Delicate

A Blessing

By James Wright

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, 

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies 

Darken with kindness.

They have come gladly out of the willows 

To welcome my friend and me.

We step over the barbed wire into the pasture 

Where they have been grazing all day, alone.

They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness  

That we have come. 

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. 

There is no loneliness like theirs.  

At home once more, 

They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.  

I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms, 

For she has walked over to me  

And nuzzled my left hand.  

She is black and white, 

Her mane falls wild on her forehead, 

And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear 

That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist. 

Suddenly I realize 

That if I stepped out of my body I would break 

Into blossom.

Cool Disgust

This paragraph from Matthew Desmond's "Evicted" lingers in my mind:

One day, a friend gave Arleen a cat: a half-black, half-white thing. After Sherrena said they could keep it, Jori named him Little and began feeding him table scraps. Jori laughed when Little would spring at a loose shoelace or gulp down a ramen noodle. Jafaris would pick him up and press his nose against his ear. Both boys especially loved it when Little caught a mouse. He would drag the thing to the middle of the room and smack it around. The mouse would take different routes, trying to figure out what Little wanted. Bat! Bat! The mouse would tumble and roll with every swat. At some point, the pathetic creature would burrow under Little's arm, hiding. Little would let the mouse rest and warm itself. Then he might reach down and grab the creature with his mouth and throw it into the air and, enjoying the effect, do it again and again. Eventually the mouse would just lie there motionless, and Little would look at with with cool disgust, wondering why the creature didn't get back up.

This passage captures the story of eviction in modern America. 

A free cat, neither fully white or black. 

He is little, thus his name. 

The children's delight in his antics. 

The fact that they feed him ramen noodles. 

The fact that the entire scene--the killing of the mouse--was witnessed more than once. 

The cool disgust of the cat. 

Don't we all have an attitude of cool disgust when we go about our business and fail to see or understand the damage we inflict on others?

Situation: ________

I looked down and stepped over this folded up notecard (the kind you use to make notes for a research paper, old school style). When I turned back to investigate, I opened up the folds and found this life-hack map. So useful. Found on Park Street, Brookline. I return it to the universe here.

Small Answers

Under One Small Star

By Wislawa Szymborska

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I’m mistaken, after all.
Please, don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don’t rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table’s four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don’t pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.
Soul, don’t take offense that I’ve only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can’t be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can’t be each woman and each man.
I know I won’t be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don’t bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

Repeat

May Day

Phillis Levin

I've decided to waste my life again,

Like I used to: get drunk on

The light in the leaves, find a wall 

Against which something can happen, 

Whatever may have happened 

Long ago—let a bullet hole echoing 

The will of an executioner, a crevice 

In which a love note was hidden, 

Be a cell where a struggling tendril 

Utters a few spare syllables at dawn. 

I’ve decided to waste my life 

In a new way, to forget whoever 

Touched a hair on my head, because 

It doesn’t matter what came to pass, 

Only that it passed, because we repeat 

Ourselves, we repeat ourselves. 

I’ve decided to walk a long way 

Out of the way, to allow something 

Dreaded to waken for no good reason, 

Let it go without saying, 

Let it go as it will to the place 

It will go without saying: a wall 

Against which a body was pressed 

For no good reason, other than this.

From May Day by Phillis Levin. Copyright © 2008 by Phillis Levin.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/may-day

Transfixed

Son

by Forrest Gander

It’s not the mirror that is draped but
what remains unspoken between us.  Why 

say anything about death, how

the body comes to deploy the myriad worm

as if it were a manageable concept not
searing exquisite singularity? To serve it up like

a eulogy or a tale of my or your own
suffering. Some kind of self-abasement.

And so we continue waking to a decapitated sun and trees
continue to irk me. The heart of charity

bears its own set of genomes. You lug a bacterial swarm
in the crook of your knee, and through my guts

writhe helminth parasites. Who was ever only themselves?
At Leptis Magna, when your mother and I were young, we came across

statues of gods with their faces and feet cracked away by vandals. But
for the row of guardian Medusa heads. No one so brave to deface those.

When she spoke, when your mother spoke, even the leashed
greyhound stood transfixed. I stood transfixed.

