Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
It takes fewer than the five minute and thirty-nine second length of Track 10 on the Tortured Poets Department to understand exactly who...
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Musings
November 30, 2023
"Do what you can to show you care about people, and you will make the world a better place."
--- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter
We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."
--- Former President Jimmy Carter
September 26, 2023
"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth."
--- William Faulkner
September 11, 2023
"...a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked..."
--- Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
August 24, 2023
"If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."
--- Toni Morrison
July 31, 2023
“You see, evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction. It is ultimately negative, and therefore encompasses its downfall even at its moments of apparent triumph. No matter how grandiose, how well-planned, how apparently foolproof of an evil plan, the inherent sinfulness will by definition rebound upon its instigators. No matter how apparently successful it may seem upon the way, at the end it will wreck itself. It will founder upon the rocks of iniquity and sink headfirst to vanish without trace into the seas of oblivion.”
--- Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
July 17, 2023
"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on."
--- Thurgood Marshall, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
July 6, 2023
As summer gets into full swing, I see people in their shorts, T-shirts, tank tops, and bathing suits in search of the perfect tan. I am forced to pause and observe the irony: white people spending so much time, effort, and money to darken their skin because it has become the standard of beauty, yet they will mock, degrade, belittle, or display other racist behaviors toward people naturally blessed with melanin.
June 16, 2023
"History will not be kind to us. So you have a moral obligation, a mission and a mandate, to speak up, speak out and get in good trouble. You can do it. You must do it. Not just for yourselves but for generations yet unborn."
--- Congressman John Lewis
June 11, 2023
"Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin' every piece with love
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of."
--- Dolly Parton, "Coat of Many Colors," Coat of Many Colors (1971)
This particular verse reminds me of the Pride flag: every piece is a different color stitched togther with the love it takes to build a community strong enough to last.
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"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through"
― David Bowie, "Changes," Hunky Dory (1971)
"We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible."
― Pat Benatar, "Invincible," Seven the Hard Way (1985)
"Don't get me started on politics
Now how are we to live in a world like this?
Greedy politicians, present and past
They wouldn't know the truth if it bit 'em in the ass."
― Dolly Parton, "World on Fire," Rockstar (2023)
"To be acknowledged for who and what I am, no more, no less. Not for approval, but, the simple truth of that recognition. This has been the elemental drive of my existence, and it must be achieved, if I am to live or die with dignity."
― Andrew Martin, Bicentennial Man (1999)
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
“It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.”
--- Nelson Mandela
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
--- Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"
Cora Crawley, Lady Grantham:
Are we to be friends, then?
Lady Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess:
We are allies, my dear, which can be a good deal more effective.
--- Downtown Abbey, Series 1 Episode 1
"This is our fifth press briefing since midnight. Obviously, there's one story that's going to be dominating news around the world for the next few days, and it would be easy to think that President Bartlet, Joshua Lyman, and Stephanie Abbott were the only victims of a gun crime last night. They weren't.
Mark Davis and Sheila Evans of Philadelphia were killed last night. He was a biology teacher, and she was a nursing student.
Tina Bishop and Linda Larkin were killed with a gun last night. They were 12.
There were 36 homicides last night. 480 sexual assaults. 3,411 robberies. 3,685 aggravated assaults. All at gun point.
And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I'd only remind you that the President of the United States himself was shot last night while surrounded by the best trained armed guards in the history of the world."
--- C.J. Cregg, The West Wing, "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part 2"
"You shouldn't have had to give up your voice to be heard."
--- King Triton, The Little Mermaid (2023)
"Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I'm one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the 'guilty,' but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself. And when finally they set the structure to burn the books, using the firemen, I grunted a few times and subsided, for there were no others grunting or yelling with me, by then. Now, it's too late."
--- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1951)
Credit: Business Insider via Joshua Roberts/Reuters
I am Citizen Elle, and this is...
Verity
Verity was conceived during one of the most frightening, tumultous, and bewildering times of my life. It began as a personal diary to express my thoughts and process my emotions regarding the incredible amount of bullshit I bore witness to as America, collectively, bungled its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was forced to truly look itself in the mirror to begin confronting its nasty, ugly, brutal history of racism after the murder of George Perry Floyd, Jr. on May 25, 2020.
After a few entries, I soon realized my writings were more than a theraputic outlet: they would be a record of what was really happening in my town, my county, the state, and the nation as the "leaders" at the time were downplaying the severity of our situation and/or outright lying and spreading dangerous disinformation that has proven fatal for many people. Recognizing the historical significance of the moment, I made a promise to myself to write the truth to ensure it wasn't sanitzed, diluted, or whitewashed.
Merriam Webster defines verity as "the quality or state of being true or real." This is my committment as a journalist and a witness to these events.
Inspiration
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