Price

And so the doors
of prestige and celebrity, 
of power and money
are being flung open one by one.

As each door opens, a person falls out,
someone who we assumed was

upstanding
trustworthy
truth telling
or
at the very least
in possession of
a moral compass.

Each person falls at our feet
and looks up at us.

This is the bittersweet price that is paid
when a country finds itself in thrall
to a monster.

The monster is in our house.
We put him there
and somehow he is still there.
Perhaps the gnarled hands
of political power
and insulated fame
are stronger than we thought,
or perhaps we have been weakened
by our impotent fury.

So we turned the monster's tale in on itself
and are opening the doors behind which
other monsters are hiding.

We are starting at the bottom
and working our way up.

Just as we cannot reach the top of a mountain
or climb to the top of a tree
by  jumping at the middle,
so we have discovered we cannot
unseat the monster
without first dismantling his throne.

Prepare yourself monster.

We are on our way
up.

Truth and Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Rant

"Thanksgiving" is a loaded word in the United States.

If one says "Thanksgiving", most people's minds will  unspool a film reel of family gatherings hearkening back to bucke-hatted European pilgrims and selfless indigenous Americans coming together within a gentle pastel cloud of inter-cultural bliss. 

Young children are led into murky historical re-enactments  of a supposed "real" "original" Thanksgiving,  or, for the sake of playing it safe, guided towards turkey-focused art projects. 
Hand turkeys?  Anyone?  Of course hand turkeys. 

And then there's the food.  "Thanksgiving" brings us visions of turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, a table figuratively and literally groaning under the weight of rewarding our good fortune with a food-frenzy.

I get it.  My family has always celebrated Thanksgiving.  We too look forward to swelling up with the pressure of eating a combination of foods I'd never regularly cook nor serve  in such alarmingly vast quantities and carb-laden varieties.

And of course with our fascination in having an excuse to  spend one day gorging and sipping and then burping and napping, comes the marketing. 

Thanksgiving isn't just a holiday, it's a money-maker. 
Because aren't all celebrations potential money-makers in our American society?
Of course they are.

But...

"Thanksgiving" doesn't have the blissful roots in harmony or shared feasting that people in the United States have been led to believe. 

The truth about the "original" Thanksgiving is muddled.  Our national storyline about the European pilgrims and indigenous Americans is twisted into half-truths, non-truths, and fairy tale.

If you were to write an outline upon which the traditionally taught American Thanksgiving story was written, you'd find the truth hiding--scattered about, names of people and places shifted away from their real stories, embellished, disguised.

So where is the truth?
What is the truth?

These are the questions we must ask ourselves.  These are the questions you must ask yourself.
(These are questions for which I have included a few links below--and I encourage you to look further in order to dig deeper into the facts in order to reflect upon your own assumptions and beliefs.)

It is now approximately 400 years after the original pilgrims landed in Massachusetts Bay. 
I would suggest we have not gotten any better at promoting or discerning fact from fiction.  In our heady, tech-savvy Internet-fueled society we are still battling pouty cries of "fake news", still needing to wade through muck of promotional fictions in order  to find the truth of the world. 

400 years later and we are still trying to figure out who we are, and how much we are willing to use, abuse and sacrifice others to achieve our personal ends.


Tomorrow I'll be once again  preparing foods that were probably not available 400 years ago to pay homage to a holiday that is based on myth more than fact about a group of people--the first of many--who got in a boat, sailed across the world for their own subjectively good reasons only to land on someone else's doorstep. 

I'll probably wonder, as I often have over the years, what would've happened if  the story were twisted on it self, and it were the Native Americans who had set sail from their shores, landed somewhere in Europe and then simply began building their settlement on someone else's land. 

And when we sit down tomorrow at our own table laden with food,  I'll reflect on the good things that this last year has brought, and I'll send my gratitude out into the chilly November ether.

But we don't need it to be November 23rd in order to celebrate our gratitude, or to come together with friends and family.  Love and good food can be shared anytime.

Likewise, we shouldn't need it to be November 23rd to reflect on the lessons--and lies--of history.
Truth and wisdom and being willing to admit wrongs and embrace acceptance can and should happen every minute of every day.

If and when this finally happens, I promise you, I'll be so very grateful.







Sources


http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/Teach-the-Real-Story-of-the-First-Thanksgiving.shtml

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/social-issues/6-thanksgiving-myths-share-them-with-someone-you-know/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shocking-savagery-of-americas-early-history-22739301/?page=5

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/thanksgiving-myths-fact-check.html

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/11/25/rethinking-the-way-we-teach-thanksgiving/lets-all-tell-the-true-story-about-thanksgiving

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/search?q=thanksgiving

Patriotism

What is "patriotism"?

