Monday, September 29, 2008

Tashlikh

-

------------Tashlikh

These are the days of awe —
time of inventory
-----and a new beginning
when harvest of what we sowed
-----comes in.
(What have we sown
------of discord & terror?
Where have we fallen short
------of justice?)

The scales dip & teeter;
there is so much
to discard,
so much to atone.

When our temples stood
we loaded a goat
-----with our transgressions
----------and sent it to the wild.
Now we must search our pockets
for crumbs of our trespasses,
our sins to cast upon the rivers.

The days are upon us
-----to take stock of our hearts.
----------It is time to dust
the images of our household gods,
-----our teraphim,
----------------------our lares.



-------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


(Arabesques Review, vol. 3 no . 3, 2007; author’s copyrights)



---------------Tashlikh

Estos son los días de temor —
tiempo del inventario
-----y un nuevo comienzo
cuando la cosecha de lo que sembramos
-----entra.
(¿Qué hemos sembrado
------de discordia y terror?
¿Dónde hemos fallado
-------en la justicia?)

Las balanzas se inclinan y columpian;
hay tanto de que deshacerse,
tanto por lo cual expiar.

Cuando estaban en pie nuestros templos
cargábamos una cabra
-----con nuestros pecados
----------y la echábamos al desierto.
Ahora tenemos que buscar en los bolsillos
las migas de nuestras faltas,
nuestros pecados para echarlos a los ríos.

Están sobre nosotros los días
-----para hacer inventario del corazón.
----------Es tiempo de sacudir
las imagines de nuestros dioses domésticos,
------nuestros térafim,
---------------------------nuestros lares.



----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


-

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616

-
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra

by Juan Martínez de Jáurequi y Aguilar (c. 1600)




----------El caballero de la cara triste

------------------¡Y Dios no te dé paz y sí gloria!

-------------------------------------------- Miguel de Unamuno


Tratándose del canto
-----en un llano de arbustos silvestres
infestado de las ramillas girantes
----------de molinos rompe cielos,
una figura consintiendo la edad
-----y una mente cavernosa
alanzó al sol embarrando su lanza de luz.

-----(y una estrella mugrosa
----------encendió un cigarrillo lucero
-----para guiar a un guerrero
----------a su lavadura.)

-----Si sucediera una estrella,
-----naciera un canto
-----en algún año decisivo
prometiendo pan y pescados
de que uno no fuera seguro se multiplicaran
¿pagaría la gloria incierta de una aguda herida
el precio de derramar la paz
en una red de empeño enmarañada?

E
l alto atrever camina en patas flacas
y demasiadas veces la causa de muerte
--------son las estrellas.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



Don Quixote de la Mancha & Sancho Panza
by Honoré Daumier



----------The Knight of the Sad Face

-----------------¡Y Dios no te dé paz y sí gloria!

-------------------------------------------Miguel de Unamuno



Treating of songs
----------in a wild wood plain
infested with twirling sprigs
---------of sky-tearing mills,
a figure indulging age & a cavern mind
speared the sun smearing his lance with light.

-----(& a soiled star lit a cigarette star
-----to guide a warrior to his washing)

-----If a star were to happen,
-----a song born
-----to some decisive year
promising bread & fishes
one was not sure would multiply,
would the uncertain glory of an acute wound
pay the price of spilling peace
-----into a fouled net of undertaking?

High daring walks on spindly legs
& stars too often are the cause of death.



---------------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


(in Mark in Time; Nick Harvey, Ed., Glide Publications,
San Francisco 1971; author’s copyrights.)




-

Monday, September 22, 2008

Autumnal Equinox

-



Equinoccio otoñal en tiempos de crisis


El telón blanco del día a un lado,
el telón negro de la noche al otro
abren el escenario:
----en oposición, los planetas —
Saturno de la cosecha melancólica,
----devorador de sus hijos;
Urano, contrario, rompedor de patrones.
Rigen los dioses tramperos,
----guardianes de los cruceros,
----las fronteras, el comercio, y las balanzas,
----tenedores de las llaves a los portales;
su nagual el coyote
----aúlla en llano y monte.
Se aprontan: los lares, Jano de la cara doble;
priápico Hermes de los pies alados;
Tezcatlipoca
cojeando con en vez de pie,
----un espejo ahumado,
----su corazón latiendo
----tras puertitas que cierran y abren;
Alegba de la discordia
----con sombrero de dos colores;
Maui del anzuelo grande.
Y coyote aúlla por llano y monte.