I gave my life to strangers; I kept it from the ones I love.
Her one arterial child. It is just in you her blood runs.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/son/amp

A Spekuláns Emberei / The Blacklist

(English translation below)

Figyelő

2018.04.12 - (18,19. oldal) - [9441302]

A spekuláns emberei

NÉVSOROLVASÁS Több száz Sorosnak, illetve az általa pénzelt szervezeteknek dolgozó embert tudtunk azonosítani, miután a milliárdos egykori bizalmasa kikotyogta, mekkora lehet a magyar hálózat.

Legalább kétezer ember dolgozik Magyarországon, hogy érvényre juttassa Soros György akaratát - ismerte el egy hangfelvétel tanúsága szerint Tracie Ahern, a Soros Fund Management, azaz a spekuláns amerikai hedge fundjának, pénzügyi alapjának korábbi vezetője. A Magyar Idők által közzétett dokumentum alapján azt is mondta, erre a célra Soros már több milliárd dollárt költött. Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök a "zsoldosok" kifejezést használta.

Megpróbáltunk utánajárni, pontosan kikről van szó, így átnéztük a milliárdoshoz közvetlenül vagy akár csak közvetve kötődő, jelentősebb magyarországi szervezetekben dolgozók névsorát - már ahol egyáltalán van ilyen. A teljes feltérképezés bajosan lehetséges, ahogy azt sem lehet bizonyosan megmondani valakiről, hogy tudatában van-e annak, kinek is dolgozik, vagy éppen milyen küldetést teljesít.

Egyetemes alakok

Mindazonáltal előkelő helyen szerepelhetnek a lajstromban a CEU-n oktató tanárok, így mások mellett Balázs Péter egykori külügyminiszter, Barabási Albert László, Bokros Lajos volt pénzügyminiszter, Boytha György, Csaba László, Cole Durham, Yehuda Elkana, Allen Feldman, Patrick J. Geary,

Ernest Gellner, Herbert Gintis, Hanák Péter, Donald L. Horowitz, Julius Horvath, Karády Viktor, Kis János volt SZDSZ-alapító, Kornai János közgazdász, Klaniczay Gábor, John Doyle Klier, Will Kymlicka, Michael Miller, Anton Pelinka, Perczel István, Jacek Rostowsik volt lengyel pénzügyér, Sajó András alapító, az Emberi Jogok Európai Bíróságának a balos kormányok által delegált volt tagja, Tóth István György, Ürge-Vorsatz Diána, Várady Tibor, Enyedi Zsolt, illetve mindenekelőtt Michael Ignatieff rektor. A felügyelőbizottság tiszteletbeli elnöke maga Soros, az ügyvezető elnök pedig Leon Botstein, aki vezető tisztséget tölt be a CEU "testvéregyetemében", a Bard College-ban is. A nemzetközi testület egyetlen magyar tagja Chikán Attila közgazdász, az Orbán-kormány nagy kritikusa. Bár nem szerepel semmilyen állományban, nem lehet kihagyni Demszky Gábort, az intézmény útját főpolgármesterként egyengető volt szabaddemokratát, ahogy az oktatási miniszterként besegítő, a milliárdos érdekeit ma is képviselő Magyar Bálintot.

Akárcsak egykori párttársukat, a Magyar Helsinki Bizottság alapítóját, Kőszeg Ferencet. Ez a szervezet az egyik "ékköve" a hazai hálózatnak, jelenleg Pardavi Márta és Kádár András Kristóf társelnök vezeti. Munkatársaik Alföldi András, Bakonyi Anikó, Barcza-Szabó Zita, Gál Anikó, Gruąa Matevľič, Fazekas Tamás, Győző Gábor, Gyulai Gábor, Ibos Anna, Iványi Borbála, Kirs Eszter, Kovács Petra Helga, Léderer András, Moldova Zsófia, Németh Dóra, Novoszádek Nóra, Pohárnok Barbara, Aiski Ryokas, Seregély Ágnes, Simai Anna, Somogyvári Zoltán, Sparing Stefánia, Szegő Dóra, Szekeres Zsolt, Tarnai Dóra, Tóth Balázs, Tüske Anna, Vig Dávid, Zádori Zsolt.

