Nov. 9th, 2016

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lokifan:

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the black man bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the black man, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The abuse and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again
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kangals:

me: im not gonna even watch the election results im just gonna relax and play some video games and check in after midnight to see what it looks like

me: *opens 5 animated real-time maps, 3 liveblogs, 8 political analysts twitter feeds, stares into the abyss*
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“In Life’s name, and for Life’s sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so - ‘til the Universe’s end.”
- The Wizard’s Oath
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“Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.”
-

Homer, The Iliad  800 B.C.E.  (via zoeshorrorstory)

So this exact phrasing is from Donna Tartt, The Secret History:

and it’s actually a very loose translation - what Odysseus says to himself, in Book 11.404-410, is:

ὤ μοι ἐγὼ τί πάθω; μέγα μὲν κακὸν αἴ κε φέβωμαι
πληθὺν ταρβήσας: τὸ δὲ ῥίγιον αἴ κεν ἁλώω
μοῦνος: τοὺς δ᾽ ἄλλους Δαναοὺς ἐφόβησε Κρονίων.
ἀλλὰ τί ἤ μοι ταῦτα φίλος διελέξατο θυμός;
οἶδα γὰρ ὅττι κακοὶ μὲν ἀποίχονται πολέμοιο,
ὃς δέ κ᾽ ἀριστεύῃσι μάχῃ ἔνι τὸν δὲ μάλα χρεὼ
ἑστάμεναι κρατερῶς, ἤ τ᾽ ἔβλητ᾽ ἤ τ᾽ ἔβαλ᾽ ἄλλον.

or, in the Samuel Butler translation:

“Alas,” said he to himself in his dismay, “what will become of me? It is ill if I turn and fly before these odds, but it will be worse if I am left alone and taken prisoner, for the son of Saturn has struck the rest of the Danaans with panic. But why talk to myself in this way? Well do I know that though cowards quit the field, a hero, whether he wound or be wounded, must stand firm and hold his own.”

You can see what Tartt is pulling out - a soldier, “ὃς δέ κ᾽ ἀριστεύῃσι” (one who is heroic/excels) must be strong and hold firm - but I’m not sure where “saith my heart” comes from as Odysseus is addressing his heart, here (that’s the literal translation for “myself”) or “I have seen worse sights than this”

(via plinytheyounger)

Huh, interesting. If I only saw the quote by itself, I would’ve thought it was from Od. 20.18

τέτλαθι δή, κραδίη: καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο ποτ᾽ ἔτλης.

Then the soldier bit wouldn’t make any sense. Aaaaand neither would the speaking heart bit. Maybe Tartt mistakenly combined both of these? Yeah… I got nothing.

(via tedgar)

Tedgar that is brilliant! Thank you so much - I had the vague feeling it reminded me of something else, but I think that Odyssey quote has to be part of it (for my non-Greek-speaking-audience - “Be firm, my heart! For you have endured even worse things than this.”)

It might be a way of using the “I address my heart” motif backwards to use the “speaking heart”? As for “I am a soldier”, I have no idea - Homeric characters don’t tend to think of themselves as “soldiers” in the sense that’s implied here. I’m still really baffled as to why Tartt would take, really, a very loosely adapted line of the Odyssey and attribute it to Book 11 of the Iliad, with the same character?

(also, I mean, it’s not “seen worse sights” but “suffered more dog-like treatment”, to be exact - it’s not about battlefield stuff by this point but about the various monsters he’s met with)

Odysseus also gives a little it’s-been-worse speech to his men at Od. 12.208-212, but that’s even further off.

(via plinytheyounger)
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“τέτλαθι δή, κραδίη: καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο ποτ᾽ ἔτλης.”
- Homer, Odyssey 20:18
“Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this.”
“Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this”   (via olvmpian)
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v1als:

severus-snape-is-a-butt-trumpet:

what do we do tho? like, honestly? what happens if he’s elected? what do we honest to god do?

Coming from the UK after our own catastrophe: you make his life hell. You make his government’s life hell. Anything and everything shitty that they want to do, you protest, you campaign, you petition, you lobby. You tie the whole thing up in so much red tape that Mr I’ve-Never-Had-Anyone-Say-No-To-Me starts loathing his job.

