CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

by Edna St Vincent Millay

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle while he clinches the girth. And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.
Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.
I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends
nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much,
I will not map him the route to any man's door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city
are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

Starve the Fear

Fear is a potent weapon. It is a natural emotion that can sometimes overpower us. It can certainly blind us to reality. It can distract us from what is really going on. Fear has been exploited by governments against members of its own population or to create hostility against other nations. Hitler used it against the Jews, the communists, the Poles, the Russians, and others to great effect. Joe McCarthy used it to persecute anyone who might even look like a communist, and fear of communism drove our politics and economy for over forty years: from the late 1940s to the 1980s, resulting in tremendous outlays of precious resources, interference with the governments of sovereign nations in South and Central America, and the killing of thousands of innocent people, as well as war in Korea and Viet Nam, causing tens of thousands of American military casualties.

Religions have used fear to wipe out competing religions. Catholics used it to justify the Inquisitions and to cripple scientific inquiry. Puritans used it to justify witch burning in the American colonies and in Europe. The Christian world used it to justify the Crusades against Islam. Even today, Conservative Christians exploit the fear of Islam, while conservative Muslims exploit the fear of the West.

Social and financial classes use fear against the poor and the working class to limit earnings and basic human rights. Racist societies used it against other ethnic groups to enslave and/or slaughter whole populations.

Our own government, even now used fear to launch an illegal war in Iraq and is trying to provoke another war with Iran. They are trying to use fear of terrorism (at which they seem to excel) to rob us of our constitutional rights and turn us into a police state, under constant surveillance, with restricted and monitored movement, monetary transactions, and political activity.

But control of fear is a two-edged sword. It can be manipulated by outside forces, or it can be managed by the individual:

A native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said 'I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.' The grandson asked him, 'Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?' The grandfather answered: 'The one I feed.

Don't feed the wolf of fear. You have the power to look beyond the emotion and decide for yourself whether or not you have something to be afraid of. Fear is natural, it has a purpose: to alert you to something that may be dangerous. Then you can decide what must be done.

This Fear

It hurts this fear
it grabs me by the gut and twists
until I want to double over
and my stomach refuses food
threatens to spill its load

It races my heart
and pounds the pressure
to new heights of danger
It spins my brain
until the walls begin to move
and the ceiling and the floor
try to trade places

It keeps me from sleeping
no comforting rest only
tossed blankets and a punched pillow
while my mind revisits the day
and weaves endless scenarious
of what transpired
and how I should respond
and how it may turn out
what I might say and do
to head it off or if
the whole thing will come crashing down
despair and hopelessness
fear’s evil companions
test the edges for a foothold

It hurts it hurts
this fear like a feral animal
trys to find a nest
in the neglected weed patch
I have yet to cultivate
from which it might coil and spring
take over the peaceful meadow
I have worked to hard to cultivate

It is not my fear
and I lay no claim to it
it is foreign and strange
I refuse to give it sustenance
or let it roam freely
the landscape of my life
for I have looked Death in the eye
and we have an understanding
it is not yet my time to go
and fear has no hold on me

Lakota Nation Declares Independence from the US

"Indian policy" has now been brought down upon the American people, and the American people are the new Indians of the 21st Century. -Russell Means

On Monday December 17, 2007 the Lakota Nation withdrew from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

Indian in the Living Room

I would like to introduce
someone you have grown up with
refuse to acknowledge
who has made the life you know possible

Hello my relatives
I am the Indian in your living room
I am the First Nations
the original inhabitants of Turtle Island

I am the corn, the beans, the squash
the sweet potatoes
and tomatoes on your dinner table
I am the gratitude you express
every fourth Thursday in November

I am the Corn Maiden, the Two Hills,
the Sacred Mountains, Spider Woman, Shiprock
I am the Kachinas, the Thunderbird,
the Black Hills, and the Buffalo

I am the Pipe Carrier,
the Keeper of the Sacred Bundles
the White Buffalo Calf, Kokopelli,
I am Heyoka
I am Coyote, Raven, Crow, White Old Man, and Salmon Boy
I am the Sun Dance, the Ghost Dance, the inipi wakan, the hanblechya