Most dictionaries define "patriotism" as being a love for one's country.*

I've looked at definitions of "patriotism" in several  well-established and respected dictionaries.

There was no mention of flags.
There was no mention of anthems.
There was no mention of pledges.
There was no dispute over hands over hearts or knees bent in solidarity.
There was no description of uniforms, medals or badges.
There was no requirement for weaponry, war or destruction.
There was no mention of citizenship, no immigration status.

There was only the word "love".

Loving one's country is bigger and deeper than any trappings of cloth, song or words.

Loving one's country is passion and pain.

It's personal and deep.

Loving one's country is imperfect and messy.

Sometimes loving one's country means saying "I loved my country"
and leaving it behind
because the people in power
betrayed
abused
mistreated
murdered
the people they were supposed to protect.


In the end
a flag is no more than cloth.

In the end
an anthem is no more than a song.

In the end
a pledge is no more than words.

In the end
true patriotism,
true love for one's country
comes from accepting the people who make up that country-

-all the people
whether or not you
understand them
agree with them
or even like them.

Patriotism comes from
accepting that these people stand alongside you
right now,
accepting that they have rights
like you,
have jobs and lives and love
like you,
accepting that they struggle with
hardships
like you
in the country that you both
are trying to love.

If you cannot accept the people
all the people
who,
like you,
are the beating heart of this country,
then you
my friend
are not patriotic.









______________________________________________________________________________
*When I want to take a close look at anything, I start by looking at how it is formally defined.  And what better place to look for formal definitions than the dictionary?

So when I woke up this morning considering the sticky, touchy, uber-American word patriotism, I began with the dictionary. 

The Cambridge English Dictionary, published in the UK,  defines patriotism as  "the feeling of loving your country more than any others and being proud of it"  and then goes on to share the typical thesaurus synonyms for "patriotism" which include chauvinism, isolationism, nationalism and jingoism. (2)

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, published in the U.S.,  defines patriotism as "love or devotion to one's country".  It then goes on to list typical synonyms for "patriotism".  These include words similar to those listed in the Cambridge English Dictionary, such as chauvinism and jingoism.  However then the listing takes an interesting turn to include such words as allegiance, devotion, faithfulness, loyalty and passion. (1) 

I read each of these entries a few times.

Do you see what I see?

The Cambridge English Dictionary shines a troubling, even negative light upon the word "patriotism".   The very definition lays out the inherent self-centered heart of the word.  The synonyms are just icing on the cake really.  


But goodness me look at the Merriam-Webster definition.  It pays only the scantest lip service to the negative connotations of "patriotism", and then goes on to inflate the word to epic, golden proportions. 

It is said that only the winners write the history books...that only power and might are given the figurative and literal pen. 

It looks like the same can hold true for dictionaries.

Curious. 

Sources
1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriotism
2. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/patriotism

What's Happening Here

My parent's lifetime ago
the world watched
millions of human beings
be ripped from their lives
tortured
abused
murdered
under a banner of
ugly, fear-fueled supremacy.

"That'll never happen here."
are the words I hear.

My father was three years old in 1933
when the walls of Hitler's first concentration camps
rose
to imprison
anyone perceived
as opposing Nazi policies.

"That'll never happen here."
are the star-spangled rally cries I hear


Six million people died
at the hands of vicious, small men
empowered beyond reason,
smoothing their barbarity
to their believers
behind slogans and chants
and the polished fear-fueled facade
of Nazi swag.

"That'll never happen here."
is what I hear
as swastikas are brandished
in Charlottesville and beyond
by marching white supremacists
carrying fear and guns and self-righteous hate.

The holocaust survivors
spent...spend...their lives
staring at the tattooed numbers on their arms--
I can't begin to understand
what it is to live
with the burden and gift
of that kind of survival.

"That'll never happen here."
is what I hear
as our president pardons and praises
an Arizona sherriff for
brandishing the kind of inhumane brutality
against those perceived
to be illegal immigrants
that Hitler himself would've recognized.

It seems pretty clear to me
that the 83 years
between
the Holocaust
and
President Trump's America
are collapsing into each other.

It seems pretty clear to me
that there are terrifying similarities
between the forces
that pushed Hitler to power
and the forces that are giving
President Trump free rein
to do, say, and sign what he pleases.


It seems pretty clear to me
That this  is EXACTLY what's happening here.










