We the People Have Risen - the Women's March on Washington

Women's March, January 21, 2017
"Hear Our Voice"
(Click on any image for a larger view.)

"On Saturday, January 21, 2017, millions will gather in Washington D.C. and in hundreds of cities around the world. This is a local event for those that will be unable to travel to Washington D.C. - instead, we will march in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington here in Albuquerque.

We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.  The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us - women, immigrants of all statuses, those with diverse religious faiths particularly Muslim, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native and Indigenous people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, the economically impoverished and survivors of sexual assault. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear. In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers is too great to ignore.  We call on all defenders of human rights to join us."

- Excerpt from the Women's March website - the Albuquerque page.

"Come gather around people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

And if your breath to you is worth saving

Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changing

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no telling who that it's naming

For the loser now will be later to win

Cause the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's the battle outside raging

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changing"

- Excerpt from The Times They Are A Changin', 1963, Bob Dylan. (A version of this song - sung by Tracy Chapman - appears at this post's end.)

***

Women's March, January 21, 2017
"Same Shit, Different Century"

I would not be a human - let alone a woman - if I did not somehow commemorate this day.

It rained the day Donald Trump - our reigning patriarch - took office. But, that was yesterday. The good news is that today the sun shines on millions of women and men around the world who have risen against all that he represents.

What a difference a day makes.

And, it only took one woman posting on her Facebook page to awaken this sleeping giant... one Facebook post, my friends, to start a virtual war. But this is a war we can all rally around.  When one half of the worlds population finally frees themselves from an oppression that has lasted centuries, then all of us are made free and whole again.

For a live feed of this world-wide event, click here. For more images, try here, here and here... or there and there.

I've posted some images recently found... including a drawing of my own* from 1979 (below, and after the jump). Nothing defines a movement like its art! ;-)

* Drawing added January 22, 2017.

(This just in: Apparently Trump  is still in denial. He did not win the popular vote, nor were the participants in the Women's March on Washington exclusively from the States... but: "President Trump tweets on Women’s March protesters: “Why didn’t these people vote?”)

Los Angeles, January 21, 2017
"We the People are Greater than Fear"

Los Angeles, January 21, 2017
"We the People Defend Dignity"

A tribute to Carrie Fisher - another casualty of 2016
"A Woman's Place is Leading the Resistance!"

Women's March, January 21, 2017

More photos (and videos added 1/24/17) after the jump...

For the Angels

A detail from a work in progress - with a borrowed element from
Sandro Botticelli's (1489) Cestello Annunciation - © 2016, DS

It's the beginning of a new year... and one that is particularly welcome; especially after 2016, the year when, for many people (including myself), everything went to hell. We lost a lot people last year - the death of David Bowie was the first bad omen - and, all in all, it was a little creepy; you'd think they all were "abandoning ship" or something.

"For the Angels" was to be my last post of that year - as opposed to the first of 2017 - wherein I expressed my gratitude to certain friends of mine - the true angels - who helped me out in the past 6 months, literally saving me from an eviction, and figuratively saving me from the wolves howling at my door.

Actual poverty is almost like a disease; it's debilitating in more ways than a comfortably-placed person can conceive of. Society, for instance, treats poverty as if it were a crime; taking the self-righteous position that the impoverished are at fault for their own failure. Very often, those whom we refer to as friends take the same position; they see you drowning and advise you to swim. Your true friends, however, are those who throw you a line at the crucial moment, and it is to these friends - and they know who they are - this post is dedicated.

Artists, of course, are traditionally poor... "the starving artist" is so cliche that even some artists are under the impression they really can live on air alone. The "mad artist" in the garret is another cliche. And, as it was, I blogged about artists and mental institutions quite a lot in the second half of last year, most likely because the idea of residing in one became more understandable as the days moved on.

But, it is a new year... and, thus far, the worse that can be said about it is the surrealistic coronation of multi-millionaire billionaire King Donald in the coming week. As I mentioned in the previous version of this post, a man in Canada has predicted Trump will be behind bars before the end of the year... which would be the best-case scenario, had VP Pence  - known in Twitter circles as the "Man from Glad" - not been waiting in the wings. So, for most Americans - and most people in the free world - it looks like a lose/lose situation. Although I have little more to say about the matter, our friend Hawkwood over Shadows in Eden has written rather extensively (and accurately) about Agent Orange, and so I direct you here (and here).*