Hay crisis por todo el mundo
y los dioses hablan en lenguas.
En tenue balance
la esperanza jala el telón blanco,
la desesperanza el telón negro.
----Rigen los dioses tramposos
y coyote aúlla por llano y monte.




----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008






--Fall Equinox in Times of Crisis


The white curtain of day at one side,
the black curtain of night at the other
open the setting:
----in opposition, the planets —
Saturn of the melancholic harvest,
----devourer of his children;
contrary Uranus, breaker of patterns.
The trickster gods reign,
----guardians of the crossroads,
----borders, commerce, & scales,
----holders of the keys to the portals;
their animal spirit-keeper coyote
----howls on mountain & plain.
They gather: the lares, two-faced Janus;
priapic Hermes of the winged feet;
Tezcatlipoca
hobbling on,
----
in place of a foot, a sooty mirror,
----his heart beating
----behind small flapping doors;
Alegba of discord
----with his two-colored hat;
Maui of the great hook.
& coyote howls on mountain & plain.

There is crisis throughout the world
& the gods speak in tongues.
In tenuous balance
hope pulls the white curtain,
despair pulls the black.
----The trickster gods reign
& coyote howls on mountain & plain.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



-

Monday, September 15, 2008

Full moon: Godmother Moon

-
Luna, madrina


A veces pienso que ha de estar muy cansada la luna, anciana compañera, comadre de la Tierra. Ha de ser muy pesado jalar las aguas de los mares, los ríos, nuestra sangre espesa y rebelde. Pobrecita madrina nuestra, escudo de gravedad y plata que
en sus rondas eternas nos protege de los meteoritos que nos dañaran arrebatándolos con su fuerza, mostrando su rostro aun bello cacarizo de cicatrices, de cráteres y valles. Virgen y estéril aun cuida de nosotros la vieja luna que desde nuestro nacer nos arrulló con sus cantos de cuna.

Ahora en estos tiempos de peligro y congoja nos dicen los chamanes de las amazonas que debemos mandarle nuestras penas, enojos, temores para que ella los cargue y nos limpie el intento.

*--- *--- *

Curandera y madrina, bendice las hierbas, los naguales benditos, nosotros tus ahijad@s rebeldes y con tu medicina cúranos de nuestros males, de nuestros pesares, de nuestra locura.


© Rafael Jesús González 2008




Godmother Moon


At times I think that the moon must be very tired, ancient companion of the Earth. It must be very hard to pull the waters of the seas, the rivers, our blood thick and rebellious. Poor godmother, shield of gravity and silver that
in her eternal rounds protects us from the meteorites that would harm us grabbing them with her strength, showing her still beautiful face pockmarked with scars, with craters and valleys. Virgin and sterile, the old moon who from our birth cooed to us her lullabies still cares for us.

Now in these times of danger and grief, the shamans of the Amazon tell us we must send her our sorrows, our anger, our fears so that she may carry them and cleanse our intent.

*---*---*

Healer and godmother, bless the herbs, the blessèd animal spirit-keepers, us your rebellious godchildren, and with your medicine heal us of our sickness, of our pains, of our madness.



© Rafael Jesús González 2008
-

Sunday, September 14, 2008

To my Republican brothers & sisters

-
To My Republican Brothers & Sisters,
and to All of Us who need to hear it said.


As the U. S. Presidential campaign heats up, Republicans lie more and more, and the usual high-flown, tired, vague, meaningless catchwords are bandied about, many of us responding to them like the dogs in Dr. Pavlov’s laboratory, or the rats in the laboratories at U. C. Berkeley a matter of blocks from where I write. But what do they mean?

Words are sacred only in as much as they have a contextual meaning and state a truth. If you are going to fling them at me, I must insist that they have a definition we can agree upon. Let us begin with a few:

“Patriotism” means to me putting the welfare of the country above my own, or seeing the welfare of the country as inseparable from my own. What does it mean to you?

But what is “The Country”?

Is “The Country” the land, the rivers, the lakes, the mountains, the valleys, the trees, the plants and animals that constitute its terrain?

If so, what do we propose to protect and nurture them?

Is “The Country” the people who inhabit the land?

