sin Embargo

by Brian Dominick

Do not forget how the media dehumanized him and tried to justify his murder

Do not forget how peaceful protests were painted as savage riots

Do not forget police armed with military grade weapons terrorized and arrested black civilians

Do not forget Darren Wilson being awarded over $400,000 in fundraiser donations for murdering an unarmed black child

Do not forget that this system was not built to defend us, but to control us

“God, send us someone to cure AIDS, cancer, etc., etc.”

“I did, but you gave them a substandard education because they lived in an area with poor funding due to low property taxes.  

I did, but you let them die because they couldn’t afford healthcare.  

I did, but due to racism you stomped out their potential and didn’t give them the same opportunities.  

I did, but you make a college education too unaffordable while giving the big bankers passes.

I did, but you saw a homeless youth before you saw a kid with potential.  

I did, but you kicked the downtrodden while they were already shoulder deep in sinking sand.”

Cosmarxpolitan, Issue 3

Literary Birthday - 9 February

Happy Birthday, Alice Walker, born 9 February 1944

Top 10 Alice Walker Quotes

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

All History is current; all injustice continues on some level, somewhere in the world. 

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame. 

I try to teach my heart not to want things it can’t have. 

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s “mature” critics often are.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us. 

Any God I ever found in church, I brought in myself. 

Walker is an award-winning American author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry. She is best known for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Walker works to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual.