Singing Horse’s Neighborhood

via A Whole Bunch of People*

This is a disgusting, stomach-churning situation. I'm not even going to pretend that I have something to add here, but I want to blog about it to spread some awareness.  Here's a summary from Latino Político:

There is no greater promoter of human rights and advocate for migrant families in Baja Arizona than Isabel Garcia. She was a recipient of the 2006 Premio Naciónal de Derechos Humanos, presented by the Mexican government for the first time to someone who wasn't born there, in order to get an idea of the scope of work she's done. Rather than accept the award, however, she took the opportunity to call a press conference and demand that the affluent and elite south of border do more to promote economic justice among the working classes. It was a perfect example of Isabel's work to keep the focus on the underlying roots of human migration and exploitation, rather than on herself.

Isabel is one of the major driving forces behind the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, headquartered in Tucson, and that's just when she's wearing her organizer hat. She also serves as one of Pima County's leading Legal Defenders, which has Sheriff Joe Arpaio's pink underwear in a snit since apparently the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America does not apply to those who serve in government.

You see, Sheriff Joe came to town recently to sign copies of his new book that blames all the ills of society on "illegals". Well, that type of thing isn't received the same way in Tucson as it is north of the Gila, so a protest was organized in conjunction with Sheriff Joe's appearance. A piñata created in Arpaio's likeness, wearing his trademark pink boxers, was...well, it was a piñata, so you can imagine.

A nativist Arizona shock jock, Jon Justice, as he calls himself, was outraged and offended that pro-immigrant activists would make a pinata effigy out of someone they don't agree with, and then proceed to abuse it. His words on the issue?

i dont know about you, but when i see children beating up on the likeness of a human being, and then another person like isabel garcia … picking up the head of that likeness of a person …  and then parading that around i would take that as a threat of physical violence … [Quoted by Nez]

And yet, it's so freaking funny, because after ranting about how offended he is about said piñata, and how beating up a piñata effigy of someone is a threat of physical violence to that person, he then goes and makes a piñata effigy of Isabel Garcia. There is a video. I'm not going to put it here, since other people have it. Select quotes from Justice abusing his pinata effigy on camera and on the air [again, quoted by Nez]:

[Justice in a female voice]: Ooooooh Viva la Raza….feels SOoosoosoosoo gooood …’oh Jon! You make me feel as warm as the inside of a chimichanga!’

[. . .]

[Justice in a female voice]:Ooooooh Viva la Raza….feels SOoosoosoosoo gooood

Can I take her home with me? I’m going to take her home with me! MmMmMM…[voice from camera: "Okay, you're freaking me out Jon."]

[. . .]

Oh, she’s pretty light, actually! You see when you do all that work on the border in the hot sun, you lose weight!

Is this making you sick yet?

I find it interesting that Justice's first recourse was not through physical violence to the piñata, but through sexual abuse and degradation, which is mixed with major cultural degradation. And yet I'm sure that when someone complains about it, he'll brush it off, say it was only a doll, not a real person, etc., despite the fact that he was ready to take the violence against Arpaio's effigy seriously.Well, guess what? Rape/sexual abuse is not fucking funny, it's not a joke, and it is no less violent or invasive than outright beating someone up.

* Also blogged by Nez, Brownfemipower, Ilyka, WoC PhD, Kai, and many others.

Where do you go for advice?

I think most times I like to  bounce things around in my own head during meditation, giving myself reiki, doing yoga, while running, and I try to pay attention to dreams. It's a gentle bounce where I ask questions, yield to whatever it is I may be feeling, honor it, move on and then revisit later as needed. It's a calm approach, I think. But when I need to moan, well you know who you are and I'm sorry I know at times you get an earful. And I think that can be therapeutic as well.  

in, and out.

It has long been known to me that my taste in poetry is...a little behind the times. Which is not to say that newer is better with poetry: if all our age can produce is Billy Collins, I'll hole up in the library and read Spenser, thank you. BUT -- it stands to reason that, say, every poem published in the last 150 years does not suck. If I don't understand any of it, if all of it rubs me the wrong way, the problem probably lies with me. Furthermore, if I can't read a poem that was written 50 years ago, is that really a sign that I'm a good reader of poems that were written 500 years ago? Probably not. I must become a better reader of poetry. I must train my mind to read in different ways.

I know that most students of literature freak out when coming across something like Chaucer for the first time -- but let me tell you, I'd rather do 50 pages of Chaucer than 5 pages of Ezra Pound's Cantos. So I have decided that, although I need to make my way through 20th century poetry, I want to start with poetry that has a benign presence behind it.

Lz

Meet Louis Zukofsky. (He's cute when he smiles, isn't he?) Zukofsky, otherwise known as Zuk or Z, is the unfortunate soul whom I have chosen for the purposes of clinging to his sleeve and starting me off on 20th century poetry. Good thing he's been dead since 1978 so he doesn't know that I'm doing this.

Now, when I talk about 20th century poetry, I'm talking about scary 20th century poetry. I guess I can handle the non-scary stuff on my own. Although he wrote a lot of short stuff, Zukofsky has his own big, long scary poem, to my mind, the second scariest thing to Pound's Cantos, which is "A", an 800-page poem he wrote over the course of his adult life.

The difference between Pound and Zukofsky (from my point of view, at least) is that you feel like Pound is so impatient with you. He's not a benign presence. Whether or not his personal life has any bearing on his poetry is beside the point -- when I read, I don't want to feel like Ezra Freaking Pound is behind the poem huffing and snorting down at me. Zukofsky is every bit as difficult (except for the fact that he doesn't expect you to know 30 languages -- only four or five) as far as I can tell, but he's more willing to be patient, I think. Whether or not a poet pisses you off personally does have a bearing on how you read. Milton pisses me off. T. S. Eliot pisses me off. Wordsworth pisses me off. And so on. And it shows when I read.

In addition to Z's poetry, I'm reading his prose, too. It does help after a while. Things do start to make sense. I also got a huge anthology of poetry from 1960-1990 on the recommendation of a friend. That's going to be the ultimate test, I think. I have to be patient above all else -- patient with myself, and patient with the text.

The perfect summer night supper.

Arugula tomato pasta with cream sauce

At Diesel on the South Side

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    Not sure what they say yet.The dear o'chest pain doesn't want to go away, Annie seems a lot better;

I think these should be candy apple red

New Shoes

Hm, my foot looks fat in tis picture giggle it isn't.

`
Yesterday afternoon I asked my taxi driver where he was from and he replied that if I guessed I could have a free ride.

I was not willing to make wild guesses based on appearance and an accent because this is fraught with the possibility of seriously offending someone.  So, we decided I could ask two questions to help me with one guess at the answer.

The questions could not include asking for cities in the country or for names of bordering countries.

So.......   my two questions:

Does your country play cricket?   No

What languages do you speak?   French, Arabic, English, and some Spanish.

I guessed the answer!!    It starts with M .... 

What two questions would you have asked?

(I did not get a free ride but he took a couple of dollars off!).

this is in French but I'm sure you will enjoy the beat and the cool /hippy dancing hehe