Dedicated to the spirit of Fania Davis

Alba… Madrugada…. [UNEDITED, FIRST DRAFT, GOOD ENOUGH AS IS]
If your heart, head and soul are in a healthy place….
by Ricardo Bueyhombre (Oxz)

“HELPING is stopping what’s making the bleeding, helping is like band aids.” — A nine-year-old explaining the orthography in a story he wrote.

Dawn. As in new day. ALBA.

This is revolutionary. This is what’s needed.

One does not create a revolution today by following old paradigms. But it is simple. You talk clearly to the person standing next to you. After bonding, you move on. And so do they. Without worrying about odds, numbers, others’ attitudes, history. Without waiting for Godot.

This is about what to talk about.

One doesn’t, say, HELP the people of Haiti by donating money. Sure, donating money and time to the people of Haiti and elsewhere during well-publicized crises will help, and it should be encouraged, applauded. But — ultimately — we have to get down to HELPING others. By addressing the systemic, ongoing horrors which create immiseration and unnecessary death.

This is about HELPING. In solidarity with ALBA. In the U.S. In spite of the troubling downsides delineated in http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff01292010.html, ALBA’s thrust is worth our heartbeats. [We do not have to agree with everything that comes from that quarter.]

This is also about moving expeditiously. Not at the arthritic snail’s pace that’s been embraced by most well-meaning, socially/environmentally-conscious people. Not by wasting heartbeats with career politicians in the U.S., self-serving for the most part. To say the least.

ALBA can use some solidarity-in-action in the U.S. Along fresh lines.

TOSCA is one plan of action which could be embraced by all who support ALBA. Doing so would give everyone who sees the need for severe institutional change an opportunity to contribute to a better world. [As a singular, essential supplement to what they are already doing?]

There is something very sick about the mantra that says U.S. politics must not permit interference from outsiders, must not allow foreign influence. First, because it is mired in an inexcusable double-standard. Secondly, because others are horrifically affected by our policies.

This is not about trying to change the minds of those who do not see this at present.

This is about the face of God.

When I was about my little boy’s age, the great American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay recited some of her Renascence to me just before she died:

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.

This is about my obligation and yours respecting this new dawn breaking through….

Contact Ricardo at tosca.2010[at]yahoo.com immediately
P.S. The author would greatly appreciate being connected with members of ALBA. He is not attached to TOSCA, and is open to discussing other possible angles of support for ALBA within the U.S. Or non-ALBA issues, for that matter. Renascence is all about rebirth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5fMpMoP38
http://www.playingforchange.com/episodes/3/One_Love