This is yet another bilingual post… Este es otro artículo bilingüe.SO!!! Don’t come telling me to kiss and make up, to pretend I am not angry, to ‘come together’ with my oppressors. I have been trying to write an article for weeks about ongoing racism and oppression, and I am so angry that I haven’t made any headway. I don’t want to lose whatever friends I have left, but the truth is I continue to experience racism and white privilege everywhere I go. I have been asked, when introducing myself with my combined last name of Brandon and Pérez, whether I was Puerto Rican and on welfare… I have been dismissed as just another Pérez far too many times… I have been told, even, that “I don’t understand.” Recently, someone told me that if I belonged to one of the ostracized minorities, I could understand… (I suppose being a latina doesn’t count…) / ¡¡¡De modo que… !!! No vengan a decirme que nos demos besitos y nos hagamos amiguitos, que finja que no estoy enojada, que me “una” a mis opresores. He estado tratando de escribir un artículo durante semanas sobre el racismo y la opresión en curso, y estoy tan enojada que no he avanzado. No quiero perder a los amigos que me quedan, pero la verdad es que sigo sufriendo el racismo y el privilegio blanco en todas partes. Me han preguntado, al presentarme con mi apellido combinado de Brandon y Pérez, si yo era puertorriqueña y estaba recibiendo ayuda del gobierno… Me han tildado de una Pérez cualquiera muchas veces … Me han dicho, incluso , que “no entiendo”. Recientemente, alguien me dijo que si yo perteneciera a una de las minorías marginadas, podría entender … (supongo que ser latina no cuenta …).
What don’t I understand? That those who rule believe we have no rights except as wage slaves? When a young woman writes recently that “I don’t understand benefiting from privilege and how sad that is,” I love that I have my fourth homeless family living in my garage, because they were unlawfully evicted by a city called “the Heart of the Bay” which has lost its heart. I love it that I had to drive an 83-year-old widow in my aging car to New Mexico after she sustained an unlawful eviction started by her stepchildren, after TWENTY NINE YEARS OF MARRIAGE! / ¿Qué es lo que no entiendo? ¿Que los que gobiernan creen que no tenemos más derechos que los esclavos a sueldo? Cuando una joven me escribe recientemente que “no entiendo el beneficiarme de los privilegios y lo triste que es”, me encanta que tengo a mi cuarta familia sin hogar viviendo en mi garaje, porque fueron desalojados ilegalmente por una ciudad llamada “el corazón de la Bahía” que ha perdido su corazón. Me encanta que tuve que conducir a una viuda de 83 años de edad en mi coche viejo a Nuevo México después de que ella sufrió un desalojo ilegal iniciado por sus hijastros, ¡después de VEINTE Y NUEVE AÑOS DE MATRIMONIO!
Am I too angry? Yep. But I would say, more than angry, I am outraged, and it’s moral outrage. How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter. Isaiah 5:20 / ¿Estoy demasiado enojada? Es verdad. Pero yo diría, más que enojada, estoy indignada, y es indignación moral. ¡Qué horrible será para los que llaman mal al bien y al bien al mal, que convierten las tinieblas en luz y la luz en tinieblas, que convierten lo amargo en algo dulce y lo dulce en algo amargo. Isaías 5:20
People of faith use the bible and biblical writings to excuse atrocities. We have an epidemic of poverty and economic inequality in this country of ours which should provoke instant outrage in any person of faith. Yet our Congresspeople, who call themselves “Christians” or believers or whatever they call themselves, are constantly enacting legislation (or refusing to do so) in complete disregard of their brothers and sisters who are not wealthy, or who are living from paycheck to paycheck, or who are ill and uninsured, or undocumented, or (you can fill in the blanks here). Legislators in fact refuse to help the poor. / La gente de fe usa la Biblia y los escritos bíblicos para excusar las atrocidades. Tenemos una epidemia de pobreza y desigualdad económica en nuestro país, la cual debería provocar una indignación inmediata en cualquier persona de fe. Sin embargo, nuestros congresistas, que se llaman a sí mismos “cristianos” o creyentes o lo que sea que se llaman, están constantemente promulgando leyes (o se niegan a hacerlo) con total desprecio de sus hermanos y hermanas que no son ricos o que viven de sueldo a sueldo , o que están enfermos y sin seguro, o indocumentados, o (aquí puede llenar los espacios en blanco ). De hecho, los legisladores se niegan a ayudar a los pobres.
