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Anthony M. Green II
Stereobeats.com Politics |
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Stereobeats.com Politics |
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Stereobeats.com |
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Re: Poets and Writers
Speaking Part I-
Please Lord don't come in yet, my home is messy, my soul's resting, from years of confusing confessions, years of choosing and loosing, just to learn a lesson pain and stressing while I'm searching the sky for a blessing, and my isolation, in my emotional incubation, there's battles I'm facing, angle eyed and shadow chasing, I need a place I can go where it don't snow man, can't take it no more, I gotta go where the winds blow, cause here it cold, took it and now I'm taking it to let it go... but some things just won't go...
A. Green
Here I sit, thinking only of you Understanding all that you've been through Wondering what's to become of us I'm hoping to slowly gain your trust
I'm hoping to know how you really feel But unspoken words confuse me still
My heart aches for you, and so I yearn I want to understand you, I hope to learn The faith I'd lost, in you I've found You've lifted me up when I was down
I'm hoping to know how you really feel But unspoken words confuse me still
My love for you goes beyond words It heals a past of pain and hurt It transcends all of space and time you've captured this broken heart of mine
I'm hoping to know how you really feel But unspoken words confuse me still
Pondering how much I feel and why My thoughts of you drift slowly by These thoughts of you are filling my head Trying to remember everything you've said
I'm hoping to know how you really feel But unspoken words confuse me still
-Erin Pittenger
igot4@aol.com
The shed at the bottom of the garden, Is made of wood and bricks, Inside the wood is mud, And the bricks are only sticks, But the secret won't get out, Because the garden of mine holds many more tricks.
-Jamie Sean Glencross
jamieglencross@hotmail.com
What I Feel When I See
Birds of a feather...always embrace together In any weather...remained tethered Overlapped forever Never severed bonded and such Embraced spirit sensitive in touch. Hearts beat eternally as one Needing each other as flowers need water and sun To open petals and expose nectar to birds and bees Words cant compose what I feel when I see You.
What would it feel like if your soul embraced The one with whom your heart beat & breath matched pace And everything aligned like you were magnetically drawn And your souls sang the same melody to the same song And even though it looked all wrong it was all right And even though it looked all dark you saw light In beauty she spoke to your spirit and awakened a fire An eternal desire sustained by her that would never expire Would you feel you had strength to withstand the night And fight to hold her close and embrace her light To hold her tight as if she was the very breath of life And die twice in sacrifice so she could fly Because she was beyond you in so many ways And you knew you would spend so many days in a daze I do words cant compose what I feel when I see You.
Birds of a feather always embrace together In any weather remained tethered Overlapped forever Never severed bonded and such Embraced spirits ensitive in touch. Hearts beat eternally as one Needing each other as flowers need water and sun To open petals and expose nectar to birds and bees Words cant compose what I feel when I see You.
What would it feel like if you could feel all those feelings For a human being that you feel when you are hearing or seeing The thing that at excites you the most. Maybe it is me that you see And when you see me you feel the rush The flush as love embraces you gently Spiritually from above like the wings of a dove To caress you and encircle you and lift you up Give you goose bumps as you reflect on my tender touch Your heart beats a little faster your minds wide a wake You cant wait for my hands to gently surround your waist The taste of the lips fresh as a honey dew wine Unity of you and me seems ordained by divine Heat flows I am the blue center to the glow of your flame With loving words I have transcribed your heart with my name But words cant compose.what I feel when I see You
Birds of a feather always embrace together In any weather remained tethered Overlapped forever Never severed bonded and such Embraced spirit sensitive in touch. Hearts beat eternally as one Needing each other as flowers need water and sun To open petals and expose nectar to birds and bees Words cant compose what I feel when I see You.
