A Totally Appropriate Move That Strikes Me As A BOSS MOVE FROM A WISE CAREER WOMAN
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/rachel-maddow-msnbc-hiatus.html
Rachel Maddow, the top-rated anchor on MSNBC and one of the most influential figures in liberal media, is set to take a hiatus from her nightly cable program.
Her break is expected to last until April, although a return date has not been specified, according to two people at the network with knowledge of her plans, requesting anonymity to describe private discussions. She is expected to begin her leave after Thursday’s broadcast.
“I am going to take a little bit of time off from this show,” Ms. Maddow told viewers at the start of her Monday night show. “I’m nervous about all this. It’s a change in my life. But it’s all for the good.”
It was that third from the last sentence that caught my eye. I ask myself, how could one so wise, poised, articulate, and demonstrably passionate about producing quality content across multiple platforms be nervous at all about a decision she made keeping counsel mainly with herself???
I think we, the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union, really need to take stock of ourselves on the first Wednesday in the Second Month of the Third Year of the most tumultous Century our planet called Earth has ever known.
Earlier today, I witnessed something I never thought I would ever see. Through the technology of remote meetings, I was eyewitness to a crime against an innocent and super smart BIPOC female aged five years old. Thankfully the child is super smart and knows how to call out "Stranger! Danger!"to get immediate attention whenever they need immediate parental advocacy and professional intervention. As crimes against children go, it could easily have gone unobserved and never rebuked swiftly and robustly.
Note well, Loving Parents, Guardians, Grandparents, Siblings, Uncles, Aunties and Cousins: Children are LISTENING, CHILDREN WILL ALWAYS LISTEN. So whenever and however they speak, We, the people united to form a more perfect union, must act accordingly, swiftly, vigilantly and safely, always abiding in the BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD. ( And more often than not, the children we all were, Once, upon a time.
When the cause is just, the best interests of the child pair seamlessly, powerfully, and jaw-droppingly perfectly with the responsible, passionate, tough-but-fair-and-ethical adults who have been gifted by their genetics with certain inalienable rights. Chief among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And, when you are Rachel with an M(!), you leave the audience waiting with bated breath for what somehow you know will be a triumphant return.
In my spare time, praising Him,
Oh lord I'm not tired yet.
The Wed-nes-day had begun for our hero. It was a new beginning and a remembrance for him of things past. Waking from a sound yet brief sleep, Coach Vernon began the slow and careful process for his first Individualized Educational Plan Team Meeting as a new member of the GenPop ( general population/ hoi polloi/ masses). Vernon was yearning to breath free even though he had, not actually, ever been born free and clear.
Flossing, brushing, gargling, and tongue scraping. That last one not nearly as painful as it sounds, by the way. A refreshing finishing Water Pik shower.
Staring smiling in the mirror, Coach V decided to opt for the white hint of a mustache, highlighted from its base of melatonin-challenged upper lip skin. Having a bigger bushier mustache since the pandemic, he could shave , wash and coconut oil the rest of the facial and head topiary. Voila, a Bronzed-skinned Adonis of indeterminate age! The perfect professional-yet-mature man of mystery look he wanted to portray to his as yet unmet audience.
Next, it suddenly made perfect sense to full-body hot rinse, lather up with moisturizing body wash, rinse, then epsom salt infused with the scent of lavender for a bubble bath. This was a chance to gently massage each one of his "little piggys", each foot pad, heel, ankle and calf. In the walkable neighborhood well supplied with mass transit, these precious and powerful limbs, feet and toes had missed the attention our hero/ schoolcoach now gave them. A well-deserved home spa in the pitch black silence of a cold winter's morning, dawning.
Here is the text of the inaugural poem , “On the Pulse of Morning,” written by Maya Angelou and delivered Wednesday(!) at the swearing in of President William JEFFERSON Clinton:
A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out to us today, you may stand upon me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song,
It says, come, rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country
Delicate and strangely made, proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more. Come,
Clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the rock were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your
Brow and when you yet knew you still
Knew nothing.
The River sang and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
They hear the first and last of every Tree
Speaks to humankind today. Come to me, here beside the River.
Plant yourself beside the River.
Each of you, descendant of some passed
On traveler, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name, you
Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of
Other seekers--desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the German, the Eskimo, the Scot . . .
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am that Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
I am yours--your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
This day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes and into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.
https://youtu.be/-U9Y8VfJUvI
Stop. Look. Listen to your heart. Hear what it is saying. Love, LOve, LOVE.
