The id Post: My Roses Are Coming In

The id Post: My Roses Are Coming In: by Irene Daniel I gaze out my window where    My backyard comes alive with Peach and plum trees,    Branches barren just days ago ...

My Roses Are Coming In

by Irene Daniel


I gaze out my window where

   My backyard comes alive with

Peach and plum trees,

   Branches barren just days ago

Now show-off little green leaves;
  
   And white and pink blossoms

Adorn these arboreal arms.


And those little green bumps

   Just bursting onto the scene

Are becoming sweet peaches,

   White and yellow,

And juicy red plums;

The makings of a summer cobbler.


The orange blossoms are nearly gone;

   Their sweet white petals

Still perfume the place

   As they lay wilting on the ground.

The harvest of oranges and lemons

   Is not yet quite complete,

As various shades of green compete

   For the sunlight.


Birds and other critters scurry about

   And a beautiful Monarch flutters by

Among the bougainvillea

   Red and purple.


And my rose bushes --

   Thorny, naked nubs against the cold

   Just weeks ago --

Are now pregnant.

   Buds of bulging beauty

Are about to explode

   In red and pink and yellow.

My Roses are coming in!



A new cycle does begin;

  My roses are coming in.

The id Post: Why Can't a Democrat Be More Like a Republican?

The id Post: Why Can't a Democrat Be More Like a Republican?: by Irene Daniel One of my favorite musicals is My Fair Lady , and one of my favorite songs from it is Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a...

Why Can't a Democrat Be More Like a Republican?

by Irene Daniel

One of my favorite musicals is My Fair Lady, and one of my favorite songs from it is Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? And I started thinking about the Democratic Party, and how it fairs in comparison to the GOP in aggressiveness and political bravado. And I started to wonder, why can't a Democrat be more like a Republican? At least when it comes to boasting of our accomplishments, and bashing our opponent when appropriate? And how about we do that without backing down later because some former Dixiecrat didn't like it when we told the truth? Why can't be as loud with our truth as they are with their falsehoods?

Don't get me wrong. I would never suggest that Democrats abandon common courtesy and professional civility, as Republicans are want to do. The malicious and mis-informative vitriol with which GOP rhetoric is delivered these days is the way of the unenlightened and desperate. As surveys and research have consistently shown, most educated Americans tend to be more progressive. So we are not the unenlightened and we should not be feeling desperate right now because most of the American people agree with us on almost all major issues, i.e., raising the minimum wage, marriage equality, income inequality, government subsidization of poverty over wealth and reasonable gun laws, to name a few.

So, unlike the Republicans, we don't have to change our minds or policies or agendas. Our core principles of equal opportunity and fundamental fairness resonate overwhelmingly with the American people. We are on the right side of history and have been so consistently on social issues for the past fifty (50) years. We needn't abandon our tradition of caring for those who need a hand-up and into the middle-class, nor our habit of speaking up for those who have no other voice to speak truth to power on their behalf. The poor, the elderly, the disabled, the LGBT community, immigrants and nonwhites, and all who have ever found themselves on the outside looking in, having been kicked to the curb by an older, whiter, wealthier and more narrow-minded GOP, are our kind of people.  We need to let them know that we are not sorry for prioritizing their needs. We should be trumpeting our distinctions with the other party because we are the party that cares about everybody -- even rich Republicans. We just don't think they should be allowed to own Congress.

I am appalled when I hear pundits and pols all talk about what a heavy lift it will be for Democrats this year, and how we seem surrendered to allowing the regressiveness of racism and sexism and vitriol of the GOP, to simply take over the entire Congress. And it's only March. The elections aren't until November. How can Democrats simply give up because of all the statistics and the GOP Koch-fest of money? How can the American people believe in us, if we don't even believe in ourselves? How can they have confidence that we are in their corner when they see us unwilling to defend our truth in the midst of GOP lies? I think what a lot of Americans liked about Ronald Reagan was his unwavering bravado, even if he was dead-wrong. Whether I like it or not, Americans like a little tough talk when tough talk is called for -- like election season.

