P.S. Kudos to Christine and Aidan for this spot-on parody. Music begins at about the two-minute mark, but please listen to/watch the entire thing. Thanks and love to Melanie for the heads-up... :-)
P.P.S. NR: Call Them By Their True Names: Crises and Essays by Rebecca Solnit
If the Democratic candidate turns out to be your least favorite — as disappointed as you may be — please remember:
1. You're not just voting for President.
2. You're voting for who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
3. You're voting for the next Secretary of Education and getting rid of the horrible Betsy Devos.
4. You're voting for federal judges.
5. You're voting for the rule of law.
6. You're voting for saving national parks.
7. You're voting for letting kids out of cages.
8. You're voting for clean air and clean water.
9. You're voting for scientists to be allowed to speak about climate change and for rebuilding the CDC.
10. You're voting for what a President says and does on Twitter.
11. You're voting for housing rights.
12. You're voting for LGBTQ people to be treated with dignity.
13. You're voting for non-Christians to be able to adopt and to feel like full citizens.
14. You're voting for Dreamers.
15. You're voting so that there will be Social Security and Medicare when you retire.
16. You're voting for veterans to get the care they deserve.
17. You're voting for rural hospitals.
18. You're voting so that someone else can have health insurance.
19. You're voting for the preservation of PBS.
20. You're voting to have a President who doesn't embarrass this country every time she or he attends an international meeting.
21. And you're voting against allowing the USA to become yet another authoritarian regime.
22. You're voting for sensible gun laws.
23. You are voting to save our postal service.
No Democrat is perfect. Your first AND second choices may have dropped out. Your third might. But the nominee, no matter who she or he is (and now we know it's Joe Biden with Kamala Harris!), won't be perfect. They won't pass your purity test. And yet every single one of them will be better than four more years of Trump!!! Please be reasonable.
SONG: 86 45 11-3-20 by Friction Farm
BOOK: True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump by Jeffrey Toobin
POEM: Booker T. and W.E.B. by Dudley Randall
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house.”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail.
Unless you help to make the laws,
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.—
“I don’t agree,”
Said W.E.B.
QUOTE: "Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep fighting. We're all still here." ~ Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War (Acknowledgements)
Beautifully said Susan!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nance! What a great song, right?... :-)
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