Lakes Park Botanical Garden December 17, 2020

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in praise of ordinary people

What makes some work essential 

What is necessary for everyday life to continue 

Taken for granted until the pandemic arrived 

Must be recognized with honors going forward 

People who should all be held in high esteem

Who can proudly say what they do is crucial

No matter that some are paid starvation wages 

Our lives and our communities depend on them

Everyone who has a sense of community 

Caring about the well being of their neighbors 

Volunteering if they can to serve and to help 

These are good people who give of themselves 

We need to expand this sensibility of togetherness 

To have empathy for our entire class broadly speaking 

Those with jobs and those without including the homeless 

Everyone from everywhere of every persuasion 

The true revolutionary is guided by a feeling of great love

So said Che and this is the way to reach people 

Touching them by listening and speaking from the heart 

Valuing their contributions and their struggles 

Status is a twisted thing hereabouts 

Glorifying wealth got by grifters and tycoons 

Who do nothing except bring harm to the rest of us

But we reserve our high praise for ordinary people 

The many who face choices and do the right thing 

Trying to be a good person considerate of others 

Carrying a righteous anger over the injustices 

Everyone in our class has witnessed and felt

Bunche Beach December 15, 2020

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what concerns us

What concerns us as the drama plays out

Watching the transparently naked power grab

What would mean an end to the pretense of democracy 

There is no going back to polite civility 

No matter that the coup may be put on hold

Temporarily pausing the push to take over

The forces of fascism are mobilized 

Eager to continue the battle for white supremacy

With militias now uncaged and unleashed 

Emboldened by the timid liberal opposition 

Trampling whatever rules stand in their way

Armed and preparing to seize control 

There is only one way to stop them 

A general strike shutting down everything 

The majority of workers refusing to go along

Especially the essential workers walking out

Our task is to organize and be ready

To deploy the power of labor withheld 

Nothing is possible without us

Nothing is impossible with the right leadership 

The pandemic has made it quite clear 

Who is essential and who is not 

Who must work in unsafe conditions and who profits

Whose lives are sacrificed to keep commerce open 

This is a class conflict out in the open 

Pitting the demands of business owners 

Against the needs of everyone else

Revealing who is really the enemy of the people