Someone, a conservative Baptist, told me recently that the line from the story in the Bible repeated in three of the Gospels where Jesus is anointed by a woman with costly ointment while at Bethany, means that we need do nothing about poverty, and that good deeds are worthless. The ointment is criticized by the disciples, and Jesus rebukes them by saying that she has done a good deed, preparing him for burial, and “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” But that pesky saying is always footnoted, and the footnote points to Deuteronomy 15:11, in other words, Jesus was quoting from the Torah. And Deut. 15:11 in fact says: “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you: ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy in your land.’ /Alguien, un bautista conservador, me dijo recientemente que la línea de la historia en la Biblia que se repite en tres de los Evangelios donde Jesús es ungido por una mujer con un ungüento costoso mientras se encontraba en Betania, significa que no necesitamos hacer nada acerca de la pobreza, y que los actos buenos son inútiles. El ungüento es criticado por los discípulos, y Jesús los reprende diciendo que ella ha hecho una buena acción, preparándolo para el entierro, y “Porque siempre tienen a los pobres consigo, pero no siempre me tendrán“. Pero ese comentario fastidioso siempre lleva una nota a pie de página, y la nota de pie de página señala a Deuteronomio 15:11, en otras palabras, Jesús estaba citando la Torá. Y Deut. 15:11 dice, en efecto: “Como nunca dejará de haber necesitados en la tierra, yo les mando:” Abran su mano al pobre y necesitado de su tierra’.
I would like to be a sweeter person and not curse or care so much, but I have been involved in the gutter of government and politics and society for too long. I am sick and tired, and that’s the truth. It doesn’t mean I won’t continue to fight the fight, because it’s part of my makeup and I can no more stop doing this than I can stop breathing./ Me gustaría ser una persona más dulce y no decir tantas malas palabras o preocuparme tanto, pero he estado involucrada en el tugurio del gobierno y de la política y de la sociedad por demasiado tiempo. Estoy harta y agotada, y esa es la verdad. No significa que no seguiré peleando, porque es parte de lo que soy y no puedo dejar de hacerlo al igual que no puedo dejar de respirar.
But stop with all the calls for unity… I am united with the people, not with those who are abusing us all, and having a good laugh while they go about it. Many of the posts on my blog start with, or end with, WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? Why didn’t all the folks, kids, elders who marched through the streets in city after city yesterday, march down the street and protest vehemently when Bernie Sanders got thrown under the bus? Had the DNC, the mass media, and the bloated and corrupt Democratic Party system not thrown Bernie under the bus and stolen the election, we would now be getting ready for the inauguration of Senator Sanders. Instead, they decided pell-mell that it would be Hillary. WHY? And more importantly, HOW DARE YOU ALL sob now, when you participated in this miscarriage of justice and of elections by NOT protesting, by telling those of us who were grieving to get over it? How you feel now, as if you were living a nightmare, is how I have been feeling, how all of us who worked for Bernie’s election were feeling, since California was declared for Hillary by the mass media BEFORE the primary… Since our Attorney General, who was supposed to be impartial, actively campaigned for her… since people blamed Wikileaks and the Russians and the Martians for the leaks, rather than blame the dynamic duo, whose nasty deeds had all come to the light of day… / Pero basta con todos los llamamientos a la unidad … Estoy unida con el pueblo, no con los que nos abusan a todos, y se echan una buena risotada mientras lo hacen. Muchos de los artículos de mi blog comienzan o terminan con, ¿DÓNDE ESTÁ LA INDIGNACIÓN? ¿Por qué todas las personas, niños, ancianos que marcharon por las calles de ciudad tras ciudad ayer, no marcharon por la calle y protestaron con vehemencia cuando Bernie Sanders fue arrojado a la acera? Si el DNC, los medios de comunicación y el sistema del Partido Demócrata inflado y corrupto no hubieran arrojado a Bernie a la acera y no se hubieran robado las elecciones, ahora nos estaríamos preparando para la inauguración del Senador Sanders. En su lugar, decidieron atropelladamente que sería Hillary. ¿POR QUÉ? Y lo más importante, ¿cómo se atreven todos ustedes a llorar ahora, cuando participaron en este aborto de la justicia y de las elecciones al NO protestar, diciéndonos a aquellos de nosotros que estábamos afligidos que teníamos que superarlo? Cómo se sienten ahora, como si estuvieran viviendo una pesadilla, es como me he estado sintiendo, cómo todos nosotros que trabajamos para elegir a Bernie nos sentimos, luego de que California fue declarada por los medios masivos de comunicación para Hillary ANTES de la primaria … El Fiscal General, que se suponía que era imparcial, activamente hizo campaña por ella … ya que la gente culpó a Wikileaks y a los rusos y a los marcianos por las revelaciones, en lugar de culpar al dúo dinámico, cuyos actos infames habían salido a la luz del día.