Democrats need to get after it! We need to say what we mean and mean what we say; and we especially need to not back down when the other party starts to whine and accuse and blame. We need to stand up to them and match them toe-to-toe. We need to be more aggressive politically and attack Republicans where they are vulnerable: income inequality, voting rights, immigration, marriage equality, racial issues and their attacks on Social Security and Medicare. The GOP's most reliable voter is the older white voter. You know the one, the voter who is dependent upon Social Security and Medicare -- brought to you by The New Deal and The Great Society. Why are Democrats not more forceful in pointing out that Republicans never liked these programs and will continue to try to abolish them all together at every chance they get? All we have to do is tell the truth. Why aren't we trumpeting our truth from the rooftops?

We do the American people a disservice when we permit the GOP message of mistruths and half-truths to go unchallenged. We do our constituencies a disservice when we back down from our message because of the screaming vitriol of the GOP spewers of hatred that we get in response to our message of hope. Senator Harry Reid said the other day that the Koch brothers were un-American. He is right and should not back down, no matter what garbage Fox News spews about. Buying the entire American government in order to implement policies that benefit only the wealthy is inherently un-American. Turning your back on early childhood education in the poorest areas of our nation is not only un-American, but woefully unchristian as well. We need to be unrelenting in calling out the Republicans on their hypocrisy, ignorance and greed. We, the Democrats, fritter away America's future when we fail to meet their lies with truth, their hatred with love and their darkness with the light of the 21st century.

And why can't we emulate conservative Republicans in their commitment to consistently showing up at the polls, even in mid-terms, local and special elections; which are actually often the most immediate in their effect on our daily lives. We outnumber them. There are more of us than there are of them, and this trend will only continue; especially if Republicans continue to ignore and/or insult the nonwhite, non-hetero, non-wealthy and disenfranchised among us. Why aren't we knocking on all Democratic, and potentially Democratic, doors and informing our fellows of their opportunity and responsibility as citizens to suit up and show up when it matters most?

If Republicans keep control of the house, as expected, and take control of the Senate as well, I have no doubt that the next two years will be consumed with impeachment proceedings and little else. Regardless of the outcome, regardless of what happens to the American people and our economy, what Republicans in Congress want more than anything else is to discredit President Obama. I do not consider it a coincidence that so much open hostility and disrespect has been directed at our first African-American President by an older, whiter and just plain meaner Republican party. They want to bring him down, no matter what.

And it is up to Democrats to come out swinging, taking no prisoners in this very important mid-term election. It is up to the Democratic party to inspire Americans to simply choose higher. Choose the future over the past, inclusion over division, peace over war and fairness over exploitation.

We have the winning message in a sea of  misinformation and confusion. It is up to us to make it clear.

The id Post: The Bright Green of Early Spring

The id Post: The Bright Green of Early Spring: by Irene Daniel Branches recently barren Still reaching without leaves But sprouting the brand new Brilliant green that screams of spri...

The Bright Green of Early Spring

by Irene Daniel

Branches recently barren
Still reaching without leaves
But sprouting the brand new
Brilliant green that screams of spring
Commanding our attention

And on the ground
Another green, gleaming
In morning dew
Another shade, a different tint
Of the hue announcing spring

I love the fall
As well you know
Those who know me well
But when spring comes around
Each year, that green screams out
Announcing the new
And chases winter away

The Labrador that I adore
Romps in bright green clover
It's here and there
With dandelions dancing
In the sweet cool breeze

Even the aromatic signs
Of spring seem cloaked
In a light green

Green is the color of spring
Green is the color of newness
Green is the color of creativity
Green is the symbol for go

But the brilliance of the early spring green
Is in a class alone

The id Post: Why Do You Always Have to Make Everything About Ra...

The id Post: Why Do You Always Have to Make Everything About Ra...: by Irene Daniel "Why do you have to make everything about race?" I am often asked. The question itself assumes something complet...

Why Do You Always Have to Make Everything About Race, Anyway? A Question I Am Often Asked

by Irene Daniel

"Why do you have to make everything about race?" I am often asked. The question itself assumes something completely inapplicable, given the power relationships between the races in our American history. I don't make everything about race. I just notice when racial injustice affects my life, and the lives of others. Accordingly, the more appropriate and relevant question is: whose idea was it to make everything about race in the first place?

