riviersonderend

Vroeër die week het ek genoem dat ek iets oor die verkiesing van Obama wil skryf. Ek het van plan verander en sal volstaan met drie opmerkings:

1) Obama is darem nie McBush nie.

2) Obama is wel ‘n politikus.

For America’s lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered people who are hurting today, a poem by Maya Angelou:

STILL I RISE

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Na aanleiding van Obama se verkiesing as Amerikaanse president, vra Johan Swarts of al die bohaai geregverdig is. Reageer mense nie voortydig op leë retoriek nie?

Ek dink dit is ‘n vraag wat ‘n antwoord verdien en sal graag ‘n opinie daaroor waag. Maar dit gaan effe dol op die oomblik, so ek gaan bietjie daaroor dink en sal teen die naweek iets skryf: Enduring Hope.

Ek weet die blog is Afrikaans, maar sal graag hierdie spesifieke inskrywing in Engels maak. Vergeef my maar!

Intussen, klou vas, die naweek is amper hier!

Today democracy is returning to the U.S.A.

It’s coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It’s coming from the feel
that this ain’t exactly real,
or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It’s coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don’t pretend to understand at all.
It’s coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Take it away Leonard Cohen…

Die Republikeinse burgemeester van San Diego verduidelik aan sy stad se mense hoekom hy teruggegaan het op sy woord om teen gay huwelike standpunt in te neem.

Dit breek ‘n mens se hart.