Pebbles with poppies painted on are seen on the beach of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer on June 5, 2009 during a ceremony in memory of Canadian troops which landed in 1944 at the Nan Red point on Saint-Aubin beach. Each poppy painted by students represents a soldier killed here during World War II. Preparations are underway for the upcoming D-Day celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 allied landings in France, then occupied by Nazi Germany.(DANIAU/AFP/Getty Images) (from denverpost.com)
Trail of the tide pool soldier
by Mike Marcellino
Once a man marched on the beach
at the last glow of day,
each and every day.
They called him the tide pool soldier,
for short.
As he marched, he cast his eyes
upon the sand,
reading colors
in the tide pool canyons.
Coppers,
gold, grey, cream,
black and silver reds.
The winding trail carried far off seas,
little ripples, tiny swells,
along these shores for many a mile,
as far as the eye can see.
Slight beach canyons on the ground
reminded him
of some old Irish glenns he'd seen,
in fall.
On and on he marched, but not till dawn.
He wore no steel pot, no bearskin hat,
no jungle, no desert fatigues.
"One two three four
sound off, "
he whispered to himself, somewhat bitterly.
"The streets of heaven are paved with gold.
Sound off."
On and on he marched, but not till dawn.
"Do people ever catch any big fish here,"
he asked a fisherboy.
"Yes, we caught an eight pound red fish,"
his dad said proudly.
"Are they good eating?" the hungry soldier asked.
Then a yellow lab
came into the conversation,
suddenly.
But Matt heard his master's call
and ran away from it all.
The father smiled,
and looked back out to the sea.
The tide pool soldier
skirted a dribble castle,
it was too well fortified;
he knew the tide would take it
anyway.
On and on he marched, but not till dawn.
He stepped out gingerly,
his automatic reflex
designed to protecting some empire.
But was always careful
not to get into a real
goose step
invented by the first Leopold
a prince
of the 18th Century.
It was to keep the troops in line.
They tried it once on him.
It didn't work;
He was a soldier for liberty.
Billowing clouds, with a tint of
rainy grey
blocked the sunset,
marring a perfect day.
On and on he marched, but not till dawn,
noting all he encountered -
a blond boy tinkering
on his tide pool journey,
his mother pushing a carriage
of a sleeping dark skinned baby.
"Have you ever seen a tide pool trail like this,
going on as far as the eye can see?" he asked.
"No, I've never seen this before," the mother said.
On and on he marched, but not till dawn,
about facing,
just in time
to see
a yellow chartreuse
neon surfer
setting out to sea.
Trail of the tide pool soldier by Mike Marcellino, copyright 2012
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band perform "Born in the USA" live in Paris during their two-year Born in the USA World Tour
"I wrote this song about the Vietnam war, tonight we sing it as a prayer for peace" - Bruce Springsteen speaking in Catalan live in Barcelona 2003
"Born in the USA" acoustic, from Spain
Born in the USA postscript
by Mike Marcellino
I wrote the following column on The Fourth of July 2012, and decided to explain point blank what the song "Born in the USA" is all about from the perspective of a combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
Today, I just discovered in his own words what the song means to Springsteen, at least now.
I agree with his dedication in Barcelona of "Born in the USA" as a prayer for peace. Amen, Bruce.
People debate over whether Bruce Springsteen's song "Born in the USA" is unpatriotic. Well, they then they either know nothing or are without understanding of the Vietnam War and the high price paid by 3 million American troops who served in country, the 58,282 who died, 303,644 wounded and the 1,672 still missing in action. When troops came home from the battlefields they weren't given any transition assistance, weren't asked a single meaningful question even in hospitals. Instead we were blamed for the war, called "baby killers," treated with disdain and even spit upon. Many who served had a rough life to begin with. Many opposed the war. Many stayed in college to avoid the draft (Bill Clinton), joined the National Guard (George Walker Bush), many got marred and had kids, some fled to Canada and elsewhere. I served a combat correspondent and photojournalist in the U.S. Army and traveled through much of South Vietnam and even Cambodia. I couldn't be prouder of those I served with and looked out for me (since I carried cameras and notebooks instead of my M-14). They were the best! They defined courage. So don't ever tell me that our song "Born in the USA" is unpatriotic. It doesn't make any difference if your like the song or not, or what your politics are. Given our sacrifices in American longest war (10 years). I ask, how patriotic can you get? We are "brothers in arms." And, that song by the British rock band Dire Straits is probably our most cherished anthem, along with "Fortunate Son" by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" recorded by British rock band The Animals. "Born in the USA" is a song about my brothers in arms.