If so what do we propose to ensure the health of the people? What do we propose to ensure that the people have enough to eat? What do we propose to ensure that the people have a shelter over their heads? What do we propose to ensure that the people learn and have the knowledge through which they can make decisions that will make them happy? What do we propose to ensure that the people may have work by which to earn the money to purchase what they need? What do we propose to better the lives of the people?

Is “The Country” the Constitution that codifies its ideals and sets it laws?

What do we propose to do to protect that constitution and ensure that the laws of “The Country” are in accord with it? How do we propose to ensure that those laws are just? How do we propose to ensure that those laws are equally applied?

Is “The Country” the government? Is it the government even if the government does not protect or nurture nor the land, nor the waters, nor the plants or animals that its borders define? Is it the government even if the government does not protect or nurture and ensure the well-being of the people that inhabit the land? Is it the government when it does not honor the Constitution or its laws? Is it the government when it serves not the land, nor the people, nor their ideals but only serves some of those people ensuring that only they have what they need, and more?

A government that does not take care of the land or of the people or of the Constitution is not “our” government and therefore it is not “our” country. For then, who is us, and what do we call “ours?” It must then be the government of those few it serves — and the few do not a “Country” make.

I hear “Democracy” and the words of a great Republican sound in my ears: “. . . a government of the people, by the people, for the people . . .”

How do we propose to make a government of the people? How do we propose to make a government by the people? How do we propose to make a government for the people?

When I hear the word “Democracy” mouthed by politicians and demagogues who do nothing to ensure a government of, by, and for the people (not just some of the people) and instead shred the Constitution and Bill of Rights, do away with habeas corpus, torture prisoners, spy on us the people, deny women decision over their own bodies, kill the folk in other lands in the name of us the people, sacrifice our youth in illegal and senseless war, and refuse to care for those who do return, wounded in body and mind, my blood boils for I am sick of bullshit.

For me, then, “The Country” means the land that defines it, the people that inhabit it, its institutions that manifest its ideal and its laws, and its government that protects and nurtures it in all its aspects, a government of, by, and for the people, all of the people not just the privileged.

I hear the term “The Flag” flung about often and see red, white, and blue stars and stripes promiscuously waved giddily about and become dizzy. But what is “The Flag?” Is it a piece of cloth sewn or printed in certain colors and patterns? What does it mean?

As a sign it may mean something: if flown over a building or ground, it may mean “this is a center of government or public building”, or “this is a car dealers’ lot;” if it is flown from a ship, it may mean “this is a ship of the U.S. government or this is a ship from the U.S.”

As a symbol, it is so vague and complex in its connotations that it is only as meaningful as the things it is supposed to stand for: Country, Government, Democracy, the Land, Ideals. And all these are so confused in the minds of the flag wavers and of us that “The Flag” can only mean whatever we have been indoctrinated and conditioned to believe. When demagogues and liars wag “The Flag”, it is demeaned.

Don’t confuse me with flags; “The Flag” can only have meaning for me once you have defined “Country” for me and proved to me that you care for and promote the ideals for which it stands. I detest hypocrites.

Often with “The Flag”, I hear the term “Morality” mouthed. What is “Morality?” What it means to me is treating the other with respect and with compassion; it means holding the other’s, my brother’s or my sister’s, well-being as important as I hold my own. My sense of “Morality” has been formed by what a great Teacher was supposed to have said: “feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned,” “Judge not lest you be judged,” “you who are sinless cast the first stone,” “you are your brother’s [and your sister’s] keeper,” “turn the other cheek,” “blessed are the peacemakers,” “the law was made for [people] and not [people] made for the law.” And when a wealthy young man asked him how to achieve paradise, he told him, “Give what you have to the poor. It is more difficult for a rich man to enter paradise than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” He also said “as you do to your brother and sister so you do to me,” “a new law I bring you, love god above all else, and your neighbor as yourself,” that is to say that my welfare is inseparable from yours.

What do you propose to do about feeding the hungry, providing water for the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, healing the sick, caring for the imprisoned, teaching the ignorant, bringing about peace? Until you can answer these questions, I can hold nothing but contempt for your “Morality.” Don’t confuse me with crosses; I detest hypocrites who hide behind these as much as I detest those who hide behind flags.

