SIbilA – AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POETRY
BURN THE DOLLARS FOK THE BUSH
But THE BUSH aggression against democracy, the American people, the peoples of the world and the environment started even before the son, with the father. In 1991 we were jailed along with many others in San Francisco for protesting, for voicing our outrage at Bush Sr.’s ‘Gulf War’ excuse to steal petroleum for his family and cohorts. We took to the streets in thousands: Not in Our Name—No Blood For Oil! Nonetheless we were jailed. Crimes against humanity and the environment for the sake of profit is, apparently, a Bush family value. And the list of well documented crimes is extensive: http://www.motherearth.org/bushwanted/laws.php http://www.bushcommission.org/ Ten years later the hydra grew another head. THE BUSH. When George W. Bush bombed Iraq despite the protest of the American people, the international community, the UN, and common sense, we took to the streets again, and we women held a keening circle in San Francisco in solidarity of the Iraqi women, in empathy of their pain and in outrage at this atrocity. But we know this is not enough. Our voices, our tears, our outrage. In a time when ‘our leaders’ flagrantly disregard their own people—their professionals, their scientists warning of the imminent disasters due to global warming and the role the US and its policies play in the greatest emission of greenhouse gases on the globe…when ‘our leaders’ blatantly ignore the outcry of the international community, completely, even whimsically, disregarding treaty after treaty that was painstakingly derived to keep the fragile peace on the planet, when they, as George W. Bush did during a speech at the UN laughingly tell security to tape shut the mouth of a citizen voicing his outrage, what are our recourses? Organized protest by the people is not enough!!! Disseminating the information is not enough!!! International trial for war crimes is not even enough!!! Where is Gandhi! Where is Allen Ginsberg to stop the madness!!!! Where is the plan the five hundred proposals the circle the white house with pink tape, play the lute, the flute non-stop by droves until sense returns!!!!!!!!!! Why can’t he be stopped? My children ask me. They are well aware of our self-imposed exile. They are well informed of the Bush regime crimes, the destruction of the fragile experiment of democracy, the supra-national corpo-irrational capitalism backed by the US military, which is wreaking havoc on the world and is responsible for shocking violence to people all over the globe. There is some complicity that allows him to remain. Obviously the model is flawed. Supra-national corporate capitalism? Smash the model and start over! As a musician and a poet, I have this undying will and belief that art can transform the cruelest, the hardest—can heal even the damage of THE BUSH, heal the sickness of THE BUSH. But even art is not enough! Chant FOR all people!!!!!!!!!!! That we must use everything, our voices our tears our plans our instruments our sounds our angels OUR NATIVE ANCESTORS the fire stones our strikes our will our poetry our pages sing loud and louder our civil disobedience our exile our media to respond to the emergency. This is not a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is a real emergency. BURN THE DOLLARS FOK THE BUSH!
Jennifer Sarah Frota Natal 2007
*That is, in a generally: ‘Fascism in power is the open, terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of finance capitalism.’
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We are in exile. The fascist* dictatorship, THE BUSH, of the United States has forced us to into exile. In the year 2000 it was the first time in the history of the U.S. that a person assumed power of the nation AGAINST THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. When a person assumes power against the will of its people, this is defined as a dictatorship. In that election, the majority voted for the other candidate. I tell my ESL students this. They are confused by the Electoral College—it doesn’t seem very democratic to them. Where they live, in Brazil, each person has a vote that weighs equally to the vote of his neighbor. One person, one vote. This power of the people—this respect for their will is the basis of democracy. My children know this. My students know this. It is not difficult to understand.