Posts Tagged ‘#744 + GRACE #8 / YOU ARE MY GRACE I AM YOUR GRACE / 40″ H x 26″ W / CATHERINE L. JOHNSON + Anthony Cox’s DARK METALS + Charles Lloyd’s Modern Quartet; CATHERINE L. JOHNSON;’
His action drew swift criticism from many immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s decision “a deeply shameful act of political cowardice and a despicable assault on innocent young people in communities across America.”
Some Republicans objected, too.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Trump was taking “the wrong approach,” and he added: “The federal government has a responsibility to defend and secure our borders, but we must do so in a way that upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.”
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“…These Dreamers are Americans
in their hearts,
in their minds,
in every single way but one:
on paper.
They were brought to this country
by their parents,
sometimes even as infants.
They may not know a country besides ours.
They may not even know a language besides English.
Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules.
But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.
Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill.
That bill never came. And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.
But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?
Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are that pitcher on our kid’s softball team, that first responder who helps out his community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.
It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit, and to common sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists, and Americans of all political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future. I’m heartened by those who’ve suggested that they should. And I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency these young people feel.
Ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about who we are as a people – and who we want to be.
What makes us American is not a question of what we look like, or where our names come from, or the way we pray. What makes us American is our fidelity to a set of ideals – that all of us are created equal; that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will; that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure our most cherished values for the next generation. That’s how America has traveled this far. That’s how, if we keep at it, we will ultimately reach that more perfect union.
I understand what it is like to be faulted for what is NOT one’s fault. Can you imagine what that feels like? There was no choice or consent.
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I know the elixir, the baptism of freedom and the absolution of birth right, when it is acknowledged: “You are NOT at fault! You did NOT choose or consent. YOU ARE YES!” This is what must occur with our DREAMERS!
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Define empathy. What is the effect of empathy? Is it courageous to practice empathy?
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DACA: Infants who were born in America.
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DACA: Children who were brought to America.
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DACA:Dreamers, young adults, who are woven into the fabric of what it is to be an American: HOPE + RESILIENCE + COLLABORATION + CHANGE AGENTS.
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The HostileHeartlessHopeless WH has malice in its intentional actions. The WH is/was NOT blind by the Veil of Ignorance, John Rawls’ theory of social and moral justice.
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This WH is cruel and vulgar. When our WH acts with cruelty and speaks vulgarities that becomes “normalized” and gives “consent” for American citizens to act/speak to each other with cruelty and vulgarities.
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Most school started today in our nation.
The FIRST day of school and there are DREAMERS in those classroom.
Their FIRST day and learning what action THEIR POTUS did to them and their families today. Cruel and vulgar .
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Cruel and vulgar IS cruel and vulgar.
It is intentional actions.
It is intimidation.
It is bullying.
It is meant to hurt, injure, wound intentionally.
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The WH action is on innocents, an action of “eye for an eye” for unemployed American born individuals who blame others and external factors for their circumstances. A rigid worldview.
“Eye for eye” justice makes everyone blind. Gandhi/ MLK
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Cruel and vulgar is NOT a civil conversation nor does this practice welcoming a civil conversation – it ends civility.
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Cruel actions and spoken/written vulgarities are violent practices, a domination,”put you in YOUR place” – to suppress/oppress the other and steal their freedom to be.
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How often do you hear/see the practice of vulgarities and cruelty as an assault on others?
Why? What is the intent, do you think? What does it disclose about character and soul?
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Intentional wounding.
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The rescinding of DACA is clear pandering to Trump’s base. This action will NEVER give jobs to American born unemployed individuals. Training and adapting to the present world is the key. Economics is NOT a river of concrete and it does NOT move backward. Americans need to MOVE FORWARD and step UP with hope, resilience and collaboration with and for all.
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To deport hundreds of thousands – approximately 800,000 of DREAMERS back to lands they do NOT know is cruel and vulgar. Absolute vulgar cruelty.
Words and actions have the power to either uphold light and instill hope, JOY and kindness OR to steal light and instill maligned blame and shame. Be aware of your own actions and words.Teach y/our world, y/our children, by your own actions, words and legacy that HOPE and KINDNESS is COURAGE.
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You own the power of cause and effect with your chosen actions and words – your legacy. YOU are the teacher, the template and the model. Teach by WHO you are – your actions and words.
Anyone who reads this who is and claims to be an AMERICAN, call your Senators!
Please.
Imagine IF you, me, we ALL stepped UP and refused to mimic the WH’s brand of cruelty and vulgarity – what would occur? I can envision many things: hope, grace and freedom of expression to sing/LIVE your truth without punishment or fear of reprisals.
The composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard at Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island on Friday.
Credit Ian Douglas for The New York Times
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The emotional climax of Terence Blanchard’s SummerStage concert on Friday night, at Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island, arrived precisely one hour in, like a timed detonation. It was the title track of his most recent album, “Breathless”— an elegy for Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police officers on Staten Island just over two years ago. Mr. Blanchard, in his trumpet solo over the plaintive theme, struck a careful tonal balance, sounding haunted but unflinching.
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Mr. Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry soon after his death, which was caught on video and viewed by millions. The phrase served a blunt, potent role at protests and on social media, bolstering the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. It has been printed on T-shirts, signs and buttons, like the one worn on Friday by Mr. Garner’s 2-year-old daughter, Legacy, as she distractedly took in Mr. Blanchard’s performance near the foot of the stage.