What would it feel like if you only knew how I felt for you Would it scare you amuse you or beckon you To embrace me too like Oceans waves caress shores Drawing to and foreI longingly desire you more As you fade away back to the sea across time Call you to be mine...echoes became the only response Studiously I studied your every subtle nuance The silhouette of your profile and hoped against chance That although I missed the first you would save the last dance Till overcoming any obstacles became my only plan Sometimes I felt like I could only stand If you were walking with me through the meadow and we were holding hands I am a man so tears I bottle inside But you could make the rain dissipates and rainbows shine Yet words cant compose what I feel when I see You.
-HiRez
hirez@blackplanet.com
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Does "Race" Exist
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I am going to start this essay with what may seem to many as an outrageous assertion: There is no such thing as a biological entity that warrants the term "race."
The immediate reaction of most literate people is that this is obviously nonsense. The physician will retort, "What do you mean 'there is no such thing as race'? I see it in my practice everyday!" Jane Doe and John Roe will be equally incredulous. Note carefully, however, that my opening declaration did not claim that "there is no such thing as race." What I said is that there is no "biological entity that warrants the term 'race'." "You're splitting hairs," the reader may retort. "Stop playing verbal games and tell us what you really mean!"
And so I shall, but there is another charge that has been thrown my way, which I need to dispel before explaining the basis for my statement. Given the tenor of our times at the dawn of the new millennium, some have suggested that my position is based mainly on the perception of the social inequities that have accompanied the classification of people into "races." My stance, then, has been interpreted as a manifestation of what is being called "political correctness." My answer is that it is really the defenders of the concept of "race" who are unwittingly shaped by the political reality of American history.
But all of this needs explaining. First, it is perfectly true that the long-term residents of the various parts of the world have patterns of features that we can easily identify as characteristic of the areas from which they come. It should be added that they have to have resided in those places for a couple of hundred thousand years before their regional patterns became established. Well, you may ask, why can't we call those regional patterns "races"? In fact, we can and do, but it does not make them coherent biological entities. "Races" defined in such a way are products of our perceptions. "Seeing is believing" will be the retort, and, after all, aren't we seeing reality in those regional differences?
I should point out that this is the same argument that was made against Copernicus and Galileo almost half a millennium ago. To this day, few have actually made the observations and done the calculations that led those Renaissance scholars to challenge the universal perception that the sun sets in the evening to rise again at the dawn. It was just a matter of common sense to believe that the sun revolves around the Earth, just as it was common sense to "know" that the Earth was flat. Our beliefs concerning "race" are based on the same sort of common sense, and they are just as basically wrong.
The nature of human variation
I would suggest that there are very few who, of their own experience, have actually perceived at first hand the nature of human variation. What we know of the characteristics of the various regions of the world we have largely gained vicariously and in misleadingly spotty fashion. Pictures and the television camera tell us that the people of Oslo in Norway, Cairo in Egypt, and Nairobi in Kenya look very different. And when we actually meet natives of those separate places, which can indeed happen, we can see representations of those differences at first hand. But if one were to walk up beside the Nile from Cairo, across the Tropic of Cancer to Khartoum in the Sudan and on to Nairobi, there would be no visible boundary between one people and another. The same thing would be true if one were to walk north from Cairo, through the Caucasus, and on up into Russia, eventually swinging west across the northern end of the Baltic Sea to Scandinavia. The people at any adjacent stops along the way look like one another more than they look like anyone else since, after all, they are related to one another. As a rule, the boy marries the girl next door throughout the whole world, but next door goes on without stop from one region to another. |
We realize that in the extremes of our transit -- Moscow to Nairobi, perhaps -- there is a major but gradual change in skin color from what we euphemistically call white to black, and that this is related to the latitudinal difference in the intensity of the ultraviolet component of sunlight. What we do not see, however, is the myriad other traits that are distributed in a fashion quite unrelated to the intensity of ultraviolet radiation. Where skin color is concerned, all the northern populations of the Old World are lighter than the long-term inhabitants near the equator. Although Europeans and Chinese are obviously different, in skin color they are closer to each other than either is to equatorial Africans. But if we test the distribution of the widely known ABO blood-group system, then Europeans and Africans are closer to each other than either is to Chinese.