The same holds true for “Family Values.” What are these? Are they any different from “Morality”? I know what “Family Values” are; my father and mother, my grandfather and grandmother taught me these. “Family Values” predicate that we take care of one another. They predicate that when a member of the family is a child, or is ill, or old, those who can work take care of them, feed, clothe, shelter, heal, educate, nurture them. Family Values predicate that what there is must be shared equitably among all members of the family. Family values are that we respect and love one another.

What “Family Values” are you talking about? What do you propose to give work to a father so that he may support the family? What do you propose to assist a mother in caring for the children? What do you propose to shelter a family? What do you propose to cure an ill father, an ill mother, an ill son or daughter, an ill grandfather or grandmother, aunt or uncle? What do you propose to educate the children of a family? For the life of me, I cannot distinguish “Family Values” from “Morality.” Until you can answer these questions, I cannot take your “Family Values” as anything but more bullshit.

And “Freedom?” Freedom is nothing more than but the ability to choose among alternatives, the more alternatives there are available to us, the more alternatives we are aware of, the more freedom we have. To exercise freedom, we first have to be alive; to live, we must have food, and water, and health, and clothing and shelter from the elements. To be free we must learn what is true and what is not, what is healthy and what is harmful, what makes us happy and what does not; we must learn sound values. To exercise freedom we must be made aware of alternatives, opportunities, and trained to take advantage of them; that is what education is. Freedom requires that every person be able to elect and be part of the government which rules over “The Country". Freedom requires a culture, a society, a government that will assure that everyone in the “Country” meets these conditions for “Freedom” and then make laws to protect the people from coercion, from fear, from predators (unethical employers, unethical money-lenders, unethical merchants and manufacturers, unethical politicians, unethical government itself.)

What do we propose to ensure “Freedom”?

And if these apply to “The Country”, then “Morality” decrees that they apply to entire world. If we truly believe in “Globalization”, that the world is one interdependent whole, then we must treat the entire world justly, protecting the Earth; its people, for humanity is as a family; the highest ideals of justice, and compassion, and peace. Only then, can freedom, and justice, and peace have any meaning and such terms as “Free Market” are only more bullshit when what they refer to is predatory and immoral, depending as it does upon coercion, abuse of the environment, and poverty.

I have addressed my questions to you who are Republicans, but they are equally addressed to Democrats, and to us all. Until these questions are answered me, I am under no obligation to listen with respect to any vague and bombastic appeals to “Patriotism,” to “Country,” to “Democracy,” to “Flag,” to “Morality,” to “Family Values,” to “Freedom.” When “The American Dream” has become a nightmare, too much of the real thing is at stake to put up with bullshit. Our lives, the very health of the Earth depends upon us and what direction we decide to take in a world grown too small to make borders meaningful and a wounded Earth that will soon refuse to sustain us. Now let’s get with it.


© Rafael Jesús González 2008
-

-

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Icarus

Icarus

Having lived in a patterned maze
he saw white moths speck his eyes
with the green excrement of days
chewed out of the nitrate skies.

His mind grew wide with the wonder of need
and his back ached for the weight of wings

breeding God from the feathered seed,
making playmates of the unnamed --------------------things.

His father knew he was god-child of the moon
but did not think he loved the sun so well
his wings were found in the snarling spume
and his skull metamorphosed to a triton shell.

-

Later in Sicily the craftsman as a sycophant

threaded the shell with a wingèd ant.



© Rafael Jesús González 2008

Stranger at Home: An Anthology;
Gritsman, Andrey et al, eds.; InterPoezia Press, New York 2008
(first published in El Grito, Vol. 6 no. 3, Spring 1973,
Berkeley, California); author’s copyrights.




*---*---*

If, as they say, Daedalus invented images and then the Labyrinth for their dance floor, my two tongues are the wings of my escape from the chaos and tangles of that dance. They have served me well in my sustained flight to escape the intricate, arbitrary boundaries of the maze. The brush of their pinions wears away borders; the more wings one has, the closer one is to the cherubim.

I will not die young. I love the sun too well from afar, and to be any nearer it does not tempt me; though, like Icarus, I, too, am a follower of the moon, I have no desire to step upon her cold and empty seas. I belong to the Earth, body and soul. My wings are hers and their use is to praise her. When I am finally silenced by death, my skull will be simply what it is, to be threated, not by a technician, but by the blessèd worms.