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the Great Law of Peace
I am the plan for the U.S. Constitution
given you by the clan mothers
of the Iroquois Federation
I am political freedom, free speech, equality,
and freedom of assembly
which you claim as part of being an American
I am the Delaware who allowed Washington’s troops
to survive the winter at Valley Forge

I am the caretaker of Mother Earth
I am the Grandfathers who tell the stories
that teach us how to be human
I am the Ancestors who watch from the heavens
I am Powhatan, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea
who helped the white man survive in a strange land
I am the Brotherhood of the Shield
that used to care for and protect the people
before the white men came

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the residue of Manifest Destiny
I am an inconvenience to progress
I am America’s Final Solution
I am the ghost of Osceola, Pontiac, and Seattle
I am the Trail of Tears, Sand Creek, and Wounded Knee I and II,
I am Baker’s Massacre, Ghost Ridge,
and all the atrocities carried out in your name
I am the guilt you carry for these crimes

I am the Indian in your living room

I am blankets infected with smallpox
I am trade whiskey, forced conversions, and Indian schools
I am slavery, spoiled beef rations, and crooked Indian agents
I am Cornstalk, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse,
I am Sitting Bull, Jim Thorpe, Leonard Peltier, and Ira Hayes
I am Squanto, Red Cloud, White Calf, and SuAnne Big Crow
I am the Navajo Code Talkers who helped you win the war in the Pacific

I am a long history of unpaid debts and broken promises
I am the spirit of the buffalo shot from train windows
and left to rot on the plains
I am every treaty ever made and broken

I am the Indian in your living room

I am the reservation
where the Constitution and Bill of Rights do not apply
I am the loss of freedom and way of life
I am poverty and unemployment, alcoholism and diabetes
I am hopelessness and suicide
and I am here to tell you
the reservation now includes your living room
and it just swallowed New Orleans
now we all live here together
Welcome to the reservation
what they have done to me is being done to you
and you let them away with it

I am the Indian in your living room
and I will not go away


I am your past, your future, your heritage, and your destiny
I am that small drop of Indian blood every American family now carries
I am your parent, your grandparent, and great-grandparent
and we are all related

I am the Indian in your living room
and I don’t seek vengeance
I’m done asking for just compensation
Your government is not capable of dealing honestly
I am declaring independence
and you had better respect it

I ask that the people open their hearts and listen
and when you weep
for the loss of my children
as you would weep for your own
then, I will know you have heard

Mitakuye Oyasin

Evangelistas

I was watching TV the other day, something I don't do often. I don't subscibe to cable or satellite TV, and I am a channel surfer. I was clicking around the channels, which include several "Christian" broadcast stations, and one of them had on a group of old white men, sitting around a table talking about the sins of the world. It brought to mind people like Jim Baker, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others of that ilk. It gave me an idea for this poem:


Rich Old White Men Wearing Expensive Suits

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
pontificating
on the evils
of liberals and gays
and single parent families
preaching about
the coming final battle
good versus evil
as if they wished
they could make it happen
a prerequisite
for the second coming of Jesus
in spite of all the people
who would be killed in the destruction

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
strut across the stage
yelling and waving their Bibles
putting the fear of God
in those who feel the need
to fear something
taking people’s money
to pad their lavish lifestyles
and to promote
their own brand of poison
they fund schools and missions
that obliterate and subvert
the true mission of their Savior
that every man woman and child
should be loved and honored
as if each one
was the Creator in person

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
never stood in a food line
slept on a sidewalk
filed for unemployment
they never wore a uniform
feared death in battle
lost a limb or a loved one
to a roadside bomb
or a sniper’s bullet
though their dollars
have often purchased
land mines and sniper’s bullets
they never picked cotton
cabbages or fruit
never swung a hammer for a living
never sweated to make a mortgage payment
or worried about health care
But they will take
an old woman’s last dollar
let her think she’s saved
and tell her Jesus loves her
until she loses her home