Then if we take that scourge sickle-cell anemia, so often thought of as an African disease, we discover that, while it does reach high frequencies in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, it did not originate there. Its distribution includes southern Italy, the eastern Mediterranean, parts of the Middle East, and over into India. In fact, it represents a kind of adaptation that aids survival in the face of a particular kind of malaria, and wherever that malaria is a prominent threat, sickle-cell anemia tends to occur in higher frequencies. It would appear that the gene that controls that trait was introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by traders from those parts of the Middle East where it had arisen in conjunction with the conditions created by the early development of agriculture.
Every time we plot the distribution of a trait possessing a survival value that is greater under some circumstances than under others, it will have a different pattern of geographical variation, and no two such patterns will coincide. Nose form, tooth size, relative arm and leg length, and a whole series of other traits are distributed each in accordance with its particular controlling selective force. The gradient of the distribution of each is called a "cline" and those clines are completely independent of one another. This is what lies behind the aphorism, "There are no races, there are only clines." Yes, we can recognize people from a given area. What we are seeing, however, is a pattern of features derived from common ancestry in the area in question, and these are largely without different survival value. To the extent that the people in a given region look more like one another than they look like people from other regions, this can be regarded as "family resemblance writ large." And as we have seen, each region grades without break into the one next door.
There is nothing wrong with using geographic labels to designate people. Major continental terms are just fine, and sub-regional refinements such as Western European, Eastern African, Southeast Asian, and so forth carry no unintentional baggage. In contrast, terms such as "Negroid," "Caucasoid," and "Mongoloid" create more problems than they solve. Those very terms reflect a mix of narrow regional, specific ethnic, and descriptive physical components with an assumption that such separate dimensions have some kind of common tie. Biologically, such terms are worse than useless. Their continued use, then, is in social situations where people think they have some meaning.
America and the race concept
The role played by America is particularly important in generating and perpetuating the concept of "race." The human inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere largely derive from three very separate regions of the world -- Northeast Asia, Northwest Europe, and Western Africa -- and none of them has been in the New World long enough to have been shaped by their experiences in the manner of those long-term residents in the various separate regions of the Old World.
It was the American experience of those three separate population components facing one another on a daily basis under conditions of manifest and enforced inequality that created the concept in the first place and endowed it with the assumption that those perceived "races" had very different sets of capabilities. Those thoughts are very influential and have become enshrined in laws and regulations. This is why I can conclude that, while the word "race" has no coherent biological meaning, its continued grip on the public mind is in fact a manifestation of the power of the historical continuity of the American social structure, which is assumed by all to be essentially "correct."
Finally, because of America's enormous influence on the international scene, ideas generated by the idiosyncrasies of American history have gained currency in ways that transcend American intent or control. One of those ideas is the concept of "race," which we have exported to the rest of the world without any realization that this is what we were doing. The adoption of the biologically indefensible American concept of "race" by an admiring world has to be the ultimate manifestation of political correctness.
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CAT and MOUSE
PARIS, Jan. 22 A day after President Bush scolded allies who might shrink from a war against Iraq, France and Germany reiterated their commitment Wednesday to avert a conflict, saying they were determined to find a peaceful solution. The unwavering opposition of both nations puts the United States in a diplomatic quandary as its forces pour into the gulf region. Washington would prefer a strong base of support for any attack, even though Bush has said that the United States will go it alone if necessary.
GERMANY AND FRANCE have the same judgment on this crisis, French President Jacques Chirac said after a joint meeting of both nations Cabinets in Paris to mark the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, which set the foundation for the close relationship between the European powerhouses. We agree completely to harmonize our positions as closely as possible to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said at the same news conference. Both nations will play key roles on the U.N. Security Council in the coming weeks as the United States attempts to win backing for its hard-line policy on Iraq.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, France can veto any new resolution. Germany will assume the presidency of the 15-member body on Feb. 1, but it is not a permanent member and doesnt have veto power. Referring to French objections, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell questioned whether the U.S. ally was serious about ever coming to grips with Iraqi deception. What they said is, we should let this process continue, Powell said in an interview released Wednesday. But its not clear to me how long they want to continue or whether they are serious about bringing it to a conclusion at some time. As for Germany, Powell said, I cant speculate as to what might change their attitudes.