Perhaps a few feathers will survive my flights of imagaination, my celebration of speech.


© Rafael Jesús González 2008

Stranger at Home: An Anthology;
Gritsman, Andrey et al, eds.; InterPoezia Press, New York 2008
(first published in El Grito, Vol. 6 no. 3, Spring 1973,
Berkeley, California); author’s copyrights.



photographs © Paul Mahder 2008
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Thursday, September 11, 2008

The 11th day of the 9th month

-
The 11th Day of the 9th Month

The eleventh day of the ninth month is a day painful to mark. On this day in 1973 the duly elected government of Chile was overthrown by instigation and with the active support of our government and the CIA, bringing a reign of terror that lasted for almost twenty years. On this day in 1991 my beloved friend and comadre Guillermina Valdés de Villalva was killed in a Continental Airlines plane crash near Houston, Texas. On this day in 2001 the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York were brought down by terrorists.

With the destruction of the Towers went a great part of our democracy, an accomplishment, not of foreign terrorists, but of our own government. In response to the destruction of the Towers, the questionably elected president and his cronies invaded Afghanistan in an unsuccessful search of terrorists. And, in defiance of the United Nations, with out-right lies to justify it, invaded Iraq, destroying its land and killing a great many of its people, sacrificing many of our own, and enmeshing our nation in an illegal, immoral and untenable, on-going war. In the process, it shredded our Constitution and Bill of Rights doing away with habeas corpus, torturing prisoners as a matter of policy, spying upon the general citizenry, abusing the environment, squandering the national wealth for the benefit of the rich minority, wrecking the economy, creating a culture of fear, fomenting more terrorism, and making us the most hated nation on Earth. By any measure, a failed policy.

That same Republican party controlled by the so-called Neo-cons (which should more accurately read Neo-fascists) would continue such disastrous policies by trying to sport a new face. They put forth a sickly old man, whose sole claim to being a hero is his survival as a prisoner in another equally dishonorable war. (If suffering be the sole criteria for heroism, then heroes there are everywhere.) John McCain has taken on the illusion (or lie) of being a “maverick” although as senator he has voted for the Bushnian Neo-Con policy ninety-percent of the time. For his running mate, they offer an incompetent but comely former beauty-queen with more presence and ability to speak but with the same tired values and ability to lie. They run their campaign putting to the fore the more attractive Sarah Palin (self-styled “gun-totting soccer-mom”) as if she were the actual Presidential candidate. (Which she might well be given the age and fragile health of McCain.) Heaven help us!

But as the adage goes, “heaven helps them that help themselves.” As a nation, as a people, we can help ourselves; we have a choice. The Democratic party has put forth Barack Obama, a young man of great intelligence and charisma, an articulate and moving speaker who clearly plants the issues that face us in the 21st century: need for diplomacy in an ever shrinking and interdependent world, protection of the Earth, renewable resources, the right of everyone to have universal health care, of everyone to have a decent public education, an end to the war on Iraq, lowered taxes for the poor and middle class, a more humane and just treatment of immigrants, reasonable gun control, restoring the safeguards of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Issues that both McCain and Palin avoid and instead posture and repeat tired clichés. And Obama’s running mate for Vice President Joseph Biden, an intelligent and capable man trained in law, is experienced and knowledgeable having served in the Senate for six consecutive terms. We do have a choice, the choice is clear, and we can help ourselves.

But let us not delude ourselves that it will be easy. Many of us have been trained to think in vague generalities, to respond unthinkingly to ill-defined shibboleths such as “patriotism,” “country,” “flag,” “morality,” “family values,” “democracy,” “freedom,” metaphors and terms virtually meaningless unless given a concrete definition and context. Many of us are incapable, or careless, of distinguishing a symbol from a sign. And it is these catchwords and clichés that constitute the “platform” of the Republican candidates. Let us not be deluded; intellectually it may not make much sense, but it is politically powerful. The Republicans will try to avoid the issues we must confront by diverting our attention with personal, irrelevant attacks upon character, with other irrelevancies of flag-waving, pietistic moralizing in black and white, and a thinly disguised racism that is a grave weakness of our culture. We must not allow such to distract us.

