Friday, June 10, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication      
Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: “Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8)

Gain and loss are two of the eight worldly conditions. These are conditions that people meet—impermanent, transient, and subject to change. A mindful, wise person knows them and sees that they are subject to change. Desirable conditions do not excite one’s mind nor is one resentful of undesirable conditions. (AN 8.6)    
Reflection
The conditions of gain and loss are the first pair of the eight “worldly winds” described in the texts, and they constitute the Buddhist equivalent of the phrase “You win some and you lose some.” The idea is that some things are inevitable in life, and the appropriate strategy in such cases is not to hope for them not to happen but rather to adjust yourself to them in a way that is skillful and conducive to overall well-being.

Daily Practice
Notice how natural it is to feel good when you gain something you value and to feel bad when you experience loss. Notice also how, in such circumstances, you allow yourself to be buffeted by the worldly winds of gain and loss. See if instead you can remain firm, grounded in equanimity rather than in favoring or opposing what happens. This is one way to remain clearheaded when facing intoxicating conditions. 

Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

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Via Daily Dharma: Send Lovingkindness to Oneself

 Metta, or lovingkindness, is first practiced toward oneself, since we often have difficulty loving others without first loving ourselves. Sitting quietly, mentally repeat, slowly and steadily, the following or similar phrases: May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease.

Barry Magid, “Five Practices to Change Your Mind”


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Thursday, June 9, 2022

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Social Action
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)

One reflects thus: “I shall initiate and sustain bodily acts of kindness towards my companions, both publicly and privately.” One lives with companions in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes. One practices thus: “I set aside what I wish to do and do what my companions wish to do.” (MN 31)
Reflection
In classical Buddhist tradition there are three kinds of action—bodily, verbal, and mental—but we are adding a fourth one here, social action. This is to acknowledge that a big part of how we act in the world has to do with our role in larger social and cultural systems. Our society is made up of individuals, and ultimately the quality of the whole group is going to be shaped at the individual level. Acting with conscious awareness is healthy.

Daily Practice
Cultivate the practice of being demonstrably kind to people as carefully as you would practice meditation. Kindness is a practice in itself, and just as with the breath, when your awareness wanders off the focus point of being kind, remind yourself to gently bring it back to the practice. Let’s practice “blending like milk and water” and “viewing each other with kindly eyes” over and over until we are really good at it.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication
One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: Seeing into Compassion

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, seeing the endless rounds of meaningless suffering over lusts and aversions (which, although seemingly urgent, are essentially empty), we feel compassion for ourselves.

Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort”


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Via White Crane Institute \\ Alain Locke

 

Died
Alain Locke
1954 -

ALAIN LEROY LOCKE died on this date (b: 1885); Locke was an American, writer, educator, and patron of the arts, distinguished as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907.  Locke is widely cited as the philosophical architect —the acknowledged "Dean"— of the Harlem Renaissance. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke came through the universe."

Alain Locke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 1885  to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins Locke. He was the only child of a well-to-do family with significant pedigree. His mother Mary, who was a teacher, and with whom he lived until her death, incited in him his passion for education and literature. In 1902, he graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, second in his class. He also attended Philadelphia School of Pedagogy.

Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his PhD in philosophy in 1918.

Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy. During this period, he began teaching the first classes on race relations, leading to his dismissal in 1925. After being reinstated in 1928, Locke remained at Howard until his retirement in 1953. Locke Hall, on the Howard campus, is named after him.

In 1907, Locke graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy, and was honored as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and recipient of the prestigious Bowdoin Prize. After graduation, he was the first African-American selected as a Rhodes Scholar (and the last to be selected until 1960). At that time, Rhodes selectors did not meet candidates in person, but there is evidence that at least some selectors knew he was African-American. 

On arriving at Oxford, Locke was denied admission to several colleges, and several Rhodes Scholars from the American South refused to live in the same college or attend events with Locke. He was finally admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907–1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy.

Locke promoted African-American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African-American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material.

He was the guest editor of the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic titled "Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro", a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about its flourishing culture. In December of that year, he expanded the issue into  The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. A landmark in black literature (later acclaimed as the "first national book" of African America), it was an instant success. Locke contributed five essays: the "Foreword", "The New Negro", "Negro Youth Speaks", "The Negro Spirituals", and "The Legacy of Ancestral Arts".

Locke was Gay, and encouraged and supported other Gay African-Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. However, he was not fully public in his orientation and referred to it as his point of "vulnerable/invulnerability", taken to mean an area of risk and strength in his view.

