My Diary: Going Out Holding Hands With Myself

Gerald's Rather Strange Diary

An exceptionally early morning and I felt like a sperm whale surfacing from a very deep dive.‭ ‬June was invisible‭ (‬although I imagined her wearing a striped deckchair‭) ‬and we spoke like a packet of sherbert sweets.‭ ‬I then found myself on a hillside touching a shadow as it swept down from a figure opening a crisp packet and watching little people jumping out‭ ‬-‭ ‬I celebrated their freedom and then caught the bus‭ (‬the driver never looked at my ticket but appeared to count my fingers and divide by an unknown number‭ ‬-‭ ‬I resolved to count my toes on the way home and then multiply by another‭)‬.‭ ‬After speaking in holiday words to the gentle giant I followed a path to the bottom of his garden,‭ ‬holding my hands aloft for several minutes before going back to have hard work words and a drink.

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The Myth of Not Being Enough

Rebekka Lien

You are enough, for God. But usually not for humans. If you were purely living in grace, you are enough. Now, when you’re a kid, you get to play, and you’re allowed to be goofy. As you grow up, you gradually notice that you are rewarded for “being good” to your parents. You know, being obedient. Then, you are applauded for accomplishing things like getting A’s, being president of some volunteer organization or club at school, writing a good essay for your college, getting into a good college, dating the right kind of person that your friends approve of, looking nice, losing weight, the list seems to go on.

That’s me just playing, because I wanted to, because I was curious, because I was interested, not because I was being forced to.

As you get older, you are applauded for getting the right kind of job with the right salary…

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Open Letter To Colin Kaepernick

Life In The Gym

Dear Colin,

Thank you for sharing your opinion of America with me and the rest of your countrymen. 

You decided not to stand during the National Anthem, because as you said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”

Since you were kind enough to present your opinion to me, I will return the favor.

Colin, your statements make it crystal clear that you do not like America.  However, America is not just a land mass, it’s a culture comprised of people; individuals like me, the people who raised you, your friends, your teammates, the coaches and teachers you had growing up who encouraged you and cheered you on, the policemen who protect you at football venues, your adult fans, countless little kids who buy your jerseys and eagerly turn on the TV to…

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April-May 1944

Pacific Paratrooper

fter running for 4 concsec Gen. Stilwell & Gen. Liao Yueh-shang, Cmdr of the 22nd Chinese Div. discuss plans.

During the first week of April, Gen. Stilwell’s New China Army was preparing to attack Gen. Tanaka’s men, but Stilwell’s own supply base was being threatened.  Urgent pleas were sent to Chiang Kai-shek to send his Nationalist Army to eastern Burma for assistance – but Chiang failed to respond.

FDR was notified of this lack of support and the president sent a cable to Chiang:  “If they [Nationalist Army] are not to be used in the common cause, our most strenuous efforts to fly in equipment and furnish instructional personnel have not been justified.”

map of Burma

This meant that Chiang’s Lend Lease was threatened and 10 days later, 72,000 Chinese troops marched to Burma.  Japan considered this action a break in their “silent” truce and the Imperial Staff ordered the…

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Defending Europe From An Invasion From The Sea

The Arts Mechanical

This post from War History showed up on my Facebook timeline.  It’s a small album of pictures of the Atlantik Wall built by Nazi Germany to stop an Allied invasion. The defense failed. The Atlantik Wall was a huge effort on the part of the Wehrmacht using some 600,000 workers.  Massive concrete bunkers and gun emplacements were built all up the Atlantic coast.

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/20atlantic-wall-images.html

The Germans naturally concentrated their construction on what they thought were the main avenues of attack, the Pas de Calais peninsula and other major ports believing that the allies would prefer to attack and capture a port as soon as possible.  There was also the problem of Hitler’s pronouncements and requirements that cause an enormous effort in pouring concrete and building bunkers that were useless. Here are some links to more stuff about the Atlantik Wall.

Atlantic Wall I

Atlantic Wall II

http://www.rulit.me/books/the-atlantic-wall-1-france-read-352006-1.html

http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/index.php

http://www.dday-overlord.com/eng/atlantic_wall.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Wall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisbecq_Battery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longues-sur-Mer_battery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maisy_battery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regelbau

This…

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Kyoko Oyobe Trio: live at @SmallsJazzClub // “I Mean You” January 26th, 2016

Jazz You Too

Smalls Jazz Club streams live gigs daily – the Kyoko Oyobe Trio performed on January 26th, 2016.

Kyoko Oyobe – PIANO
Michael O’Brien – BASS
Jeff Hirschfield – DRUMS

“I Mean You” – Thelonious Monk

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SAY GOOD BYE TO THE 4TH AMENDMENT

THE LEON KWASI CHRONICLES

BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE

In a horrendous miscarriage of justice, the Supreme Court of the United States studied a criminal case from Utah, in which evidence was collected illegally by police officers to determine whether it was constitutional for police evidence collected unlawfully to be used in a court of law.

In a 5-3 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that ” Evidence does not violate the Fourth Amendment because the evidence seized weakened the unlawful stop”

According to news one:

“Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed, and says stops like this are all too familiar for people of color. In her dissent, she uses James Baldwin‘s The Fire Next Time, W.E.B. Du Bois‘s The Souls of Black Folk, and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me to support her argument.”

This decision will undoubtedly disproportionately affect the daily lives of ethnic minorities and their treatment by cops.

DISCUSSION ON THE GUTTING OF…

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Mytwosentences 149 (The Preston Tapley Chronicles)

Mytwosentences

(He just arrived. Inform PICKERING)

All of his adult life clothes had been a systematic repetition of perpetual insignificance, but his hair, that was a different story.

He carefully styled his hair, not so much like James Bond, more like James Dean, if James Dean spent a little extra time in front of the mirror making a possible perfect a true perfection.

(Continued from Mytwosentences 148)

(Photo: Edward Roads)
Written by Edward Roads

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