Skip to main content

Words Of Courage

When everyone points, protest
When most people laugh, declare
When people become silent, reiterate
When someone denies, claim
When trash is heaped high, assert

If backs get turned, vow
If all you find are deaf ears, repeat
If the stance becomes threatening, maintain
If they sit on a fence, stress
If you find yourself frustrated, swear


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something Bigger Than Thomas: A Native Son

There was a moment in time when I witnessed my father vulnerable. He had rented a car and parked it outside my apartment in Brooklyn. He was not feeling well and had asked to stay with me and my then boyfriend, Eric. He slept for days on end and I really don't have any recollection of talking to him while he was with us. This is important to this narrative because I have always lamented the fact that I seem to have spent relatively little time with my father. I have snapshot memories of being with him - here and there, here and there. I am a teenager and he drives me into San Francisco, hands me money while he waits in the car, and I go in and buy some shoes. There are the times we drove the few blocks necessary to get to Baskin Robbins for ice cream over on University Avenue a few blocks up from his home in Palo Alto. There were lots of family reunions but I don't have any memories of being alone with my father, having a conversation or discussing anything. He did however ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diane Tose 1942-2020

  In part, Diane’s passing marks the end of an era. The end of a time in history when the work in HIV research was experimental and run by mavericks. Diane was a ‘maverick’ in the truest sense of the word. We all were no matter the discipline we worked in. We were trailblazers. Diane was a complex woman. If you didn’t come to know her she was just a tall British woman who put the fear of God in you. She was pragmatic, demanding, and proudly British, even though she confided in me that she felt much more American than British. Diane liked things just so. An inch either way would be enough for her to voice a strong opinion. Opinionated women can often be alarming, but in Diane I found a heroine. I admired and looked up to Diane. She was no-nonsense. I can remember her calling patients into her office for pelvic examinations with a loudly overheard: Let’s have a look-see, or a get those feet up in the stirrups. I am sure that had she been a man she’d have been reported into oblivion, ...
11 comments
Read more

Mnemonics For Antiquity: Part Two

A boy can learn a lot from a dog:  obedience, loyalty and the  importance of turning around  three times before lying down --Robert Benchley The bottom line in a Christian life is obedience And most people don't even like the word --Charles Stanley Obedience is detachment from the self.  This is the most radical detachment of all.  But what is the self? The self is the principle of reason  and responsibility in us, it is what makes us men --Bede Griffiths In part one of this essay I explored a theme which runs through the apocalyptic film genre, which often parallels the Old Testament. We looked at Greek mythology as a precursor to the Old Testament, canons in literature and cycles which are not always seen in a lifetime. I also explored what it means to be human. What I have begun to notice in the Old Testament is how much of it parallels the societies we have built for ourselves, going along with our faith, never no...
Post a Comment
Read more