You create private safe zones, you look out for one another, you let your now validated racist, homophobic, transphobic neighbours know that their bigotry will not be tolerated through any means you feel it’s safe to do so. You join forces. Despite everything, you thrive out of spite, out of survival, out of a need to protect your own.

All of these communities have faced untold amounts of hell before and we’re all still here. It’s in our history to survive – in our genetic makeup. There will be losses and there will be casualties but in four years you’ll still be here and you’ll vote him out and the time to grieve will be then. For now, fight. In any way you can, even if all you can do is get through each day at a time. Fight him every step of the way.
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marquessbrie:

breelandwalker:

gabrielthemoose:

fox-teeth:

Osteomancy, a story about the pitfalls of perfectionism and unsatisfactory divination skulls, was my final project for Storytelling last semester. I really put my heart, soul, and a lot of hard work into this comic and I hope you enjoy it!

@breelandwalker I thought you might get get a kick out of this

That is FANTASTIC! XD

@t-raith @tarnishedcoins @unseelieaccords @harry-the-lizard
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carpaydiem:

jackthevulture:

I’m gonna outlive donald trump i dont care how long i have to wait i wanna live in a world where he doesnt exist and I dont have to hear or see him 

Spite, fuel me

im not goin anywhere

god this was so uplifting to read
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0tterp0p:

tehnakki:

grammarsaveslives:

shadesofmauve:

fiireforaheart:

i-gotta-go-good-day-pusscake:

severus-snape-is-a-butt-trumpet:

what do we do tho? like, honestly? what happens if he’s elected? what do we honest to god do?

YOU MUST VOTE IN 2018

The 2018 United States elections will be held (for the most part) on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. During this mid-term election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested. 38 state and territorial governorships and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.

You all had better turn the FUCK out in 2018. Are you pissed about the results? Do you want more progressives in office? GOOD. HIT THE FUCKING GROUND. Don’t just turn up to vote, canvass and phone bank and do WHATEVER IT TAKES. If all you get from this election is a lesson then you better learn it.

THIS.

FUCKING.

THING.

Do NOT sit on your asses for four years. Midterms are a chance to flip the house and senate, and that fucking matters.

This is not going to be enough. You have to become intimately familiar with you who your state assemblymen and state senators are. You need to become familiar with your Congressperson and your two Senators. And you need to start calling their offices (like on the phone) and emailing and tweeting at them about what you want from them and how displeased with them you are as they start putting whatever the fuck his actual policy plans are into action.

Because as it stands right now, there is going to be no soul-searching from the Republican Party. Not with those numbers. They are going to view this as a mandate and sweeping changes will be made. Bad sweeping changes. 

You need to become involved and indicate to them that you are an engaged voter. They are not going to change for you. You have to meet them in the communication channels they have always employed.

And you might want to start donating to causes like Planned Parenthood and other groups. Because those are about to be gutted even more than they are.

Seriously. Give yourself a couple days to breathe and process and then get to fucking work. Look up everyone in your district, your county, your state. Get a good idea on their policies and what they will be voting for. PAY ATTENTION to what issues are coming up before local, state, and federal government. Be aware of what’s going on and then ACT. Start calling your representatives once a week to voice your position on what they need to vote on. Tweet and email them daily. They say something stupid on social media? Call them the fuck out for it AND THEN follow it up with a email/letter and a phonecall.This is on all of us guys. We have to work at this as hard as we work at anything else in our lives. This is our second/third/fourth job now because without the kind of consistent and constant pressure the rightest of right wingers have been applying to our government we will not be able to turn this tide.So take a breath. Then make a plan and act on that plan.
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FYI I’m going to tag everything relating to this election and the incoming orange rage turnip as “dystopian hellscape reality” because someone I follow used that tag and it’s catchy. So, block that for a lack of political nonsense from my tumblr right now.
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Neither Trump nor Hillary can do most of the things people seem to believe they can. While I do feel bad things may happen, they certainly won’t be as bad as tumblr’s predicting.

We won’t be put in concentration camps, or send to mandatory conversion therapy, or have our rights stripped away overnight. We will have every opportunity to speak out and fight anything we believe to be unfair. America’s not going to become North Korea in the span of twenty four hours.

It’s a scary time, but it’s not the end of the world.
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““I wish it need not happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.””
-

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I don’t think there’s any quote more suitable for today (9 November 2016)

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