Let's see, this whole race thing started with European settlers stealing land and a way of life from the Indigenous people already here; and enslaving those imported from Africa. It wasn't the Indigenous, or the slave, or the immigrant who decided to make their lives more difficult by "making everything about race." Nor were women, of any color, empowered to make anything about anything until less than 100 years ago, when they were finally afforded their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.

So, who does that leave? What class of persons decided for all others, that freedom should mean different things to different people? Whose brilliant idea was it to treat slaves worse than livestock? Whose idea was it to come out west and kick the Native Americans off of their tribal homes? And the Mexicans off of their gold mines during the California Gold Rush? Whose idea was it to torture Chinese immigrants by cutting off their queues? And whose idea was it to intern millions of Japanese-Americans during WWII? Who made all of those decisions?

When that nationalist veil is lifted and we learn the truth, we see Andrew Jackson as our American Hitler and Manifest Destiny as our American Holocaust. This is ancient history, you say? If only that were true. The truth is, however, that the long-term effects of a societal cancer like white supremacy leaves deep scaring, as well as recurring side-effects and occasional flare-ups. And who can say that we have not been experiencing something of a flare-up since Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States? Liberals don't make everything about race, we just notice that it is. And it is this noticing, and calling attention to the racism that is already there, that induces defensiveness and accusations of being a racist from some, often well-meaning, Caucasians.

Centuries of social injustice, especially when it comes to race issues in America, cannot be righted overnight, or even in the past 50 years of trying. Racial barriers laid the foundation for our criminal justice system. Racial stereotyping and white supremacy are also responsible for criminalizing marijuana. 100 years ago, as Mexicans were pouring across the border fleeing a bloody revolution, and jazz was being born in America. Marijuana was associated with Mexicans and African-Americans and their music, jazz and blues. So, it had to be illegal if it was something "they" liked. I can't believe it's taken the American people a century to realize what a lucrative market originates with this one plant; and how our racial bias has prevented us from dealing with this, and myriad other issues that affect all Americans, in an objective and logical manner. Even the green of the almighty dollar can't get past the color barrier sometimes.

These are only a few examples of how whiteness and white ways and white thinking have been superimposed in our American culture for generations. Why do I point these things out? Because I cried my eyes out again after another white man got away with murdering another African-American young man. I cried not only out of frustration, or sadness for the families of those boys. I cried out of guilt because I am glad that neither my son, nor his son, is dark-skinned. Jordan Davis' mother, Lucia MacBath, will never be a grandmother. She will never know what it's like to see herself passed on to new generations. She was robbed of that joy by racism.

When the Dunn trial jurors revealed that race was never an issue for the jury, I wondered why not.  Pretending to be color-blind because white people feel more comfortable that way will not solve our racial issues. I'll bet Jordan Davis would have loved to grow up in a color-blind society, where he is not presumed guilty of "something" because he's black, where he could get a cab in New York City, where he wouldn't be stopped-and-frisked, or shot to death. I'll bet Jordan Davis' mother would love nothing more than to have been able to see her son grow up in a color-blind world that sees him as a worthy individual. But we don't live in that world and pretending that we do solves nothing. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. It is a detriment to moving forward.

So I will continue to call out racism for the social disease that has eaten away at our American culture for too, too long. I notice these things because they happen to people like me. They don't happen to white people, so how can they know what we're talking about if we don't tell our stories? That's why I talk about race. By the time they are 23 years old, 49% of African-American men will have been incarcerated because racism is so deeply rooted in our American DNA. Because this still happens today, and will continue to happen until our leadership better reflects our society, I will continue to notice.

I think Lupita Nyong'o, Oscar winning actress just this week, put it best when she described what it was like to be a little girl and be as dark as she was, and to see beauty only in pale faces in her world. Let's face it: even in ethnic neighborhoods, it is usually those with darker complexions who have a harder time; and the most successful nonwhites are usually lighter-skinned. It's sad, but true.

We didn't make everything about race. White men did that a long time ago, and in ways that still are very present in our still imperfect union. So my question is: Why did white men have to make everything about race? And why are they still doing so, hiding behind religion and a Constitution that they obviously don't understand? Why did white men start this thing in the first place? And when have we had enough?