VOGUE copyright Conde Nast
© 2016 h2omeloncholy@blogspot.com
© 2016 KM Fikes
“There’s
a special place in hell for women
who don’t
help each other!”
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
introducing her presidential candidate-of-choice in New Hampshire
introducing her presidential candidate-of-choice in New Hampshire
Saturday, 02.07.16
“And, when you’re young, you’re thinking,
where are the boys?
The boys are with Bernie…”
founder of Ms. Magazine & feminist pioneer, Gloria Steinem
interviewed by Bill Maher
interviewed by Bill Maher
Friday, 02.06.16
'Tis that time, my noble peops. Ye know it all too well: Mercury retrograde. Yep, that astrological quirk on our calendar when communication is oft challenged with unintended glitches. Contrarily, when steeped in the practice of mindful presence, the retrograde phase can serve rather well. It can clarify past confusion and even, perchance, extract a bit of wisdom from commentary widely dissmissed as eminently whack.
One could attempt the melon-fruitless task of waitin' out the cosmos, hidin' upon the terrestrial down low, down deep undercover until Mercury's transit. Albeit such cowardice is no strategy for the aspiring sage. Shall we not all challenge ourselves, not to be content scratching our napps, squinting eyes, nor scrunching wide noses when Meaning blurs? Demanding betta, one finds oneself revisiting that first week-end of February - now in May. Three-month's time to process errors uttered from those far wiser than their above words - writ here in the font, "courier". Alas, their message did not carry. Unlike uncut H2Omelon, neither quote held water. Yet both Albright and Steinem have bona fide, feminist, street global cred as elder advocates/agents of change. Dig it? Solid!
photo credit: David Paul Ohmer
Muddled no mo', one raises a hand to draw the following conclusion:
They were right.
As much...as they are wrong.
Whilst neither Madeline Albright nor Gloria Steinem possess the obvious melanin of your customary subject of H2Omeloncholy, each can still check that familiar, dichotomous box of a visceral right gone every-otha-shade-of-wrong and/or vice versa.
Albright and Steinem were indisputably mistaken about all XX chromo agents - young or old. Nevadaless, they may be contentiously correct about one in particular: they addressed the whole of XX chromo voters when, in fact, their insightful assessment was far more applicable to the lone she whom they defend/support.
Berta Cáceres is dead. In body. Neva in spirit nor in cause. The appropriately exalted, recently slain, indigenous environmental activist named names. The late Cáceres placed blame not in hell or upon youth but where it belongs. She knew who backed coups and reaped rewards. Sensing 'the' (her own) carnage to come, she held those responsible. To the fire.
312. Nay, not degrees Fahrenheit nor the age of Michelle Alexander. Her chronological years concern one not in the least. 312 is the page count of her seminal indictment of nineties' catastrophic, crime 'reforms', The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander's text fans a kind of Baldwinian "fire this time". She extends the critique to our current election cycle.
The appetite in adolescence is ravenous. It must be. How else to grow into sound adulthood? 'Empire' and incessant regime change, howeva, stunt civic maturity and halt egalitarian impulse. Da States 'inferno' scorches earth beyond Dante's romantic comedy redux, The Diplomatic Young & Restless. When dramatic actors run amok, driven by the ruthless ambition of 'super predatorial' foreign policy - raping and pillaging citizenry and treasure - is youth, alone, to blame? Dare we indict the 'hell' on Earth of patriarchal oppression wherein Connie Francis croons, blistering beach side: "where the boys are"? Just are...in socio-positionality as much as indiscriminate geographic or divine 'place' of tyranny meeting torment.
To be praised by Henry Kissinger and preferred by Bibi Netanyau - all whilst Wall Street winks? Well, that there points to 'the boys' still runnin' the joint. "May their FORCE be with you." Meanwhile, back at the plundered ranch, what of the mothers who rock the cradles of 'collateral damage'? They birth the next generation of Palestine and Libya and Iraq and Honduras. Like tinder-boxed Pinocchio, their sons are too brown to be real 'boys'.
Lest one succumb to the immature myopia or, say, 'youthful' discretion, that all dogs and doves go to heaven whilst all hawks go to hell - where their "special place" awaits. The pigment of politics may consign itself to black/white dialectics, but we are - all - little else than morally, ethically grey. Blur, yo. Ay, so. Our 'place' remains at the discretion of our last deed. It or 'we' can only be as "special", i. e., 'exceptional' as the higher (or lower, if not lowest) purpose to which we commit with the full might of our most intimate as much as international relations.
This "special place in hell" cannot be found in any voting booth or be reserved for any age within any gender, or even dominant ethnic demography. May, though, this hottest spot hold court, seated or even tragically rooted, in the next four to eight years of 'Merica's interventionISM? Even they - whose vote is voluntarily disenfranchised by their own apathy or ignorance - are destined, one way or anotha, to catch wind of Lady Liberty's othawise statuesque torch. Takes only one spark gone astray for us to "feel her Bern".
a clever as compassionate critique
on the implausibility of
POSTness
Til our next 'post', feast upon produce in season...
© 2016 KM Fikes
© 2016 h2omeloncholy@blogspot.com
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from KM Fikes is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KM Fikes & h2omeloncholy@blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. No excerpt or link may be used for monetary compensation.
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