June 28, 2006
Dear friends on the East End:
It's that time again. I wonder what the woman with the torch would be saying if she could speak.
Every July 4th I write something to try to deal with my own internal conflicts. This year I have no words. I tried.
I plan to stay home with two exceptions. I will stand in Bridgehampton with the East End Women in Black Vigil on Sunday at 5 p.m. and I will go to the Southampton Village Hall at 4 p.m. on Monday for the historic swearing in of new Village Trustee Bonnie Cannon.
As people prepare for picnics and flashing lights in the sky, I write to ask you to do join East End Women in Black at our Sunday Vigil, 5 p.m., July 2nd, Bridgehampton Monument to show your opposition to this war, occupation, the sanctioning of torture in our names, the abandonment of people in the Gulf Coast, cruel immigration policies .-- to show that we are alive, that we resist these abominations, that we are committed to building our communities, and stand in a rich and proud legacy of ordinary people who understand and live by Dr. King's words: "A Time Comes When Silence is Betrayal." That time has long since come.
Stand with us to show your neighbors and community what you believe.
Code Pink/Women For Peace and Gold Star Families will launch a BRING THE TROOPS HOME FAST in Washington, D.C. on July 4th. Along with many others I will fast on the 4th, here at home. Many groups have called for a pledge to vote only for candidates who call for an end to the war and occupation. I have joined that pledge and hope you have or will.
The East End Women in Black Vigil is the longest standing public protest in our area -- thanks to a small, humble dedicated group: Dan, Antje, Sigrid, Tom, Tony, Ann and others. Let's make our presence known this Sunday.
I've pasted in last year's July 4th piece. Perhaps we can each bring something to share on Sunday -- signs of life, hope, resistance, community, imagination.
With thanks, to all those who have been carrying on,
Kathy Engel
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July 4
(Guantanamo/Iraq)
No fireworks
This time
Day of Inter dependence
On the sidewalk
Next to the big store holiday sales
Voices strangled
Behind fabric
Blue red ink bleeds family secrets
(a flag by any other name)
Through blindfolds
Legs dragging metal, through distance
The contortion of staying alive
How many years
Whose tongue
Letters home
Shreds
No fireworks
For me this year
No silence either
Each explosion a bomb
With a one syllable name
Incinerating places, people,
Ideas some official can't translate
In the name of something
Too mean to declare
Alphabet blown to bits
Declaration of omnipotence
No celebration of detonating earthshaking -
Skin too tender to touch
(With hands)
No please, no thank you
No oohs and aahs
No beach picnic, rooftop party
A friend on a reservation
said the fireworks
started early this year
someone couldn't wait
she heard
but couldn't see from her home
then remembered (the story)
when the boom and shiver came
out of nowhere
during dinner
This time
We just speak
The unspeakable
Plant something
With our beings
This time
We will not watch the stunning multicolored strip strapping
Miraculous
No
Proliferation
Interrogation
No new name for dismantling the parts that make a person whole: legs, kidneys, lips, hope, faith, thought, bread, family, love
No gorgeous lights in the sky
electric shock
Land mine keeps bursting
No fireworks this year
The lights
This time
sizzle from the words we dare
Invent
Together
The way they work in our mouths
Syntax too complex and fascinating to pronounce
In a flash
In the sky
How we move
together
shimmer of memory
We Hold These Truths
It is not too late
To claim
A legacy
Of meaning
Intelligent, attached
Love
Tell the story
Tell the story
Tell the story
July 3, 2005