Fontos szerepet tölt be a jogvédő munkában az Amnesty International, amely a terrorizmusért elítélt, a magyar rendőröket a déli határon megdobáló Ahmed H. mellett aláírásgyűjtéssel is kiállt. Elnöke Fülöp Ágnes, az elnökség tagja még Sütő Péter, Le Kim Evelin, Alexy Norbert, Jósa Bálint és Lipcsei Szilárd. Munkatársaik: Iván Júlia igazgató, Demeter Áron, Mérő Vera, Horváth Noé, Landy Annamária, Sztraka Andrea, Csákány Viktória, Jeney Orsolya.

A Társaság a Szabadságjogokért (TASZ) elnökségében Bíró Ágota, Kállai Ernő volt kisebbségi ombudsman és a CEU-n is oktató Sándor Judit szerepel. Munkatársaik: Asbóth Márton, Baltay Levente, Bartakovics Balázs, Benkő Flóra, Bognár Zoltán, Bordás Róbert, Boros Ilona, Döbrentey Dániel, Dojcsák Dalma, Fernezelyi Borbála, Gyárfás Vera, Harmat Gabriella, Hegedűs Arno, Hegyi Szabolcs, Hüttl Tivadar, Jovánovics Eszter, Kapronczay Stefánia, Kardos Tamás, Kertész Anna, Milanovich Dominika, Mráz Attila, Rubi Anna, Szabó Attila, Szabó Máté Dániel, Szegi Péter, Szeles András, Torma Judit, Tóth Anita, Várkonyi Réka, Velényi Réka, Vissy Beatrix,

Zeller Judit.

A korrupcióellenességet világszinten űző Transparency International magyarországi ügyvezető igazgatója Martin József Péter, jogi igazgatója Ligeti Miklós, működési igazgatója Papp Krisztina. Munkatársaik: Nagy Gabriella, Salgó Ella, Sebestyén Diána, Mucsi Gyula és Rechnitzer Dóra.

A balos ellenzék közös államfőjelöltje, a kormányellenes tüntetések lelkes szónoka, Majtényi László vezeti a Soros által szintén jelentős támogatással dotált Eötvös Károly Intézetet. Itt dolgozik még Somody Bernadette, Miklósi Zoltán, Köves Nóra, Lázár Domokos, Pásztor Emese és Zsugyó Virág.

Az egykor az LMP-s Szél Bernadettnek is munkát adó Menedék - Migránsokat Segítő Szervezet munkatársai: Adóba Éva, Aradi Eszter, Bálint Petra, Barcza Ildikó, Berta Judit, Bisztrai Márton, Bognár Katalin, Csizovszki Dávid, Faragó Renáta, Forgách Péter, Ftaimi Ahmed, Gajdos Bea, Gervai Gábor, Hassan Anab, Hetzer Katalin, Jávor Kata, Jenei Orsolya, Katona Noémi, Kertai Brigitta, Kiss Szilárd, Kováts András igazgató, továbbá Lakatos Zsombor, László Zsuzsa, Lovig Tímea, Marosváry Barbara, Mécs János, Medjesi Anna, Nezam Ilaha, Papp Aranka, Perák Zsuzsanna, Pisák György, Ragályi Lili, Sándor Kornél, Schuller Csaba, Szabó Krisztina, Szabóné Lippényi Dóra, Szász Ildikó, Szük Borbála, V. Szabó Júlia és Zentai Lilla - közülük a legtöbben szociális munkásként tevékenykednek.

Áttételes kötődés

A már inaktív, a magyar államot több fórumon is a szegregáció vádjával perlő Esélyt a Hátrányos Helyzetű Gyermekekért Alapítvány kisebb stábbal dolgozott, ám fontos megemlíteni vezetőit, Mohácsi Erzsébetet és Ujlaky Andrást, továbbá Kegye Adél ügyvédet, aki a hasonló portfóliójú Rosa Parks Alapítvány munkájában máig részt vállal.

