A flatbed truck carries a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park in Charlottesville. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Statues of Limitation
A German comrade
quipped, “When you
Come to Frankfurt
You’ll find bronze celebrating
Poets, painters, philosophers—
But you won’t find the
Führer’s face any place—
Bratwurst, beer and Jazz
in Berlin; but you’ll find
lime green leprechauns
before patinas of Goebbels,
and Goering glaring from
park and plaza pedestals…”
Italian bandmates chimed in,
“Come with us when we go home—
you won’t find Mussolini’s
mug in Milan, or Rome…”
And the Butoh dancer blurted
“And no Tojo in Tokyo!”
Why’d I softly reply,
“ Dixie—south of the
Canadian Border—sits
pock marked with 1,000
syphilitic statues of
Slavers, traitors, terrorists—“
Instead of screaming,
“Would you name your child
Jezebel Jackson,
Judas Jones,
Satan Smith, or
Sheriff Joe—
Would you call yourself
a nigger, bitch, or hoe?
Would you celebrate
Stonewall Jackson, or
Robert E. Lee—
Would you tell your Mother
You’re an SOB?”
Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.
The horrible toll of Israel's genocide in Gaza is still being revealed. There are also at least 3,400 families with only one surviving member, Palestinian officials have said.
The Working Families Party presents itself as a political party that works for the interest of working class people. However, the party behaves more like a sheepdog for the Democratic party.
In this week’s segment we discuss the continued genocide in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Darren Mack is co-founder and co-director of Freedom Agenda, an organization devoted to decarceration and system transformation, including
Dilara Sengul is a member of “A Thousand Youth for Palestine”, an organization based in Turkey that is a member of the International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine. She joins us to discuss…
