"Expect Nothing" ~Alice Walker

Expect nothing.  Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parker
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing.  Live frugally
On surprise.

"Both Hands" ~Ani DiFranco

I am walking
out in the rain
and I am listening to the low moan
of the dial tone again
and I am getting
nowhere with you
and I can't let it go
and I can't get through...
the old woman behind the pink curtains
and the closed door
on the first floor
she's listening through the air shaft
to see how long our swan song can last
and both hands
now use both hands
oh no don't close your eyes
I am writing
graffitti on your body
I am drawing the story of
how hard we tried
I am watching your chest rise and fall
like the tides of my life,
and the rest of it all
and your bones have been my bedframe
and your flesh has been my pillow
I am waiting for sleep
to offer up the deep
with both hands
in eachother's shadows we grew less and less tall
and eventually our theories couldn't explain it all
and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall
and eventually the landlord will come
and paint over it all
and I am walking
out in the rain
and I am listening to the low moan
of the dial tone again
and I am getting nowhere with you
and I can't let it go
and I can't get through
so now use both hands
please use both hands
oh no don't close your eyes
I am writing graffitti on your body
I am drawing the story of how hard we tried

"New Beginning" ~Tracy Chapman

The whole world's broke and it ain't worth fixing
It's time to start all over, make a new beginning
There's too much pain, too much suffering
Let's resolve to start all over and make a new beginning

Now don't get me wrong - I love life and living
But when you wake up and look around at everything that's going down
All wrong
You see we need to change it now, this world with too few happy endings
We can resolve to start all over and make a new beginning

Start all over

The world is broken into fragments and pieces
That once were joined together in a unified whole
But now too many stand alone, there's too much separation
We can resolve to come together in the new beginning

Start all over

We can break the cycle, we can break the chain
We can start all over in the new beginning
We can learn, we can teach
We can share the myths the dream the prayer
The notion that we can do better
Change our lives and paths
Create a new world

And start all over

The whole world's broke and it ain't worth fixing
It's time to start all over, make a new beginning
There's too much fighting, too little understanding
It's time to stop and start all over
Make a new beginning

Start all over

We need to make new symbols
Make new signs
Make a new language
With these we'll redefine the world

And start all over...

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" ~Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across the screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Finds even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

"From the Bottom Up" ~Miranda S. Welch

Bottomless pit of panic
      of uprising
            and disappointment
Frustration of the masses
      - from overdue dues -
The face of destruction, it laughs
in the face of peace
      of unions
      of equality
      of basic human rights
      of liberation
            and collectivity
It hates the collectivity
      the thought that humans can
      actually live as humans
      in the human world
      and love and support each other
      as humans
It is broken, this world
torn between its supremacist gurus
and deviant subcultures
It has collapsed
      at the misguided feet of morality
And there's a war
      of power
             its distribution
             from top to bottom
             who has it and who wants it
                       what about who needs it?
capitalism, globalism, jesusgodism
racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism
      hatred
            and its protest
There's still a protest
            built by the builders of community
                       of a new world unbroken
                       together
            from the bottom up.

"Raspberry Swirl" ~Tori Amos

I am not your seniorita
I am not from your tribe
In the garden I did no crime
If you want inside her
Well, boy you better make her raspberry swirl

Things are getting desperate
When all the boys can't be men
Everybody knows
I'm her friend
Everybody knows
I'm her man

I am not your seniorita
I don't aim so high
In my heart I did no crime
If you want inside her
Well, boy you better make her raspberry swirl

Things are getting desperate
When all the boys can't be men
Everybody knows
I'm her friend
Everybody knows
I'm her man

Raspberry Swirl...

"Not a Pretty Girl" ~Ani DiFranco

I am not a pretty girl
that is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
and I don't need to be rescued
so put me down punk
maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair
isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere

I am not an angry girl
but it seems like I've got everyone fooled
every time I say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear
and imagine you're a girl
just trying to finally come clean
knowing full well they'd prefer you
were dirty and smiling

and I am sorry
I am not a maiden fair
and I am not a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere

and generally my generation
wouldn't be caught dead working for the man
and generally I agree with them
trouble is you gotta have yourself an alternate plan
and I have earned my disillusionment
I have been working all of my life
and I am a patriot
I have been fighting the good fight
and what if there are no damsels in distress
what if I knew that and I called your bluff
don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down
whether or not you ever show up

I am not a pretty girl
I don't want to be a pretty girl
I want to be more than a pretty girl

Words4Thought 1: Homosexual v Gay

Homo
Homosexual
Homosexuality
Gay
And every other variation of gay depending on the exact same-sex sexual identity

Homosexual = Science
Gay = Culture

Homosexual is a word used as a diagnosis - predominantly by psychiatrists as it was a psychiatric disorder in the DSM until 1973 - that identifies a particular person as not only having genetic same-sex attraction, but as having a defect or disorder because of it.
EXAMPLE: An ex-gay - also known as someone who went through unorthodox religious treatment in order to be heterosexual - was a homosexual (and arguably still is a homosexual) because they reject their attractions and therefore, the culture all together.

Gay is a word used as an identity that a person with same-sex attraction may adopt, thereby indoctrinating them as part of the community and culture rather than simply having sex with people of the same sex.
EXAMPLE: Most people with same-sex attraction! (again citing variations such as lesbian according to the nature of the same-sex attraction)

Moral of the story = HOMOSEXUAL IS A DIRTY WORD! No matter what your ignorant, uneducated high school teacher told you: Homosexual is NOT politically correct. Have a nice day! :)

All this nonsense with public leadership, political office, and politicians...

Public leadership means being a leader in the community. And political leadership means being a leader in the political sphere which, while certainly a part of any leader's leadership as well as what we understand to be both the private and the public, is actually identifying as part of the political hierarchy. Public office is holding a position of public leadership, but we call it office because it sounds more improtant which just equals hierarchy so why can't we just call it public leadership? And political office is holding a position of political leadership...that has been elected or appointed to you. Volunteerism is donating your time and energy to an organization, person, or group of persons. And activism is making something happen with your time and energy.

And I'm a public leader who will not hold public office because I'd rather be a public leader in a leadership role within my community rather than above it, and I do and will continue to create change through activism no matter how I'm bringing in the tofu-bacon, and I'll work alongside elected officials until they piss me off like they tend to do and then I will riot because I don't have time for their shenanigans, but I'll certainly work within the system and outside of it when appropriate and as it suits me because that's what a public leader who will not hold public office does!

37th Anniversary of Roe v Wade

Yesterday was the 37th birthday of Roe v Wade.

Protect reproductive justice and a woman's right to choose, to control her own body and sexuality, and to have equal access to do so - let us not forget that these basic human rights are not guaranteed to us nor are they outdated legislation; they are threatened everyday in the U.S. Protect and celebrate them with all that you have!

Happy birthday Roe v Wade!