Mark Knopfler performing one of the best verions ever of “Brothers in Arms” during “Music for Montserrat,” live from Royal Albert Hall, London – 15 September 1997
Song of liberty, pain, war and peace: Born in the USA
by Mike Marcellino
The 1984 album Born in the USA was #1 on the charts in the United States and in other countries throughout the world, except for France and Italy where it was #2 and Japan #6. Considering the language differences that's amazing.
I wrote this piece after finding debates on YouTube by people over whether "Born in the USA" is a patriotic song or not.
Listening to the bursts of fireworks outside my window, (always makes me a bit jumpy, as they sound much mortar, rocket or bombs) I think of the Fourth of July and I think of Bruce Springsteen's title song Born in the USA.
If you've struggled in your life trying to make ends meet, or served in the U. S. armed forces sticking your neck out or getting wounded you understand the song. If you're the family of a loved one who didn't come home you understand. Now some folks may not like Born in the USA, the song, but they understand it.
Americans have courage and the determination to overcome. We've proven that for more than 236 years.
The YouTube comments debate misses the point, entirely. Patriotism is having opinions and standing behind them, even when they are different than the majority or oppose the government or its decisions. That's liberty. That's what our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and guardsmen have fought to create and preserve.
What real Americans agree on and believe in is making our country a better nation with liberty and justice for all. Americans know their country makes mistakes, is terribly wrong at times, but they know we must overcome and endure.
Our troops don't make wars; not right ones or wrong ones; but our troops are the best in the world and have lost very few battles, including the Vietnam War.
Our elected officials, the president and Congress makes wars; but men and women in the armed forces answer our nation's call; if we hadn't many of us would not be here; or all of us might be here without our liberty.
From all over the world, people continue to seek refuge from oppression in the United States. People from all over the world continue to immigrate to America, many wait and many try anything to get here and stay.
The reason is liberty, though our nation remains imperfect.
My comrades and I who served on the battlefields understand what Born in the USA means, whether we like the song or not.
Born in the USA
by Bruce Springsteen
Born down in a dead man's town The first kick I took was when I hit the ground You end up like a dog that's been beat too much Until you spend half your life just covering up Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A. Got in a little hometown jam So they put a rifle in my hand Sent me off to a foreign land To go and kill the yellow man Born in the U.S.A. . . . Come back home to the refinery Hiring man said, "Son if it was up to me" Went down to see my V.A. man He said, "Son, don't you understand" I had a brother at Khe Sahn Fighting off the Viet Cong They're still there, he's all gone He had a woman he loved in Saigon I got a picture of him in her arms now Down in the shadow of the penitentiary Out by the gas fires of the refinery I'm ten years burning down the road Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A., I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.
Tropical storm Debby meanders, daily paper's death slams recovery in New Orleans
by Mike Marcellino
As Tropical Storm Debby slashes the Florida Gulf Coast, unsure of just which direction to go, east or west back toward New Orleans, it brings back memories of Hurricane Katrina.
The latest forecast, as of 5:21 pm, EDT, Sunday, has Debby "meandering" in the northeast Gulf of Mexico for the next 3-4 days.
But hold on as the forecast keeps changing. Two hours earlier the National Hurricane center had the tropical storm with winds up to 60 knots headed for the coast of Louisiana.
Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive natural disaster in United States history. From conception over the Bahamas on August 23 to August, 29 2005, the killer storm caused $96 billion in damage, wrecked 300,000 homes and took the lives of 1,883 people, including 1,464 in Louisiana.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Strong winds and heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby reached the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday as the storm meandered on an uncertain track toward the Louisiana coast with 60 mph winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Service said.
Debby, the first named storm of 2012 to enter the Gulf of Mexico, was centered about 200 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving slowly northeast at around 5 mph at 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT). The storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Tuesday night, the Miami-based center said.
The NHC predicted that Debby will turn west and come ashore on the eastern Louisiana coast early Thursday as a weak Category 1 hurricane. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, citing possible inland flooding in some coastal parishes.
Hurricanes of humanity. Weathermen called the wind Katrina. Her blow, overwhelming waves covered New Orleans, leaving in her wake a city never the same. She left them Cajuns reeling - mumbling 'bout their old homes, dying for MEMA cottages out of reach, south of highway 90. “Sold ‘em to contractors. We’re building casinos for the poor working families without homes.”
