| Progressive Calendar 08.03.05 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 13:26:21 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 08.03.05
1. Fringe radio 8.04 11am
2. Eagan peace vigil 8.04 4:30pm
3. Small is beautiful 8.04 5pm
4. Fringe play 8.04 5:30pm
5. Palestine report 8.04 7pm
6. Chechen war/film 8.04 7:15
7. Counter recruit 8.05 11am
8. Ffunch lunch 8.05 11:30am
9. Palestine vigil 8.05 4:15pm
10. Peace garden 8.05 6pm
11. Dickinson party 8.05 6:30pm
12. Indie Jews 8.05 7pm
13. Shadow project 8.05
14. Youth NV deadline 8.05
15. Norm Dixon - The worst terror attacks in history
16. PC Roberts - The neo-shill media: when armageddon gets no press
17. PC Roberts - Money, power and eminent domain
18. PB Shelley - The mask of anarchy (poem)
--------1 of 18--------
From: lynette <lynette [at] prettyhorses.net>
Subject: Fringe radio 8.04 11am
This week on Write on Radio, it¹s our all-Fringe Festival show! Our guests
include:
JoAnne Makela and Susan Hamerski, creators of ³Dinner with Medusa²
Allegra Lingo, creator of ³Hubcap Frisbee²
Amy Salloway, creator of ³So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!²
You can check out more at the Fringe website: www.fringefestival.org.
Write on Radio airs 11-noon Thursdays on KFAI, 90.3 f.m. in Minneapolis,
106.7 in St. Paul, and on the web at www.kfai.org.
--------2 of 18--------
From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 88.04 4:30pm
CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.
--------3 of 18--------
From: Jesse Mortenson <teknoj [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Small is beautiful 8.04 5pm
5pm-6:30pm, Thursday, August 4
Amore Coffee, meeting room
917 Grand Avenue, St. Paul
(entrance right off the corner)
Jesse Mortenson GPSP, Small is Beautiful Cmte. 651-696-6756 (day)
651-647-4261 (night)
--------4 of 18--------
From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Fringe play 8.04 5:30pm
Thursday, 8/4, 5:30 pm (also 8/7, 8, 12 and 14), fringe play "3 Ring
Circus: Israel, Palestinians, and My Jewish Identity," Loring Playhouse,
1635 Hennepin, Minneapolis. www.fringefestival.org
--------5 of 18--------
From: margaret <hope4peace22000 [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Palestine report 8.04 7pm
REPORT FROM PALESTINE
Behind the smoke screen of the Gaza withdrawal, the real story is
Israel's illegal wall, a massive land grab which is causing the forced
expulsion of Palestinians and tearing apart the West Bank. Local activists
recently returned from Palestine where they witnessed firsthand daily life
under Isreali Occupation.
Speakers: Flo Razowsky, Liza Burr, John Landgraf, Sabry Wazwaz
Thursday, August 4th, 7:00pm, Matthews Community Center
2318 28th Ave. S. (28th & Franklin) Minneapolis Admission: Free (donations
accepted)
Sponsored by The Palestine Solidarity Coalition-Minnesota, whose mission
is to stand in solidarity with Palestinians throughout the world in their
struggle for human rights and self-determination. The following groups
make up the coalition, in addition to active individuals from St. Cloud
and the Twin Cities: WAMM-Mideast Committee, Anti-War Committee,
Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee-Minnesota, Al-Aqsa Foundation,
Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network, Babylon Collective, Students for
Justice in Palestine-University of Minnesota, Pax Christi, Middle East
Peace Now, International Solidarity Movement. pscmn-media [at] riseup.net
--------6 of 18--------
From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Chechen war/film 8.04 7:15
8/4 to 8/11, 7:15 and 9:15 (no late film Tuesday), film "Three Rooms of
Melancholia," a nearly wordless antiwar film with no war footage, about
Chechen war, Bell Museum, 10 Church St SE, Minneapolis. www.mnfilmarts.org
--------7 of 18--------
From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Counter recruitment 8.05 11am
"Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder"
CounterRecruitment Demonstration
Fridays 11-12 noon
Recruitment Office in Stadium Village at the U of M.