Kapott pénzt Sorostól a K-Monitor oknyomozó portál is, így Léderer Sándor, Barsi Orsi, Juhász Attila, Merényi M. Miklós és Vincze Orsolya. A Nyílt Társadalom Alapítványok is segítik a Direkt36 csapatát: Pethő Andrást,

Sáling Gergőt, Szabó Andrást, Vorák Anitát, Weyer Balázst, Wirth Zsuzsannát, Zöldi Blankát, Galambos Mártont, Ellen Hume-ot, Orbán Sándort.

Szintén jutott forrás a Romaversitas Alapítványnak, amelynek egykori vezetője, Daróczi Gábor egy ideig Karácsony Gergely árnyékkormányában vállalt szerepet. Ott dolgozik ma is Dinók Henriett, Paskó Ildi, Visy Katalin és Kadét Ernő, a kuratórium tagja Bogdán Mária, a volt SZDSZ-es Horváth Aladár, Józsa Márta, Kóczé Angéla és Szőke Sándor.

Bár Gulyás Márton aktivista tagadja, hogy Soros pénzelné, akárcsak a Migration Aid-es Siewert András, valamilyen formában korábban mind élvezték a milliárdos támogatását. Nem találtuk nyomát listának, de a Nyílt Társadalom Alapítványok budapesti irodájában, mivel régiós központ, állítólag százan dolgoznak, köztük hatvan magyar. Elődjét, a Magyar Soros Alapítványt egy ideig Halmai Gábor vezette, s támogatták mások mellett György Péter esztéta törekvéseit.

*Csanády András

ENGLISH

Figyelő


4.12.2018. pp.18-19.


by Andras Csanady



People Under Speculation


CALLING OUT NAMES We were able to identify hundreds of people who are working for Soros or organizations funded by him, since a trusted source of the billionaire accidentally babbled out how big the Hungarian network can be.


At least 2.000 people work in Hungary in order to make the will of George Soros come true,
acknowledged Tracie Ahern on a recording. Ahern is former financial leader of Soros Fund Management, which is the American speculator’s hedge fund. Based on a document that was published by Magyar Idok, she also said that Soros had already spent billions of dollars for this end. Prime Minister Viktor Orban used the expression "Soros mercenaries."

We tried to investigate exactly who these people are, therefore we examined the list of employees in those main Hungarian organizations that are directly or indirectly connected to the billionaire – if there is such a list, at all. It is rather difficult to make a full list, as it also cannot be said of anyone for sure, whether they are aware who they work for, or what kind of mission they are carrying out.


University people


No matter what, CEU professors take a prominent position on the list. Among others, they are former Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Balazs, Laszlo Albert-Barabasi, former Minister of Finance Lajos Bokros, Gyorgy Boytha, Laszlo Csaba, Cole Durham, Yehuda Elkana, Allen Feldman, Patrick J. Geary, Ernest Gellner, Herbert Gintis, Peter Hanak, Donald L. Horowitz, Julius Horvath, Viktor Karady, former SZDSZ founder Janos Kis, Economist Janos Kornai, Gabor Klaniczay, John Doyle Klier, Will Kymlicka, Michael Miller, Anton Pelinka, Istvan Perczel, former Polish Minister of Finance Jacek Rostowsik, the delegate of


leftist governments to the European Court of Human Rights Andras Sajo, Gyorgy Toth Istvan, Diana Urge-Vorsatz, Tibor Varady, Zsolt Enyedi, and above all President and Rector Michael Ignatieff. The honorary chair of the Board of Trustees is Soros himself, the Chair is Leon Botstein, who holds a prominent position at Bard College, the "sister-university" of CEU. The only Hungarian member of the international board is Economist Attila Chikan, who is a big critic of the Orban government. Although he does not appear on any employee list, Gabor Demszky cannot be left out. As the liberal Mayor of the City, he was the one who evened the path of the institution. Balint Magyar cannot be left out of the list either. He used to help in as Minister of Education and he still represents the interests of the billionaire.