Let us be very clear that we are in a formidable crisis (in the Chinese sense of the word, both great danger and great opportunity.) We either elect for a real change equal to the demands of a 21st century world or follow that same road of a world that’s past leading to destruction and extinction. Many of us hold contradictory and unexamined values inherited from a world that is no more. It is our task to examine our values minutely to make certain that they be true and commensurate with what we now know of the Earth and of a world that has made it small. For we risk not only to lose our democracy, but to put the Earth at greater risk.

This very day seven years ago, I wrote:




--------------- The Towers
------------September 11, 2001


The towers fall as if,
-----seen through crossed eyes,
a Goliath fell brought down by a David.

Behind the myths
-----who of us is the guilty?
---------Who the innocent?
What is the distance
-----between justice and vengeance?

Death is inevitable, not fair.
And when the innocent are caught
in the webs of violence, it is terrible.

May the Earth hold them in rest.
If we would make a monument
worthy of their deaths,
in honor & memory of them,
let us pledge ourselves
----- to freedom,
----- true justice,
------world peace.

For if death be not just
let just be our lives.




----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


(Abalone Moon, Nov. 6, 2oo7; author's copyrights)

Now is come the hour of our test as a nation, as a people: we either honor our living and our dead by casting our votes for freedom, justice, and peace by electing Barack Obama as our next President, or we continue on the dead-end road toward the destruction of freedom, justice, peace, and eventually our demise.


© Rafael Jesús González 2008





El día 11 del 9º mes


El décimo y un día del noveno mes es una fecha dolorosa en marcar. En este día en 1973 el legalmente elegido gobierno de Chile fue derribado por instigación y con el apoyo activo de nuestro gobierno y la CIA introduciendo un régimen de terror que duró por casi veinte años. En este día en 1991 mi querida amiga y comadre Guillermina Valdés de Villalva fue muerta en un accidente de avión de Continental Airlines cerca de Houston, Tejas. En este día en 2001 las torres gemelas del Centro del Comercio Mundial en Nueva York fueron derribadas por terroristas.

Con la destrucción de las Torres se fue una gran parte de nuestra democracia, un hecho, no de terroristas extranjeros, sino de nuestro propio gobierno. En reacción a la destrucción de las Torres, el cuestionablemente elegido presidente y sus compinches invadieron a Afganistán en una búsqueda de terroristas sin éxito. Y, en desafío a las Naciones Unidas, con mentiras descaradas para justificarlo, invadió a Irak destruyendo su tierra y matando gran parte de su gente, sacrificando los nuestros y involucrando a la nación en una guerra ilegal, inmoral, insostenible, y continua. En el proceso, hizo trizas de la Constitución y Lista de Derechos deshaciendo con habeas corpus, torturando a prisioneros como política, espiando a la ciudadanía en general, abusando del medio ambiente, desperdiciando la riqueza nacional a beneficio de la minoría rica, estropeando la economía, creando una cultura del temor, fomentando más terrorismo y haciéndonos la nación más odiada en la Tierra. Por cualquier medida, una política fracasada.

Ese mismo partido Republicano controlado por los tales nombrados Neo-conservadores (que más propiamente debería leer Neo-fascistas) continuaría tal política desastrosa tratando de ponerse una nueva cara. Proponen a un anciano enfermizo cuya única reclama a ser héroe es haber sobrevivido como prisionero en otra guerra igualmente deshonroso. (Si el sufrir fuera el único criterio para el heroísmo, entonces héroes hay por dondequiera.) John McCain ha tomado la ilusión (o la mentira) de ser un “rebelde” aunque como senador ha votada por la política Bushenia Neo-conservadora el noventa por ciento de los casos. Como su compañera candidata, ofrecen a una incompetente pero guapa anteriormente reina de la belleza con más presencia y don de palabra pero con los mismos valores exhaustos y la habilidad de mentir. Lanzan su campaña poniendo al frente a la más atractiva Sarah Palin (que se llama a si misma “mamá futbolista carga-pistola”) como si fuera ella la candidata actual para la Presidencia. (Que tal podría ser tomando en cuenta la edad avanzada y la salud frágil de McCain.) ¡Los cielos nos salven!

