Ryk Groetchen
Poem: Knowing They Are Needed
KNOWING THEY ARE NEEDED
Organizers can go to bed early,
and wake up refreshed.
Fire tenders, blind to time, tend to stay up
Asking for an end to violence needs no qualification
If one recognizes the Palestinian people as equally human to oneself, one will experience no moral dilemma as one simultaneously condemns their slaughter, starvation, and displacement; and desires that Hamas-held hostages be released. On the other hand, if one finds oneself making statements which include clauses such as “sad, but,” or “you’re ignoring the hostages”…
continue reading Asking for an end to violence needs no qualification
Extreme wealth is not compatible with democracy
Extreme wealth is not compatible with democracy. The ultrarich are cushioned from fluctuations in the political landscape that can have life-or-death consequences for regular people. Even if a billionaire lost their job and got hit by a truck tomorrow, they would be able to afford healthcare, send their kids to college, and provide safe living…
continue reading Extreme wealth is not compatible with democracy
This machine kills fascists
Woody Guthrie was a DJ. He used the power of the social media of his time to spread the message of anti-fascism and pro-democracy. Pete Seeger had a television show. He used the power of social media to highlight outspoken advocates for social justice in song. Nina Simone used her platform to expose the abuses…
“Love in action…”
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
I want the current administration to explode in a blaze of glory, and i want to be the one to light the fuse. But my hands bring me back to the patient work of making myself an act of love.
Music Class In Uncertain Times
This is a post that I sent to my ukulele students. Many people consider taking a music class at some point in their lives. Studying an instrument or using your voice in new ways can be a little bit challenging, and I think people think about doing these activities when things are peaceful, and they…
ADHD Journey: 1 month in
So far so good. After 2 weeks on meds and a consultation with the pharmacist, I doubled the original dose, and i don’t see increasing any more going forward. My sleep patterns have stabilized and I am actually sleeping more and deeper. This is probably in part due to the fact that I am no…
There’s no point in asking why
The mindset of the people dismantling our social and environmental protections is the mindset of people who go into National Parks and push over rock formations that took millions of years to form. It is a mindset that is incapable of awe, empathy, self-reflection, or vulnerability; that can only feel something when exercising power or…
there’s a little black train a’comin’
No one should be confused about what is happening in our government. It is cultural revolution, on the scale of the program implemented by Mao in China in the 1960s and 70s. It is an attempt to create a complete break with institutional memory so as to assert greater control over the mechanism of government.…