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The saying also surfaced, pluralized, in “Breathless,” via a recorded spoken-word recitation by Mr. Blanchard’s son, who goes by JRei Oliver. “Am I wrong for believing that one day black and blue would not equal pain?” he said. Then, a moment later:
These black roses grow from cracked pavements Freshly watered with the tears of the voiceless As we’ll emit a muted scream to the heavens: We. Can’t. Breathe.
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During a long, hard season of activist urgency in black popular music — among artists like Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo and now Beyoncé — jazz has by no means lagged behind. Mr. Blanchard’s album, released on Blue Note last year, is just one recent statement of many, driven by indignation, the push for justice and the urge to bear witness.
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Of course, there’s deep lineage for this in jazz, stretching even further than Louis Armstrong’s 1929 recording of “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue,” which inspired a crucial early passage in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” Any discussion of this topic would have to include Billie Holiday’s bloodcurdling lynching anthem, “Strange Fruit” (1939); Charles Mingus’s “Fables of Faubus” (1959), about the fight for school integration; Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln’s “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” (1960), a civil rights cri de coeur; and John Coltrane’s “Alabama” (1963), a lament made in response to the notorious church bombing in Birmingham.
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The current upswell has been built on this granite foundation: Jazz musicians are nothing if not self-conscious about their forebears. But the dimensions of today’s moment have also shaped the music. When the pianist Vijay Iyer began a 2014 performance in Brooklyn with a “die-in,” dancers lying on the stage, he was bringing Black Lives Matter into the concert hall. When the keyboardist Kris Bowers performed his song “#TheProtestor” in Harlem two years ago, it featured a bracing topical digression by the vocalist Chris Turner.
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The drummer Max Roach and the singer Abbey Lincoln
collaborated on “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” (1960), a civil rights cri de coeur.
Credit Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images
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Last year another singer, José James, released an album in centennial tribute to Holiday, inevitably closing with “Strange Fruit.” He sings it as an a cappella dirge, with a looping, multitracked moan. It flew mostly under the radar, but Mr. James also collaborated around the same time with the artist Talia Billig for “Peace Power Change,” a video set to his acoustic cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”
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The pianist Vijay Iyer began a 2014 performance with a “die-in,” in which dancers lay on the stage,
thus bringing Black Lives Matter into the concert hall.
Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
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Part of the power of that song, in its original context, was a yearning faith in the great sweep of history. “Peace Power Change” embraces a more intimate premise: A succession of musicians look into the camera, serious or smiling, and hold up handwritten signs bearing the names of victims of police violence, or “#blacklivesmatter,” or simply “Justice.”
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One of the artists in the video is Keyon Harrold, a trumpeter born and raised in Ferguson, Mo., where the most wrenching confrontations between protesters and the police have taken place. Mr. Harrold tells his story in brief on one track of “Nihil Novi,” a new album by the multireedist Marcus Strickland; he begins by stating his name, as in a testimony.
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The singer José James has covered Billie Holiday’s haunting anti-lynching song, “Strange Fruit,”
and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”
Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
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Names are central to this era of jazz protest, partly because of the influence of social media: When another African-American falls victim to violence by the state, his or her name becomes a hashtag, a trending topic, a tragic new meme. It’s a bulwark against the dehumanizing mode of the opposition, and a way of keeping injustice from glazing into an abstraction. The trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire grasped this idea when he put “My Name Is Oscar” on his major-label debut five years ago. The track features a spoken-word poem read by Mr. Akinmusire in the voice of Oscar Grant III, who was shot and killed by a transit officer in Oakland, Calif. (and later inspired the film “Fruitvale Station”). In 2014, Mr. Akinmusire released a more chilling and expansive follow-up, “Roll Call for Those Absent,” consisting of the names of casualties sounded out by a child, over a darkly unsettled synthesizer hum. https://youtu.be/wGFaNHrvY7ohttps://youtu.be/Zw6H-7VZgcE
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Ambrose Akinmusire paid tribute to Oscar Grant III on his major-label debut album, “My Name Is Oscar.”
Credit Eva Hambach/Agence France-Press — Getty Images
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You can find more outright fury elsewhere, as in “K.K.P.D.” (for “Ku Klux Police Department”), a 2010 track by the trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, which he performed recently the Newport Jazz Festival. Mr. James could be seen at the same festival covering the outspoken hip-hop group Dead Prez, segueing from “Police State” into “Behind Enemy Lines.”
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Mr. Blanchard, who has long been the composer of Spike Lee’s film scores (including “Chi-Raq” and “Malcolm X”), has a more mournful disposition. Even when he has mobilized behind his social statement, his natural mode is reflection: The most telling word in his 2007 album “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),” inspired by events that literally hit home, is “requiem.”
On Staten Island he led his fusionesque young band, the E-Collective, in a set that often bounded toward turbocharged dynamism, with tragedy seemingly far from the picture. But near the concert’s close, after he delivered his most pugilistic trumpet solo on a tune called “Cosmic Warrior,” to cheers and applause from a crowd with an obvious stake in the moment,
Mr. Blanchard leaned into the microphone with a message.
DAWNING #5 Catherine L. Johnson 2017
DAWNING #6 Catherine L. Johnson 2017
DAWNING #7 Catherine L. Johnson 2017
GRACE #7 Catherine L. Johnson 2017
ELEgancE #2 Catherine L. Johnson 2018
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 