1/2 block east of Oak St on Washington Ave.
for info call Barbara Mishler 612-871-7871
--------8 of 18--------
From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Ffunch lunch 8.05 11:30am
Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH!
11:30am-1pm
First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for Greens/progressives.
Informal political talk and hanging out.
Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul.
Meet in the private room (holds 12+).
Day By Day is non-smoking; has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous
apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines
--------9 of 18--------
From: peace 2u <tkanous [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 4:15pm
Every Friday
Vigil to End the Occupation of Palestine
4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
Summit & Snelling, St. Paul
There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel's
refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to
their own homes since 1948.
--------10 of 18--------
From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Peace garden 8.05 6pm
August 5 - Commemorative Tea Ceremony for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 6pm
With Karen and Jack Sontag-Sattel. This will be held simultaneously with a
ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, at the exact time of the atomic bomb
explosion at 8:15 am, August 6, 1945.
Location: Peace Garden, across the road from the Rose Garden, on the
northeast shore of Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN
--------11 of 18--------
From: Elizabeth Dickinson & Team <mailings [at] elizabethdickinson.org>
Subject: Dickinson party 8.05 6:30pm
Friday Volunteer Party @ New Campaign Manager's Home
The Campaign Team is pleased and proud to welcome Mary Petrie as our new
Campaign Manager. Mary is smart, well-organized, energetic AND she has
offered her home (852 Mound) for a Friday party 6:30-8:00 to kick off our
super-charged volunteer efforts. You'll get food, great company, lists,
literature, buttons, and maybe even an appearance by the candidate,
unless we cannot pry her away from doors.
We thank Andy Hammerlinck for his role as Interim Campaign Manager and
ongoing role as Scheduler for our extremely busy candidate! Since Andy
works full time for a District Councils, he was finding that pulling
all-nighters was not a way to live sustainably in true Green party
tradition.
--------12 of 18--------
From: Alyse <alyse [at] jewishcommunityaction.org>
Subject: Indie Jews 8.05 7pm
Jewish Community Action's Indie Shabbat
The next Indie Shabbat is around the corner- FRIDAY AUGUST 5th, 7pm at
Danny and Elana's house in St . Paul We will be having another vegetarian
potluck with great conversation.
Indie (Independent) Jews is an initiative of Jewish Community Action. It
is a group of Jews who are not members of synagogues, but are looking to
form an independent community. Open and welcome to all.
Please RSVP to alyse [at] jewishcommunityaction.org for Shabbat by Wednesday
August 3rd and we will give you the directions!
And if you are intrigued by or curious about Indie Jews, please call or
email with your questions.
Thanks, Alyse and Carin
For more information about Jewish Community Action and/or Indie Jews visit
www.jewishcommunityaction.org 651-632-2184
--------13 of 18--------
From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Shadow project 8.05
The Shadow Project: International Anti-Nuke Art Project Outside your Door
Friday, August 5 WAMM encourages participation in the Shadow Project,
which is political art, by the people, for the world. On Friday, August
5, the eve of Hiroshima Day, people all over the world, will make chalk
shadows on the streets/sidewalks of our cities, remembering the human
shadows burnt into the streets of Hiroshima by nuclear bombs. FFI:
Contact the WAMM office at 612-827-5364 or visit
<www.shadowprojecthome.org>.
--------14 of 18--------
From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Youth N-V deadline 8.05
Youth Leadership Conference on Nonviolence
August 19-20, 2005
Nonviolent Peaceforce, 425 Oak Grove Street (south of Loring Park),
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403 – USA
REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS AUGUST 5th (flexible!)
PLEASE RSVP TO: omar_fernandes [at] hotmail.com
A registration form will be sent to you as soon as you RSVP. Space is
limited to 30 individuals)
Nonviolent Peaceforce's Youth Leadership Conference on Nonviolence is
geared to bring together youth (16 years of age and older) to develop
goals for promoting nonviolent strategic action in schools, communities,
and the world. The specific aim of the conference is to involve youth in
exploring the nature and importance of nonviolence as a creative,
powerful, and effective process for addressing and resolving conflicts.
