Paul McCartney's Inspiration for "Blackbird Singing In the Dead of Night"

“He was visiting America. It is said that he was sitting, resting, when he heard a woman screaming. He looked up to see a black woman being surrounded by the police. The police had her handcuffed, and were beating her. He thought the woman had committed a terrible crime. He found out "the crime" she committed was to sit in a section reserved for whites.

Paul McCartney was shocked. There was no segregation in England. But, here in America, the land of freedom, this is how blacks were being treated. McCartney and the Beatles went back home to England, but he would remember what he saw, how he felt, the unfairness of it all.

He also remembered watching television and following the news in America, the race riots and what was happening in Little Rock, Arkansas, what was going on in the Civil Rights movement. He saw the picture of 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford attempt to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School as an angry mob followed her, yelling, "Drag her over this tree! Let's take care of that n**ger!'" and “Lynch her! Lynch her!” “No n**ger b*tch is going to get in our school!”

McCartney couldn't believe this was happening in America. He thought of these women being mistreated, simply because of the color of her skin. He sat down and started writing.

Last year at a concert, he would meet two of the women who inspired him to write one of his most memorable songs, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, members of the Little Rock Nine (pictured here).

McCartney would tell the audience he was inspired by the courage of these women: "Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it's a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit, and that's this next one."

He explained that when he started writing the song, he had in mind a black woman, but in England, "girls" were referred to as "birds." And, so the song started:

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting

for this moment to arise."

McCartney added that he and the Beatles cared passionately about the Civil Rights movement, "so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.’ "

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting

for this moment to be free."

— Jon S. Randal

 

Let John Legend’s New Video Be The Message Of Love You Need Today

Tears. So moving and beautiful. 

Love is the great medicine. 

Love is the root of all that matters.

💗 Molly 

Also a beautiful tribute to

LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard

 

and Miles, her husband. 

 

John Legend shared a vision of love on Friday, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

The 37-year-old singer unveiled the heartwarming video for “Love Me Now” featuring various couples from around the world and their own powerful tales of love. 

“This video shows how love can be shared in some of the most difficult situations on Earth in which the human spirit and connection with each other prevails,” director Nabil Elderkin said in a statement. “From one of the longest standing refugee camps in northern Iraq just 45 miles outside of Mosul, to Standing Rock Reservation where they are fighting against the Dakota Access Pipeline that threatens their sacred lands and all of our water, it is a glimpse into these couples’ lives and the lives of those in their communities.” 

Earlier this week, Legend told fans that the video highlights those who are “marginalized and rejected, feared and left behind.” 

Legend’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, and their daughter, Luna, also appear in the video ― and they couldn’t be any cuter. 

Please go here for the original: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-legend-love-me-now-video_n_5825ef13e4b0c4b63b0c4a94?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003  

'It Never Had to Be Like This': 300,000 Dead in US From Covid-19 Under Donald J. Trump

This is beyond criminal, beyond the most serious crimes against humanity, beyond utter madness and insanity! The politicization of the pandemic has been among the most devastating, inhumane, horrifying, heart-wrenching, and evil acts by Trump and those in positions of power ever — with only one exception. The one thing that tops it is the failure for the past 40 years to address the climate crisis, which is the greatest threat to life that humanity has ever faced. Meanwhile, thousands continue to sicken and die every single day. This was preventable! — Molly

 

"It is equal to a 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days."

 

By

Kenny Stancil

On the same day the first American received a coronavirus vaccine, the U.S. pandemic death toll surpassed 300,000 on Monday, another grim milestone that comes less than four weeks after the number of Covid-19 deaths in the country reached 250,000.

The Associated Press put the staggering statistics into context: "The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of Hurricane Katrina every day for 5 1/2 months. It is more than five times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. It is equal to a 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days."

At the same time, Brian Walter, who lost his 80-year old father to the disease, told NPR that "the numbers do not reflect that these were people. Everyone lost was a father or a mother, they had kids, they had family, they left people behind."

BREAKING: The US has passed 300,000 COVID deaths. It never had to be like this.

