New Tears From Old Wounds

My heart cried the same old tears it cried in the 60s when I heard what was being said in Washington this week. The tears were new, but they came from the same old wounds. The stories are the same based on hatred of unknown hatred.
While this Health Care bickering has blasted the polorization wide open, it sounds like the racism of the 1960s. There was Rep. John Lewis, a strong and proud veteran of the marches in the south at the side of Martin Luther King Jr, being called a n......... just has he was in MIssissippi and Alabama in 1965. Others with him were being called names to denegrate them and they were being spat on. And worst of all, members of the Congress of The United States stood on the balcony overlooking this scene with signs to help promote the unruly behavior.
What have we come to? Where are our manners? Who are our leaders? Why do we hate this much?
I wept as I comtemplated that scene. It would not have mattered if it were Republicans or Democrats who were booing and spitting or Republicans or Democrats who were being booed or spat upon. We have become an unruly mob! A group of mindless boobs who shift and sway in the wind of whichever fool has the loudest megaphone. A herd of donkeys braying under the whip of the loud and foul mouthed herders who crack their vocal whips of hate and bigotry and guide us in the direction they choose for us to go.
I weep! I weep at your actions and words. I weep for your children who are watching your example. I weep for your country that will never be healed because of such rancor and disgust. And I weep for your everlasting souls that will never find peace in such mean spirited places.

A Review of Peace Tales

This is a book that has been around for a long time, but I just picked it up again and was reminded what a great book it is. Margaret Read Macdonald collected these stories and proverbs in Peace Tales, World Folktales to Talk About. Not only is it a wonderful starting point for those who are looking for a place to find this kind of story, it is a reminder for those us who may have been down the path before.
Peace Tales contains some of my personal favorite stories that have been in the repertoire for many years, and a few that I'd forgotten about, but will be coming back soon. Old Joe and the Carpenter, The Neighbor's Suspicious Looking Son, Not My Problem (A Drop of Honey), and Lifting the Sky are wonderful stories to tell and for audiences to hear.
I remember the first time that I heard Vi Hilbert tell "Lifting The Sky" and watching an audience of storytellers join in as we lifted the sky that night. No one who was in that audience will ever forget that image. Each of us may have a different picture of the sky moving up, but none will be able to lose the magic given to us by that tiny reed-thin woman motivating us to lift the sky into its proper place. That prompted me to use the story with audiences, particularly those of younger children.
Although the book was originally published in 1992, it is timeless and should have a place on every storyteller's book shelf. Also included are Margaret Read Macdonald's usual bibliographies, tips for telling, sources for the stories and additional delights to discover while perusing this delightful volume.