Ask not for whom the bell tolls

The president's de facto Muslim ban and the closing of the borders to foreign-born Muslims brings this poem to mind. Again.  

Twice this week. this poem has seemed a propos. First, it was during the ugly public squabble between Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and the US president and then again yesterday, with the announcement of the Executive Action on Immigration.

Truly, no one could have said it better than Donne, but let me ask you:

No man is an island, 
Entire of itself.
Are we an island America? Entire of ourselves? Needing no one, wanting no one, harming no one, seeing that no harm is done?

Every man is a piece of the continent.
A part of the main. 
America, a nation of immigrants, each of them a part of the main.....or perhaps not. I wonder, our dual citizens from seven faraway lands, are they not 'a part of the main'? Should they simply be 'washed away by the sea' as if they were of no import?

If a clod be washed away by the sea, 
Europe is the less. 
We are the less when we cast them aside. Do we choose to be less? Out of fear? Ignorance? Rigidity? Bigotry? Spite?

As well as if a promontory were. 
As well as if a manor of thy friend's 
Or of thine own were: 
Are we not 'less' when we speak of our brothers and sisters in dismissive, ugly language? Are we not much less than or simply unequal to our values? 

Any man's death diminishes me, 
Are we not diminished? Thinking on this now, I wonder if this poem isn't also relevant to the whole ACA debate but more of that anon and elsewhere.

Because I am involved in mankind, 
We are involved in this, worse, we are implicated. We are implicated in the refugee crisis and we are morally implicated in our failure to act to solve it. 

Our faiths, all of our faiths, are founded on the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Are we doing as we would like to be done to? Do we care if we aren't? What of our great values by which we have always set so much store? 

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee.

The bell is tolling America, ask not for whom it tolls, it tolls for thee. 

The bell. I hear the bell. Do you hear it America? It's playing your song.

Does My Vote Really Matter?

For those who didn’t think their vote counted. Here’s a newsflash: it does. Every time, it does.  But for it to count, you gotta show up. 

The next time you’re tempted to stay home as yourself these questions………….

1. What might happen to my environment if I don't vote?

Answer: much, much more of this. Remember "Drill baby drill!"?

Meanwhile, out in the real world this is what is actually going on.

The 'Drill baby drill" crew swears up and down that drilling is now safer than ever, but that red river ain't looking like a particularly good example of safety in action. Unless water's supposed to be red?

2. What could happen to my (or my friends') Civil Rights if I don't vote?

Answer: an erosion of the comfortable, easy, diverse universe you've known your whole life.

It is not accidental that it took this nation until the late 19th century to begin to acknowledge the Civil Rights of some of its members. Neither is it a surprise that those rights have been challenged and undermined at every opportunity since.  That's kinda the way we do. Resistance to the principles and practice of equality remains a central theme of American social, political, and economic life.  

If people who are uncomfortable with growing diversity are going to vote, then those of us who embrace it must vote in larger numbers. That's the math.

3. What could happen to my healthcare if I don't vote?

Answer: the candidate you fail to vote against might wipe out any chance you have of owning some.

If you're really lucky, the eventual election winner might think health savings accounts (HSAs) make sense. But in a world where income barely meets current expenses HSAs are not going to help you much.  

Or, alternatively, the winning candidate might gut healthcare access entirely, as they seem intent on doing in Minnesota. Check out this list of procedures and care options that AREN'T covered. Numbers 1, 5 and 23 are especially interesting. But don't worry about them because there's no war on women.

As I written before, democracy is nothing without us in it. We may have forgotten recently that democracy won't continue without our express participation but I think we know different now. We have the proof that it will not. We gotta show up. Every time. 

We must get back in the game. And we must do so in numbers too large to ignore. 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Miss me with that BS

Whenever I hear people talking blithely about their respect for the Office of the President  and the part that that respect plays in their attendance at or watching of the inauguration to end all inaugurations, I want to cuss, loud and long.

Help me to understand what this "respect for the office (of the president)" is. And after you've explained what it is, please tell me where it's been since January 20, 2009 cuz I'm pretty sure I ain't seen it in a while. 

To my mind, if you're respecting the office you also should be, at the very least, respectful of the office holder. This was not the case during the Obama years so I'm beginning to wonder whether respect rights only accrue if the office holder is Republican because for the last eight years, respect surely has been in very short supply.

And no, I am not saying that you can't challenge the office holder's thinking; his/her policy prescriptions; his/her comportment in the office if his/her behavior is egregious, but you sure as hell don't write a letter to an enemy state asking them to refuse a deal (and dancing damn close to breaking the law) deliberately and publicly undermining my guy and then later demand that I respect yours. Nuh uh. That ain't gonna work.