Hurricanes of humanity. Brass of Army sergeants homeless in uniform swept from the streets, no need for assessment.
Giv’em an offer they can’t afford - habitat for five hundred dollars a month plus flood insurance. Churches turned some gold to straw, parish people say. Wonderin ‘bout their government before, during an after the nation’s greatest disaster when a category 5 hit the Gulf Coast on that August day 2005.
Hurricanes of humanity. Homes not jails, food not bombs. Five hundred city kitchens cross country, twenty two to thirty two percent
of our kids going to school homeless, Arizona to Detroit.
Hurricanes of humanity. Subjects of FEMA, New Orleans to Brooklyn.
Armies on the street to college. What went wrong? they ask. Not the people? they say. Must of been the leaders, some say.
Hurricanes of humanity. Bayou grits, southern accents let’s see
before, during and after Katrina. Try disability. Hope a leg’s missing, never mind. Speakers in the woods - tents of seven hundred survivors of the bitter winter 2009.
Hurricanes of humanity. Like Dorothy upside down - Hope for a soft landing on a bed of change. Deportees from a 20 megaton daydream. Two gallons left. Lost out on fifty fifty - miles, dollars away
from New Orleans and Black Bay.
Copyright Hurricanes of humanity by Mike Marcellino 2009.
Death of daily paper rips New
Orleans recovery
And, New Orleans is still reeling, as folks await the death
of their daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune.
New Orleans will become the largest city in America without a daily
newspaper when it begins publishing only three days a week this fall.
Advance Publications, owned by the wealthy Newhouse family,
strategy is for readers to get their news from the paper's Internet
version. Trouble is 39% of New Orleans
residents don't have access to the Internet. Founded in 1837, The
Times-Picayune was named after a Spanish coin worth, at the time, 6 cents. There's a certain irony in the name
"Advance Publications." In
other words, advance and make more money no matter the cost to humanity, in
this case the people of New Orleans and the newspaper's employees.
Writers William Faulkner and O'Henry worked at The
Times-Picayune, a paper that's won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for coverage of
Hurricane Katrina.
How well the three-day a week Times-Picayune serves New Orleans remains to be seen, but one thing for sure is the Newhouse family will continue to pile up the dough. The Newhouse family's wealth hasn't suffered along with the fall of Times-Picayune and newspapers across the country. The family fortune has climbed from a whopping $8 billion in 1988 (Fortune magazine) to $12.5 billion in 2011 (Forbes magazine).
Look out Cleveland!
The family, through Advanced Publicans, also owns The
Cleveland Plain Dealer and Sun Newspapers, once the largest paid weekly
newspaper chain the the country. The
Newhouse family is well known for its anti-union and union-busting tactics, at
least in Cleveland where I worked for a decade as a two-time national award
winning reporter with Sun Newspapers.
Here's an excerpt from the McClatchy News Service story on
the death of the daily paper in New Orleans.
It captures the impact on the recovery of New Orleans and the health and
well being of the city and its citizens:
Martha Kegel, who leads a consortium of nonprofit agencies that fight homelessness in New Orleans, said it was “infuriating” to watch what was happening.
“The paper has its faults, but has been absolutely essential to the city’s recovery,” she said. “If ever a city needed a daily newspaper it is New Orleans.”Clearly, the Newhouses could care less what happens to New Orleans."
The rest of the McClatchy News Service story on the death of the daily Times-Picayune -
Split Pea/ce rips poetry, electric guitar at legendary Mac's Backs on Coventry
This is a rare, maybe the only known video recording of poet Mike Marcellino and guitarist Abe Olvido performing their lyrical poetry music. Thanks to fellow poet and friend John Burroughs for being at the show and recording this video.
This show with Marcellino and multi-media artist Olvido as the band, Split Pea/ce, was recorded at the legendary Mac's Backs Bookstore on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on October 8, 2008. That was the year Mike started his musical poetry adventures after showing Abe one of his poems earlier that year. He's not sure which one started it all.
In this video Split Pea/ce performs several of Mike's early songs: been down ta Las Cruces, Asterisks after innocence, Full moon Baltimore and West of the Pecos.
In case you're not familiar, Coventry Village in Cleveland is a miniature Midwest version of Greenwich Village in New York City or Haight Ashbury in San Francisco - places where the Sixties still survives in spots. Also, in case you wonder, looking at this rare video, Abe rarely faced the audience while creating his music.
