βYou may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, Iβll rise.β
So wrote Maya Angelou, in her poem βStill I Riseβ. She died on May 28 at 86 at her home in North Carolina.
In remembering Maya Angelou, it is important to recall her commitment to the struggle for equality, not just for herself, or for women, or for African-Americans. She was committed to peace and justice for all.
Amy Goodman
The European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 12. The chairperson of the committee tasked with awarding the prize, Thorbjoern Jagland, praised the EU for transforming Europe βfrom a continent of wars to a continent of peaceβ.
βThe troubled sky reveals/The grief it feels.β
Those two lines were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem βSnow-Flakesβ, published in a volume in 1863 alongside his epic and better-known βThe Midnight Ride of Paul Revereβ.
Much of the news chatter this week has been about Sarah Palinβs flubbing of the history of Revereβs famous ride in April 1775. Revere was on a late-night, clandestine mission to alert American revolutionaries of an impending British attack.