Locke died at Mount Sinai Hospital, of heart disease. Howard University officials initially considered having Locke's ashes buried in a niche at Locke Hall on the Howard campus, similar to the way that Langston Hughes' ashes were interred at the  Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City in 1991. But Kurt Schmoke, the university's legal counsel, was concerned about setting a precedent that might lead to other burials at the university. After an investigation revealed no legal problems to the plan, university officials decided the remains should be buried off-site. At first, thought was given to burying Locke beside his mother, Mary Hawkins Locke. But Howard officials quickly discovered a problem: She had been interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but that cemetery closed in 1959 and her remains transferred to National Harmony Memorial Park—which failed to keep track of them. (She was buried in a mass grave along with 37,000 other unclaimed remains from Columbian Harmony.)

Howard University eventually decided to bury Alain Locke's remains at historic Congressional Cemetery, and African American Rhodes Scholars raised $8,000 to purchase a burial plot there. Locke was interred at Congressional Cemetery on September 13, 2014. His tombstone reads:

1885–1954  - Harlem Renaissance -  Exponent of Cultural Pluralism

On the back of the headstone is a nine-pointed Baha'i star (representing Locke's religious beliefs); a Zimbabwe Bird, emblem of the nation Locke adopted as a Rhodes Scholar; a lambda, symbol of the Gay Rights movement; and the logo of Phi Beta Sigma, the fraternity Locke joined. In the center of these four symbols is an Art Deco representation of an African woman's face set against the rays of the sun. This image is a simplified version of the bookplate that Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas designed for Locke. Below the bookplate image are the words "Teneo te, Africa" ("I hold you, my Africa")

A new biography of Locke by Jeffrey Stewart "The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke," was released in February 2018.

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Via White Crane Institute \\ ALAN TURING

 

Died
Alan Turing
1954 -
ALAN TURING, British mathematician and computer scientist died (b. 1912) from cyanide poisoning, eighteen months after being given libido-reducing hormone treatment for a year as a punishment for homosexuality. Turing is generally considered to be the Father of Modern Computer Science. He provided an influential formalization of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine.
 
In 'the Turing Test" Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses. The evaluator would be aware that one of the two partners in conversation is a machine, and all participants would be separated from one another. The conversation would be limited to a text-only channel such as a computer keyboard and screen so the result would not depend on the machine's ability to render words as speech. If the evaluator cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test. The test does not check the ability to give correct answers to questions, only how closely answers resemble those a human would give.
 
With the Turing test, he made a significant and characteristically provocative contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence: whether it will ever be possible to say that a machine is conscious and can think. He later worked at the National Physical Laboratory, creating one of the first designs for a stored-program computer, although it was never actually built.
 
In 1948 he moved to the University of Manchester to work on the Manchester Mark I, then emerging as one of the world's earliest true computers. During WWII Turing worked at Bletchley Park, Britain's code breaking center, and was for a time head of Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis.
 
He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including the method of the bombe, an electro-mechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. Turing was Gay in a period when homosexual acts were illegal in Britain and homosexuality was regarded as a mental illness and subject to criminal sanctions.
 
In 1952, Arnold Murray, a 19-year-old recent acquaintance of Turing’s, helped an accomplice to break into Turing's house, and Turing went to the police to report the crime. As a result of the police investigation, Turing acknowledged a sexual relationship with Murray, and a crime having been identified and settled, they were charged with gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. Turing was unrepentant and was convicted of the same crime Oscar Wilde had been convicted of more than fifty years before. He was given the choice between imprisonment and probation, conditional on his undergoing hormonal treatment designed to reduce libido.
 
To avoid going to jail, he accepted the estrogen hormone injections, which lasted for a year, with side effects including gynecomastia (breast enlargement). His lean runner's body took on fat. His conviction led to a removal of his security clearance and prevented him from continuing consultancy for GCHQ on cryptographic matters. At this time, there was acute public anxiety about spies and homosexual entrapment by Soviet agents. In America, Robert Oppenheimer had just been deemed a security risk.
 
On June 8, 1954, his housekeeper found him dead; the previous day, he had died of cyanide poisoning, apparently from a cyanide-laced apple he left half-eaten beside his bed. The apple itself was never tested for contamination with cyanide, and cyanide poisoning as a cause of death was established by a post-mortem.
 
Most believe that his death was intentional, and the death was ruled a suicide. His mother, however, strenuously argued that the ingestion was accidental due to his careless storage of laboratory chemicals. Biographer Andrew Hodges suggests that Turing may have killed himself in this ambiguous way quite deliberately, to give his mother some plausible deniability. Others suggest that Turing was reenacting a scene from "Snow White", reportedly his favorite fairy tale. Because Turing's sexuality would have been perceived as a security risk, the possibility of assassination has also been suggested. His remains were cremated at Woking crematorium on June 12, 1954.
 