Founder of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and former [liberal] party member Ferenc Koszeg cannot be forgotten either. This organization is one of the "crown jewels" of the Hungarian network, currently led by Marta Pardavi and Kristof Kadar Andras co-chairs. They work together with Andras Alfoldi, Aniko Bakonyi, Zita Barcza-Szabo, Aniko Gal, Gruąa Matevic, Tamas Fazekas, Gabor Gyozo, Gabor Gyulai, Anna Ibos, Borbala Ivanyi, Eszter Kirs, Petra Helga Kovacs, Andras Lederer, Zsofia Moldova, Dora Nemeth, Nora Novoszadek, Barbara Poharnok, Aiski Ryokas, Agnes Seregely, Anna Simai, Zoltan Somogyvari, Stefania Sparing, Dora Szego, Zsolt Szekeres, Dora Tarnai, Balazs Toth, Anna Tuske Anna, David Vig, Zsolt Zadori.


Amnesty International plays a central role in the human rights campaign, which has also stood by and started a petition for Ahmed H. who was sentenced for terrorism and threw rocks at policemen at the southern border. Its president is Agnes Fulop, other members of the leadership are Peter Suto, Le Kim Evelin, Norbert Alexy, Balint Josa and Szilard Lipcsei. Staff: Director Julia Ivan, Aron Demeter, Vera Mero, Noe Horvath, Annamaria Landy, Andrea Sztraka, Viktoria Csakany, Orsolya Jeney. In the chairmanship of TASZ Agota Biro, former minority ombudsman Erno Kallai and CEU Professor Judit Sandor also appears.


Fellow workers: Marton Asboth, Levente Baltay, Balazs Bartakovics, Flora Benko, Zoltan Bognar, Robert Bordas, Ilona Boros, Daniel Dobrentey, Dalma Dojcsak, Borbala Fernezelyi, Vera Gyarfas, Gabriella Harmat, Arno Hegedus, Szabolcs Hegyi, Tivadar Huttl, Eszter Jovanovics, Stefania Kapronczay, Tamas Kardos, Anna Kertesz, Dominika Milanovich, Attila Mraz, Anna Rubi, Attila Szabo, Daniel Szabo Mate, Peter Szegi, Andras Szeles, Judit Torma, Anita Toth, Reka Varkonyi, Reka Velenyi, Beatrix Vissy, Judit Zeller.



Transparency International does anticorruption on a world-class level, its executive director is Martin Jozsef Peter, its legal director is Miklos Ligeti, the Chief Operating Officer is Krisztina Papp. Their staff is Gabriella Nagy, Ella Salgo, Diana Sebestyen, Gyula Mucsi and Dora Rechnitzer.


The opposition’s candidate for president, spirited speaker of anti-government protests, Laszlo Majtenyi leads the Karoly Eotvos Institute that receives substantial funds from Soros. Bernadette Somody, Zoltan Miklosi, Nora Koves, Domokos Lazar, Emese Pasztor and Virag Zsugyo works here.


The staff of Menedek (Hungarian Association for Migrants) that has given work for Bernadett Szel (politician of Hungarian party LMP - Politics Can Be Different) is the following: Eva Adoba, Eszter Aradi, Petra Balint, Ildiko Barcza, Judit Berta, Marton Bisztrai, Katalin Bognar, David Csizovszki, Renata Farago, Peter Forgach, Ahmed Ftaimi, Bea Gajdos, Gabor Gervai, Anab Hassan, Katalin Hetzer, Kata Javor, Orsolya Jenei, Noemi Katona, Brigitta Kertai, Szilard Kiss, Director Andras Kovats, and Zsombor Lakatos,


Zsuzsa Laszlo, Timea Lovig, Barbara Marosvary, Janos Mecs, Anna Medjesi, Ilaha Nezam, Aranka Papp, Zsuzsanna Perak, Gyorgy Pisak, Lili Ragalyi, Kornel Sandor, Csaba Schuller, Krisztina Szabo, Dora Szabone Lippenyi, Ildiko Szasz, Borbala Szuk, Julia V. Szabo and Lilla Zentai – most of them work as social workers.


