose to sing - John Lennon's 'Imagine' - catapulted his performance to the realm of the surreal. Hollywood couldn't have scripted a better story: Born in the middle of an illegal war (Iraq), both he & his brother were discovered in shoe boxes by nuns in a park with gunfire surrounding them & before being a adopted by a loving soul, they both became casualties of war (physically debilitated).

That this Iraqi boy's name is Emmanuel - which in Hebrew means "God is with us" - & the fact that he chose "Imagine" by John Lennon, highlights the utter barbarity & futility of war & our disgraceful apathy towards the destruction of nations in the name of "democracy", "defending the homeland", "peace", "stopping terrorism" or some other double-speak. I've always thought privately that the spirit of God dwells & shines most brilliantly amongst the despised, exploited & abandoned. Emmanuel brought to the surface a long-standing parasite on human societies (war)  with the post-modern vision of Lennon: "Imagine no possessions, no need for greed or hunger, brotherhood of man, imagine all the people sharing all the world.”


OneLove


:::MME:::

Poet's Nook: "Put Out My Eyes" by Rainer Maria Rilke

(abyss)

 
Put out my eyes, and I can see you still,
Slam my ears to, and I can hear you yet;
And without any feet can go to you;
And tongueless, I can conjure you at will.
Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you
And grasp you with my heart as with a hand;
Arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true;
And if you set this brain of mine afire,
Then on my blood-stream I yet will carry you. 

-Rainer Maria Rilke

OneLove

:::MME:::

MME's Jam of the Day

This cut, "Touch", along with "Dreaming In Metaphors" & "No Easy Way" are amongst my favorite jams by the Afro-Brit soul balladeer, Seal. 

OneLove

:::MME:::

Soldiers of Conscience

The following PBS documentary presents a powerful and balanced look at the choice a soldier makes when he/she is about to take a life. The all too human reality is that many soldiers have to wrestle with the morality of killing in war. It's a split-second decision in the heat of combat that can never be forgotten or undone. We see the fall-out of such decisions in its tragic details when these soldiers return home from the battlefields: Suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, family problems/disintegration, homelessness & high unemployment, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression. You have to feel sorry for them yet, the same time, detest the reasons they were sent to war in the first place (decisions usually made by folks who have never been on a battlefield). The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (and other places) are not being fought for democracy, humanitarianism or any other feel-good rationale the corporate media constantly throws in our faces. Soldiers are dying for the ultimate goal of controlling the resources of other nations for profit & geopolitical advantage. We all know this, but the truth hurts. Take a deep listen to what the soldiers are saying....
 




OneLove


:::MME:::

A Great & Mighty Walk

Dr. John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His family came from a long line of sharecroppers. This great historical film  was shown at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and won the Best Documentary award at the 1997 UrbanWorld Film Festival. What a wealth of information this man possessed!

Dr. Clarke noted early in his life that the story of Africa and her people was seriously distorted and/or systematically omitted entirely. His search took him to libraries, museums, attics, archives and collections in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and Africa. What he found was that the history of Africans & Africans in the diaspora was a worldwide phenomena with "the first light of human consciousness and the world's first civilizations originating in Africa". He wisely notes in the film that the Dark Ages were dark only for Europe and that some African nations at the time were thriving.Is it any wonder why this fact was/is expunged from many books? It's  Eurocentrism plain and simple. (Eurocentrism being defined as the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective  with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture/systems of knowledge).

While he was teaching at Hunter College in New York and at Cornell University in the 1980's, Dr. Clarke's lesson plans became renowned for their thoroughness & scholarly integrity. In 1985, the year of his retirement, the newest branch of the Cornell University Library - a 9,000 volume facility- was named the "John Henrik Clarke Africana Library." For someone who was an autodidact, his achievements were truly remarkable. (Check out other autodidacts who made a huge impact in their various fields of endeavor here. You will be suprised who's on this list!)  


OneLove

:::::MME:::
OneLove

:::MME:::

Lest We Forget......

"Today the world is the victim of propaganda because people are not intellectually competent. More than anything the United States needs effective citizens competent to do their own thinking."
- William Mather Lewis

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” 
- Noam Chomsky
 
"Propaganda replaces moral philosophy."
-Morgenthau, Hans J. 
 
"The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gas mask handy, it is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth."
 -Woolf, Virginia
 
“Illusion is the first of the pleasures”
 -Voltaire

“It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.” 
- Patrick Henry 


“The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place” 
 -Gary Zukav

“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.”
- Eric Hoffer

"...the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their offensive; you can feel their pressure, and yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?”
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Stay alert

OneLove

:::MME:::

MME's Jam of the Day

Erick Arc Elliott

The beat on this track by underground newcomer, Erick Arc Elliott, is simply dope! He is part of a group of creative artists called THELOVEINUS who use art as a gateway to self-expression, and love is their locomotive (inspiration).

I like the part in this cut where he says, "I remember playing my Mom's records....It's like people don't break it down anymore...Where is that?" Aint that the truth? Where are the songs like "I Miss You" by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes & "I Wanna Know Your Name" by The Intruders? I hope this kind of music comes back.

OneLove


:::MME::::