THE WHITE BIRD IS AN IDEA

VOICES 2025; Maintenant 19, 2025

A Nod to Abbie, Anita, Jerry, Nancy and Paul, the first Yippies

The white bird is an idea glimmering in the politics of ecstasy, an idea that cannot embrace the desperate theater of tonight’s evening news. To protect our freedom, there must be a disruption. It’s needed; it’s necessary. To fear what’s about to happen is to acknowledge what doesn’t work.

One day everything we love will be gone forever. Making today sacred is no quick trick, it’s slow work, the alchemy of compassion, coming to terms with what doesn’t come easy. To assign value to people, places or things corrupts the goodness, sincerity and holiness that will be theirs forever.

A war against war is still war.

The greed of no, the greed of more,

the greed of hate, the greed of fury,

the greed of gotta, the greed of hurt,

the greed of sameness, the greed of isolation

and the greed of control, each one

wipes away any chance at peace.

A war against war is still war,

allowing mad boar-face ugly finger-pointing

to keep selling fear-smearing disconnection

to people who don’t need it.

This new America is trapped by its pettiness, exploding its own fate while mumbling about destiny, caring about money and little else. Our pledge to interdependence, it’s gone. Lady Liberty’s been set ablaze and the fire boats can’t reach her. Her meaning, her hope, her promise, they’re burning.

The truth lives in the obvious, like, in the smart-mouth music of the blues. You gotta move, get ready, you gotta move. Gather the freaks, set them free, watch what they do. See how they piss off anyone who’s forgotten how to be a kid and everyone who won’t poke fun at their own altars.