i was chosen to speak by the members
of my body. the arm as it pulled away
pointed toward me, the hand opened once
and was gone.
why and why and why
should i call a white man brother?
who is the human in this place,
the thing that is dragged or the dragger?
what does my daughter say?
the sun is a blister overhead.
if i were alive i could not bear it.
the townsfolk sing we shall overcome
while hope drains slowly from my mouth
into the dirt which covers us all.
i am done with this dust. i am done.
— Lucille Clifton, jasper texass 1998
Web page in full, over a hunnert of em:
http://www.recollectionbooks.
excerpts:
MAY 11
EQBAL AHMAD
Indefatigable combatant of capitalist empire.
Guatemala: FIVE DAY RAIN CEREMONY.
Also known as "Seattle Weather".
Heads up Ketchikan, Alaska!
______________________________
1846 -- US: "Manifest Destiny" is official. Polk's War on Mexico:
Half of Mexico is soon taken, despite massive troop desertions,
death by disease, & mutinies. In the resulting treaty Mexico is paid
$15 million; as one newspaper put it:
"We take nothing by conquest . . . Thank God."
Better is the "timeless lament", in the Carlos Fuentes
novel, The Old Gringo:
"Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."
1886 -- "The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel" publishes an article
headlined "No Poles Need Apply." The story applauds railroad
companies for firing Polish immigrants & gleefully concludes,
"A good many of those who struck to have their hours
reduced to eight have been successful in reducing them
to nothing."
1894 -- US: Beginning of Pullman Railroad Strike, Chicago,
Illinois. Debs soon joins the strike. The largest industrial strike
to date in US history, eventually broken by federal government
troops. At least 24 strikers are killed...
"Chicago Tribune" headline:
"Debs Strikers Begin Work Of Destruction,
Guns Awe Them Not,
Drunken Stockyard Rioters Defy Uncle Sam's Troops,
Mobs Invite Death"
"The New York Times," never one to side with business
rather than labor, & famed for "balance", in an editorial
calls Debs,
"A lawbreaker & an enemy to the human race."
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1898 -- "The Discontent: Mother of Progress", anarchist paper of
Home Colony, Washington, first issued.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1914 -- Radical theorist, labor organizer Daniel DeLeon dies.
1918 -- Nobel physicist, teacher, bongo player, Richard Feynman
lives.
"Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it,
'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the
drain,' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped.
Nobody knows how it can be like that."
1921 -- US: Burp? Prohibition charges against NY saloon owner
are dropped when the judge discovers the police drank the evidence.
1926 -- Mort Sahl, comedian, political satirist, beatnik (Big Party)
lives.
1932 - Virgilia d'Andrea (1890-1932) dies, NY City, age 43.
Italian poet, teacher, writer. A dedicated anarchist, her anti-fascist
activities forced her to leave Italy, but she continued the
struggle in Germany, Holland, France & the US.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1952 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade FBI
Cross-DressingHunk J. Edgar Hoover publishes
"Could Your Child Become a Red?" in "Parade" magazine.
Well, stop me on the highway, search my car and my cavities,
delve into my past like I'm a supreme court nominee.
If I don't got nothing to hide, then why should I complain?
And if I don't like it, I can always live with Castro or Hussein.
Well, I'm a real american. I bought a little flag
to prove I ain't no commie, fascist, muslim, pinko fag....
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1958 -- Last Poet's Follies, Frisco, California.
1961 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Liberal JFK
sends 500 more US advisers to South Vietnam & orders
clandestine warfare against the North & infiltration of
South Vietnamese into Laos.
1962 -- US: The FBI names Martin Luther King, Jr. a Communist
scheduled for arrest in a national emergency.
1967 -- Jackson State Riot Number One. One student killed & two
wounded as cops fire into a crowd after rioters stormed a police
barricade. The National Guard was called in to quell the
violence.
1968 -- Paris: The "Night of the Barricades", May 10-11.
The students are now calling everything into question, generating
enormous enthusiasm for the re-examination & criticism of all
aspects of public & private life. The three biggest French labor
federations call a General Strike to support students.
Today saw the decisive battle & the defeat of the Government.
There was ferocious fighting, barricades were set up
by the students & cars overturned to form a barrier. It was a
night of the barricades which the capital had not witnessed since
the Commune days of 1870.
The brutality of the police horrified reporters.
The students have to fight off the dubious embrace of the
Communist Party & all those now climbing on the bandwagon.
1970 -- US: Beloved & Respected
Comrade Cross-Dress-Code FBI honcho-hunk J. Edgar Hoover
says students killed at Kent State "got what they deserved".
1975 -- US: 80,000 turn out in New York's Central Park to
celebrate the end of the Vietnam War.
1981 -- In Miami's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, reggae star Bob
Marley, 36, dies. Succumbs to a brain tumor that ended his
career in October 1980. Regarded a hero both in Jamaica &
abroad. He is given a state funeral & buried near his
birthplace in St. Ann's Parish, Jamaica.
1983 -- Canada: Crabby!? A mob of 100 fishermen burn &
sink two fisheries patrol boats in Nova Scotia to protest
lobster quotas.
1996 -- Brazil: 55 police are indicted for the April massacre
of peasants.
1997 -- IBM's Deep Blue defeats chess champ Garry Kasparov
in 6-games.
2001 -- Don't Panic?! Douglas Adams takes the Big Hike, aged 49.
Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy which was
five books ("So long & thanks for all the books" -- Rbt Braunwart),
about the adventures of a fella traveling the universe & using a handy
dandy guide (The Daily Bleed?!) to help him out. The guide was
inscribed with the useful advice "Don't Panic." Adams died of a heart
attack while exercising (Reader Beware!). Detective Dirk Gently is
investigating this unlikely scenario...
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made
a lot of people very angry ..."
2002 -- Israel: 50,000 Jews protest the government occupations
of the West Bank & Gaza.
While most American Jews have recently donned war-paint in
support of Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Ariel Sharon's
terrorism on Palestinians, Israeli novelist Amos Oz today describes
Sharon & Yasser Arafat as "miserable leaders," calls for
their replacement & for establishing a "peace party".
— Auntie-Event 2010
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