Secondary Connections


The now inactive Chance for Disadvantaged Children Foundation that has accused the Hungarian Government of segregation and has sued it on different fora, worked with a smaller staff, but it’s worth mentioning its leaders, who are Erzsebet Mohacsi and Andras Ujlaky, and Adel Kegye lawyer, who continues to work for the Rosa Parks Foundation, an organization with a similar profile. K-monitor, a site doing investigative journalism also got money from Soros, its staff is Sandor Lederer, Orsi Barsi, Attila Juhasz, Miklos Merenyi M. and Orsolya Vincze. The Open Society Foundations help the team of Direkt36, that is Andras Petho, Gergo Saling, Andras Szabo, Anita Vorak, Balazs Weyer, Zsuzsanna Wirth, Blanka Zoldi, Marton Galambos, Ellen Hume and Sandor Orban.


The Romaversitas Foundation, whose former leader, Gabor Daroczi was, for some time, member of Gergely Karacsony’s shadow cabinet, also benefitted. Its current employees include Henriett Dinok, Ildi Pasko, Katalin Visy and Erno Kadet, and members of its board of trustees include Maria Bogdan, Aladar Horvath (formerly of SZDSZ), Marta Jozsa, Angela Kocze and Sandor Szoke.


Although activist Marton Gulyas denies being financed by Soros, he, as well as Andras Siewert of Migration Aid, has enjoyed the billionaire’s support in one way or another. We haven’t found a list, but the Budapest office of the Open Society Foundation as a regional center allegedly employs a hundred employees, 60 of whom are Hungarian. Its predecessor, the Hungarian Soros Foundation was led by Gabor Halmai for a while, and supported, among others, the ambitions of aesthete Peter Gyorgy.

Diversity

This is posted in the entryway to my kids' elementary school in #Brookline, MA. Diversity is a value that has to be cultivated. As we age we become conservative and seek to protect our own inner circle. This is natural. However, it is conflict with reality. That is what education does. It builds on human culture. It allows us to retain our openness, evolve, accept reality as it changes in our lifetimes. #Budapest #Hungarian #Diversity

My Revolution Lives In This Body

#eveensler
#OBR
#riseinsolidarity

Men say Thank You

Men saying hank tou to the midwife who gave birth to fathers.

This short video was made in solidarity with Agnes Gereb, the imprisoned Hungarian midwife. She advocated for the presence of fathers at births in hospitals.

Please share.

https://youtu.be/qiuvKlXkyQM

The fathers are saying, “köszönöm” (thank you).

Kisfilm az apák méltóságáról, a férfiak szüléshez való viszonyáról. Hálamondás az apás szülés lehetőségéért.

#FreeGerebAgnes #budapest #riseinsolidarity#OBR #midwife #fathers

by John Loomis

At the Lake House

Wind and the sound of wind—
across the bay a chainsaw revs
and stalls. I've come here to write,

but instead I've been thinking
about my father, who, in his last year,
after his surgery, told my mother

he wasn't sorry—that he'd cried
when the other woman left him,
that his time with her

had made him happier than anything
he'd ever done. And my mother,
who'd cooked and cleaned for him

all those years, cared for him
after his heart attack, could not
understand why he liked the other

woman more than her,
but he did. And she told me
that after he died she never went

to visit his grave—not once.
You think you know them,
these creatures robed

in your parents' skins. Well,
you don't. Any more than you know
what the pines want from the wind,

if the lake's content with this pale
smear of sunset, if the loon calls
for its mate, or for another.
 

http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/detail/659

Agnes Gereb Action

Ina May Gaskin. Her equal in Hungary is Agnes Gereb. Agnes will be imprisoned for her work. (English version of her bio & story posted on Facebook event description).

You can join this action by posting a picture of a flower with the hashtag #halaviragok to show solidarity with Agnes Gereb on January 20th. (English description on Facebook event).

https://www.facebook.com/events/1788302658138728/

#orban #womensrights #budapest #OBR

Agnes Gereb

Hungarian is the language of love. Not French. You will fall in love with a person speaking French. You learn Hungarian after you fall in love with a person when you discover their Hungarian origin. I did. And the language and the country and the man I fell in love with still leave me speechless at times. 

Today I am using my voice in solidarity with a Hungarian woman, Agnes Gereb, who was sentenced to two years in jail for charges relating to her practice as a midwife. Hungary, led by the nationalist, Viktor Orban, has passed public policy that encourages birth. For a country that knows its population (and power) are decreasing, there are seemingly only two responses: women have to give birth and refugees have to be turned away. In this country that seeks to create a culture that values family, at least procreation, it seems the ultimate irony that they simultaneously persecute a midwife. 