Those of you moaning now were supporters of Hillary. Hillary Clinton and her benighted husband who used their white and political privilege to harm people of color, working families, and immigrants, among many, and who exported their stuff all over the Américas, supported and advanced the mass imprisonment-for-profit system, the bankruptcy reform act which gutted bankruptcy relief so credit card companies and lenders could get richer, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum and very very much ad nauseam. Remember the coup in Honduras? Berta Isabel Cáceres, before she was murdered, accused Hillary of her role in coup. / Aquellos de ustedes que se quejan ahora fueron partidarios de Hillary. Hillary Clinton y su ignorante esposo, que usaron su privilegio blanco y político para dañar a personas de color, a familias trabajadoras e inmigrantes, entre muchos otros, y que exportaron sus cosas por todas las Américas, apoyaron y avanzaron el sistema masivo de prisiones por lucro, la reforma de la ley de quiebra que destripó el alivio de bancarrota para que las compañías de tarjetas de crédito y los prestamistas pudieran hacerse más ricos, etcétera, etcétera, ad infinitum y muy, muy ad nauseam. ¿Recuerdan el golpe de estado en Honduras? Berta Isabel Cáceres, antes de ser asesinada, acusó a Hillary por su papel en el golpe.
Anyone remember the sacking and destruction of Haiti? There are Clinton doings in Haiti … The Foundation was one of the first to visit Haiti, but it led to their enrichment and the impoverishment of the Haitians. ¿Alguien recuerda el saqueo y la destrucción de Haití? Hay hechos de los Clinton en Haití … La Fundación fue una de las primeras en visitar Haití, pero eso llevó a su enriquecimiento y al empobrecimiento de los haitianos.
So please, spare me your excuses, I am not interested, and I am not buying. /
Así que por favor, quédense con sus excusas, no estoy interesada, y no estoy comprando nada.
I recently posted a commentary on the Pavlov reflex, which is how we seem to run elections in the United States. We have been well trained by our corporate masters, including, in particular, the mass corporate media, to salivate at the drop of a slogan, whether it be as consumers or as voters. The saying that “a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth,” attributed to Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, seems to be the essence of the Pavlovian system used to have citizens turned into consumers, into desperate voters, and into raving masses ready to do violence.
In the United States we have excused atrocities untold against the rest of the world, which most people choose not even to acknowledge. We have devastated entire populations and countries and environments; we are, after all, Empire, and we are in this to subdue and to conquer, the devil take the hindmost. We are not, as members of a country, or should not be, spectators, but rather we should be actors, in other words, we should take whatever steps are necessary to change our country and our world. If we have children, we are doubly constrained to do this; it is their world that we must be certain to make a more just and equitable, peaceful place to live. What better heritage can we bequeath to them?
I am ecstatic that Hillary Clinton did not win the election, and I will leave you to go through my other writings on this topic, which are many. She is a menace who has accomplished and carried out what Donald Trump has only threatened. And she conspired with the Democratic Party, the mass media and the DNC to steal the elections from my chosen candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders. Her crimes, even if she hasn’t been indicted or convicted because of her huge corporate support, are legion.
What it will take for us to change this country and by extension, the world? We must go to work every day to change the small and the large policies that victimize our brothers and sisters of color and our working class and immigrant families. This would include things such as supporting an end to the Dakota pipeline and all free trade treaties, which are only excuses for corporations to make money at the expense of the poor and disenfranchised. The United States government has victimized countries and peoples since it was established. It is time to put an end to unbridled capitalism, militarism and imperialism, not to mention racism and white privilege. Dr. King said in his speech in April of 1967 that he was “disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.”
Today I went to a service celebrating the life of our wonderful Judy Balch Liteky, a woman who graced so many lives with her compassion and her activism. It occurred to me that she achieved what has lately eluded me, activism without all-consuming rage. I have put my own ordination on hold because my confrontations with entrenched power, locally and nationally and even abroad, have put a strident note in my discourse; I am always lately either crying or screaming like a madwoman. 
in particular, talk about the need to “put a clothespin on our noses and vote
I had met a group of Panamanian women who were visiting the US and wanted to listen to Bernie; I saw them again in the audience and interviewed and took a picture of one of them. If Latin Americans or Europeans could vote in our elections, Bernie would win hands down! I took bad videos with my cell phone, met two reporters from a Spanish publication called Diario El Correo, who were fascinated by the whole Bernie phenomenon, almost passed out from the heat, and besides volunteering I also got a press pass and did a few interviews. My videos were horrible, but I met two reporters from Diario El Correo, a Spanish (from Spain) publication, who left early to leave for LA and the next rally, and a mom/d
silviantonia 