Pero como dice el adagio, “los cielos ayudan a los que se ayudan a si mismos.” Como nación, como pueblo, nos podemos ayudar a nosotros mismos; tenemos de que elegir. El partido Demócrata propone a Barack Obama, un hombre joven de gran inteligencia y carisma, un orador claro y conmovedor que claramente plantea los problemas que nos enfrentan en el siglo XXI: la necesidad de la diplomacia en un mundo más y más encogiéndose e interdependiente, la protección de la Tierra, recursos sostenibles, el derecho de todos a cuidado médico universal, de todos a una educación pública decente, de un fin a la guerra en Irak, impuestos más bajos para los pobres y la clase media, tratamiento más humanitario y justo de los inmigrantes, razonable control doméstico de las armas, restauración de las garantías de la Constitución y Lista de derechos. Puntos que ambos McCain y Palin esquivan y en vez se pavonean y repiten clisés exhaustos. Y el compañero de campaña de Obama para Vicepresidente Joseph Biden, un hombre inteligente y capaz instruido en la ley, es experimentado e informado habiendo servido en el senado por seis plazos consecutivos. Sí tenemos por que elegir, las opciones son claras, y nos podemos ayudar a si mismos.

Pero no nos permitamos engañar a si mismos que esto será fácil. Muchos de nosotros hemos sido entrenados a pensar en vagas generalidades, a reaccionar sin pensar a reclamos mal definidos tales como “patriotismo,” “patria,” “la bandera,” “moralidad,” “valores familiares,” “democracia,” “libertad,” metáforas y términos casi sin sentido a menos que se les dé definición y contexto concreto. Muchos de nosotros somos incapaces o descuidados de distinguir entre un símbolo y una seña. Y son estos reclamos y clisés que constituyen la “plataforma” de los candidatos republicanos. No nos engañemos; intelectualmente no tendrán mucho sentido, pero son políticamente poderosos. Los Republicanos tratarán de evitar los problemas que debemos enfrentar desviando nuestra atención con ataques personales, ajenos al caso contra el carácter, con otras necedades girando banderas, moralizando beatamente en blanco y negro, y con un racismo apenas disfrazado que es una grave flaqueza de la cultura. No debemos permitir que tales nos distraigan.

Estemos muy claros de que nos encontramos en un crisis formidable (en el sentido chino de la palabra, ambos gran peligro y gran oportunidad.) O elegimos por un cambio verdadero suficiente para las exigencias del mundo del siglo XXI o seguimos el mismo camino de un mundo ya pasado que conduce hacia la destrucción y extinción. Muchos de nosotros tenemos valores contradictorios y no examinados heredados de un mundo que ya no existe. Es nuestro deber examinar nuestros valores minuciosamente para asegurar que sean verdaderos y conmensurados con lo que ahora sabemos de la Tierra y de un mundo que la hecho chica. Pues arriesgamos no solamente perder nuestra democracia sino poner en más riesgo a la Tierra.

En este mismo día hace siete años escribí:



------------Las Torres
---------11 septiembre 2001


Se derriban las torres como
-----si visto por ojos cruzados,
cayera un Goliat abatido por un David.

Detrás de los mitos
-----¿quiénes somos los culpables?
----------¿quiénes los inocentes?
¿Cual es la distancia
------entre la justicia y la venganza?

La muerte es inevitable, no justa.
Y cuando los inocentes caen
en las redes de la violencia, es terrible.

Que la Tierra los tenga en descanso.
Si monumento hiciéramos
digno de sus muertes
en honor y memoria de ellos
comprometámonos
-----a la libertad,
-----a la justicia verdadera,
-----a la paz mundial.

Que si la muerte no es justa,
justas sean nuestras vidas.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


(Abalone Moon, noviembre 6, 2007;
derechos reservados del autor)


Ha llegado la hora de nuestra prueba como nación, como pueblo: o honramos a nuestros vivos y a nuestros muertos votando por la libertad, la justicia y la paz eligiendo a Barack Obama como nuestro siguiente Presidente, o continuamos en el camino sin salida hacia la destrucción de la libertad, de la justicia, de la paz, y ultimadamente nuestra extinción.


© Rafael Jesús González 2008


Barack Obama
B-

Monday, September 1, 2008

Ramadan

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-------Ramadán


En el noveno mes
cuando la luna nueva
----apenas se asoma
empieza el ayuno
y la penitencia
hasta que un hilo blanco
se distinga de un hilo negro.

¿Cuándo será?



------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



-----Ramadan


The ninth month
when the new moon
------barely appears
the fasting begins
and the penance
until a white thread
is distinguished
from a black one.

When will that be?



------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


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