Yet it is far from ironic. It is cynical. It rings true for the famously pessimistic, long-suffering Hungarians. It is worse than cynical, however. It is tyrannical. It is the establishment (patriarchy, government, medicine) exercising power. It is rape. We should not limit rape to the invasion of a body. It does not do justice to the systematic abuse of power that seeks its own existence rather than serving the people. It is illiberal. Which is exactly what Orban has articulated. He seeks to create an illiberal democracy that controls its population rather than defends its citizens. 

Times up, Orban. My Hungarian friends in Budapest, where I lived with my two children for five years, see themselves as citizens first. They are outraged at Agnes’ incarceration. Their message is clear: We see Orban’s duplicity. We stand with Agnes Gereb and demand justice for her, for all of us. Hungarians need to act with their hearts, speaking the language of love, to defeat the cynicism that defines and limits them.

#midwife #Hungary #womensrights #birth #illiberal #Orban #OBR

Bitching

Hello,

I attended the Sunday 1:00 pm performance of the Wizard of Oz at the Opera House.I bought four tickets and attended with my daughter, a friend, and her daughter. The tickets were $119 and we were seated in the orchestra, row u, seats 105,106,107,108. We experienced two problems:

Handicapped seats were placed on both ends of our row. Both patrons were unable to stand once seated. This forced us to awkwardly crawl over an elderly lady to enter our seats and at intermission, even at the end of the show. Surely there must be a better solution?

Also, at intermission we went directly from our seats to the women's restroom. Nevertheless, my daughter and friend (who needed the facilities) were unable to do so in time. They missed two major musical scenes because of the long lines or lack of suitable women's restrooms. This is infuriating. After spending nearly $500 on tickets, I feel this is an unacceptable way to treat a patron. Especially a nine-year-old girl.

Many thanks for your attention,

Janet Kelley

brown girl dreaming

lessons

by Jaqueline Woodson

My mother says:

When Mama tried to teach me

To make collards and potato salad

I didn't want to learn.

She opens the box of pancake mix, adds milk

And eggs, stirs. I watch

Grateful for the food we have now--syrup waiting

In the cabinet, bananas to slice on top.

It’s Saturday morning.

Five days a week, she leaves us

To work at an office back in Brownsville.

Saturday we have her to ourselves, all day long.

Me and Kay didn't want to be inside cooking.

She stirs the lumps from the batter, pours it

Into the buttered, hissing pan.

Wanted to be with our friends

running wild through Greenville.

There was a man with a peach tree down the road.

One day Robert climbed over that fence, filled a bucket

With peaches. Wouldn't share them with any of us but

Told us where the peach tree was. And that's where we

wanted to be

sneaking peaches from that man’s tree, throwing

the rotten ones

at your uncle!

Mama wanted us to learn to cook.

Ask the boys, we said. And Mama knew that wasn't fair

Girls inside and boys going off to steal peaches!

So she let us all of us

Stay outside until suppertime.

And by then, she says, putting our breakfast on the table,

it was too late.  

Women Who Work

This woman is raising her four kids by carrying her own body weight in goods. Every. single. day. pic.twitter.com/nrUBzqJsIv

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 4, 2018

RUSSIA i see you

I just had 141 visits to my blog yesterday. All from Russia. #yikes

I Hear You

Theme for English B

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

The instructor said,

      Go home and write

      a page tonight.

      And let that page come out of you—

      Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it’s that simple?

I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.   

I went to school there, then Durham, then here   

to this college on the hill above Harlem.   

I am the only colored student in my class.   

The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,   

through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,   

Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,   

the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator   

up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me   

at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what

I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you.

hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.   

(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.   

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.   

I like a pipe for a Christmas present,

or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.

I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.   

So will my page be colored that I write?   

Being me, it will not be white.

But it will be

a part of you, instructor.

You are white—

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

That’s American.

Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.   

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that’s true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me—

although you’re older—and white—

and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.

Source: Selected Poems (Vintage Books, 1959)