For the first time in his presidency, Drumpf acted the part.
“I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength,” he announced from the Speaker’s rostrum moments into his hour-long joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, February 28.
For once, that message bucked his bombastic instincts and channeled the aspirational aims of conventional predecessors. It was perhaps the clearest sign yet that after 40 days in the West Wing, the President is beginning to come to grips with the public responsibilities of the office.
On Sunday, June 12, when Mr. Miranda accepted his award for best score for “Hamilton” at the Tony Awards, his second Tony win in this category, he said he was too old to freestyle.
So he wrote a sonnet instead, addressing his love for his wife, Vanessa Nadal, as well as the shooting massacre that left 50 people dead early Sunday in Orlando, Fla.
My wife’s the reason anything gets done
She nudges me towards promise by degrees
She is a perfect symphony of one
Our son is her most beautiful reprise.
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day.
This show is proof that history remembers
We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music, love and pride.
~Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Sonnet/Speech from the 2016 Tonys~
~~Published on Jun 12, 2016~~
God bless you, Lin-Manuel. Pray for Orlando.Pray for an end to hate in all its twisted forms. And most importantly, pray for love.
I haven’t been fortunate enough to see Lin-Manuel in Hamilton (and I’m sure now I never will)… But the first time I saw him interviewed, I became a huge fan. And my love for him grows more and more with every public statement he makes.
Passion for your art is a rare, beautiful, and precious thing. I’ve never seen anyone exude passion — and COMPASSION — as much as Lin-Manuel does.
This sonnet is (rightfully) getting worldwide attention, but you can find the same humanity throughout his work, and his life.
We so rarely reward art in its purest, most authentic form. For that reason alone, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s well-deserved success feels like a victory for artistic souls everywhere. I hope he never stops creating, and inspiring, and challenging us to do better.
Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for the upvotes and comments. Please keep the discussion civil. Above all, take care of each other.
Rich Challen
Pope Francis spoke at a welcoming ceremony for his U.S. visit at the South Lawn of the White House Wednesday, September 23, 2015, before a crowd of 15,000.
The Flag of Vatican City (Papal flag) flies next to American flags along West Executive Avenue near the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, the day before Pope Francis arrives. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Here is a transcript of his speech, according to prepared remarks released by the Vatican.
Mr. President,
I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of all Americans.
As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.
I look forward to these days of encounter and dialogue, in which I hope to listen to, and share, many of the hopes and dreams of the American people.
During my visit I will have the honor of addressing Congress, where I hope, as a brother of this country, to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nation’s political future in fidelity to its founding principles. I will also travel to Philadelphia for the Eighth World Meeting of Families, to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family at this, a critical moment in the history of our civilization.
Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination.
With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty.
That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States Bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.
Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution.
Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.
When it comes to the care of our “common home”, we are living at a critical moment of history.
We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about “a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change”.
Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.
We know by faith that “the Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us.
Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home”.
As Christians inspired by this certainty, we wish to commit ourselves to the conscious and responsible care of our common home.
The efforts which were recently made to mend broken relationships and to open new doors to cooperation within our human family represent positive steps along the path of reconciliation, justice and freedom.
I would like all men and women of good will in this great nation to support the efforts of the international community to protect the vulnerable in our world and to stimulate integral and inclusive models of development, so that our brothers and sisters everywhere may know the blessings of peace and prosperity which God wills for all his children.
Mr President, once again I thank you for your welcome, and I look forward to these days in your country.
Growing up we are told many things,
One being, you can do anything.
But somewhere between child and adult,
Things change and we no longer sing.
Life takes on a whole different meaning,
From what we may have first believed.
We all get so caught up in what life expects,
And forget what we all could achieve.
Whoever told you, you weren’t allow,
To follow all of your dreams?
Was it someone who took away your dream,
Or was it you who was afraid of your schemes.
Whatever the reason, I now must ask,
Why not you, don’t you think
It’s time for you to take control of your life,
So you’ll be happy to look back with no regret.
~~Published on May 19, 2015~~
We all have different “why’s”.
Whether it is for one’s own pleasure or for the deeper purpose it’s not always about finding the answers, sometimes you just need to be asking the right questions.
