Children HELPING Children

Today I accompanied my high school juniors and seniors to a local school that exists primarily for  underprivileged and/or transient students. It is an elementary school in the heart of Tempe. Community Outreach is mandatory for the students at my school, and I think that is a beautiful and meaningful requirement. Their task today was to assist various third graders in completing a reading assignment, a word search and to color a Mexican Independence Day worksheet. 

While my students were being paired up with the youngsters I observed the following:

Angels with glitter in their hair.

A boy pounding another on the wrist, while the victim remained silent and appeared bored.

My principal telling the teacher about the pounding and my students calling him a tattle tale.

One boy's attention continuously drifting from his reading to gaze at a book on a high shelf. The title of the book was Lawn Care for Busy People; there was a living grasshopper on its spine. 

One student wiggling a loose tooth with his tongue while concentrating

A female toddler child, belonging to a couple enrolling their older son-- she was wearing tiny pink Chuck Taylors and would scream then giggle. Repeatedly.

The smiles of typically angst-filled teenagers as they left the building with fewer answers ready to leap off their tongues, and a new perception of the Universe.

And another....

Altering Course to Port

We place confessions in glass bottles

About being left of center. Meanwhile

Port side adds the desert to our view.

Our horizon is uncorked, we spill out 

Forcefully and feel insignificant.

Home is there! You ring some bells.

Later, when it is 115 degrees

And you're mowing a guilty lawn, 

I'll try hard not to nag you about the edging.

(Attention to detail makes a difference though.)

The hairs on your chest turn silver

My freckles seem to be melting.

I love your laughter when I say 

Don't forget to wear a hat. 

The way you adore the hell out of this heat, 

How we conduct a slow orbit in familiar space.

I Think So.... A Skimming Rant

I think you can hate Republican viewpoints and still be patriotic. My friend D. equates watching the RNC with watching televised church programing. I admire her for trying. I watched for about 15 minutes and began to feel the dichotomy that America has become. Theirs....and mine. 

My America is comprised of : struggling, vanishing, middle class families--uninsured teachers and students, teenagers that don't know how to form a paragraph yet know who Britney Spears fucked last, long hours, and concerns about future costs on the budget we're on. Concerns about national debt, wars, and almost-wars.

I honestly don't understand their America. I am glad they're participating in Democracy, I suppose. Although, I wish they had something better to do. Okay, not really. I just find it shocking how critical the Right has become of OTHER. There seems to be virtually NO accountability for anything. No weapons of mass destruction; oops, let's finish the job, right? I won't even start on recent elections or I don't know, the Attorney General. Worse even, is their new outrage at being questioned. Imagine that. 

It seems like America has been sleepwalking for the last 8 years. 9/11 could have been a catalyst for new alliances, diplomacy and humility. Instead it became a long and detached shopping spree. And, now, 98% of Americans can't afford the sale.  

Personally, I'm afraid to put my faith in a party, or a person. In spite of myself I hear Obama speak and I feel hope stir. Watching the DNC, I repeatedly found myself thinking, "Oh my god, those people could be my friends." That and, "Please let him be wearing a bullet proof vest." I suppose the feeling of isolation, of political minority status- began to melt in the light of the messages given there. 

Now, this week, I am left to consider what country separates me from my countrymen and women who are bent on the politics of exclusion. Well. That's fine. Count me out, but don't imply I'm not patriotic. God Bless America, and theirs too. Dammit.