Lest We Forget

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER 22, 2014

(I'm sitting here in tears listening to soul singer Marvin Gaye's rendition of "Abraham, Martin, John" as I write this. )


My fingers were fumbling at the keyboard in typing class that day in 1963, exactly 51 years ago, when the teacher from across the hall came into the room and whispered in Miss Jefferson's ear.

Her face turned white.

The other teacher left and Miss Jefferson broke into tears as she announced that President Kennedy had been shot and taken to a hospital in Dallas.

No one said a word.

Moment's later the other teacher returned. He didn't have to say a word.  His face, a portrait of horror and helplessness said it all.  We knew.  He knew we knew.  Holding back tears, he shrugged awkardly, turned -- and left. 

The unimaginable had happened.
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Happy 10th Anniversary #Occupy Wall Street!

September 17th marks the 10 th anniversary of the day that protesters descended on Zuccotti Park in New York City, re-naming it Liberty Park and launching #Occupy Wall Street!  

Here's the song I wrote that fall as I heard the announcement on the #Occupy livestream that Mayor Bloomberg had relented in his decision to clear the park that day at dawn.  The occupation would continue for another another six weeks before the NYPD arrived in riot gear to clear the park.

Life Support

A Good Friend sent me this quote from Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, today.  IMHO, it's a wonderful expression of the Way It Is -- and of our on-going Mission Impossible quest to co-create a world that reflects the compassion and wisdom of an Awakened Heart.

One Love,

Brother Lefty

 

"My hope for us is that we begin to intimately understand that living in a society where everything can be bought or sold but not everyone can buy or sell is harmful to our health, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That the best way to care for ourselves is in the manner that Audre Lorde described: to connect with each other in ways that propel all of us toward care—for ourselves and one another.

But with that hope, I also see reality. I believe with all my heart that change is possible and inevitable, but my honest estimation is that we are far from that change. And that means, for me, that we need to treat our work as if it is in fact hospice care for that which is dying and prenatal care for that which is being born." - Alicia Garza, The Purpose of Power