Mike now knows why he left the snows of Cleveland for the surf of St. Augustine as he looks rather peaked at the Mac's Backs show. His hair and beard are mostly blond now bleached by the tropical sun, salt spray and lemon juice.
Split Pea/ce performed many times in Cleveland in 2008 and 2009 from the East
Side to the West Side and South.
The band's home base was the legendary Barking Spider Tavern on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, just down the road from Algebra Tea House on the old red brick Murray Hill Road in Little Italy where Mike and Abe met.
Mike reads his poetry songs at International Human Rights
Day in Cleveland as renowned reggae musician Carlos Jones jumps off stage. (Photo by The Plain Dealer)
Some of the classic performances of Split Pea/ce included
The Battle of the Bands at Peabody's where the crowds of teens and twenty
somethings went wild, jumping up on stage and asking Mike to sign copies of his
rip and read lyrics on perforated rolls of computer printing paper.
Split Pea/ce performs at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland
Mike Marcellino with noted poet and musician Ray McNiece at the Barking Spider Tavern
While Mike did talk with record company scouts, Split Pea/ce
wasn't signed to a label. Another of the band's memorable shows was at Visible
Voice Books in the Tremont neighborhood, just across the Cuyahoga River from
downtown.
In September of 2009 Mike left Cleveland to bring his
lyrical poetry to the cafes, art galleries and festivals of New York City from
the Lower East Side to Greenwich Village and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Now he surfs the beaches of St. Augustine, America's oldest city. Mike performs and records with musicians
Tomas Texino in St. Augustine, Florida and Randall Leddy in New York City.
In the fall of 2010 to help promote his New York City shows,
Mike and Texino produced a 6-song CD "Notebook Writer." A few copies remain and can be had for a
price. Just comment on this bog if
you're interested in this classic album.
The Top 10 Reasons Mike Doesn't Celebrate His Birthday
10. He can't remember having a birthday party.
9. He doesn't like the song, "Happy Birthday."
8. He doesn't ever
act his age.
7. He doesn't look 39. Hey, it worked for Jack Benny. (Jack who?)
6. If he had a lot of money everyone would be celebrating his birthday.
5. It's two days after
the birthday of the United States Army.
Hooah! Enough said. (The Army,
which Mike proudly served in was born in 1775, even before the Declaration of
Independence.)
4. He tried at least
four times today, his birthday, to defy rip currents and gale force winds (47
knots) and get out to the set waves on his Custom X LTD Six bodyboard, but at
least he didn't get knocked into the pier.
This is video of surfing two days before Mike's birthday at the The Dredge, St. Augustine Beach, Florida by Surf Station. "The Dredge" name is a take-off of "The Wedge," south of the pier at Newport Beach, California, one of the best know surf spots in the world and where Mike got his feet wet bodyboarding (aka boogie boarding) in another age and timezone.
The name "The Dredge" refers to the dredging of sand from the inlet into the ocean by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (actually a contractor as I haven't seen any Army fatigues yet) to help restore the sand beach wiped away by hurricanes, tropical storms and northeasters. You can even buy a cool T-shirt with a photo of The Dredge at Surf Station.
3. Mike's an official Hindu convert (among other things). And,
Hinduism is just a way of life, not a religion about a person but “karma” or cause and effect (and boy
there's sure is a lot of that lately in the world lately, and not for the
good). And besides, he doubts the really
cool religious guys like Muhammad, Buddha and Jesus had birthday parties. So now billions of people celebrate their
birthdays.
2. He's not sure his
birth certificate is for real. Kind of
like the "birthers" thing.
The Number 1 Reason Why Mike Doesn't Celebrate His Birthday:
1. He's lost in
the rain in Juarez having a shot of tequila with Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
(Tequila:
n. an alcoholic liquor distilled from the fermented juice of the Central
American century plant Agave tequilana.)
Emiliano Zapata Salazar
(August 8, 1879 – April 10, 1919) was a leading figure in the Mexican
Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against
the president Porfirio DÃaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary
force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution.
Followers of Zapata were known as Zapatistas. He is a figure from the
Mexican Revolution era who is still revered today. - adapted from Wikipedia
A peasant since childhood, he gained insight
into the severe difficulties of the countryside.-Wikipedia
Viva Zapata! is a 1952
fictional-biographical film directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written
by John Steinbeck. Anthony Quinn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations included Best Actor for Marlon Brando and Best Screenplay for Steinbeck.
Viva Zapata! may be my favorite film.
*Thanks to my very smart friend, Paula Osborn of California, for coming up with the snappy "unBirthday" description.
