Pursuit for Equality in a Democracy

  I heard the news today.     Oh boy, it hit me like a punch to my chest.    Is my son safe at school?   What about my daughter working in the hospital?   Another day, one of too many to count.   Where I just want to hug my children.   Hold them tight. Doesn’t matter if it’s the one who is eleven to the one who just turned thirty.    I can’t even begin to comprehend what their parents are thinking nor how they are feeling.    The emptiness. Being engulfed in so much pain and sadness that their world is a blur.    And their hearts; must be as heavy as a bolder.    First day excitement & jitters for the children of Annunciation.    A beautiful Minneapolis Day. Until…   One angel started to cry and then another.    It’s happened again. Eight and ten   We go and pray.    We pray for their parents.   We pray for their brothers.   We pray for their sisters...

                                              Do You Hear Their Cries? By Keith Jablon   A Darkness hangs over this Land.   Do you hear their cries?   Even though the sun rises and shines brightly outside my window.    The garbage truck makes its morning troll throughout the neighborhood.   And children are grabbing their backpacks and heading to school.   Do you hear their cries?   People half a sleep with a coffee in one hand, a brief case in the other, wait for their train to arrive.     A woman sits on a city bus heading to work; daydreaming about the tropical vacation she can’t afford to take.    Do you hear their cries?   The morning news is demonstrating to their viewers how to make the perfect brisket for that night’s dinner.    And in the evening, under the hanging darkness, tens of tho...

  It’s been 48 months since you’ve been gone.   And your love for us goes on and on.      My heart still aches but it hurts less and less,   You always said, “This too shall pass.”     I try and bring your kindness and compassion,   To my children and their children with a humorous abandon.      I can still hear you playing the piano and making us all laugh.    During a Mel Brooks movie, Space Balls, I guess.      I still remember you holding me when I was ill as a child.    until I felt better and was able to go play with a smile.      So, tonight when I look up at the stars,   I’ll be sure to say, “Love you Dad. See you in my dreams.” 

  America has lost its shine, charisma, and personality. We are no longer the country that other nations are envious of. In fact, many tourists are spending their vacation dollars in other places because of the horrific fascist policies of the Trump Administration created primarily by the evil and sadistic mind of Stephen Miller.     Miller has created a cruel disappearing campaign targeting primarily the Hispanic population made possible through a decade of constant demeaning and dehumanizing rhetoric.   I lived in Sweden a quarter of a century ago and all my friends and business associates alike wanted to have conversations with me about America. They talked glowingly about the different cities and towns that they have visited when they visited the United States, the food they liked, the clubs that they danced in, etc. My Swedish friends would save their money for years just to go on a family vacation to Disney World or far off Hawaii. Now, they ask me “What has ha...