We will explore violence and nonviolence by reflecting on our personal
experiences, as well as on the journeys of those who have experimented
with nonviolence. This process includes small and large group discussions,
interactive exercises, and audio and visual resources.
The cost to attend the conference $15 per person (which will cover a
light breakfast, lunch, and refreshments)
For questions, please call Nonviolent Peaceforce's Office at
612-871-0005 or e-mail omar_fernandes [at] hotmail.com
--------15 of 18--------
Admiral Leahy: "The Japanese were Already Defeated"
The Worst Terror Attacks in History
By NORM DIXON
CounterPunch
July 30 / 31, 2005
August 6 and August 9 will mark the 60th anniversaries of the US
atomic-bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In
Hiroshima, an estimated 80,000 people were killed in a split second.
Some 13 square kilometres of the city was obliterated. By December, at
least another 70,000 people had died from radiation and injuries.
Three days after Hiroshima's destruction, the US dropped an A-bomb on
Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of at least 70,000 people before the
year was out.
Since 1945, tens of thousands more residents of the two cities have
continued to suffer and die from radiation-induced cancers, birth defects
and still births.
A tiny group of US rulers met secretly in Washington and callously ordered
this indiscriminate annihilation of civilian populations. They gave no
explicit warnings. They rejected all alternatives, preferring to inflict
the most extreme human carnage possible. They ordered and had carried out
the two worst terror acts in human history.
The 60th anniversaries will inevitably be marked by countless mass media
commentaries and speeches repeating the 60-year-old mantra that there was
no other choice but to use A-bombs in order to avoid a bitter, prolonged
invasion of Japan.
On July 21, the British New Scientist magazine undermined this chorus when
it reported that two historians had uncovered evidence revealing that
``the US decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ... was
meant to kick-start the Cold War [against the Soviet Union, Washington's
war-time ally] rather than end the Second World War''.
Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at the American
University in Washington stated that US President Harry Truman's decision
to blast the cities "was not just a war crime, it was a crime against
humanity''.
With Mark Selden, a historian from Cornell University in New York, Kuznick
studied the diplomatic archives of the US, Japan and the USSR.
They found that three days before Hiroshima, Truman agreed at a meeting
that Japan was ``looking for peace''. His senior generals and political
advisers told him there was no need to use the A-bomb. But the bombs were
dropped anyway. ``Impressing Russia was more important than ending the
war'', Selden told the New Scientist.
While the capitalist media immediately dubbed the historians' ``theory''
``controversial'', it accords with the testimony of many central US
political and military players at the time, including General Dwight
Eisenhower, who stated bluntly in a 1963 Newsweek interview that ``the
Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with
that awful thing''.
Truman's chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy, stated in his memoirs that
``the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no
material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already
defeated and ready to surrender.''
At the time though, Washington cold-bloodedly decided to sweep away the
lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to show off the
terrible power of its new super weapon and underline the US
rulers'ruthless preparedness to use it.
These terrible acts were intended to warn the leaders of the Soviet Union
that their cities would suffer the same fate if the USSR attempted to
stand in the way of Washington's plans to create an ``American Century''
of US global domination. Nuclear scientist Leo Szilard recounted to his
biographers how Truman's secretary of state, James Byrnes, told him before
the Hiroshima attack that ``Russia might be more manageable if impressed
by American military might and that a demonstration of the bomb may
impress Russia''.
Drunk from the success of its nuclear bloodletting in Japan, Washington
planned and threatened the use of nuclear weapons on at least 20 occasions
in the 1950s and 1960s, only being restrained when the USSR developed
enough nuclear-armed rockets to usher in the era of ``mutually assured
destruction'', and the US rulers' fear that their use again of nuclear
weapons would led to a massive anti-US political revolt by ordinary people
around the world.
Washington's policy of nuclear terror remains intact. The US refuses to
rule out the first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict. Its latest
Nuclear Posture Review envisages the use of nuclear weapons against
non-nuclear ``rogue states'' and it is developing a new generation of
``battlefield'' nuclear weapons.
