HAPPY BIRTHDAY giovanni singleton

ICHIRO WATCH

What a shock to see Ichiro going to New York.  He requested the trade - wanting to play for a contender. It will be good to see him on the big stage the next few months. Nobody saw this trade coming. Not even E-Notes.

 

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 24, 2012

The Thread of Stability A string of beads has a thread running through all the beads, keeping them together. What we need is a thread too—of sanity and stability. Because when you have a thread, even though each bead is separate, they hang together. When we have the teachings in us, stabilizing us, there’s a thread to keep our life together that prevents us from falling apart. - Sogyal Rinpoche, "The Stability of Ease"

 

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	View all problems as challenges. Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow. Don't run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence. You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate. - Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in Plain English"

Quote of the Day

If James Brown was soul brother No. 1, then Curtis Mayfield was soul brother No. 2.

  - Jerry Butler, singer

TAMPA 2012: WHEN DOES A POLITICAL CIRCUS NEED ELEPHANTS

What will happen the last week of August in Tampa? It's important all protests remain civil and non-violent at the Republican Convention. What is a peaceful protest these days?  Property damage will always turn the public against protests. What is public dissent when a march is turned into a parade? What does getting arrested actually accomplish?  When is protest simply theater without a plot? When does anarchy open the door to chaos? August is always a hot month. I hate to see a good country sweat.

THE SKY IS VERY GRAY

Mayor Gray's 2010 campaign used information of thousands of city public housing residents, sources say

The data was used to target residents in get-out-the-vote efforts in the last week of the election, the sources said. The use of such information could violate a variety of laws and regulations, according to experts.

BEYOND THE FRONTIER

Like Miles I have a tendency not to look at the old music. One wants to keep moving forward. But this evening I picked up a copy of BEYOND THE FRONTIER a 568 page anthology of African American poets that I edited around 2000. It's amazing to see the folks who are included in this book. Whew...some amazing career developments. Consider this Dream Team:

Toi Derricotte
giovanni singleton
Jabari Asim
Carl Phillips
Allison Joseph
Afaa Michael Weaver
Marilyn Nelson
Sam Cornish
A. Van Jordan
James E. Cherry
Terrance Hayes
Angela Jackson
Wanda Coleman
Tyehimba Jess
Trasi Johnson
Lisa Teasley
Cornelius Eady
Houston Baker, Jr
Kevin Simmonds
Asha Bandele
Tracie Morris
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Shara McCallum
Doreen Baingana

And there are many more important poets in this book.

In the introduction I wrote:

At the dawn of the 21st century, we must discover our true beauty. Poetry is a vehicle to transport us into forever. Beyond the frontier, beyond this world (which once enslaved us), lies a new consciousness. Poetry like prayer restores faith to the heart. It contains the healing power of love and forgiveness as words make us human. A common language will reflect the final transformation of the human spirit. This book represents a new genesis as we turn our backs on a century of history and the old civilization.

One can obtain a copy of BEYOND THE FRONTIER from Black Classic Press:

http://www.blackclassicbooks.com/servlet/Categories  

JOBS

The Foreign Service Institute has announced position openings for full-time language instructors in ten languages: Arabic, French, German, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. The closing date for applications is August 1, 2012.

If interested, you can access a full copy of the vacancy announcement on the internet by clicking:

http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/321255800

Series/Grade:  GG-1712-09/11

Title:  TRAINING INSTRUCTOR - FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Office:  FSI/SLS

Announcement:  PH-NF-12-701183

Opening:  07/18/12

Closing:  08/01/12

Number of Openings:  17

ROOT BEER ON ICE

PHOTO by Ethelbert

ZITE

Thanks to Grace I've added the ZITE app to my IPhone.
Whew...more news to news with.
You gotta love it.
Go ZITE!

In Significant Expansion, US Drug War Heads to Africa
Charlie Savage and Thom Shanker, The New York Times News Service: "In a significant expansion of the war on drugs, the United States has begun training an elite unit of counternarcotics police in Ghana and planning similar units in Nigeria and Kenya as part of an effort to combat the Latin American cartels that are increasingly using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe. The growing American involvement in Africa follows an earlier escalation of antidrug efforts in Central America, according to documents."
Read the Article

MAKING HISTORY AT THIRTY-SOMETHING

GRACE A. ALI. Photo by Ethelbert

Grace A. Ali continues to be a woman to watch.
of note magazine is her creation.

www.ofnotemagazine.org 

Quote of the Day

What does it feel like when a war begins?  When does life as you know it implode? How do you know when it is time to pack up your home and your family and leave your country? Or if you decide not to, why?

For ordinary people war starts with a jolt: one day you are busy with dentist appointments or arranging ballet lessons for your daughter, and then the curtain drops. One moment the daily rountine grinds on; A.T.M.'s work and cellphones function. Then, suddenly, everything stops.

Barricades go up. Soldiers are recruited and neighbors work to form their own defense. Ministers are assassinated and the country falls into chaos. Fathers disappear. The banks close and money and culture and life as people knew it vanishes. In Damascus, this moment has come.


- Janine di Giovanni, The New York Times, July 22, 2012

THE MYTHS WE CREATE. THE MYTHS WE WANT TO BELIEVE IN

I read this article this morning. It underscores what I've been examining the last few years...how we create narratives.

 

Don't Jump to Conclusions About the Killer - The New York Times

ALEXANDER COCKBURN 1941-2012

Politicians are far too fearful of the gun lobby to address gun violence, and, as a society, we keep getting stuck on a theoretical debate about the Second Amendment, which keeps us from taking practical measures that just might help avoid the all-too-frequent tragedies like the one in Aurora.

   - Excerpt from editorial in The New York Times, July 21, 2012

Nationals

The last 2 games have been painful to watch. The bullpen is falling apart. Tired arms or too much pressure. Relief pitchers have to say no to walks and homers. I'm afraid if this team falls out of first place they might keep falling. Can they win the next 2 games against Atlanta? That would be a blessing. Harper getting hurt today might be symbolic of what's happening to this team right now.
I feel like I should pray for rain so we can't play the evening game.

ARE YOU READING POET LORE?

 

WWW.POETLORE.COM 

 

 

"Every issue of Poet Lore is inspiring, for it shows that the little-magazine tradition has been alive and well since 1889, with the magazine's founding. (Even Walt Whitman wanted aboard.)  I appreciate the skillful editorial steering of this ship and the crew's loyalty to the cause of assuring a literary legacy. Walt would be impressed."

 

David Ray, poet and former editor of The Chicago Review, Epoch, and founding editor of New Letters and New Letters on the Air.