In a sentimental mood…
I gather up
each sound
you left behind
and stretch them
on our bed.
each nite
I breathe you
and become high.
~ Sonia Sanchez
This poem makes me think about my first love…well, love in general but mostly about her. I read the poem and think about how intoxicating love can be and how it can take over your mind, body and soul completely unannounced. When my first girlfriend and I broke up, I thought my whole world had ended and that I would NEVER love another like I loved her. I’m sure everyone knows what I’m talking about… She recently came back into my life (as my friend) and it’s hard not to fall back into old habits. We’ve both changed A LOT since we were last in a relationship but deep down, she’s still the person I fell in love with. I know that I’m not still in love with her and I know the same holds true for her. I’m still in love with my most recent ex (one day I’ll trust you all enough to tell you THAT story) and she is currently in a pretty serious relationship (which only makes me only slightly jealous). But every once and a while, I think back to those years we spent together, those Summer nights in NYC and Autumn days at Cornell… when we would spend every moment together and I understood the true meaning of bliss…
Love my Alma Mater!
Students Storm Class to Protest Arizona Immigration Law
April 29, 2010
Donning signs reading “Mexican-lookng,” “Sub-human” and “Alien,” members of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán protested Arizona’s recently-passed immigration reform bill in an ILROB 1220: Introduction to Organizational Behavior class this Wednesday.
The class witnessed an example of what could occur in Arizona any day due to Senate Bill 1070, according to Natalie Ramirez ’11, co-chair of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán. The bill, which Arizona’s governor signed Apr. 23, gives police the authority to detain anyone suspected of being in the United States illegally.
The bill attempts to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants, according to The New York Times.
“What’s up with these people?” asked one student in the back of the lecture hall.
Minutes later, two more demonstrators acting as immigration and customs enforcement officers demanded that students provide immigration papers as they walked down the aisles.
“Where are your papers?” a demonstrator asked one student. “You don’t look American.”
The “officers” picked out the demonstrators wearing the cardboard signs and forced them to kneel on the ground in front of the rest of the class before leading them out of the lecture hall.
Ramirez said the demonstration in Introduction to Organizational Behavior followed another in a quantum physics lecture on Wednesday.
The idea for the demonstration came from a similar version that was enacted at Yale.
“We wanted to do something that was quick and effective,” said Ramirez, who said more demonstrations will occur for the rest of this week and into next week. “We are targeting big lecture halls, so we can get as much exposure as possible.”
Some students in the class did not appear to understand the purpose of the demonstration. When the demonstrators pretending to be enforcement officers walked down the aisle, one student thought it was a teaching assistant collecting class papers.
Ramirez said she did not expect many people to know about the proposed Arizona law, which is why she and other volunteers handed out flyers after class directing students to an informational website. The website explained the problem and ways to take action.
“The point of these demonstrations is to bring awareness, but more important than that, it is to bring people to action,” Ramirez said. “Whether it is signing petitions, making phone calls or sending emails, we want people to realize this is a problem and do something about it.”
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.
This poem gives me goosebumps EVERY time I read it… or even better, hear it performed
It was a great feat for African Americans, and it all started with Rosa Parks. This is a thank you to the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
this.