Fear of the political backlash that would be caused in the US and around
the globe by the use of nuclear weapons remains the main restraint upon
the atomaniacs in Washington. On this 60th anniversary year of history's
worst acts of terror, the most effective thing that people around the
world can do to keep that fear alive in the minds of the US rulers is to
recommit ourselves to defeating Washington's current ``local''wars of
terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Norm Dixon writes for Green Left Weekly.
--------16 of 18--------
The Neo-Shill Media
When Armageddon Gets No Press
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch
August 2, 2005
What has become of the print and TV media watchdogs who hounded President
Nixon from office because he lied about when he learned of a minor
burglary of no consequence in itself?
What became of the watchdog media that bayed after President Reagan
because some low level neoconservative officials sold arms to Iran and
diverted the money to anti-communist insurgents in Latin America?
President Clinton was impeached by the House, though not convicted by the
Senate, for lying about a sexcapade with a White House intern.
Now that we really need them, the watchdog media has hired out as public
relations and propaganda shills for the Bush administration and the neocon
network.
The entire Bush administration-not merely the president-is involved in the
most extraordinary lies and fabrication of false intelligence claims in
order to lead
America into an unwarranted and illegal invasion of Iraq, an invasion that
has cost the US taxpayers $300 billion and resulted in the deaths and
maiming of tens of thousands of people.
The sordid affair has been revealed in leaked top secret Downing Street
memos, which were prepared for UK prime minister Tony Blair and his
cabinet. Unlike the Nixon episode, there is no need to search for a
"smoking gun." Smoking guns have been printed all over the pages of the
London Times. Yet hardly a peep from the watchdog media.
The August 1 issue of The American Conservative reports that Vice
President Cheney has instructed the US Strategic Command to prepare a plan
to spread the war by attacking Iran with tactical nuclear weapons in the
event of another terrorist attack on the US. Appalled US Air Force
officers have leaked the story, but you have not learned of it from the
tamed media.
A federal prosecutor seems to be closing in on Karl Rove, president Bush's
righthand man, and on Scooter Libby, vice president Cheney's righthand
man. The two are suspected of leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent,
a felony. Both have had to hire lawyers. But there is no demand for
accountability from the US media.
American civil liberties have been trounced by the "Patriot" Act. Torture
of detainees is now a routine practice of the US government and defended
by the attorney general. Senators and military officers who try to place
constraints on the inhumane treatment of detainees are stonewalled by the
White House.
The mainstream media has been co-opted as propaganda organ for the Bush
administration. How did this come about?
It came about through media concentration. There are no longer independent
voices in the mainstream media. American news reporting is a corporate
operation run with a view to advertising profits and the accommodation of
government in order to protect holdings of valuable federal licenses. For
reporters and editors, knowing what to say and not to say is the main
qualification for job security.
A person who wants to find out anything must go online and spend time
learning the sites that are trustworthy.
The Internet, thought invaluable for spreading news, hasn't the impact on
the public of a story pounded over and over on TV news or newspaper front
pages. Exposure on the Internet doesn't have the same embarrassment factor
as exposure on TV news and the New York Times front page.
The public is still socialized into taking its cue from the old TV and
print media. This media is now heavily controlled, partly through job
fears of editors and reporters.
This raises the question whether government officials who have broken the
law and betrayed trust will be held accountable.
Consider the implications if the Bush administration escapes
accountability:
The executive branch will have established itself as above the law.
The executive, armed with a compliant media, will have war-making power
subject only to successful PR spin. It means the final end of the people's
right to declare war via elected representatives in Congress.
The few remaining restraints on the executive's ability to detain people
indefinitely without charges will be removed. This power will silence the
Internet.
Spiteful neighbors, employees, former spouses, whomever will gain the
power to report any disliked person. The anti-terrorist apparatus needs
victims to demonstrate its effectiveness, and as warrants, hearings, and
evidence are no longer required, Americans will simply disappear like
Soviet citizens in the Stalin era.