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
are destroying my country
club people over the head
with their Bibles
use Old Testament Law
for a New Testament religion
that bombs medical clinics
and shoots doctors
invades hospices
trampling family’s grief
there is no New World
to which we can escape them
seek refuge from persecution
like the Pilgrims of old
freedom of religion
freedom from religion
freedom of thought
freedom to live however we damn well please

Rich old white men
wearing expensive suits
we can only wait for them to die

Life in America

Life in America


Put down that plastic
and step away from the sales counter
Visa is not your friend
Capital One
has a place for you
on the rowing bench
below decks

Your house is in foreclosure
the cost of gasoline
is going up again
and the price of milk and cheese
are not too far behind

Your boss hasn’t told you yet
but your job just went overseas
and the guy
sitting at your desk
is thirty years younger
earns half as much as you
and doesn’t speak English

But your Director
is taking his whole family
to Cozumel for Christmas
on the bonus he got
for cutting expenses

And that my friend
is the price you pay
for voting Republican

We're all in this together, like it or not

At one time or another, I have received emails that either poke fun at the immigration problem (usually at the immigrants expense) or contribute to the hysteria spread throughout the media that illegals are taking over our country, bankrupting our social systems, taking all our jobs, etc.
Usually, I didn’t respond (unless I felt they were particularly abusive) because I didn’t see any viable solutions.

Personally, I didn’t find them to be funny and I don’t buy into the hype. As a third generation native of Southern California, I have always taken a small amount of pride in the cultural ties that link that part of the country to Mexico. After all, California (indeed, most of the Southwest) was once part of New Spain, then Mexico, before becoming, briefly, a republic, and then a state. Without that, the Southwest wouldn’t be the Southwest. In truth, the "little brown people" we seem to be so afraid of have lived there long before there were borders.

I don’t deny that illegal immigration is a serious problem, one that has a serious effect on our economy, as well as that of Mexico. The obvious solution is to lean heavily on Mexico to clean up its act and stop giving people reasons to leave, but no one seems willing to look at the real causes of this “invasion”, that is, until now.

I want to alert you to a real solution. Not a bumper sticker slogan, not a right wing fear pogrom, and not a corporate sponsored piece of legislation that skirts real causes to serve the special interests. This is a homegrown, truly “American” solution that addresses the problem of illegal immigration from a number of angles, including ways to create more jobs in Mexico, direct Mexicans who want to migrate through legal channels, and to help and encourage those who are already here to return to Mexico in a way that benefits them and their families.

No roundups, no deportations, no arrests, no border walls, just good solid economic solutions and incentives that real people can use. I just became aware of this website last night. Apparently, so did a lot of other people, because I couldn’t get into it until early this morning. When I did, I was very impressed with the approach these people are taking. It rarely happens these days, but once in awhile, I do run across something that makes me proud to be an American, and this is such a thing.

It’s easy to poke fun and to spread fear, but if you really care about the problem and people in general, check it out

www.matt.org

MATT stands for Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together
Golly, people working together. What a concept!


This Land

The battle you wage
against those who have lived here
must be your last
they were here
before you were born
before your father
before your grandfather
before there was a border

This land
remembers their ancestors
you have treated it
like a waste dump
a disposable commodity
loving only its flag
and its hollow slogans
while you devastate
its water
and its soil

It’s a land that gives life
while you trade in death
a land of broad horizons
you focus only on profit
a land of spirit
that you bulldoze
and pave over
a home for people
you turn into a wasteland

It’s no wonder
your soul has a hole
as big as the sky

Nothing Changes

Dark Angel

The wings of a dark angel
descend again in Baghdad
two more American soldiers
return home in wooden boxes
flag-draped and hidden
from public sight
more than a hundred this month
fallen
more wounded

But those who live there
count their losses
in the thousands
tens of thousands
and the war goes on
and the bombs go off
more each day

And those who survive
will tell you
death has a nameand
they endlessly repeat it
as they cry out in grief
and rend their garments

Amer-ika
Amer-ika