Is it "respectful of the office" to set on a course to deny people access to the polls (through which that office is obtained) on arbitrary or racially motivated grounds? Y'all been doing that for generations and yet now you want to tell me about respect? Remember North Carolina's Supreme Court voter ID decision?

Is it "respectful of the office" to gerrymander the hell out of districts, thereby making one side's victory assured irrespective of voters' wishes? Hell, that ain't even respectful of fair play, but now you want to tell me about respecting the office of the president? Nah. 

What part of meeting on Inauguration Night to collude (yeah, I said 'collude') to frustrate  every good faith effort at working across the aisle, can we describe as "respect for the office"? 

What part of rejecting a health insurance purchase mandate (which was an idea that came out of your own people at the conservative Heritage Foundation), translates to "respect for the office"? You reject your own idea to make a point about rejecting the president. Oh yeah, that sounds like R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Your guy (45) questioned the president's place of birth - steadily, loudly and mendaciously - for 90% of his presidency, but now you want my "respect for the office"? Yeah, y'all can kiss my entire Black arse with that respect talk. 

You demand "respect for the office" but you never respectfully allowed the outgoing president to perform the job the way he/she believed was best. You were free to argue or disagree, and you did. You were free to mount a vigorous debate against the officeholder's policies, and you did. But you lied, lied, lied and lied some more to sell your snake oils to the unsuspecting, ignorant masses. Claiming to "respect the office" while behaving in the ways in which certain groups have behaved these last 8 years, is anything but "respect" for either the office or the officeholder. Such "respect" is but an empty veneration of the title. Empty. Entirely devoid of meaning.

Frankly, I'm of the view that all the current calls for respect are a neat way of saying, "Respect us never mind how we disrespected you! That's all in the past". Well I, for one, am not here for it.

Respect is far more than just using the word in a sentence. Respect is a series of actions and little to nothing that has occurred in the last 8 years bespeaks respect, IMHO, so don't be expecting my respect any day soon. Respect is earned and your broke behinds ain't have a clue how to start earning.

In the meantime, 'respect'? For this guy? 

DJT tweet, on MLK weekend no less

Miss me with that BS. Please. 

A Bromance for the Ages

As the days wind down to the end of the Obama Era, I'm somewhat fixated on the Obama Biden bromance (and the Joe and Barack memes it has generated). I'm warming up to a good cry about Michelle but that's a whole other story. My current focus is on the bromance for the ages between the President and the Veep. I know I'm not alone in feeling something, because the meme-ification game has been strong. These two make it easy. (If you don't believe me, here are some really good ones for your enjoyment.) The question I keep asking myself is, what is it about the love these two share that gives us a warm fuzzy feelin'?

My very unscientific poll of a few good friends generated these results:

1. The Obama Biden bromance makes us feel good because it shows us that love can thrive anywhere, even in an arranged political marriage.

UPI/Landov/Barcroft Media

This may have begun as the usual marriage of political convenience, but it didn't remain that. All presidential/Vice Presidential relationships begin as arranged marriages do: with an assessment of what each party brings to the union but clearly the participants to this particular arranged marriage chose to do the work necessary to move from that starting point to a place of respect and love that inspired many.

2. The Obama Biden bromance makes us feel good because it shows us what is possible when we judge each other by the content of our characters

These two demonstrate for us that old rivalries can be set aside. In spite of having begun as BHO's rival, Joe Biden has had Barack Obama's back in a way that many of us have rarely seen before, and perhaps longed to see, as a sign of what was possible in politics and in race relations in America.

Say what you will about how far we think we've come as a nation, we ain't come that far. This didn't have to work, but it did because of the two people involved. Joe is Scrappy Joe from Scranton and Barack is No Drama Obama and between them, there is a level of emotional intelligence that is extraordinary.

Joe & Barack (BBC.com)

For many of us, the sight of an older White man, willingly taking second place to a Black man was ..... is there even a word for that?  Oh yeah, there is! It’s unpresidented. J This is America after all, where one party made hay of the president's 'exotic' background, his funny name, his African antecedents, his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii, so anything was possible. This outcome was not a given but boy are we glad that it's the one we got!

This relationship made us feel hope. It showed us change. Oh sure, it probably made some people's stomachs churn (as evidence by the deplorables who subsequently came out of the woodwork), but for those of us leaning toward our better angels? For those of us looking to see post-racial America finally take flight, ah this image was a balm to the soul. 

3. This bromance makes us feel safe. 

Quoting my friend, it makes us feel safe "not in the ISIS can't happen here sense [but rather] in the sense that the two radically different men at the top of the country saw me [and] went to bat for me and defended what I am."  Amen.

