Babel’s descendents
condemned to find common ground
through body language

***

no more room for me
the pebble lodged between us
became a boulder

childhood memories
stacked like rugged pine buckets
at the country fair

Having grown up in Maine, I have many fond memories of visiting the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity every autumn. As a kid, it was just plain fun to me, but to the organizers, it’s all about sharing knowledge on sustainable living; eating delicious, organic, Maine-grown food; buying and selling beautiful crafts and agricultural products; vying for prizes; contra-dancing; singing and having a great time. If you’re in the area on September 21, 22 & 23, stop by for a visit.

“Washing one’s hands of the conflicct between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful.”

- Paulo Freire

1 MILLION SIGNATURES FOR DARFUR

—————————–

EMERGENCY EUROPETITION
to the Heads of government of the European Union and the Institutions of the European Union for immediate dispatch of an international protection force to Darfur.

Initiative coordinated by the Collectif Urgence Darfour/Emergency Darfur Coalition (www.urgencedarfour.com)

To the Heads of Government of the European Union Member States,
To Mr José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission,
To Mr Javier Solana, High representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union,

We European citizens, can no longer remain indifferent and passive in the face of the true war against civilians presently taking place in Darfur, in the West of Sudan.

The army of Sudan and the Jinjaweed militias, mainly in the name of their “black African” identity, have committed massacres of entire villages, killing their Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa and other fellow-countrymen who constitute the majority of the six million inhabitants of Darfur.

Many already refer to Darfur as the first genocide of the 21st century.

Already 400 000 innocent men, women and children have been killed. Tens of thousands of people have been raped, tortured and terrorized. More than two and a half million others have been chased from their homes. Every hour, every day, the number of victims increases!

The United Nations has qualified the exactions committed against the populations as war crimes and crimes against humanity, and has referred to the International criminal Court.

Humanitarian action is intentionally being hindered by the government of Sudan. Some NGOs have had no choice other than to suspend their programmes and leave the area. Others have been quite simply forced to leave.

Today, according to the United Nations observers, more than two and a half million refugees or displaced persons do not or no longer have access to international aid and are now exposed to death from malnutrition and disease.

This unbearable and persistent situation in Darfur creates even more instability in this region and worsens other humanitarian disasters in Chad and in the Central African Republic.

Over the last four years, ten resolutions have been voted by the United Nations without any concrete result on the government of Khartoum.

Upon leaving his position last December, Kofi Annan acknowledged that Darfur was the most serious failure the United Nations has had in recent years.

Every minute is costing the lives of more innocent people

Ladies and Gentlemen, as the European Parliament requested in its resolution dated 15th February 2007, voted unanimously, you must act now!

In line with resolution 1706 of the UN Security Council, the European states must immediately send a buffer force with a mandate to:

Furthermore, it is essential to:

It is Europe’s duty to intervene today and exercise its responsibility to protect!

Click here to sign the petition.

Pine needle fireworks
against a clear azur sky:
view from my hammock

*****

When grazing gazelles
escape the lions’ clutches,
hungry cubs must starve.

“No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different lables attached.”

–Edward Sapir as quoted by Amy Tan in The Opposite of Fate

It’s like this:
We’re at a party with a dress code of tuxes and fancy skirts
and we’re the only ones wearing jeans and T-shirts.
Two Americans blundering through life in France,
brought here by our weakness for romance,
can’t help but gravitate towards each other.
We keep sane only by complaining to one another.

We each try to raise two Franco-American kids,
making sure they know about peanut butter and Cheez Wiz,
Although we’ve adapted well to the French art of aperitif,
commiserating about the elections brings little relief.
Despite her great talent for playing the trombone,
I have an evil desire to steal her garden gnome.

She’s my rabbit sitter. I’m her goldfish guardian.
At Thanksgiving, we find time to share all things American.
We’ll never be truly from here.
We feel like outsiders there.
She helps me take life less seriously
and makes me laugh so hard I have to pee!

I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.

-Mary Roberts Rinehart

If only I could
lick the pain clean from your wounds
like a momma cat.

*****

Nourish them with love,
understanding, laughter, warmth
and just watch them grow!

*****

nurture or nature
an eternal pendulum
between thanks and blame

Excerpt from the Code Pink Appeal to Congress:

“In the 1870s, Julia Ward Howe, appalled by the carnage of the Civil War, wrote a proclamation that gave birth to Mother’s Day. It said in part: ‘Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’ She implored women around the world to gather together in counsel to seek ways to disarm.

“This Mother’s Day, we ask you, we beseech you, we implore you for the sake of our children, to stop funding further bloodshed and bring our troops home in 2007. Please heed the cries of women over the centuries who long for the embrace of loved ones sent off to battle. Commit to us that you will bring our soldiers home by the holidays.”