Category: George Floyd

Out of Breath

5/17/2021

I'm a bit behind with my plog (poetry blog) posts, so I'm a bit late with this info -- although I did post both of the poems below as our Featured Poems of the Week about four weeks ago just after the jury in the George Floyd murder case announced its verdicts in Minneapolis: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty. Yes, the jury did the right thing and found Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Whoever suffocates
A single Human soul
By action so insidious
Is guilty thrice on whole

As liable as a Gun
As drastic as a scar
Till the sinister act is tried
Can this be who we are?

By Emily Dickinson:

Whoever disenchants
A single Human soul
By failure of irreverence
Is guilty of the whole.

As guileless as a Bird
As graphic as a star
Till the suggestion sinister
Things are not what they are –

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A Confederacy of Racists

6/4/2020

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From Dorothy Dawe:

For the most part, I am at a loss for words while our country falls further into the abyss of a dysTrumpian idiocracy.

One question is on my mind though. Has even ONE GOP member of Congress -- House or Senate -- said or tweeted, "Black Lives Matter." Has ONE? Just ONE? Even ONE? Any SINGLE ONE?!?! More than ONE?

Also, I was APPALLED when Trump recently turned active duty US Military into his secret police force to attack American citizens who had gathered to protest peacefully so that he could stroll across the street for a bizarre photo op with a Bible -- a book he does not read, a book he has never read. Later, photographs surfaced of he and the Third Lady in a church, and the church was as EMPTY as their faith.

Finally, I drove through Richmond, VA, today, and I took photos of repulsive monuments that have lined the city's Monument Avenue for years -- and just like Nikki Haley said about the Confederate flag in George, "it should have never been there," it is high time that these statues come down. Fortunately, the Governor has announced that the statue of Robert E. Lee will come down soon, and I suspect the others will come down soon after that.

Just FYI: In Richmond, I saw one person with a sign that read, "Bye FeLEEcia."

Robert E Lee:

Jefferson Davis:

Stonewall Jackson:

JEB Stuart:

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Frequently Masked Questions

5/31/2020

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From Dorothy Dawe:

In light of all that has happened recently -- the senseless death of Ahmaud Arbery, the horrific killing of Breonna Taylor, the deceitful accusation of Amy Cooper, the public murder of George Floyd, the angry protests and riots in cities across the country, the dangerous and threatening tweets from our so-called president to gun down Americans and to release vicious dogs, and all of the previous deaths of unarmed black men, women, boys and girls -- we have many questions that MUST be answered:

1. Has even a single GOP Representative or Senator tweeted, "Black Lives Matter"? Even just a single one? Has ANY member of the GOP tweeted it?

2. If/when Trump releases the hounds, will Cindy Hyde-Smith -- the racist senator from Mississippi -- demand a front row seat?

3. If Martin Luther King, Jr., were in Lafayette Park across from the White House in support of #BlackLivesMatter and against police brutality (and public murders by police officers), would Trump still release the hounds?

4. Can we take the confederate monuments down yet? (Pics below of confederate monuments in Richmond , VA {of Lee, Davis, and Jackson}, are from @BobExplores on Instagram.)

5. If looters across the country have ties to white supremacy groups, then why do Trump and Barr keep focusing solely on "Antifa"?

6. Is "Antifa" the new GOP "caravan"? (And did the caravan from a couple of years ago ever arrive -- or are they still heading our way?)

7. Does "MAGA Night" translate into German as "Kristallnacht"?

8. Who has "Fort Wayne" on their uprising Bingo Card? Who has "Hitler Youth by May"? Who has "John Cusack gets beaten by LAPD for filming a burning car"?

9. Why is it that I've only seen white police officers play the "circle game"?

10. What was Trump's golf score today?

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The mob about the streets
Police cannot suppress
The riots given at the first
For justice over peace

Intensified by rage
And anger fast unbound
Now growing like a hurricane
In a land of swampy ground.

By Emily Dickinson:

The mob within the heart
Police cannot suppress
The riot given at the first
Is authorized as peace

Uncertified of scene
Or signified of sound
But growing like a hurricane
In a congenial ground.

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The Tradition Continues

5/27/2020

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From Angstrom Dickinson:

In a recent post, I mentioned some new poetry books I purchased (HERE). One of the books is The Tradition by Jericho Brown, the 2020 Pulitizer Prize for poetry. Based on recent headlines, I thought I would re-post the very powerful poem which gives Brown's collection its name and dedicate it to the memory of George Floyd, recently murdered by police officers in Minneapolis.

Pictured at the right: George Floyd

Pictured at the far right: Jericho Brown's poetry collection The Tradition.

Pictured below: The eponymous poem in Brown's collection.

Of course, there was yet another story in the news this week related to the tragic tradition of cutting down lives of people of color. A "Karen," an angry entitled white woman by the name of Amy Cooper, called 911 from Central Park in New York and fabricated a story about "an African-American man threatening my life" -- simply because the man asked her to leash her dog in an area that requires all dogs to be leashed.

Check out "Amy Cooper Knew Exactly What She Was Doing," HERE.

Earlier today, I saw a tweet: "What is the collective noun for a group of Karens?" In addition to the ones mentioned in the tweet (shown at the right), here are some of the other suggestions:

* A Murder of Karens

* A Complaint of Karens

* A Klump of Karens

* A Klandemic of Karens

* An Annoyance of Karens

* A Victimhood of Karens

* A Phone of Karens

* A Koven of Karens

* A Shriek of Karens

* A Shit-fit of Karens

* A Hoard of Karens

* A Privilege of Karens

* A Klux of Karens

* A Kook of Karens

* A Rage of Karens

* A MAGA of Karens

Three of my favorite responses: "The collective is 'Republican Party,'" a "Karenavan," and "Karenavirus."

Which ones are your favorites?

Some other parting thoughts related to these stories:

* Police in Minneapolis have clashed with protesters two nights in a row now, and they've used flash grenades and tear gas on the crowds. Isn't it interesting, though, that white men armed to the teeth with automatic weapons recently stormed various state houses in capital cities across the country, and they were allowed to roam freely without any opposition? And the so-called president of the Collected States of America tweeted that these white male terrorists should "LIBERATE" certain states. He said they were "fine people" and that Governors should meet with them and give in to their demands. Hmm. I wonder what would happen if similarly fine individuals armed with AR-15s were to storm the White House and demand that Trump put down his phone and actually work on national policy that would protect individuals' rights?

Below left: Police use tear gas against protestors after George Floyd was murdered. Below right: Not a policeman in site when white male terrorists, armed to their teeth, protest in state capitols.

* Another irony involved with the tragic story of George Floyd is that he was murdered by a bad cop who "took a knee," the exact same action taken by Colin Kapernick to peacefully protest deaths like George Floyd's (and of course, Kepernick was then banned from the NFL).

* These stories also come just after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Did you know that a "Christian" group on Facebook sprang up in support of the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery? They said that Arbery didn't "comply with simple commands" from the two vigilantes. Hmm. I wonder if the two of them would have complied with simple commands from Ahmaud if he had asked them to stop and/or identify themselves? Believe me, I know the answer to that question.

* By the way, in the shadow of all of this, the illegal insider-trading on the part of Senator Kelly Loeffler has been closed by Trump's Department of "Justice." Oh -- her husband gave a million dollar donation to Trump's Super PAC before the case was closed. Go figure.

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Out of Breath

A Confederacy of Racists

Frequently Masked Questions

The Tradition Continues

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