Sources

Arizona Sherriff Joe Arpaio 

https://static.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/wait-do-people-actually-know-just-how-evil-this-man-is

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-joe-arpaio-pardon-20170826-story.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/05/522707158/joe-arpaios-infamous-tent-city-jail-in-maricopa-county-will-shut-down

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/18/470925848/trump-picks-up-anti-immigration-endorsement-before-arizona-primary

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/12/08/143355817/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-under-fire-for-mishandled-sex-crime-cases

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/12/15/143776718/sheriff-arpaio-violates-latinos-rights-justice-department-says

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/05/22/153313783/sheriff-arpaio-sends-publicly-funded-deputy-to-hawaii-on-birther-hunt

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/15/143765355/probe-finds-arizona-sheriff-violated-civil-rights

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112296948

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: History of Holocaust

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938

Jewish Virtual Library: History: Organized efforts to push back against rise of Hitler 1933

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/could-we-have-stopped-hitler

Demands for Explanations Not Forthcoming

Should I give you understanding

for your murder and hate

for your monochromatic dreams

fueled by terror  and guns?

As you look at your own pale face

in the mirror

does it make your blood run? 

What do you fear?

What do you fear?

Should I reject your shuttered understanding,

your insistent demanding

that this land beneath our feet

is rightfully white?

Even you can't pretend

that before your ancestors landed

there were nations here,

their face, not your face,

reflecting, refracting

in the lakes and rivers

you claim to own.

Even you can’t pretend

that named and nameless millions

were dragged from their home shores

only to make your pockets heavy

only to be ripped from family

only to be abused, raped, killed

unceremoniously billed

as 3/5ths of your humanity.

This truth delivers us

to your uncomfortable

denial—

Should I place you on trial?

Whose home is this home?

I’m as guilty as you

for slipping past the terror

invisible in my anonymous skin.

But I know I am guilty

and I admit I don’t know

where my balance rests

between easy anonymity,

 accidental ignorance

and my twisting, burning sorrow

for those you want dead. 

Would you change your tune of hate, given  the chance?

Or would you choose to continue

your terrifying, destructive

immolating

dance?

CHM

8/2017

I Pity the Child He Was

Somewhere deep inside all of us is the child we once were.

That  child is so often
too often
hidden
under layers.

Under layers of denial.

Under layers of
fancied sophistication.

Under layers of resume words.

Under layers of
carefully
curated
reputations.

But the child is there.

Somewhere deep inside our President, our leader
is the child he once was.

That child is hidden
under layers
of  denial.

Under layers of
opulence and extravagance.

Under layers of achievements
earned or invented or bestowed.


I think a lot about that child,
hiding inside our President,
inside our leader.

And I pity the child he was.

That middle child he was.

That confused child surrounded by
all the THINGS that money could buy,
all the STUFF
all the simpering voices
telling him superb half-truths.

How lonely was it to have been him as a child?

How empty was it
to have been
unable to tell
the loving friend
from the jealous?

How isolating was it
to have had
a father who demanded success
at all costs?

How confusing was it
to have grown up
hovering between
being told
he was everything
and yet not enough?

I've spent my adult life nurturing, guiding, helping to shape children
towards their future everythings and anythings.

In everything and everyone I have taught
the one thing that I tried to give every child
was the permission
to fail.

The FREEDOM to fail.

And once they failed
once they'd fallen,
I tried to offer them the strong hands
to help them back up
to try again.

The loving hands
and the honest voice
telling  the truth
especially when the child
didn't want to hear it
but needed to hear it.

I study our President,
this powerful, wealthy man
who is either entirely despised or entirely adored.

In his bubble of power and money
from which he can lure or purchase
adoration
I wonder...

does he have someone in his life
with the loving hands
and the honest voice?

Has he ever?

No, I may not like the man our President is

but I pity the child he was.

Lies

Grownups sometimes lie.

They explain their lies softly

as protection

and love

and as the best way

to give you the gift of innocence

and wonder

for as long as possible

before the world crowds in

but lies are still lies.

Lies to help you sleep at night

when shadows are goblins

and the wind is a ghost. 

Lies to help you fight fears

when bathtub drains want to pull you down 

and closet spiders are hungry.

Grownups sometimes lie

Lies to stop your worries

about neighbors firing guns into

safe spaces, everyday places.

Lies to smother your worries

about a world where

leaders  don’t always lead

and presidents are not always

presidential.

Grownups sometimes lie.

Lies to soften the 

silent forever of death.

Lies to prop up their own

desperate belief, wounded hope

that all people really are born equal

that we all deserve

life

liberty

and the pursuit of happiness.

that love is the great underestimated power

that can conquer all.

And then…

grownups tell you

to always

always

tell

the truth.

So

if you’re confused

and doubting

that’s okay.

Confusion and doubt

make you ask questions

and seek answers

and find your  voice

and hone your power

so that when you

become a grownup

you can demand

the truth.

You must

demand

the 

truth. 

6/10/17

CHM