I knew something was wrong after the 1960s and 1970s when many Americans were living the dream and taking action to bring on civil rights and stopping America's longest war the Vietnam War people were living.
What happened? How did the American dream die in three decades? Well, now you and I can find out in the new book The Price of Inequality by Nobel prize sinning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz. Here's an article from Vanity Fair magazine to give you a test of Stiglitz' findings. This should help us figure out how to clear the decks, change direction and bring back The American Dream."
Well, at least this growing inequality in American may put the lid on the desire of people to immigrate to the United States. We are no longer the land of opportunity for the poor, working and middle classes. While many conservatives in American may not know the dream is dead, or care, as long as they get richer the rest of the world surely knows of our downfall.
Consider the Walton family: the six heirs to the Walmart empire possess a
combined wealth of some $90 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth
of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society. - Stiglitz in Vanity Fair.
The 1 Percent’s Problem
Why
won’t America’s 1 percent—such as the six Walmart heirs, whose wealth
equals that of the entire bottom 30 percent—be a bit more . . . selfish?
As the widening financial divide cripples the U.S. economy, even those
at the top will pay a steep price.
Let’s start by laying down the baseline
premise: inequality in America has been widening for decades. We’re all
aware of the fact. Yes, there are some on the right who deny this
reality, but serious analysts across the political spectrum take it for
granted. I won’t run through all the evidence here, except to say that
the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is vast when looked at
in terms of annual income, and even vaster when looked at in terms of
wealth—that is, in terms of accumulated capital and other assets.
Consider the Walton family: the six heirs to the Walmart empire possess a
combined wealth of some $90 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth
of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society. (Many at the bottom
have zero or negative net worth, especially after the housing debacle.)
Warren Buffett put the matter correctly when he said, “There’s been
class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won.”
So,
no: there’s little debate over the basic fact of widening inequality.
The debate is over its meaning. From the right, you sometimes hear the
argument made that inequality is basically a good thing: as the rich
increasingly benefit, so does everyone else. This argument is false:
while the rich have been growing richer, most Americans (and not just
those at the bottom) have been unable to maintain their standard of
living, let alone to keep pace. A typical full-time male worker receives
the same income today he did a third of a century ago.
From the
left, meanwhile, the widening inequality often elicits an appeal for
simple justice: why should so few have so much when so many have so
little? It’s not hard to see why, in a market-driven age where justice
itself is a commodity to be bought and sold, some would dismiss that
argument as the stuff of pious sentiment. Put sentiment aside.
There are good reasons why plutocrats should care about inequality
anyway—even if they’re thinking only about themselves. The rich do not
exist in a vacuum. They need a functioning society around them to
sustain their position. Widely unequal societies do not function
efficiently and their economies are neither stable nor sustainable. The
evidence from history and from around the modern world is unequivocal:
there comes a point when inequality spirals into economic dysfunction
for the whole society, and when it does, even the rich pay a steep
price.
Let me run through a few reasons why.
Click this link for the full story by Stiglitz in Vanity Fair:
I find this part rather startling. It captures just how upside down America is today:
Consider the Walton family: the six heirs to the Walmart empire possess a
combined wealth of some $90 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth
of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society.
(Many at the bottom
have zero or negative net worth, especially after the housing debacle.)
Warren Buffett put the matter correctly when he said, “There’s been
class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won.”
We are now at a turning pout in the matter of the growing inequality in America, the death of the American Dream and the stagnant economy with millions jobless with the presidential election only 16 weeks away.
So, how many people are unemployed now? The Labor Department report for May shows unemployment is tuck at 8.2% with 12.7 million Americans unemployed. But that figure is grossly misleading.
And amazingly, I found the real, man on the street data in the most unlikely place: The Website of the Republican Majority in Congress. Funny, the very people who have supported policies favoring the 1%, the rich, show that the true number of American jobless or underemployed (part timers who can't find full time jobs and people who gave up looking) is 23,533,000! The Republicans of course are promoting the terrible state of the economy and unemployment in order blame it all on President Obama. Just image if Mitt Romney wins and the Republican Party now controlled with reactionary conservatives retain control of the House and capture the White House along with the Senate.
The Republicans also note that 46.2 million Americans live in poetry, the highest poverty rate in 52 years. It's mind blowing that they have the nerve to use the data showing the death of the American Dream that they, for the most part, caused.
