An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in the first steps of learning to read and write.
quote by William Labov

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Id Rather Be Strong
(myles goodwyn)
Published by slalom publishing co. - bmi
Its a sad situation
Alot of hopeless information
On the news
Nothins gonna please you
And nothins gonna change
Well thats your view
So many hungry people
Its a shame and is it legal?
Well its a sight
Theres something goin on
Somethin we can change
And its our right
So Id rather be strong
In a hopeless situation, yes
I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation, yes
I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes I would, yes I would
Well you can say its a shame
And things remain the same
And so it goes
But no ones gonna hear you
And no ones gonna see
What doesnt show
Itd be cause for celebration
If only every nation understood
And helping one another
And doing for the other, what they could
And Id rather be strong
In a hopeless situation, yes
I would rather be strong
And to show determination, yes
I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes I would, yes I would
Id be a lot better off if I could
Be part of the love
Thats seemingly lost from above
A delicate situation (situation)
Requires contemplation, everyone (everyone)
And someone has to care (someone to care)
When people live in fear of each mans son (each mans son)
So Id rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes, I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes, I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes, I would, yes, I would
Id be a lot better off if I could
Be part of the love
Thats seemingly lost from above
Id rather be strong, ooh yes, I would
Well, Id rather be strong, yes I would, yes I would, yes I would
Well, Id rather be strong, ooh yes I would
Well, Id rather be strong, be strong, yes I would, yes I would
Well, Id rather be strong, yes I would
Well Id rather be strong, be strong, yes I would
In a hopeless situation
Yes, I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation, yes
I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation
Yes, I would rather be strong
In a hopeless situation, yes
I would rather be strong
song performed by by April Wine

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Action and reaction
Every action has got reaction
Whether it is right or wrong action
You can't expect it to be human
When you present your self as inhuman
People are still tolerant
They still talk relevant
They only react when someone is unreasonable
No one may thing to land anybody in trouble
We are suffering from human lacuna
We are still wonderful animal in earth arena
We feel bad and sad in some of the cases
It reflects how sensitive we are on the faces
Since we move among the people of different kind
We got to be cooperative and can’t take it on mind
Some problems may occur from time to time
But you got to be reasonable every time
We blame social system for failure
It had been strong base for the years
We can’t come out of it over night
As it has remained all the time in sight
So whatever we do has got quick reaction
You try to be bad with people and find same action
No one may want lie down without fight back
As there will be enough to think for stake
We have protective theory and believe
We may go for immediate steps to relieve
In doing so if we got to be really careful
To balance the situation and remain unfearful
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal

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The family only represents one aspect, however important an aspect, of a human being's functions and activities. A life is beautiful and ideal or the reverse, only when we have taken into our consideration the social as well as the family relationship.
quote by Henry Ellis

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Big & Strong
(mark heard)
Strong man strangles universe--he drowns the stars
Blinded by the mission of a thousand wars
Hes fit and dominant--no wonder why
He loves the battle cry
Strong man is survivor--he lives to pound
Little wooden crosses in the bloody ground
Hes fit and dominant--his will is truth
His hand is absolute
And the world keeps on turning
And the sun keeps on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong
Strong man takes no prisoner--favors no plea
He leaves no gold in teeth of enemy
Hes fit and dominant--rises above
He has no word that means love
And the world keeps on turning
And the sun keeps on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong
And the world keeps on turning
And the sun keeps on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong
How to grow up big and strong
song performed by by Olivia Newton-John

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Soweto Flames
In 1976
In Soweto
The time was 7 o'clock
It was 16th of June
Children marching
Through the streets
Children chanting
On the streets
Protesting against Afrikaans
Protesting against Afrikaners
Children were gunned
For protesting against Afrikaners language
Children were gassed
For protecting African language
Afrikaans language
Afrikaners language
Africans baggage
poem by Barati Lesetlhe

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In fact, the Harvard study data indicates that 70 percent of African American children attend schools that are predominately African American, about the same level as in 1968 when Dr. King died.
quote by Bobby Scott

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I have been privileged to have the opportunity to work with many of African American fraternal and social organizations that are active in my congressional district. They all do important work that makes a tangible difference to the quality of life in our community.
quote by Chris Van Hollen

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My reaction to a lot of the current situation that we're in is based in part on a serious concern that the present administration's course ignores reality.
quote by Vinton Cerf

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The African-American experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry.
quote by Bill Frist

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Doin' What Comes Natur'lly
ANNIE OAKLEY and FEMALE CHORUS:
Folks are dumb where I come from,
They ain't had any learning.
Still they're happy as can be
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally).
Folks like us could never fuss
With schools and books and learning.
Still we've gone from A to Z,
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally)
You don't have to know how to read or write
When you're out with a feller in the pale moonlight.
You don't have to look in a book to find out
What he thinks of the moon and what is on his mind.
That comes naturally (that comes naturally).
My uncle out in Texas can't even write his name.
He signs his checks with "x's"
But they cash them just the same.
If you saw my pa and ma,
You'd know they had no learning,
Still they've raised a family
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally)
Cousin Jack has never read an almanac on drinking
Still he's always on the spree
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally).
Sister Sal who's musical has never had a lesson,
Still she's learned to sing off-key
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally).
You don't have to go a private school
Not to pick up a penny near a stubborn mule,
You don't have to have a professor's dome
Not to go for the honey when the bee's not home.
That comes naturally (that comes naturally).
My tiny baby brother, who's never read a book,
Knows one sex from the other,
All he had to do was look,
Grandpa Bill is on the hill
With someone he just married.
There he is at ninety-three,
Doin' what comes naturally (doin' what comes naturally
song performed by by Irving Berlin

