Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Poem

Tags

Black History Month, Frederick Douglass, Poem, Poetry, Poetry Foundation, Robert Hayden, The Oatmeal, The Onion

Frederick Douglass 

BY ROBERT HAYDEN

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful

and terrible thing, needful to man as air,   

usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,   

when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,   

reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more   

than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:   

this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro   

beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world   

where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,   

this man, superb in love and logic, this man   

shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,   

not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,

but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives   

fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.

Poetry Credit: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46460/frederick-douglass?mc_cid=b11dc58d34&mc_eid=259b02d0f8

I wanted to post one more thing during Black History Month. This is a poem about Frederick Douglass. Since the month ends on March 1, this will be my last opportunity to get another individual associated with abolition or the civil rights movement. Next year, I may forego my normal schedule so I can get a profile or poetry or something for each day of the month. We’ll see.

In the meantime, have a great weekend! I realize some of you may be missing my Funny Friday posts, but you can tickle your funny bone on two sites I frequent often. Here they are:

The Oatmeal: https://theoatmeal.com/ Funny Comics and Stories

The Onion: https://www.theonion.com/ News Satire

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Harriet Tubman

Tags

5 Quotes, Abolitionist, Black History Month, Harriet Tubman, Slavery, Underground Railroad, Wednesday, wisdom, Women's Rights

I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.

Harriet Tubman

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.

Harriet Tubman

I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.

Harriet Tubman

I grew up like a neglected weed – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.

Harriet Tubman

I think slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could.

Harriet Tubman

For those of you who are interested, here’s a wikipedia link on Harriet Tubman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman Another great profile during Black History Month.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Rosa Parks

Tags

Black History Month, Civil Rights, Hero, Role Model, Rosa Parks, Strong Women, TedEd

This month I am trying to stick with a Black History month theme and Rosa Parks is another great story. Here’s a quick video about Rosa Parks. Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Ruby Bridges

Tags

Black History Month, Civil Rights, Courage, Desegregation, Ruby Bridges, Wikipedia

This video is a short about Ruby Bridges. I won’t spoil it. Just take a look if you have time. She is a real treasure of the Civil Rights Movement. If you like to learn more, here’s her Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – “I Have a Dream…”

Tags

Black History Month, Civil Rights, Human Rights, I have a dream, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, MLK, Video, Weekend, YouTube

Folks, in light of Black History Month, I decided to circumvent my funny Friday video with Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech. Here it is in its entirety. Dr. King was one of the primary movers during the 1960s that ultimately helped create the Civil Rights act and so many other pieces of legislation that were designed to help change the laws of the land that impacted the African American Community and so many other groups in the United States.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I watch this speech each year and wanted to share it with you.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tags

Black History Month, challenge, Civil Rights Movement, Controversy, Faith, Martin Luther King, Wisdom Wednesday

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time is always right to do what is right.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was reminded by one of my fellow bloggers that this was Black History Month. In honor of that, I would be remiss if I did not include Dr. King. If you’d like to learn more about Dr. King, here is his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

For those of you who are not familiar with Black History Month, here is a link to their wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month

I hope all of you are having a great Wednesday! We are getting more snow. It is terrific!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful/Thinking Thursday – Audre Lorde

Tags

Activist, Art, Audre Lorde, Black History Month, Civil Rights Movement, Discrimination, Gay Rights Movement, Google, Poem, Poet, Poetry Foundation, Prejudice

Photo Credit: Audre Lorde. Photograph by Elsa Dorfman.

Today’s thinking Thursday is about another African American icon. This one is a poet called Audre Lorde. Much of her work throughout her life was dedicated to fighting discrimination be it racial, homophobic, ethnic, or whatever. I’ve included a poem from the Poetry Foundation below for you to read if you are interested. Google highlighted her today. This is where I got the inspiration to write today’s posting. After the poem, I’ve included the link for her biography on Poetry Foundation and a link to her Wikipedia page. I hope you enjoy reading about her.

