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A flowing sensation on my mind waves a rising
To poems, awake to hear human heart beating,
Making it out of being, trance, agony and bliss
The shape of heart rejoices, shudders to verses
In perfect harmony between the poem adorned
By me in aspiration and the soul who reads
Perhaps some are poets, not we all but
To the heart paramours take it by surprise
Odes chosen to the meeting of minds fair in love
Known to protesters a language of slogan to rights
Or a lullaby calms a baby to rest and quiet
Merging with many minds, poetry stays alive.
To poems, awake to hear human heart beating,
Making it out of being, trance, agony and bliss
The shape of heart rejoices, shudders to verses
In perfect harmony between the poem adorned
By me in aspiration and the soul who reads
Perhaps some are poets, not we all but
To the heart paramours take it by surprise
Odes chosen to the meeting of minds fair in love
Known to protesters a language of slogan to rights
Or a lullaby calms a baby to rest and quiet
Merging with many minds, poetry stays alive.
In late August 2013, President Obama announced a review panel on the intelligence community in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations. The panel, which the president described as composed of outsiders, was actually composed of intelligence community and Obama administration insiders and delivered the whitewash that many observers expected.
The panel, according to panel member Cass Sunstein, was “not thinking in constitutional terms,” and gave the president cosmetic recommendations that would do little to materially reduce the fine scrutiny that the NSA has placed the entire world under. According to a New York Times analysis of the president's speech, and the Free Press's examination of the accompanying presidential policy directive, President Obama seems to be resolved to apply a much thinner veneer of cosmetics than even his cherry-picked panel advised.
The panel, according to panel member Cass Sunstein, was “not thinking in constitutional terms,” and gave the president cosmetic recommendations that would do little to materially reduce the fine scrutiny that the NSA has placed the entire world under. According to a New York Times analysis of the president's speech, and the Free Press's examination of the accompanying presidential policy directive, President Obama seems to be resolved to apply a much thinner veneer of cosmetics than even his cherry-picked panel advised.
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When he was growing up in Bexley, the décor to Ross Friedman’s room had a central theme. His walls and shelves were covered with Columbus Crew posters and memorabilia.
Eighteen years after he first started following the team, Friedman also wants his business attire to reflect the Columbus soccer team. The defender became the seventh “Homegrown” player on the Crew’s current roster when he signed on with the team on Jan. 8, his 22nd birthday.
“It’s been a lifelong goal for me to not only play professional soccer but to play for the Crew,” says Friedman, who was a member of the Crew Juniors Super-20 squad that captured the 2011 national title. “I’ve been following this team all my life. My dad (Tod) got tickets through his work so I saw almost all of the home games. I knew every single player on the field.
“I’m so grateful they invested in me when I was in high school with the (Crew Soccer) Academy system (a youth development program sponsored by the Crew).
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Columbus is a great place to be a horror movie fan. Between Gateway Film Center’s weekly Nightmares on High Street series, the Drexel’s annual Shock Around The Clock 24-hour horror movie marathon and Nite Owl Theater’s annual Halloween showing of cult film Trick or Treat, the area’s independent theaters offer up some pretty great chances to get your scare on.
Now Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse is adding one more to the mix: Fright Club! Once a month, the theater and their friends from the movie blog MaddWolf.com will be spotlighting a horror movie that fell through the cracks of public attention but is nonetheless worth a watch. The series kicks off on Friday, January 24th with the movie Severance. In this 2006 British horror-comedy, a group of sales reps on a corporate team-building retreat are hunted down by a group of serial killers.
In February (the 21st to be precise) Fright Club will be feature 2008’s Eden Lake starring everyone’s second-favorite Magneto Michael Fassbender.
Since its founding six years ago, J Street has emerged as a major Jewish organization under the banner “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace.” By now J Street is able to be a partial counterweight to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The contrast between the two U.S. groups is sometimes stark. J Street applauds diplomacy with Iran, while AIPAC works to undermine it. J Street encourages U.S. support for “the peace process” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, while AIPAC opposes any meaningful Israeli concessions. In the pressure cooker of Washington politics, J Street’s emergence has been mostly positive. But what does its motto “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” really mean?
Every night gunshots lullaby me to sleep
In ruins of abandoned buildings
the broken glass is
where we bottle up all our
broken dreams. . . .
Hold the dream with me, as it breaks loose from Jameale Pickett’s poem. Something beyond the insane dance of crime and punishment is happening, at least this year, this moment, in Chicago’s high schools. Young people are getting a chance to excel and become themselves, as more and more schools find and embrace common sense, also known as restorative justice.
The funding is fragile, precarious, but some schools in struggling communities are figuring out how to break the school-to-prison pipeline, even though the system as a whole remains wrapped up in suspensions, expulsions, zero tolerance and racism.
“The Obama administration on Wednesday urged school officials to abandon unnecessarily harsh suspension and expulsion practices that appear to target black students,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported recently.
For about two weeks this January, poverty was recognized as a serious problem in this amazingly rich but unequal country, as we observed the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty.
In his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson said:
Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope -- some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.