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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And I believe that public broadcasting has an important trust with the American people, it's an intimate medium of television, and that we can do reading and language development for young children without getting into human sexuality.
quote by Margaret Spellings

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One very important aspect of our contemporary musical culture - some might say the supremely important aspect - is its extension in the historical and geographical senses to a degree unknown in the past.
quote by George Crumb

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You are afraid
To write in English is your burden
You fear the grammar of the white man
You are afraid of its intricacies
why?
because your heart is not?
don't mind it, you simply want to share with full respect
to use their language
you could have used your own and be smooth with its facilities
but you also want to be a part of this world
to think american to speak english
who know if
He finds your poem good
Enough if
He feels the beating in your heart that
There is a flow
Of gladness
In your own way of being a part of this humanity that
There is joy
In your outlook that
You have a certain projection
About love sickness death redemption life
who knows?
Honestly
Now go
Write the language where you are
At home
Write the meaning of your riddles
At your convenience
Do not be afraid of English or Indian
Strictures
do not be afraid to commit mistakes
do not be afraid to go to prison
You will speak your language
You will sing your own song
you have been in this prison
for how long?
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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I Write Poems For Poets
I WRITE POEMS FOR POETS
I write poems for poets
Our situation as poets-
The longings the feelings
We so need to express-
The love of language-
The hunger for recognition-
The frequent rejection-
The kind word of a reader that moves-
Poems for poets
We as we each are
All so different-
And we as we share
Words and worlds
We hope to have read.
poem by Shalom Freedman

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Their Arse From Their Elbow
There are certain people
I have met quite a few,
who could tell you every aspect
of the job you do.
When they sit down to do it
and a problem arises there,
because its not in the textbook
they read so confidently,
they haven’t got a clue
of how to handle it
or really what to do.
They don’t know
their arse from their elbow
when a situation like that appears.
As we walk through life
we gain knowledge with every step we take.
However, there are some people
who read a textbook,
and take tests on it.
Then think they know everything
there is to know.
When in fact they cannot even distinguish
their arse from their elbow.
They have no experience
of what real life is,
only what a textbook says.
One day when they
put the textbook down
and start learning about the real things in life.
We all might have a better place to live.
Let us hope the sooner the better.
10 March 2008
poem by David Harris

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It is easy to forget that the most important aspect of comedy, after all, its great saving grace, is its ambiguity. You can simultaneously laugh at a situation, and take it seriously.
quote by Stephen Fry

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Language I Feel Most At Home In
THE LANGUAGE I FEEL MOST AT HOME IN
The language I feel most at home in
Is not my own.
My own sacred language
Is my second best.
English is too great for me
And I am not like Joyce
Able to contend with and transcend it –
I write my small lines in the language
Shakespeare is the glass of fashion and the mould of form of –
I one more minor actor in a cast of many millions
Play my words upon the page as best I can.
But why mind and remember me and mine
When there are so many and so so much far greater?
poem by Shalom Freedman

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The important aspect shouldn't be whose administration it is, the important aspect should be how does the state of Wisconsin work, what can we do to move Wisconsin forward.
quote by Scott McCallum

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Gertrude Stein is interviewed on American poetry
and there was the knocking on the door
that we were expecting
and it was the man
that we were expecting
with the questions we were expecting
to which answers were expected
by those who expect answers
as if life were like that
which for writers it is not
yes, tea was drunk
and after tea the tape recorder set up
so that what I said
I would continue to say
somewhere else
even when I changed my mind
here and nowhere else
and he said Ms Stein
what do you think of American poetry
and we said well it's American
and it's poetry
that's as it should be
and really that's all there is to say
and the man looked disappointed
so we asked him did he read poetry
and he said poetry no I dont read poetry
but my editor does
so I said it's really about Americans
living their lives
that's what American poetry is really about
because Americans move around
and so their words move around and
words in English have lost their intensity
but American words are always on the move
and they are more intense
yes, Americans living among Americans
and talking to their neighbours
if it's not about that
it's not really American poetry at all is it
if it's not about that
then why bother writing poetry
and the man was asking about a rose
being a rose being a rose and we said
for a hundred years the rose
has not been red in poetry
but now for the first time in a hundred years
the rose is red again
and the man looked at his watch
and said thank you Ms Stein
and was switching off his tape recorder
and a month later that
was what we said
in a magazine much read
by Americans who mostly
are not poets no very few but we said it
we know that this is so
because we read it there
and we think that really
that was all there was to say
because that was all we think
is really important
about American Poetry
that the words move like Americans move
and that is exciting for a writer
and that is the important thing about
American Poetry
poem by Michael Shepherd

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Social Plague
It's a joy in the life of being me
Social changes
The blackest dust can cover their eyes so they can't see
Social stages
The children modify their own monopoly
Social changes
The KKK wants their own STV
Social places
You must understand that I'm made this way
Don't give a damn if you can't change
Your little narrow mind today
I can't wait for the changes
You can't understand my rage
This thing's going on too long
I can't understand it
Social plague now
2000 strong, they back up white supremacy and I can't take it
I can't take it
Can't prove a thing, one day they'll see
That I'm staying
Within this shell there lies a menace to the core
We can't change it
That's the day when there be no more
Social changes
song performed by by 24-7 Spyz

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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