Escribimos con sangre pero no perdura

The French did not learn the lessons of history,
nor the British, Spanish, German, Portuguese,
and we, the latest bloated children of empire,
have learned them least of all.

We write with blood but it does not last, it never
lasts; we guillotine, garrotte, nuke existence beyond
existence. The trees remember and they perdure,
but they do not speak. Late at night there is a susurration

of aimless human souls beckoning remembrance.
Alas, it is too quiet, gentle, too much a part
of the natural environment. We are the animal
that puts its hand twice, thrice, no, even unto

eternity on the burning fire, and are amazed
when the fire is hot, and burns it. We have no memory
of yesterday, of the singeing pain, of the pain
of our mothers holding their dismembered children.

Escribimos con sangre, pero no perdura.

Yesterday as I was driving back from a job, I listened to a report on China's black jails on NPR's All Things Considered. Jails where dissenters, people complaining about corruption, are locked away, sometimes tortured, and if not physically tortured, at least mentally tortured, in that they do not know why, or what or when will happen, whatever is going to happen. It brings the dissenters away from the main city, so that there can be an appearance of 'normality' and all things are bright and beautiful in this wonderful land. Obama talked about human rights in China... but no one is talking about the human rights of our prisoners, the ones in Guantánamo, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who knows where else...

Friday I leave for the SOAW, which trains foreign Latin American soldiers to engage in brutal repression (remember the recent Honduran coup d'état?) So it seems as though, in many ways, it is business as usual,
oh what a thrill, Lucille,
let's not complain, Lorraine,
we understand, Rostand,
and we haven't got time for the pain...

Oh, and, the economic recovery? The 'bailout'? For the rich and the superrich, mes amies. For the AIG's and the Bank of America and the major major fuckers... the University here, the State University, is increasing its tuition and costs by 32%. After all, we don't need no college degree to work in the McDonaldized future world...

O brave new world that has such people in it...