Here's an excerpt from the Website of the Republican Majority in Congress:
15.2%: The rate of
“underemployment” or “real unemployment,” including the unemployed,
those who want work but have stopped searching in this economy, and
those who are forced to work part-time because they cannot find
full-time employment is 15.2 percent.
12,806,000: There were 12.8 million unemployed Americans looking for work in the month of February, up by 48,000 from January.
8,119,000: The
number of Americans who worked only part-time in February because they
could not find full-time employment was 8.1 million. The number of
people working part-time for economic reasons reached 8 million for the first time in history in
January 2009 and has remained above 8 million for 37 consecutive
months.
2,608,000: The
number of people who are available to work and have looked for a job at
some point in the last year but are not counted as unemployed because
they gave up their search is now 2.6 million.
1,006,000:
The number of discouraged people who stopped looking for work because
they believed there were no jobs available is now 1 million.
23,533,000:
The total number of “underemployed” Americans is 23.5 million,
including those unemployed (12.7 million), those who are no longer
looking for work (2.8 million), and those who are working part-time
because no other work is available (8.2 million).
What I find rather frustrating is that President Obama has not and does not seem to be inclined to confront the causes of the growing inequality in America and death of the American Dream. He's made some off handed comments that Occupy Wall Street has a point, but he isn't making this a campaign issue, at least not yet.
I believe if President Obama does not confront the decline of America forcefully with a concrete plan of action to do something to reverse course and bring the dream alive, he will lose the election. And, if that happens, the great majority of Americans will suffer for it and American will become a second rate nation.
The time is now. The situation is critical. It's a turning point. You might say the choice is: a nation of opportunity versus a nation of Walmarts. It's just about that simple.
UNSMIS staff in the Syrian village of Mazraat al-Qubeir conduct a fact-finding mission. Photo: UNSMIS/David Manyua (from United Nation's website)
From the United Nation's website:
After earlier obstructions, UN observers reach reported site of massacre in Syria
8 June 2012 – After
earlier obstructions, UN observers today reached the Syrian village of
Mazraat al-Qubeir, where a massacre of civilians reportedly took place
on Wednesday.
“We found the village empty of its local inhabitants, bmp [tank] tracks
on the road, a house damaged from shelling, with a wide range of calibre
types and grenades,” said the spokesperson for the UN Supervision in
Syria (UNSMIS), Sausan Ghosheh. We found burned homes, and at least one burnt with bodies inside – there was a heavy stench of burned flesh.”
According to media reports, Syrian activists claim that Government
troops and militiamen massacred at least 78 villagers in Mazraat
al-Qubeir, located near the city of Hama, on Wednesday. The Syrian
Government has said the accusations are false.
A group of 25 UNSMIS observers reached the village mid-afternoon on Friday, after having been obstructed in earlier attempts.
Syrian Massacre: Will the killing be stopped?
The United Nations is a Wimp!
Tens of thousands of people killed in Syria and it seems no one can figure out what's going on, or do anything about it.
Who is responsible for killing thousands of civilians?
Secretary of State Clinton keeps wailing at the situation, but the United States, President Obama at the helm, does nothing.
Of course, this is nothing new, or specific to Obama.
The United States picks and chooses when to press the metal. And, yes, the president is commander in chief and he or she is responsible.
Meanwhile President Obama (and Bush before him) picks and chooses drone attacks killing terrorists or everyday people in various places around the world.
Who decides whether to stop the slaughter of innocents by the scores, hundreds, thousands or millions at any point in time and any spot on the earth?
Who decides that?
Major-General Robert, Chief Military Observer and Head of Mission of UNSMIS. Photo: UMSMIS/H. Siklawi
Woody Guthrie is not on the YouTube Top 20
by Mike Marcellino
My night began, interestingly enough with rediscovering the folk music and life of legendary songwriter and traveler Woody Guthrie. Born in 1912 in a small Oklahoma town, Okemah, which is named after an Kickapoo Indian chief. In a 1944 interview with the BBC Children's Hour, Woody recalls his childhood in Okemah, Oklahoma where he was born, growing up with "one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third whites." Woody was "washing dishes," he says, aboard a Liberty Ship in the Merchant Marines. Here's a video of the BBC show where Woody also talks about his traveling cross country during The Depression where he picked up folk songs from those folks and started writing and later recording his own songs.