There is an urban legend that the Apple Computer “bite out of an apple” logo is a tribute to Turing. It is exactly that: an urban legend. But that’s not to say that the idea of paying homage to Turing is something the creators of Apple were against. When actor Stephen Fry once asked his good friend Steve Jobs if the famous logo was based on Turing, Jobs replied, “God, we wish it were.” Hodges biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma is the basis of the film The Imitation Game (a reference to “the Turing Test” which is also referenced in the film Ex Machina.
 

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via White Crane Institute \\ KENNETH LEWES

 


Psychologist Kenneth Lewes
1943 -

KENNETH LEWES was an Renaissance scholar who became a psychologist who went on toe question modern psychoanalysis of homosexuality. He was born on this date and grew up in a post-World War II working-class neighborhood of the northeast Bronx, the son of an immigrant couple who never got beyond grade school. He guessed even before he entered junior high school that he was gay.

But it wasn’t until he was nearly 50 — and publishing what would become a critically acclaimed takedown of post-Freudian psychoanalytic theories of homosexuality — that he confided his sexual orientation to his parents.

“I remember finding my way to the local public library and checking out books on psychology and human development,” he said in an interview in 2019 with the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, “in hopes of finding some reassurance that my interest in handsome boys was only a stage that I would soon pass through.”

Dr. Lewes was married at 23 and divorced by 32 — the age when he had his first homosexual experience. “It seemed only natural for me to be out of the closet to my friends, colleagues and family,” he said, “with the important exception of my parents, who, it had become clear over the years, did not want to hear anything on that particular subject. I came out to them almost 15 years later.”

Dr. Lewes’s major work, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Male Homosexuality  (1988), traced the evolution of the prevailing view that homosexuality was a curable illness and explored what he called the psychoanalytic establishment’s “century-long history of homophobia.” The book’s title was changed to Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexuality in later editions.

Drawing on some 500 primary sources, Dr. Lewes’s book, which expanded on his doctoral dissertation, found that most analysts had adhered to “popular prejudice” against gay people and clichés about them. “Many analysts,” he concluded, “have violated basic norms of decency in their treatment of homosexuals.”

He said he had been unable to find a single analysis of the subject written by a psychoanalyst who identified as gay.

Dr. Lewes found that the Oedipus complex could lead to 12 alternative resolutions, six of them heterosexual and six homosexual. “All results of the Oedipus complex are traumatic,” he wrote, “and, for similar reasons, all are ‘normal.’”

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - June 8, 2022 💌


 

My own strategy is to keep cultivating the witness, that part of me that notices how I’m doing it—cultivate the quiet place in me that watches the process of needing approval, of the smile on the face, of the false humility, of all the horrible creepy little psychological things that are just my humanity. And watching them occur again and again and again. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: We Lack Nothing

You lack nothing. You lack nothing of the wisdom and perfection of the Buddha, right at this moment. Hearing, breathing, you don’t differ even one drop from hearing, breathing Buddha.

Elihu Genmyo Smith, “No Need to Do Zazen, Therefore Must Do Zazen”


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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Frivolous Speech
Frivolous speech is unhealthy. Refraining from frivolous speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning frivolous speech, one refrains from frivolous speech. One speaks at the right time, speaks only what is fact, and speaks about what is good. One speaks what is worthy of being overheard, words that are reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak frivolously, but I shall abstain from frivolous speech.”  (MN 8)

An authentic person is one who even unasked reveals what is praiseworthy in others—how much more so when asked. When asked, however, and obliged to reply to questions, one speaks of what is praiseworthy in others, fully and in detail. (AN 4.73)
Reflection
It is not necessary to point out people’s flaws on a regular basis. Sometimes things need to be called out, and right speech does not mean covering up what is difficult. But it does point to the inherent harmfulness of being unnecessarily critical, which can damage the speaker as well as the target of such speech. You should focus on saying what is beneficial, and much of the time critical speech is rooted in an aggressive mental stance.

Daily Practice
Get in the habit of saying good things about people. Practice random acts of praise, even when not asked to do so. And when you do have an opportunity, don’t hold back on pointing out what is praiseworthy in others. We know this is important when raising children, so why not extend it to everyone? It turns out this is a healthy thing to do, because it both benefits others and brings out healthy states in you.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Social Action
One week from today: Refraining from False Speech

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Questions?
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Equanimity
Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on equanimity, for when you develop meditation on equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62) 

The purpose of equanimity is warding off attachment. (Vm 9.97) When a person seeing a form with the eye is not attached to pleasing forms and not repelled by unpleasing forms, they have established mindfulness and dwell with an unlimited mind. For a person whose mindfulness is developed and practiced, the eye does not struggle to reach pleasing forms, and unpleasing forms are not considered repulsive. (SN 35.274)
Reflection
Equanimity is the antidote to aversion. Just as we can develop an aversive tendency through practice and habit, we can develop equanimity as a primary character trait and latent tendency. We can practice this at the level of primary sensory contact, such as described here using visual information. Practice just seeing what is there, without attachment or aversion; gaze upon your visual sphere with equanimity.