When you look at the full text of the speech, it is clear that LBJ believed that poverty could be eradicated, not just reduced. In fact, he states unequivocally that “we shall not rest until this war is won.” State of the Union addresses are obviously political statements, and I am sure that many – especially those on the Right – will challenge LBJ’s sincerity. What else
In his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson said:
Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope -- some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.
When you look at the full text of the speech, it is clear that LBJ believed that poverty could be eradicated, not just reduced. In fact, he states unequivocally that “we shall not rest until this war is won.” State of the Union addresses are obviously political statements, and I am sure that many – especially those on the Right – will challenge LBJ’s sincerity. What else
As of the 21st, Citizens United has reached it's "fruit & flowers"
anniversary - four years of degrading our electoral process, one attack
ad at a time.
Super PACs and special interest groups spend millions of dollars to influence elections. We often don't know where they get the money. We don't know what their true motivation is. Yet they spend enough cash to put their agenda front and center, while middle class families in Ohio - the ones that don't have a million dollars to spend on campaigns - get drowned out.
I bet Karl Rove and the Koch brothers are celebrating today. You could have bought a sports team -- or maybe a small tropical island - with the amount of money their affiliated groups spent on the last election. BUT WE’RE GOING TO USE TODAY TO REAFFIRM OUR COMMITMENT TO STAND AGAINST CITIZENS UNITED.
On this anniversary, I'm teaming up with some of my colleagues to gather 400,000 signatures on our petition to end the effects of Citizens United. JOIN US - SIGN THE PETITION RIGHT NOW.
Super PACs and special interest groups spend millions of dollars to influence elections. We often don't know where they get the money. We don't know what their true motivation is. Yet they spend enough cash to put their agenda front and center, while middle class families in Ohio - the ones that don't have a million dollars to spend on campaigns - get drowned out.
I bet Karl Rove and the Koch brothers are celebrating today. You could have bought a sports team -- or maybe a small tropical island - with the amount of money their affiliated groups spent on the last election. BUT WE’RE GOING TO USE TODAY TO REAFFIRM OUR COMMITMENT TO STAND AGAINST CITIZENS UNITED.
On this anniversary, I'm teaming up with some of my colleagues to gather 400,000 signatures on our petition to end the effects of Citizens United. JOIN US - SIGN THE PETITION RIGHT NOW.
With the official disinvitation of Iran from Geneva II, the peace conference regarding Syria set to begin this week, proceedings can go forward uninterrupted. Considered a hindrance to the peace process, the UN withdrew Iran’s invitation because Iran refused to agree to Bashar Assad’s removal as an ultimate precondition (specifically including a “transitional” power to supplant Assad until a new government is established.) As the Syrian regime’s largest proxy in the war effort Iran could be expected to maintain this hard line position. Those involved in the Geneva II negotiations figured, then, that Iran’s presence would symbolize anything but peace in Syria.
But, while the UN is issuing loyalty tests to major players involved in the Syrian crisis, perhaps the United States should look inward on its role in the conflict. After all, if Iran can be excused from Geneva II for failing to desire Assad’s exit from power then why is the U.S. going in the first place? Traveling through the recent history of America’s entanglement in Syria can be tricky and confusing, but episodes such as the Iranian peace conference exit add to the journey’s salience.
But, while the UN is issuing loyalty tests to major players involved in the Syrian crisis, perhaps the United States should look inward on its role in the conflict. After all, if Iran can be excused from Geneva II for failing to desire Assad’s exit from power then why is the U.S. going in the first place? Traveling through the recent history of America’s entanglement in Syria can be tricky and confusing, but episodes such as the Iranian peace conference exit add to the journey’s salience.
As I went from event to event Monday celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, I was struck by both the tribute and the distortion.
The tribute is remarkable. Martin Luther King held no public office. He amassed no great fortune. He led no victorious armies. He was arrested, harassed by the FBI, denounced and defiled. Yet today, we devote a holiday to his birth. Schoolchildren study his life and learn of his “dream.” No matter how much the culture seeks to domesticate him, the lessons are inescapable.
Standing up for justice is honorable. Racism is unacceptable. Nonviolence — challenging unjust laws and practices with nonviolent protest — is honorable. It is a testament to a confident country that we would so honor Dr. King.
But the distortion is real also. Martin Luther King grew revered once he was martyred, but he was the center of controversy when he was alive. Gallup polling showed that he grew more unpopular over the course of the 1960s. By 1968, a Harris poll showed that three-fourths of Americans and 55 percent of African Americans had negative views about him.
The tribute is remarkable. Martin Luther King held no public office. He amassed no great fortune. He led no victorious armies. He was arrested, harassed by the FBI, denounced and defiled. Yet today, we devote a holiday to his birth. Schoolchildren study his life and learn of his “dream.” No matter how much the culture seeks to domesticate him, the lessons are inescapable.
Standing up for justice is honorable. Racism is unacceptable. Nonviolence — challenging unjust laws and practices with nonviolent protest — is honorable. It is a testament to a confident country that we would so honor Dr. King.
But the distortion is real also. Martin Luther King grew revered once he was martyred, but he was the center of controversy when he was alive. Gallup polling showed that he grew more unpopular over the course of the 1960s. By 1968, a Harris poll showed that three-fourths of Americans and 55 percent of African Americans had negative views about him.