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) December 14, 2020

According to the Covid-19 Tracking Project, the U.S. is now averaging nearly 2,430 deaths per day.

Jennifer Nuzzo, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University, told AP that "to think now we can just absorb in our country 3,000 deaths a day as though it were just business as usual, it just represents a moral failing."

Despite constituting just over 4% of the global population, the U.S. is home to nearly 19% of the more than 1.6 million Covid-19 deaths that have occurred worldwide. The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the American population was called "a catastrophic failure" of leadership to be blamed on President Donald Trump, who baselessly claimed in February that the virus was on the verge of disappearing. 

BREAKING: The U.S. death toll from Covid-19 has surpassed 300,000, 18.6% of the global total. The U.S. is 4.25% of the global population; a catastrophic failure or leadership by a President who said, on Feb 26, “Within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”

— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) December 14, 2020

"There's no need for that many to have died," David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the New York Times. "We chose, as a country, to take our foot off the gas pedal. We chose to, and that's the tragedy."

As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, progressives have argued that the catastrophic handling of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S.—while made worse by Trump and non-cooperative individuals—is better understood as the product of several decades of "free-market" ideology and associated policies that exacerbated inequalities and hampered an effective governmental response to the disaster as it unfolded. 

Although Monday's coronavirus vaccine rollout represents good news in the fight against the pandemic, physician and public health expert Ashish Jha of Brown University lamented that the worst is yet to come. As a result of "infections that have already happened or will this week... we will pass 400,000 deaths... in January."

He said that "vaccines will help," but if we are serious about meeting the challenge of preventing the Covid-19 death toll from reaching 500,000, "we can [and] must do more" to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

Tomorrow, we will cross 300,000 deaths in US from COVID-19

In January, we will pass 400,000 deaths.

Those deaths will come from infections that have already happened or will this week

Challenge is to stop spread before 500K deaths

Vaccines will help. But we can, must do more

— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) December 14, 2020

"Actions taken collectively can really change the course of what is happening," Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician at the University of Massachusetts, told the Times. "One reason this is hard to predict is to some extent the power is in our hands."

Please go here for the original: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/14/it-never-had-be-300000-dead-us-covid-19-under-donald-j-trump?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

Joanna Macy: A Wonder Beyond Words

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

— Joanna Macy 

https://www.joannamacy.net/main

Amy Coney Barrett Won’t Say Climate Change Is Real; Forgets 1st Amendment Protects Right to Protest

I am horrified by this nomination. — Molly

From Democracy Now! —

We air highlights from the second day of questioning of President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who faced eight hours of questions on Wednesday about her views on issues ranging from climate change to voting rights to gay marriage and abortion, as Republicans race to confirm her ahead of the election and secure a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court for conservatives. 

Please go here for the original: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/10/15/amy_coney_barrett_climate_change 

 

AMAZING SONG: STAND UP!

This is so powerful, so beautiful, so amazing. 

Breaks my heart wide open.

♥ Molly

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since we’ve posted. Lately, social media has been very disheartening for us, and we wanted to take the time to to respond in the best way we can. As you know, the evil of racial injustice in America continues to prevail. And as long as it stands we will continue to fight against it, just like our grandfather (Rev. Dr. Jesse L. Douglas) before us, who marched hand in hand with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Douglas family believes in EQUALITY, FREEDOM, and JUSTICE for ALL people! So today, we’re sharing this video with you to encourage you to STAND UP for what is right. Because at the end of the day, we are all created in God’s image. One blood, one race. Racism must end. Brutality must end. "Stand Up" was co-written by

Cynthia Erivo

and @JoshuahCampbell, and performed by Cynthia Erivo for the soundtrack to the motion picture

Harriet Movie

.

Sweet Honey in the Rock — I'm Gon' Stand

Performed as part of the opening ceremonies 

for the Equal Justice Initiative Museum Montgomery, Alabama April 26, 2018

Krishna Das: The Light Inside

The light inside, the Love inside of us, is always present.
It can't be anywhere else.
God lives inside us as who we really are.
Not as "God: Some other thing".
As who we are.

~ Krishna Das 

(from "Chants of a Lifetime")