It began to sink in that Woody Guthrie began the great American folk music revival that continues today, more than 80 years later. Woody Guthrie would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year, on July 14th. In this live performance for the BBC, Woody sings two traditional folk songs about trains (I love trains and I gather Woody hopped some freights in his time.) He sings "Wasbash Cannonball" and "900 Miles": :
.I've been to Okemah and it hasn't changed much but the newspaper is thriving, contrary to the national demise of news papers. It's a pretty desolate, country where violent snow and rain storms roll across the plains. Woody, is probably best known for his song "This Land Is My Land" which he wrote in 1940 partly over his love of the song "America the Beautiful." In two versus, he writes about the inequality in America among the classes of people.
"As I went walking, I saw a sign there, And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." [In another version, the sign reads "Private Property"] But on the other side, it didn't say nothing! That side was made for you and me. In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple; By the relief office, I'd seen my people. As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, Is this land made for you and me?"
Guthrie also perform at a benefit for migrant farm workers in 1940 put on by the John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers. Guthrie had gone to New York City where, according to reports, he was embraced by the leftist folk music community, where he met Pete Seeger and the two became friends. Woody performed on CBS radio in New York City, but soon he traveled west back to California where he had performed on radio shows.
Woody playin for some folks
None of Woody Guthrie's songs is among the Top 20 YouTube videos (even though it's the 100th Anniversary of his birth and he gave birth to modern American folks music). Well, that's no surprise, even Bob Dylan's top viewed video on YouTube is a far cry from the Top 20 with only 6 million views. Lady Gaga has 11 songs on the Top 20 with a total of, it's hard to fathom, 1.1 BILLION views. ("Bad Romance" has 466 million views alone. My take on "Bad Romance" is "bad song" and band video". Actually, mysteriously I have somehow lost the ability on YouTube to actually get a list of the Top 20 videos by views. I just stumbled into it pressing and clicking. Well, I did see Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" has 38 million views. Marley, of course, is a legendary reggae folk musician from Jamaica whose music and life was deeply into social causes. Marley died in 1981 at age 36.
Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley
"I'm just a Buffalo Soldier In the heart of America Stolen from Africa, brought to America Said he was fighting on arrival Fighting for survival Said he was a Buffalo Soldier Win the war for America"
"Buffalo Soldier" written by Bob Marley and Noel G. "King Sport" Williams and recorded in 1983. To Marley it was a song about the oppression against Africans brought to America as slaves. The blacks who fought in the U. S. Cavalry in the later 1800s to subdue the Indians were known as Buffalo Soldiers. Marley likened their "fight" as Buffalo Soldiers as a fight for survival and a symbol of black resistance.
In the late 1940s, Guthrie became ill. His behavior was erratic. He was first diagnosed with alcoholism and schizophrenia, but in 195s they determined he suffered from the very debilitating Huntington's disease.
In 1961, Bob Dylan traveled to New York City to perform and visit Guthrie, his idol. Dylan visited Guthrie at Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Brooklyn and the two hit it off fairly well. But, on his last visit Guthrie didn't recognize Dylan. Guthrie was confined in several mental hospitals in New York City until his death in 1967.
You may wonder by now, what does this mean, Mike?
It means that folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley are more popular than YouTube may tell us. To my knowledge, there aren't any videos of Guthrie performing, though there are some live recordings.
Still, the times me be changing again, to borrow from Dylan's popular folk song. I think the millions of people protesting against class inequalities in the United States (Occupy Wall Street) and around the world (the Arab Spring uprisings) may be in tune with Woody Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy, whether they've ever heard of him, read his words or listened to his songs.
Here's a link to listen to more Woody Guthrie songs on Smithsonian Folkways website:
(I also highly recommend the collection of Woody Guthrie unheard lyrics that Wilco and Billy Bragg recorded on albums Mermaid Avenue I and II (1998 and 2000):
One of my favorite Guthrie songs, "Pretty Boy Floyd" which was left out of his first and most popular album, "Dustbowl Ballads" recorded in 1940. Here's some great lines from Woody's song, capturing the Oklahoma band robber and the times:
"If you'll gather 'round me, children, a story I will tell 'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an Outlaw, Oklahoma knew him well."
"As through this world you travel, you'll meet some funny men/ Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."
Floyd, after outlaw John Dillinger was shot to death by lawmen, was America's Public Enemy No. 1 in 1934. While Floyd robbed banks, he was never convicted of murder though he was suspected to killing an Akron, Ohio policeman, two bootleggers and an ATF agent. On the other hand, some view Floyd as a victim of the hard times and an outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, like Jesse James, America's most famous outlaw who robbed banks and trains, certainly killed some folks but never convicted of murder either. Have a listen to "Pretty Boy Floyd" written and performed by Woody Guthrie:
To wind up this folk tale, here's a wonderful tribute to Woody Guthrie by Bob Dylan, "Song to Woody" recorded on Dylan's first album in 1962.