The "imperial judiciary" will disappear overnight. No checks and balances
will remain.
Gentle reader, you can continue with this theme in "How the Worst Get on
Top," a chapter in F.A. Hayek's classic, The Road to Serfdom. You might as
well learn what it is going to be like as you are already half way there.
The worst rise rapidly as the honest depart the corrupt system. Two US
Military prosecutors, Major Robert Preston and Captain John Carr, resigned
after denouncing rigged Guantanamo trials of detainees as "a severe threat
to the reputation of the military justice system and a fraud on the
American people." (see www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1426797.htm)
Altogether now, let's yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it
any longer."
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has
contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate
economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of
California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts [at] yahoo.com
--------17 of 18--------
Money, Power and Eminent Domain
The Kelo Calamity
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch
The Supreme Court's Kelo 5-4 decision leaves compensation as the only
remaining protection of private property. No property owner is any longer
secure in his possession of his property if a private developer can
convince an eminent domain authority that he can put the property to
higher use as measured by projected tax revenues. Kelo's impact is not
generally recognized. Even private property's most ardent defenders deny
the impact of Kelo, which permits the use of eminent domain for private
development projects.
Noted libertarian Lew Rockwell, for example, argues that the distinction
between public and private use makes no difference to the owner whose
property is taken. He also argues that the Kelo decision has already
produced its own blowback in the form of twenty-five states and hundreds
of localities working to enact laws against the use of eminent domain for
private takings of property.
Libertarians are correct that the basic problem is eminent domain, but
they are incorrect that the distinction between public and private use is
"ridiculous," and they are wrong in their supposition that state and local
laws can offset the impact of the Kelo decision.
The state and local laws to restrict the private use of eminent domain are
merely policy statements that the eminent domain authority of the state or
local government will not be used to take private property for private
developers. A city or county's policy statement cannot prevent a state or
the federal government from exercising eminent domain authority in the
local government's jurisdiction, nor could a state's policy stop the
exercise of eminent domain by the federal government. Moreover, not all of
these efforts to restrict the use of eminent domain are succeeding, and
those that do can be changed by a majority vote. They do not constitute a
constitutional protection of private property.
It is clear that the Kelo decision has greatly diminished the protection
of private property. Prior to the decision, there were fewer demands for
takings and fewer opportunities for government to use eminent domain
powers. The distinction between public and private use of eminent domain
restricted its use against private property. The Kelo decision removed
this restriction.
The Kelo decision created fundamentally new inroads into private property.
Prior to Kelo, zoning authorities could restrict what could be built in
specific locations, but they had no power to assemble or disassemble land
parcels. Thus has Kelo greatly enhanced the reach of government planning.
The Kelo decision also further corrupts government by creating another
avenue of payoffs to public officials in exchange for their power to alter
property ownership in behalf of private interests.
Libertarians are correct that the source of the mischief comes from the
government's power to take private property for public use. "Public use"
is an elastic concept. Originally, public use meant roads and bridges.
With time and technology the concept expanded to electric power companies
serving public purpose.
The takings of property were limited to the amount needed to provide a
community with transportation or electric power. However, in the 1980s a
major new development was initiated by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid
Transit Authority (MARTA). MARTA was one of the first to condemn more
property than it needed to serve "public purpose." The transit authority
reasoned that property surrounding a new transportation station would rise
in value because of the increased ease of commuting from the site. The
authority decided that since its station was the reason for the rise in
property values, it should benefit by condemning property for re-sale
after the rise in value. People with condemned property blocks from the
new stations sued and lost.
Kelo expands the definition of public use. Condemnation for "public use"
is now justified by higher projected tax revenues made possible by
condemning low density neighborhoods, for example, and transferring the
land to developers who make multi-millions of dollars by constructing high
density high rise on the assembled site.
The Kelo decision threatens all private property, especially low density
residential neighborhoods that occupy desirable sites. All coastal and
waterfront communities, for example, are endangered by the Kelo ruling.
Money is a powerful force. The Kelo decision has made it more powerful.
