America?
Who are you
now?
Your
Ghettos as
Cruel as
The Warsaw-
Your murders
More sanitized
Than
Mass graves-
Less focused
Than
Kristallnacht
More subtle than
A little AIDS here
A little crack there–
They’re crazy!
Not human!
They’re takers!
Not us–
Like the killer
Who joins
The
Search for his
Victims
And fakes
Shock
When the
Bodies
Are found —
Death is Life
America?
Who will have
The courage
To march
You
Through your
Crimes?
(c) Rob Goldstein 2015-2017 All Rights Reserved
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Sigh… I’ve shaken my head so much this year, I think I’ve transformed into a dashboard bobble-head. Powerful, Rob — well done my friend. TGIF Hugs.
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Thank you Teagan. Forgive my delayed reply: I’ve been sick from the toxic air in San Francisco this week. I don’t know how the people of Beijing live with this level of pollution every day. Today the air is breathable and the headache is gone. I feel as if I’m living through some sort of biblical retribution. Thank you for the comment and this opportunity to rant. I somehow feel you can relate. 🙂
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Oh Rob, I’m sorry you weren’t well, but I’m happy you are doing better.
When I lived in New Mexico sometimes the air was bad from fires, or just from lack of regulations… And we’ve had some “orange alert” air quality days lately here. But it can not be anything to compare with what California is going through … It’s so heartbreaking. Mother Nature has been hugely pissed off this year.
Wishing you and yours well. Great big hug!
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Just visiting your blog. Your gifts always astonish me. My body is much happier now…:)
It can breach. Humans take breathing for granted, don’t they? (been watching the x-men trilogy–now entering The Matrix)
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You have been warning about this for some time, and this is a most powerful piece of poetry, Robert. I’m not sure how far that sensible people will let this go forward. We need to wake up.
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It really is true: we can’t treat our own citizens like trash and be safe from tyranny. Democracy is expensive. We know this! And we have two centuries fighting to be better than our worst as a guide. Please forgive my late reply. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
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Oh so poignant, what can we do…there is SO much cruelty, so little empathy, where will it end …I often wonder. The older I get the more I feel sorry about the wrongs I did in my own life AND the wrongs in the world. My tears are not enough, not sure what it takes.
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Vote. Vote in every election from school board to POTUS. Vote for people who understand that the people are an essential part of our nation’s infrastructure. We are being willfully cruel to people. But the other part of this treating our own people like dirt destroys our nation’s credibility on human rights and erodes National Secxurity.
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I’m on the outside looking in, And the golden fish in your fishbowl are gloating at top, and don’t swim below with angelfish anymore.
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Forgive my late reply…and forgive me for being confused,
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It’s so heartbreaking. Powerful poem, Robert, full of unfiltered truth. That “fake shock” is what makes me want to scream. There is no shame.
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Thank you so much. I was not sure of it. I feel better about it now. 🙂
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I love poetry like this that is so full of emotion I can feel it!
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If you felt it then I did my job.
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Yes, we are becoming a far too cruel country and it is terrible that we can’t seem to stop it.
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I first drafted that poem in 1992 when I lived in Los Angeles. Thank you for your comment Cindy!
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Yes yes and yes!!!
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Reblogged this on The Sound of One Hand Clapping.
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Thank you for the re-blog..i really appreciate it…
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It’s my pleasure to share interesting information and blogs – this is sad, but also truthful. How are YOU, Robert?
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I’m good, thank you for asking. I had couples therapy today..My partner experience of me is that I’m much better, which I think is reflected in my work…I think the poem is sad too…It is sad that it’s true…
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“Death is Life
Greed is God”
Sound poetry, from a sound mind.. and the photography were amazing..
Great piece 🙂
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Those “Warsaw” Ghetto pictures are from a video I found on the internet archives to which I will link. After reading the history of the American Eugenics movement and the methods of execution described by the author of the 1918 Eugenics Handbook–It is clear to me that the Nazi’s had turned Warsaw into a huge experiment in the use of “Lethal Neglect.” That may be why they chose subjects to photograph repeatedly as they died of malnutrition and disease.
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Your work on this topic was amazing..
The pictures illustrated exactly what words would not perfectly do..
Just know you have a fan on lock down with your art..
And not forgetting to tell you how versatile you are, I have to do a lot of catching up, when reading your post. LoL
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My readings on global eugenics movement of the early 20th Century caused me to re-examine the phenomena of homelessness. The more I read, the more
I saw similarities between the methods described in the literature and homelessness. I had no idea that the Germans used the programs in the United States as a model for their programs. The use of Lethal Medical Neglect is described in “covertly” open language in the 1918 Eugenics program.
This post started a an experiment. I don’t like conspiracy theories because they never seem to stop living in the real of theory…
I found a documentary that took up the Warsaw Ghetto from its inception as a walled off Ghetto to the end of WW2. As I watched the documentary I realized that the “Eugenics Handbook” was a template. They approached the slow execution of their victims as little scientists. They documented the decline and death of people from beginning to end. Everything they did followed the recommendations of the Cold Water Springs group point by point. Hunger, thirst, disease, not even water for sanitation. They murdered the people in the Ghetto by replicating extreme poverty. And as they did it they produced propaganda that explained why those people had brought the horror on themselves. Based on what I’ve read and seen I now believe that the very existence of a homeless population is betrayal of the men and women who gave their lives to defeat the Nazis. Please note; I’m not comparing the people responsible for implementing and perpetuating homelessness to Nazis. Now that I know that the Nazi agenda was born in in the United States, I have no choice but to compare them to Anglo Americans.
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I hate conspiracy theories too..
You did a great job on that post.
You make me a die-hard fan each passing day..
It’s being great connecting with you robert..
#Celonarants™
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Thank you. I appreciate your support.
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Yours to friend 😉
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