So much for that, as apparently Sony records has taken down the YouTube video of Dylan's original version on his first album, "Bob Dylan."
So, someone, maybe the guy that posted the video record in the first place, said he paid for the album and had a right to "broadcast it." He suggested the millions of Dylan fans boycott Sony. Not a bad idea.
But, here's an even more interesting version of "Song to Woody" by Dylan, recorded in 1970, after the Beatles broke up, accompanied by George Harrison. Here's the description by the YouTube poster on January 4, 2012:
"Columbia Studio 3, New York City, 1st May 1970. After The Beatles' break-up, on April 1970, George Harrison went to New York City where he met Bob Dylan at Columbia Studios. With other musicians (Charlie Daniels on bass guitar and backup vocals, Billy Mundi on drums and Bob Johnson on piano) they recorded some songs, many of them written by Dylan. George played guitar and sang backup vocals while Dylan sang lead vocals and played guitar."
Unfortuantely, i seems that Bob Dylan or his armies keep removing any really cool videos of him singing so i will have to find another version of "Song to Woody"! You would think that if Woody Guthrie was really Dylan's hero he share his tribute to Woody.
It was the fall of 1969 and I had a Dodge Coronet 500, light blue, or aqua, and a Hurst five speed and already dropped a clutch.
While the newspaper, The Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, the oldest newspaper in the Western Reserve, east of Cleveland, didn't assign me, I volunteered to cover the march against the Vietnam War in Washington. D. C. on Saturday, November 15, 1969. Hey, after all I had volunteered to cover the war itself for the United States Army. I had only been back from Vietnam for a little more than a year and the first six moths I drove from one corner of the country to the other in my Coronet 500 with an Indian-Chinese girl I had married in Singapore. The trunk was full. I had a lot of vinyl. I was trying to unwind and land in some town as a newspaper reporter. I'll never forget an editor of a California paper telling me he couldn't hire me because I hadn't covered politics. Yea, I just covered a war.
Now, this being a piece I am blogging, I decided music would be appropriate at this time. So, rather randomly, I'm listening to Cat Stevens' "Wild World (1970)." He's well known for his conversion to Islam to become Yusuf Islam, but the British singer songwriter was born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948. He had a Greek-Cypriot father and a Swedish mother.
So, here's "Wild World" by Yusuf Islam. Cat Stevens is back so to speak and the world goes on.
The tires on my Coronet 500 were bald and we decided to make the trip to D. C. at the last minute to do a photo feature story for the weekend magazine, "Telegraphic." We (photographer Dennis Gordon and I) ran into a blizzard on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and all I remember is endless seas of fluffy white lit by my headlights and the windshield wipers going back and forth. This wicked snowstorm reminded me of how the Huey helicopter pilots described night flying on their "Firely" missions to stop the VC from infiltrating troops and supplies into the Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. (The last of the U. S. troops pulled out in 1973 and South Vietnam fell to an invasion of the North Vietnamese army two years later.)
All I could think of was the bald tires and staying on the road winding through the Allegheny Mountains. We got into D. C. at 4 o'clock in the morning. I pulled over on the side of the road somewhere. It was pitch dark and nothing was moving. We woke up a few hours later to the banging of police billy clubs on fenders of my Coronet 500. I don't remember where we put the car, just somewhere away from the Capital.
It was crystal clear but cold, in the 30s, but by the end of he day it was bitter. The day turned out to be historic in a number of ways. An estimated 600,000 people marched and filled The Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. And, other than some teargassing of demonstrators later in the day at DuPont Circle, the day was peaceful. It was the largest march on Washington in our nation's history.
Can you imagine waiving the Taliban flag and marching on Washington today? Or, maybe a flag of peace in a neutral color would work. Those flags of a different color today may be the Arab Spring and Occupy and other such protests around the world. People want their rights and they don't want wars.
I'll never forget at the end of the day, looking at the courtyard in the Department of Justice complex filled with tanks and troops. I'll let these photos, first published on November 21, 1969 tell the rest of the story. The image of the Viet Cong flag framing the U. S. Capital building seems to tell the story of our nation's longest war.
A few weeks before the march on Washington The Beatles released "Come Together." Well, people did though it took some years but finally they ended the bloody war.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