The outcome of the carefully orchestrated American diplomatic effort, salted with undiplomatic tough talk, is unlikely to be clear at least until the Security Council receives a report from U.N. weapons inspectors next week and convenes to decide how to respond. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered the Navy to double the number of aircraft carrier battle groups positioned within striking distance of Iraq, defense officials said. The additional naval air power is part of a broader buildup of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region. BUSH ADMONITION According to Washington, it does not need another U.N. resolution to authorize military action against Iraq. The latest resolution, 1441, warns of serious consequences if Iraq fails to disarm. However, the resolution calls for the Security Council to convene in the event of any infractions by Baghdad and the United States and close ally Britain would prefer broad international backing for any attack.
On Tuesday, Bush chided those who sought a delay in military action. This business about more time; how much time do we need to see clearly that hes not disarming? Bush said, speaking of Saddam Hussein. Surely our friends have learned lessons from the past, Bush said. Surely we have learned how this man deceives and delays. He repeated his message in a speech in St. Louis on Wednesday when he also warned Iraqi soldiers against using weapons of mass destruction against the United States. Therell be serious consequences for any general or soldier who were to use weapons of mass destruction on our troops or innocent lives within Iraq, Bush said. The administration may be ahead of public opinion on the issue of going to war. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday, seven in 10 Americans would give U.N. weapons inspectors months more to pursue their arms search in Iraq. GERMAN ATTITUDE The approach of Germany to the showdown is likely to further displease Bush, who cold-shouldered the German leader after he won re-election last year on a vigorous anti-war platform.
Schroeder has already ruled out a German combat role in any Iraq war. And on Tuesday night, ahead of the gathering in Paris, the chancellor hardened his position. Dont expect Germany to approve a resolution legitimizing war, dont expect it, he told a rally of his Social Democratic party in Lower Saxony. German and French leaders, who have agreed to consult closely on Iraq, reinforced their stance in newspaper articles published Wednesday in Germanys Berliner Zeitung and Frances Liberation. In the crises involving terrorism, Iraq and North Korea, our peoples can count on the governments of Germany and France to join forces to preserve peace, avoid war and ensure peoples security, Schroeder wrote. Our aim is to put the power of Europe at the service of peace, said Chirac. That underlines our actions in Afghanistan and in the Iraq crisis. While seeking partnership with France, Germany has gone even further than Paris in its anti-war stance. The French have left open the possibility of military action against Saddam Hussein as a last resort, but Schroeder has not.
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my comrades by Charles Bukowski
this one teaches that one lives with his mother and that one is supported by a red-faced alcoholic father with the brain of a gnat. this one takes speed and has been supported by the same woman for 14 years. that one writes a novel every ten days but at least pays his own rent. this one goes from place to place sleeping on couches, drinking and making his spiel. this one prints his own books from a duplicating machine. that one lives in an abandoned shower room in a Hollywood hotel. this one seems to know how to grant after grant, his life is a filling-out of forms. this one is simply rich and lives in the best places while knocking on the best doors. this one had breakfast with William Carlos Williams. and this one teaches. and that one teaches. and this one puts out textbooks on how to do it and speaks in a cruel and dominating voice.
they are everywhere. everybody is a writer. and almost every writer is a poet. poets poets poets poets poets poets poets poets poets poets poets poets
the next time the phone rings it will be a poet. the next person at the door will be a poet. this one teaches and that one is living with his mother and that one is writing the story of Ezra Pound. oh, brothers, we are the sickest and the lowest of the breed.
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