You're alone all time
Does it ever puzzle you, have you asked why
You seem to fall in love, out again
Do you ever really love or just pretend
Why fool yourself
Don't be afraid to help yourself
It's never too late, too late to
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying
Love, love, love
Though you try, you can't hide
All the things you really feel, this time decide
That you will open up, let it in
There's no shame in sharing love you keep within
So jump on in
Head over heels, and fall right in
So jump on in
Head over heels, and fall right in
It's never too late too late to
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying
Love, love, love
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying (Listen to your heart, can't
You see it's not too late)
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying (La, la, la, la, la, la, la)
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying (Listen to your heart, can't
You see it's not too late)
Stop, look
Listen to your heart, hear what it's saying
13,033 VIEWS
The Stylistics
Song Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)
Artist The Stylistics
Album The Stylistics - The Original Debut Album
Writers Linda Creed, Thom Bell
Licensed to YouTube by [Merlin] Tommy Boy Music LLC, UnidiscMusic, UMG (on behalf of AVCO Records Corp.); LatinAutorPerf, LatinAutor - UMPG, PEDL, Sony ATV Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, AMRA, BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., CMRRA, and 9 Music Rights Societies
https://youtu.be/FIdNu38dacU
1981
Song In My Spare Time Praising Him
This is track 11 from the 1981 album "Be Encouraged" Florida Mass Choir "Live" From Orlando, Florida
Written by Bishop Charles Lyles
Keyboards: Jeffrey LaValley and Bishop Freddy
Washington
Artist The Florida Mass Choir
Album Be Encouraged
Licensed to YouTube by [Merlin] The Malaco Music Group (on behalf of Savoy Records)
Now, what to wear. For Southern California's bucolic Valley/Glen, it was cold enough for a turtle neck. However, indoors, comparatively warmer and still temperature controlled, Vernon of the Legendary packed to the Gills Ford Explorer Extended Cab courtesy of master sober living BGFF Stephen Berman rolling wardrobe chose something dark blue striped on a field of orange, dark beige skinny- legged pants over his sole concession to "arthur's" arthritic knees- black velcro knee braces and an OG pair of tidy whities. Slightly too big for his leaner, meaner frame, the stretch pants from the House of Kirkland, exclusively AT COSTCO paired comfortably yet tastefully with the black flip flops. He would never go out into the foot-fungus-rich outside world in those shoes, but in the privacy of his " home office" they made perfect sense.
But yet, in the sweet reverie of the poet's muse, I digress. And there, just now, are the gentle rumbles of a stomach surrounded with a preternaturally satisfied soul!
But a wrong must be righted, now with minimal delay. Ms. R. A grey-haired femme fatale/ a.k.a.- The Cruella DeEvil Latinix of our story muted a parent, while the parent was speaking truthes to the powerful. THEN(!) TO TOP IT OFF, THEY(!)lied to over six assembled and incredulous faces, blaming said parent for muting THEMSELVES. Bat shite prima donna- petty, spiteful and truly needy and decompensating. This followed fast on the heels of a thoroughly lackluster Caucasoid/Iberian-Greek chorus in a thoroughly mediocre performative Kabuki Dance in monochromatic California Business Attire. More than likely it had all been purchased from the Covid-19! CLEARANCE! racks at their local Walton Duck Dynasty Doocy Market, a.k.a. WalMart. When your income after deductions is 95K too 150K , lifeless and sterile bargain basement coutre is English
de rigueur.
For those unfamiliar with IDEA, IEPs, FAPE, and LRE, when the paragraph above never mentions actual work the student has completed after sharing a list of 30th percentile(!) assessment results to describe a nascent bilingual mainstreamed SPED kindergartener, their is more than " Trouble in Ocean City, you can take that straight to the insane asylum which ironically, is exactly where they all need to be held on a 72- hour watch.
So what is a point to all this peaceful prose poetry?
Once upon a 2021 New Years Eve in the City That Never Sleeps ( and frankly it shows a de-frocked and Impotent AOC), our much respected Queen of the LGBTQIA+ Tribe(!), watched in mock horror as her colleagues debased themselves in contravention of FCC regulation by choosing to be drunk and belligerent on world wide GLOBAL television. She knew that it was time NOW to take her leave BEFORE the Body Snatchers came for her our royal high priestess of Journalism. She would get safely away. She would only return to oversee the Mother and Father of All the US State of the Union Addresses. This would allow her to get a "sense of the US Senate" and House of ill-repute and reprobate US Representatives. Her personal army of Trap-her-keep-hers would then wisk her back to an undisclosed location. A few short months later, she would, regardless of the way the whirlwinds of change blew, preside over a miraculous and stunning resurrection or a pathetically predictable and preventable impotent defeat. Yes, gentle listener, in either outcome, Representative Democracy in the USA would be Center Stage under a particularly Spartacus/ Helena Bone-John-Hamm-eresque klieg light. Time, an eternal CONSTANT, hiding, as it always does,IN PLAIN SIGHT of the huddled masses yearning to be free, would reveal the Final Countdown to the Neuvo-Riche Hunger Games. Or mayhaps, Something Completely Different.
To be continued, but only for 10 million claps 👏👏👏 or more on www.Medium.com, registering as followers and fans, and sharing, globally! Okay, Aloha Joe! CUE THE E-CRICKETS!😉🤣😄😃😀🙃😉💯💯💯🌈
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