These men, their relationship and their work made some of us feel a new, and much longed for, sense of safety and security; a sense of security that is now all but gone in the advent of the Age of Trump. The protections for LGBTQI, DPA and DACA reflect that safety; the end of DOMA and the beginning of Marriage Equality reflect that safety.

Obama and Biden, SOTU 2016. Obama tasks Biden with the US Cancer Moonshot Task Force[i]

4. The Obiden bromance also chokes us up because it is wholesome

Seeing these two men love each other so unabashedly and unreservedly is, as another friend said, "a distraction from all that's wrong with the world" and forces us to focus on the wonderful thing that is friendship.

In Barack and Joe we see the beauty of filial bonds, family and extended family; all that really great stuff that we just don't see enough of in this reality-TV-the-more-loud-crass-and-vulgar-the-better world.

And finally,

5. The Obiden bromance makes us feel inspired and hopeful

Quoting still another friend, "[i]t proves that friendship is stronger than any differences of opinion inherent in a working relationship. It shows the genuine nature of a true friendship. And it shows that humanity has the ability to not see skin color [sic] but rather [see] the common values and traits on which a sound relationship can be built."

Can I geddanother "Amen"?

Obama embraces Biden at Beau Biden's funeral Yuri Gripas / AP

**************

Men don't often show affection for other men. Certainly, Black men are not so open in their affection for other men. The way in which manhood seems to be defined limits men's willingness and ability to be openly affectionate with men they love. Everybody's afraid of being thought to be gay.

Case in point, earlier this year, my father passed away. Several months after he died, a much younger man called his phone to check in on him. When I told him, very reluctantly, that my father had passed away, I could hear and feel the impact of those words. I felt the whoosh of air leaving his body. And then there was the silence....a loud pain full silence. There may have been tears. He whispered, "I loved that man." And then he said it again. "I really loved that man." 

I wondered whether he had ever told him. Probably not. It's not the way of men. But on Friday, when Obama hung that Medal of Freedom (with distinction) around Biden's neck and Biden had to speak, I heard "I love you, man" in every pause and I saw it in every tear he shed.

Ladies and gentlemen. 44 and 47: A Bromance for the Ages. 

---

[i] Cancer Moonshot Task Force with which Veep Biden was tasked in January 2016. Please check it out.

Joe Medicine Crow - shining just beyond the common man's sight

I read the story of the death of Joe Medicine Crow with tears in my eyes. I cannot tell you why......or maybe I can. Medicine Crow represents something. Or he should. 

Here are five thoughts that floated through my mind as I read his story.

1. Joe Medicine Crow represents the last of a particular stripe of man. He was the last man in his tribe to successfully complete the requirements to become a war chief of his tribe. There are specific requirements to become the chief and Joe, without intending to do so in some instances, completed them all. From the article, 

"During World War II, when he was a scout for the 103rd Infantry in Europe, he strode into battle wearing war paint beneath his uniform and a yellow eagle feather inside his helmet. So armed, he led a mission through German lines to procure ammunition. He helped capture a German village and disarmed — but didn’t kill — an enemy soldier. And, in the minutes before a planned attack, he set off a stampede of 50 horses from a Nazi stable, singing a traditional Crow honor song as he rode away."

Maybe he meant to complete the requirements, or maybe, those requirements were so deeply ingrained; were so much a part of who he was, that completing them was inevitable? How many more like him are there? How many of us have who we are so deeply engraved into our DNA? How much has our approach to Native culture robbed us of access to that strength and those character traits?

Medicine Crow was the last of a certain kind of man and he was our last bridge to a particular tradition. He was a war chief, a writer and an activist and while there are others who are each of these, even some who are two of these, there are no more who are all of these in his tribe, and quite possibly, in any tribe.

2. Joe Medicine Crow represents the distance we have yet to travel between the Trail of Tears and equality. Bear in mind that it was only 7 years ago that he was recognized with a Medal of Honor for his lifetime's worth of activism, storytelling, and serving as griot for his tradition and his people. His death serves as a stark reminder of how far we have yet to go to arrive at a place of true equality and just treatment because.....

3. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we had the images and events of the Oceti Sakowin Camp and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we saw dogs and hoses turned on peaceful Native protesters (water protectors) in the dead of winter.

Water protectors drenched by water cannons @ Standing Rock
Stephanie Keith / Reuters

4. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died, we have seen flagrant desecration of sacred land and the trampling of treaty rights in the quest for profit.

5. In the year that Joe Medicine Crow died the past served once again, as prologue.

Look closely at yourself America. Do you like what you see?