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has
contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate
economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of
California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts [at] yahoo.com
--------18 of 18--------
Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Mask of Anarchy
Written on the occasion of the massacre carried out by the British
Government
at Peterloo, Manchester 1819
As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea,
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy.
I met Murder on the way -
He had a mask like Castlereagh -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed the human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.
Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
His big tears, for he wept well,
Turned to mill-stones as they fell.
And the little children, who
Round his feet played to and fro,
Thinking every tear a gem,
Had their brains knocked out by them.
Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
And the shadows of the night,
Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
On a crocodile rode by.
And many more Destructions played
In this ghastly masquerade,
All disguised, even to the eyes,
Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.
Last came Anarchy: he rode
On a white horse, splashed with blood;
He was pale even to the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.
And he wore a kingly crown;
And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
On his brow this mark I saw -
'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'
With a pace stately and fast,
Over English land he passed,
Trampling to a mire of blood
The adoring multitude.
And a mighty troop around,
With their trampling shook the ground,
Waving each a bloody sword,
For the service of their Lord.
And with glorious triumph, they
Rode through England proud and gay,
Drunk as with intoxication
Of the wine of desolation.
O'er fields and towns, from sea to sea,
Passed the Pageant swift and free,
Tearing up, and trampling down;
Till they came to London town.
And each dweller, panic-stricken,
Felt his heart with terror sicken
Hearing the tempestuous cry
Of the triumph of Anarchy.
For with pomp to meet him came,
Clothed in arms like blood and flame,
The hired murderers, who did sing
'Thou art God, and Law, and King.
'We have waited, weak and lone
For thy coming, Mighty One!
Our Purses are empty, our swords are cold,
Give us glory, and blood, and gold.'
Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,
To the earth their pale brows bowed;
Like a bad prayer not over loud,
Whispering - 'Thou art Law and God.' -
Then all cried with one accord,
'Thou art King, and God and Lord;
Anarchy, to thee we bow,
Be thy name made holy now!'
And Anarchy, the skeleton,
Bowed and grinned to every one,
As well as if his education
Had cost ten millions to the nation.
For he knew the Palaces
Of our Kings were rightly his;
His the sceptre, crown and globe,
And the gold-inwoven robe.
So he sent his slaves before
To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
And was proceeding with intent
To meet his pensioned Parliament
When one fled past, a maniac maid,
And her name was Hope, she said:
But she looked more like Despair,
And she cried out in the air:
'My father Time is weak and gray
With waiting for a better day;
See how idiot-like he stands,
Fumbling with his palsied hands!
He has had child after child,
And the dust of death is piled
Over every one but me -
Misery, oh, Misery!'
Then she lay down in the street,
Right before the horses' feet,
Expecting, with a patient eye,
Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.
When between her and her foes
A mist, a light, an image rose,
Small at first, and weak, and frail
Like the vapour of a vale:
Till as clouds grow on the blast,
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
And glare with lightnings as they fly,
And speak in thunder to the sky,
It grew - a Shape arrayed in mail
Brighter than the viper's scale,
And upborne on wings whose grain
Was as the light of sunny rain.
On its helm, seen far away,
A planet, like the Morning's, lay;
And those plumes its light rained through
Like a shower of crimson dew.
With step as soft as wind it passed
O'er the heads of men - so fast
That they knew the presence there,
And looked, - but all was empty air.
As flowers beneath May's footstep waken,
As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken,
As waves arise when loud winds call,
Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall.
And the prostrate multitude
Looked - and ankle-deep in blood,
Hope, that maiden most serene,
Was walking with a quiet mien:
And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
Lay dead earth upon the earth;
The Horse of Death tameless as wind
Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
To dust the murderers thronged behind.
A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
A sense awakening and yet tender
Was heard and felt - and at its close
These words of joy and fear arose
As if their own indignant Earth
Which gave the sons of England birth
Had felt their blood upon her brow,
And shuddering with a mother's throe
Had turned every drop of blood
By which her face had been bedewed
To an accent unwithstood, -
As if her heart had cried aloud:
'Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
'What is Freedom? - ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well -
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.