Daily Practice
When you are looking at something using your eyes, notice when this is accompanied by a subtle “I don’t like this” or “This is not good.” When you are aware of this happening, try replacing the aversion with an attitude of equanimity: “This is the way this is. I don’t need to judge it or disapprove of it. Let it be.” In this way the eye is not struggling against unpleasing forms and is thus not attached to their being different than they are. 

Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: Let Passing Thoughts Pass

 We have no control over what confronts us when we step out our door. We don’t blame ourselves when the weather is bad; we didn’t cause the weather and thus don’t feel responsible for it. But when passing thoughts appear in our mind, we often take them personally, as though we were the owner and controller of such thoughts.

Haemin Sunim, “Three Methods for Letting Go of Thoughts”


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Monday, June 6, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9)

One perfects their ethical behavior by abandoning misbehavior among sensual pleasures . . . (DN 2)
Reflection
This is by now a familiar theme for us, the focus on refining ethical behavior and abandoning actions driven by sensual pleasures. The path to the cessation of suffering can be followed only by observing the ethical precepts, and the precept guarding against inappropriate sexuality is as important as the others. Remember: sensuality can include a much wider range of interpretations than the merely sexual.

Daily Practice
Reflect honestly on your own behavior, especially the extent to which it may or may not be entangled in sensual desire. Sensuality is a sensitive and challenging topic, and it often seems there is an extra charge around matters of sexuality. This text is inviting you to look openly at ways leading to the end of suffering and in particular to look for ways in which a different perspective on sensuality might help reduce some kinds of suffering.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Equanimity
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: The Work to Transform

 As long as we’re using up our energy to resist our circumstances, we won’t be able to dedicate it to the work of true transformation. 

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, “The Gift of Contemplation”


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Sunday, June 5, 2022

Via Facebook \\ Sukhasiddhi Dag Shang Kagyu


Kyabje Karma Rangjung Khunkyab, Kalu Rinpoche:
Indian Buddhist master Shantideva emphasized in one of his works, that this precious human existence, with the opportunity and freedom for spiritual development, is very difficult to obtain, and if we have obtained it and do not make proper use of it How can we expect to get such an opportunity on the future? The question is that the human rebirth we are experiencing now, is not something random that takes place without meaning, nor effort. "It is something that happens with great difficulty, something that rarely happens."

 

Nineteen & Two
By Sofía Aguilar

I am mourning nineteen children I never knew.
I am mourning untied shoelaces and velcro straps, 

unzipped backpacks and incomplete homework. 

Their good grades in school
and the poor ones too.
Their gold stars and the bad marks,
their hair braided so tight with bolitas
before breakfast their head ached until dinner. 

How they scrunched up their faces at their baby studs and communion shoes,
straps marking their ankles skin-red.
How when crossing a street,
seeking solace from their fear
their fingers already knew
to clutch tight to another’s.
I am mourning their two teachers

who looked like my mother my tías
my abuelas
in an earlier life,

younger faces of the people I love. I am mourning the lost lunches and the lesson plans
left, laid out on their desks.

The notes and suggestions to their students,
spare thoughts they scribbled to themselves. Every day’s outfit planned before the week began ironed by hand and hung there in the closet,
the clothes they will never wear again.
In passing,
my father berates the Texas police
their lack of urgency
their defense of handcuffing
parents
families
tasing their bodies
to stop them from begging, ripping free
or breaking down the school doors in their fury.

I want to ask him,
If everyone had been white inside that school,
all blonde locks and fair faces,
the kind easily found and easily missed,
would the police have intervened?
Would they have risked their lives
to save a child they didn’t claim?
Or would they still have left nineteen children
and their two teachers for dead?
But already I know these are not the right questions. Instead,
What do we do
when we’re dying at the hands
of a shooter who was one of our own?
A boy who shared the rhythm of our name
and spoke the same language with
the same tongue in his mouth,
rather than a white man
with a colonized mind
and a gun in his hands
this country deems his right to wield?
I do not mourn him.

I don’t know how.
I mourn a community breaking from bullets
death
decay
deportation
assimilation
alienation
segregation
punishment for seeking a better life only to have it taken away instead.

I mourn the children who lived. Who remember those who didn’t.

Who now carry the burdens alone.

Sofía Aguilar is a Chicana poet based in Los Angeles and author of the forthcoming collection “STREAMING SERVICE: season two.” @sofiaxaguilar

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