Anonymous is not a group, it is not a person.
It is an IDEA. Specifically it is the idea that all of us deserve freedom, freedom of thought, of speech, of expression of knowledge and of belief. The freedom to determine the course and destination of our own lives.
If you share this idea then you are one of us.
You have likely heard many things about Anonymous, some of them are true and some of them are not. We are not terrorists and we are not violent. We are citizens of the World who bear witness the tyranny, oppression and censorship.
We are your neighbors, your friends and your relatives. We prepare your food, repair your appliances, write your books, compose your music and create your technology. We are your postal workers, barbers, store clerks and lawyers. We are Atheists and we are Religious. We are everyone and we are no one. None of us are as powerful as all of us.
We are Anonymous We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us!
Anonymous is not a group, it is not a person.
It is an IDEA. Specifically it is the idea that all of us deserve freedom, freedom of thought, of speech, of expression of knowledge, of assembly and of belief. The freedom to determine the course and destination of our own lives.
If you share this idea then you are one of us.
You have likely heard many things about Anonymous, some of them are true and some of them are not. We are not terrorists and we are not violent.
We are citizens of the World who bear witness the tyranny, oppression and censorship.
We are activists who seek to change the system and end the cycle of corruption. We seek to create transparency in governments and all institutions of public service. We resist those who seek to violate our rights as Human beings as a collective of autonomous individuals however we have no leaders who dictate the methods of resistance. Some of us are indeed hackers who use our skill to make critical information available to the public. Some of us organize protests and rallies. Some of us volunteer time to feed those who cannot feed themselves. We are your neighbors, your friends and your relatives. We prepare your food, repair your appliances, write your books, compose your music and create your technology. We are your postal workers, barbers, store clerks and lawyers. We are Atheists and we are Religious. We are everyone and we are no one. None of us are as powerful as all of us.
We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us!
~~Anonymous ~~
Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website nominally associated with the group describes it as “an internet gathering” with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives”. The group became known for a series of well-publicized publicity stunts and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites.
Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. Anonymous members (known as “Anons”) can be distinguished in public by the wearing of stylised Guy Fawkes masks.
In its early form, the concept was adopted by a decentralized online community acting anonymously in a coordinated manner, usually toward a loosely self-agreed goal, and primarily focused on entertainment, or “lulz”. Beginning with 2008’s Project Chanology — a series of protests, pranks, and hacks targeting the Church of Scientology — the Anonymous collective became increasingly associated with collaborative hacktivism on a number of issues internationally.
Individuals claiming to align themselves with Anonymous undertook protests and other actions (including direct action) in retaliation against anti–digital piracy campaigns by motion picture and recording industry trade associations. Later targets of Anonymous hacktivism included government agencies of the US, Israel, Tunisia, Uganda, and others; child pornography sites; copyright protection agencies; the Westboro Baptist Church; and corporations such as PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Sony.
On Aug. 12, 2014, Ferguson City Hall’s website went black, its phone lines died and officials had to communicate by text, according to the St. Louis Dispatch and the New York Times. Self-identified members of the amorphous, hard-to-define hacker community Anonymous had struck again, according to the papers, this time in response to the shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer.
Social media has changed the rules of your game. That’s why we call the people, on you; students, activists, parents, the youth and the wise, people from different backgrounds to protest peacefully with Ferguson this weekend, in order to achieve this goal our collective will be ready to assist you in reaching this goal.
To the people of the United States, its time to wake up, not to sleep. Your constitutional rights as a citizen have been usurped. People have the right to protest, and that right has been consistently disrupted not by the protesters in Ferguson – but by the militarized police force.
Our campaign has been one of constant success, we have been able to weaponized social media so far to force mainstream media outlets to cover the case. We advise everyone to join us on twitter, other social networks and the internet because the revolution of our conscience will not be televised.
“Sei vorsichtig mit dem, was Du weisst. Damit beginnen Deine Probleme” 🍀 “Be careful of what you know. That’s where your troubles begin”
🌷
Wade in The 3 Body Problem
It Is What It Is 