'Tis to work and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell,
'So that ye for them are made
Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,
With or without your own will bent
To their defence and nourishment.
'Tis to see your children weak
With their mothers pine and peak,
When the winter winds are bleak, -
They are dying whilst I speak.
'Tis to hunger for such diet
As the rich man in his riot
Casts to the fat dogs that lie
Surfeiting beneath his eye;
'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold
Take from Toil a thousandfold
More that e'er its substance could
In the tyrannies of old.
'Paper coin - that forgery
Of the title-deeds, which ye
Hold to something of the worth
Of the inheritance of Earth.
'Tis to be a slave in soul
And to hold no strong control
Over your own wills, but be
All that others make of ye.
'And at length when ye complain
With a murmur weak and vain
'Tis to see the Tyrant's crew
Ride over your wives and you -
Blood is on the grass like dew.
'Then it is to feel revenge
Fiercely thirsting to exchange
Blood for blood - and wrong for wrong -
Do not thus when ye are strong.
'Birds find rest, in narrow nest
When weary of their wingd quest
Beasts find fare, in woody lair
When storm and snow are in the air.
'Asses, swine, have litter spread
And with fitting food are fed;
All things have a home but one -
Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!
'This is slavery - savage men
Or wild beasts within a den
Would endure not as ye do -
But such ills they never knew.
'What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand - tyrants would flee
Like a dream's dim imagery:
'Thou art not, as impostors say,
A shadow soon to pass away,
A superstition, and a name
Echoing from the cave of Fame.
'For the labourer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread
>From his daily labour come
In a neat and happy home.
'Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
For the trampled multitude -
No - in countries that are free
Such starvation cannot be
As in England now we see.
'To the rich thou art a check,
When his foot is on the neck
Of his victim, thou dost make
That he treads upon a snake.
'Thou art Justice - ne'er for gold
May thy righteous laws be sold
As laws are in England - thou
Shield'st alike the high and low.
'Thou art Wisdom - Freemen never
Dream that God will damn for ever
All who think those things untrue
Of which Priests make such ado.
'Thou art Peace - never by thee
Would blood and treasure wasted be
As tyrants wasted them, when all
Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.
'What if English toil and blood
Was poured forth, even as a flood?
It availed, Oh, Liberty,
To dim, but not extinguish thee.
'Thou art Love - the rich have kissed
Thy feet, and like him following Christ,
Give their substance to the free
And through the rough world follow thee,
'Or turn their wealth to arms, and make
War for thy belovd sake
On wealth, and war, and fraud - whence they
Drew the power which is their prey.
'Science, Poetry, and Thought
Are thy lamps; they make the lot
Of the dwellers in a cot
So serene, they curse it not.
'Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,
All that can adorn and bless
Art thou - let deeds, not words, express
Thine exceeding loveliness.
'Let a great Assembly be
Of the fearless and the free
On some spot of English ground
Where the plains stretch wide around.
'Let the blue sky overhead,
The green earth on which ye tread,
All that must eternal be
Witness the solemnity.
'From the corners uttermost
Of the bounds of English coast;
>From every hut, village, and town
Where those who live and suffer moan,
'From the workhouse and the prison
Where pale as corpses newly risen,
Women, children, young and old
Groan for pain, and weep for cold -
'From the haunts of daily life
Where is waged the daily strife
With common wants and common cares
Which sows the human heart with tares -
'Lastly from the palaces
Where the murmur of distress
Echoes, like the distant sound
Of a wind alive around
'Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
Where some few feel such compassion
For those who groan, and toil, and wail
As must make their brethren pale -
'Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold -
'Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free -
'Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.
'Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.
Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses' heels.
'Let the fixd bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood
Looking keen as one for food.
'Let the horsemen's scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.
'Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,
'And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armd steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.
'Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,
'The old laws of England - they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo - Liberty!
'On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.
'And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew, -
What they like, that let them do.
'With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.
'Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.
'Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand -
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.
'And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.
'And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.
'And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again - again - again -
'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'
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- David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar
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