072712 poisonous cries

072712
—
sometimes a black eye
and bruised ribs
are enough of a fake glass sky
to keep us from our rise
to full height

so we bake like butterlies
bathed in blinding white light
beneath the heat of the lens
looming large over life

sometimes petty white lies
and malicious truths
are poisonous cries
to leave us drowning
in our self doubt

so we forget the fact
that we ever knew how to swim

while the tides ebb on a whim
and flow unexpectedly
from moonlight to sunrise
sometimes we take the long way around
unplug from this rat race to the bottom…
the wind leads
and dreams drain with the gravity
of pristine mountain streams returning
to the subthermal depths of the ocean
and back again, on backs of salmon

sometimes the mere act
of living our life out
loud, unapologetically
with confidence and humility
will bring about a suitable end…
and sometimes we have to fight for that right
with all our might
all day and all night
alongside our closest allies
family and friends

Wall Street feels Urban Outfitter’s Oppressive Pain

http://blogs.wsj.com/runway/2011/10/21/navajo-no-more-urban-outfitters-receives-cease-and-desist/

Urban Outfitters’ headaches increased today, with a change.org campaign demanding they remove their “Navajo” collection from stores in Europe and other international locations.

A lot of words and phrases come to mind (see this blog’s tags).  Poooooor Urban Outfitters.   Excuse me if I fail to shed a single tear for them.

My response to this framing:  [Dear Christina Binkley of the Wall Street Journal] your lead sentence is backwards. it was the Navajo Nation — and other natives — whose headaches increased because of Urban Outfitter’s incredibly disrespectful, insulting and poor taste.

“why not dogs?”

This is a rambling response to a question someone I respect posed in her blog:

How can you advocate for a bill to “protect animals and their owners from harm” and eat another animal that night for dinner?  How can you allow another animal to go through the terrifying, horrendous, oppressive, and murderous process that it takes to get its body or its products onto your plate?  Because it’s not as cute as a dog?

domestication itself is oppressive.  we shouldn’t “own” anything.  we shouldn’t have “pets” — that’s just another euphemism for anthropocentric system of the enslavement and control of other species.  and we shouldn’t be thinking in inherently abusive and exploitative terms such as “resources” (“sustainable resource management” is an oxymoron). [all that begs the question, what SHOULD we be doing?]

Quote of the Day: Diamonds and Sex Trafficking

“A diamond is forever”

Here’s some cultural context for you in an analysis of this new phenomenon of the “GFE” in prostitution:

[…]Dude, talk about buying someone heart and soul.

Then of course there’s the entitlement aspect. The men who engage in such a thing not only believe that it’s right and appropriate to buy away a woman’s loathing of them and that she should act like she likes it, but they also believe that they, for whatever reason, have a right to a relationship. They have a right to buy another human being, use it, discard it, and she should pretend that she enjoys it.

A local anti-sexist activist of faith here (where I live) regularly talks about how “the culture is a pimp for all our girls and women.”   In other words,

Veganism, pt 2

a follow up cross-post to my previous entry on veganism:

“I also like to tell people who are pro-life, that they’re not truly pro-life if they eat meat. OH ZING!”

Vegans eat the unborn young of trees, shrubs, herbs and other plants. They must not be pro-life. (what the hell do you think seeds and nuts are?) Vegans eat the tender young (shoots) of plants.

by the logic of the original post, vegans must have a deep-seeded (no pun intended) hatred of every non-animal living thing. because by eating them, they can’t possibly love them. you all must be incapable of loving trees, young shoots and sprouts, flowers, fungi, bacteria, etc. it’s inconsistent and ridiculous. we MUST love all of it, and yes, we MUST eat some of it.

Is “vegan hypocrisy” redundant?

I am reposting my response to a vegan soapboxing about animal rights and respect.  The title is provocative — I think there are plenty of ways and reasons to be vegan and vegetarian without being a hypocrite.  I just wish that the hypocritical thinking wasn’t as pervasive as it currently is — it doesn’t help anyone when vegans are constantly trying to position themselves amongst the “elite” of environmental activists, and it calls into question their understanding of the systemic nature of oppression.  To talk about the oppression of animals (and plants, and…), we need to talk about human power, privilege, and identity, and how that shapes our relationships with non-humans on this world.  It means taking a look at our spirituality and the spiritual connection we experience and share (or not) with all living things, regardless of their kingdom.

The argument I hear boils down to “I don’t eat meat because I respect animals.”  I believe it’s a dangerous and incoherent line of reasoning. “Oppose the injustice against the plant kingdom: stop eating plants!”  I.e., the injustice isn’t in what we eat, it is in HOW.  For examples, see many of the aboriginal cultures we are still systematically dismantling.  The full response is below.

DiezelP: Time for us to respect women

DiezelP writes over at What’s Happening PDX:

Will Hip-Hop Ever Reach Its Full Potential?

The Worth of Women

How will hip hop ever grow to its full potential when the very gender that reproduces our future artists, activists, columnists, producers, and entrepreneurs of our urban community are belittled to almost an object for the testosterone filled modern day rappers? When did the women of our culture become only useful for physical beauty and sexual activity? Why doesn’t Rap music uplift and inspire their female listeners to reach the same level of success males have?

Equal societies are safer, healthier, happier

These days have me questioning our current predicaments:   Why did we get to where we are at today? Two answers, two sides of the same coin: Greed and need.

just a joke: white man gets black man to do manual labor for him

here is the video URL: http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/baylis-revolution/4505-6490_7-33357756.html

Below is my letter. Don’t know if I’m over-thinking it, but I am going with my gut on this one…

women in jazz

WOW. Grace Kelly. Y’all remember that, alright? Seriously. So I heard this amazing interpretation of “Ain’t No Sunshine” on the radio, waiting with baited breath to hear who the hell it was behind this crazy shee-it. Turns out, you have to qualify it as crazy youthful sixteen year old second-gen Korean American she-it to be accurate. Grace Kelly. Mood Changes.

In the liner notes, Don Heckman beautifully describes the casual sexism us men often carelessly throw around. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis mine):