Sisters in Arms

BY AUDRE LORDE

The edge of our bed was a wide grid
where your fifteen-year-old daughter was hanging   
gut-sprung on police wheels
a cablegram nailed to the wood
next to a map of the Western Reserve
I could not return with you to bury the body   
reconstruct your nightly cardboards
against the seeping Transvaal cold
I could not plant the other limpet mine
against a wall at the railroad station
nor carry either of your souls back from the river   
in a calabash upon my head
so I bought you a ticket to Durban
on my American Express
and we lay together
in the first light of a new season.

Now clearing roughage from my autumn garden   
cow sorrel    overgrown rocket gone to seed   
I reach for the taste of today
the New York Times finally mentions your country   
a half-page story
of the first white south african killed in the “unrest”
Not of Black children massacred at Sebokeng   
six-year-olds imprisoned for threatening the state   
not of Thabo Sibeko, first grader, in his own blood   
on his grandmother’s parlor floor
Joyce, nine, trying to crawl to him
shitting through her navel
not of a three-week-old infant, nameless   
lost under the burned beds of Tembisa
my hand comes down like a brown vise over the marigolds   
reckless through despair
we were two Black women touching our flame   
and we left our dead behind us
I hovered    you rose    the last ritual of healing   
“It is spring,” you whispered
“I sold the ticket for guns and sulfa   
I leave for home tomorrow”
and wherever I touch you
I lick cold from my fingers
taste rage
like salt from the lips of a woman   
who has killed too often to forget   
and carries each death in her eyes   
your mouth a parting orchid   
“Someday you will come to my country   
and we will fight side by side?”

Keys jingle in the door ajar    threatening   
whatever is coming belongs here
I reach for your sweetness
but silence explodes like a pregnant belly   
into my face
a vomit of nevers.

Mmanthatisi turns away from the cloth
her daughters-in-law are dyeing
the baby drools milk from her breast
she hands him half-asleep to his sister
dresses again for war   
knowing the men will follow.
In the intricate Maseru twilights
quick    sad    vital
she maps the next day’s battle
dreams of Durban    sometimes
visions the deep wry song of beach pebbles
running after the sea.

Notes:

M-mán-tha-tisi: warrior queen and leader of the Tlokwa (Sotho) people during the mfecane (crushing), one of the greatest crises in southern African history. The Sotho now live in the Orange Free State, S. A.

Má-se-ru: scene of a great Tlokwa battle and now the capital of Lesotho

Durban: Indian Ocean seaport and resort area in Natal Province, S. A.Audre Lorde, “Sisters in Arms” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. Copyright © 1997 by Audre Lorde. Reprinted with the permission of Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., http://www.nortonpoets.com.Source: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1997)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde

This is yet another inspiring woman. I hope you enjoy these links. I did.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk/Thinking Tuesday – Rosa Parks

Tags

Accomplishment, Black History Month, Civil Rights Movement, Icon, NAACP, Rosa Parks, Service, Torch Bearer

Photo Credit: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (ca. 1955) Mrs. Rosa Parks altered the negro progress in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, by the bus boycott she began. National Archives record ID: 306-PSD-65-1882 (Box 93). Source: Ebony Magazine

When we hear the name Rosa Parks, we all remember the incident where she refused to move out of a “white only” section of a bus and was arrested, turning the fledgling civil rights movement into a national phenomenon. Watch this short video to see what else she did in her life. I think you’ll be surprised.

If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to read about her and her life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

When you look at the large list of her accomplishments, think about the Jim Crow laws and all the other roadblocks that were put in her, and other African American’s lives during one of the darkest periods of American history.

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tags

Black History Month, Charity, Cherish, Determination, History, Honor, Martin Luther King, Remember, Reverence, wisdom

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In honor of Black History Month (Feb 1 – Mar 1 2021) I’ll be selecting quotes from memorable figures that should be remembered for the work they did to gain their civil rights during a dark period of our history.

Here’s a Wikipedia link for the late Martin Luther King, Jr.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr. I hope you enjoy it.

Until next time…

Dave