{"id":172802,"date":"2020-11-16T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=172802"},"modified":"2020-11-14T05:46:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T05:46:41","slug":"reaching-90-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/11\/reaching-90-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching 90 in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year darkly memorable<\/p>\n

Months before the pandemic<\/p>\n

Before George Floyd\u2019s martyrdom<\/p>\n

Trump stalking the ramparts<\/p>\n

Issuing cowardly murder decrees<\/p>\n

While I mourn each monstrous death<\/p>\n

Among the vultures<\/p>\n

The bodies started piling up soon after<\/p>\n

The new year\u2019s welcoming bells<\/p>\n

Three days later<\/p>\n

All iran mourned Qasem Soleimani\u2019s death<\/p>\n

Murdered by drone\u2014his crime: seeking peace<\/p>\n

A toxic reckoning an omen<\/p>\n

From a toxic White House<\/p>\n

The start of this toxic time<\/p>\n

And yet<\/p>\n

Breathing clean air<\/p>\n

In Yalikavak<\/p>\n

Inhaling the love<\/p>\n

Of those I love and cherish<\/p>\n

Makes me believe<\/p>\n

Being alive being not alone at 90<\/p>\n

Is sacred a dwelling<\/p>\n

Among now reticent gods<\/p>\n

True darkness descends<\/p>\n

Midday on earth<\/p>\n

For iconic deaths<\/p>\n

Angels are weeping<\/p>\n

For children for lost love<\/p>\n

For Soleimani for Floyd<\/p>\n

For magnificent animals<\/p>\n

Plundered for fun for gain<\/p>\n

Imprisoned as jungles empty<\/p>\n

True lords of our earth<\/p>\n

While whales wander with wonder<\/p>\n

Dethroned sovereigns of the seas<\/p>\n

At 90 amid the joy of being<\/p>\n

A judgment haunts me<\/p>\n

Reached by a black woman poet<\/p>\n

\u2018We were never meant to survive.\u2019<\/p>\n

*****************<\/p>\n

Yalikavak, Turkey<\/em><\/p>\n

November 13, 2030<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Richard Falk is a member of the\u00a0TRANSCEND Network<\/strong><\/a>, an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University,\u00a0Distinguished Research Fellow, Orfalea Center of Global Studies,\u00a0UCSB,\u00a0author, co-author or editor of 60 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.\u00a0In 2008, the\u00a0United Nations Human Rights Council<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(UNHRC) appointed Falk to two three-year terms as a\u00a0United Nations Special Rapporteur <\/strong><\/a>on \u201cthe situation of human rights in the\u00a0Palestinian territories<\/strong><\/a> occupied since 1967.\u201d Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and associated with the local campus of the University of California, and for several years chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is\u00a0<\/em>On Nuclear Weapons, Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament\u00a0(2019). <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 richardfalk.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note from TMS editor: Richard Falk and his friends around the world celebrated his 90th year on 13 Nov 2020.
\nHappy Birthday dear Richard! Thank you for existing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":145696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868,944],"class_list":["post-172802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry","tag-richard-falk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}