Five hundred+ years removed from Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of America, one might hope that Native Americans - Joe Medicine Crow's people - would finally be seen and respected as fully American. And yet, we are still not there yet.

Medicine Crow's death signals the end of an era as such deaths always do. His death also signifies that the new era has yet to begin...or perhaps it has, just beyond our view? Perhaps men like Gyasi Ross and David Archambault II are made in the same tradition and are doing similar work? Perhaps there are plenty of others whose names we (I) do not yet know?

What we do know is that US history is yet to turn the corner....a corner that Medicine Crow and men and women like him tried to bring us to. US history is yet to come to terms with its claim that "All men are created equal" or "with liberty and justice for all". 'All' not some, not some are more equal than others, but all. Equal. No provisos. 

The 102 years that Crow lived may have been enough to build railroads, an interstate system, the institutions of 'democracy', an internet, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter and myriad multinational businesses and industries and the largest economy on the planet, and yet it was not quite enough time for America to live out its creed; for Native people to realize all the rights of citizenship. Some things take longer than others I guess. How how long exactly is equality gonna take? 102 years and counting. 500 years and counting. 

The life of Joe Medicine Crow, is a love song no, a life song of and to his nation, to all nations and especially to this one that still has not quite got it. 

In spite of every dishonorable thing done to him personally or to his people generally, he fought for this country….the country of dogs and water cannons in mid-winter 2016. More than a hundred years after his birth, this is still the nation of dogs and the water cannons. 

In 2016, we said fare-thee-well to an inordinate number of 'stars'. But what is stardom? With all due respect to the famous, Medicine Crow's death is a clear reminder that some of our brightest stars have shone and burned out just beyond the common man's sight. 

May his spirit travel safely on.

Survival of the Fittest: the Trump Years

When next you hear someone claiming that "We will survive" or "I will survive" the Trump years because others have survived worse in the past consider this: 'we' certainly will survive but 'we' won't all make it to the other side. 

Here's how I know......

1. Thirty years ago, there was the piss poor HIV/AIDS response, and still we survived
HIV positive people survived Ronald Reagan's cavalier attitude to the early appearance of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Reagan himself is said to have laughed off the growing crisis and Mrs. Reagan turned her back on longtime friend Rock Hudson when he was diagnosed.

St. Ronnie and his administration laughed off the crisis, kinda like the President-elect laughs off climate change. The world was slow to recognize the gravity of the situation (then as now) or to begin working on treatment and prevention protocols. The greater 'we' certainly survived, but we haven't all made to the other side have we? The AIDS quilt is proof of that fact.

2. Thirty years later, there's Flint & Standing Rock, and we will yet survive
In Flint, as in Standing Rock, calls for a potable water supply have been shrugged off. In Flint, early alarms raised by pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Atisha were shrugged off as "data" (which apparently is a bad thing). It was more than twelve months before anything like an admission was forthcoming from the powers that be. That probably explains why there are now public officers facing felony charges.

Ultimately, the greater 'we' will survive the Flint crisis, but the children of Flint will not survive unharmed. Lead poisoning has lifetime consequences and we can be assured that they won't get the financial, emotional and/or educational support they will need. 

Thirty years from now, Flint's children will be struggling to find their way, Governor Snyder will be long gone, and we will all have conveniently forgotten what malfeasance and classist + racist Republican politics visited upon them.

So yes....
The greater 'we' will survive, but some of us won't make it to the other side: lives will be shortened, prospects will be dimmed or lost, families will be destroyed. 

We are entering an era of conservatism. Remember where the last one left us? 'Compassionate conservatism' my ass. There's an ox and a moron (oxymoron) if ever I heard one!

Did Black folk survive Jim Crow and slavery? Yes they did, but ask the good people at EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) how many people were murdered by mobs. How many lynching sites are they now trying to recognize? How many victims are they trying to remember and recognize? How many Neil deGrasse Tysons did we lose? How many Hadiyah-Nicole Greens?

Did Jews survive the Holocaust? Yes, they did, but ask any Jewish friend how many of their relatives didn't make it. How many Elie Wiesels did we lose? How many Anne Franks?

Did Native Americans survive the Trail of Tears? Yes indeed, but talk to an elder about the stories of loss. How many Joe Medicine Crows did we lose? How many Elouise Cobbells?

When we say "We will survive" we're also saying that a survival of the fittest approach is acceptable. It isn't; we're saying that entirely preventable human losses are acceptable. They aren't. 

Preventable losses are a criminal waste of human potential. We're in a compassionately conservative time. Brace yourself. This version of 'compassion' will leave some of us dead. We will not all make it. Sorry to be the harbinger of those sad tidings.