A Few Words About Bernie's Bird

Everyone is talking about the small bird that landed on Bernie Sanders’ podium in Portland, Oregon. Some people are saying, “It’s a sign.” A sign that Nature is voting for Bernie Sanders. (Let's face it, of the candidates, only Bernie would try to stop GMOs, fracking, pollution, global warming and save the bees!) Others are being silly, “Put a bird on it!” lighting up the Twitter feed, literally tweeting like birds. Still others are conjuring up animated birds to explain to them that while it landed on Bernie, it was still voting for Trump. Ha, very funny.

But only a few are asking, “What kind of bird was it?” Bernie himself called it – symbolically – a dove, come to tell us “No more war!” That message is wonderful, but I hope he knows it was not a dove. Really, Bernie.

A very informed young woman on my Facebook, concerned about our collective break with rudimentary Nature, said the bird was a female house finch. I thought it was a female house sparrow. But, no matter there. The distinction is moot. The bird was small, female, common, of the house, of the ground not the air, and in my view, represented the very people who champion Bernie Sanders – the workers, the everyday men and women, those who struggle, those who commute, who cannot afford the things they need, who try and try and try and sometimes win, and often fail to make life better for themselves and their families. The small bird, that maybe had learned that crumbs may accompany a water bottle, gave Bernie’s plastic bottle a peck, but mostly sat back on the sign “A Future to Believe In” and gazed right at the man.

The audience seemed to understand a few things about birds. Enough to revel in the odd behavior of this one. Small birds are skittish. They may enter a crowded building because they like to nest in the rafters, they may even fly down occasionally, but they do not get very close to most humans. Small birds do not stick around when things get noisy. The collective uproar from the crowd did not frighten the bird. It sat back – another odd behavior, as most birds remain perched somewhat forward when around people, ready to get going – and stayed looking up at Bernie.

I like to think the bird came to remind us about Nature and what we are doing to it. That we should treasure and protect all life. And, yes, I like to think the little bird is a sign of peace. As well as a symbol of joy in the little things.

I want to read a lot into this bird. I’ve been a believer in birds coming to us as messengers. I’ve experienced such visits, from a mourning dove and from a mockingbird after the death of a friend. One of my closest friends, after the passing of her mother, had several visitations from swans, one of which very deliberately turned to face her and stayed a very long time. My daughter was followed and befriended by a jay, not our large Northeastern blue jay, but a smaller, darker variety from a different part of the country. She’s a painter, and while she painted down by the pond near our house, he came and chirped, flew away, came back with a raspberry, chirped again, danced in front of her. We realized, after seeing him do the same thing in our yard, with our raspberries, that he had gone to our yard, taken a raspberry and gone back to her at the pond to show off. She named him Buddy and he stayed by her side all that summer.

I want to tell you what Bernie was talking about before he saw the bird.

Here is what is on the video that no one has yet mentioned –

"and if he or she does their school work seriously, does well, takes school seriously…" Bird enters.

Right now, in a last gasp campaign, Michelle Obama - who tried to tell us about organic food, but was silenced by the powers that be, began to reach out to children once again by surprise visits to local Washington D.C. schools that had gardens - and by this last ditch effort to help America’s children – “Let Girls Learn!”

When I wrote Holy Days, and in fact, when I LIVED Holy Days, I knew that the only thing we have going for us is education. My character Gloria Wisher loves to learn and that love is her salvation.

Education is all we have. Self-education is what Gloria turns to, as a poor child, she teaches herself – to read, to write, to cook, to sew, to ride a bike, to plant a garden – and further, to study and keep studying.

I think Bernie was about to say what I’ve always said, but hey nobody listens to me. Bernie has the podium and it has a bird on it – the education is there if you are serious, if you pay attention, if you take school seriously.

I always like to say, “No matter what you think of your teacher, no matter how lame or stupid you think he or she is, no matter how dull the lesson, keep learning! Use them up and take all you can from them, and move on to new studies and learn, learn, learn. The resources are all around you." I studied in a broken, abusive home, in a library where the rain dripped on the books and outside where I was stalked and bullied. I was literally beaten by the neighborhood kids every time I got an A. But, I kept on getting A’s.

My mother and I used to watch the sparrows take a sand bath in the twilight sun. The dust turned to sparkling gold, and the birds were ecstatic.

“Look how happy they are!” Mama said.

I learned from sparrows how to be happy with little. In America, being content with little is not considered admirable.

Perhaps, if Bernie makes it to the White House, we will learn a new lesson. Brought to us by a very small bird.

©PatriciaGoodwin 2016

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Why I Want to Vote for Michelle

         

       You know how it is: your friends work on you. They say, “You can’t not vote for Obama. Not voting for Obama is a vote for Mitt Romney. Ouch. I saw Ann Romney on Jay Leno a few nights ago. I think she raided Adele’s closet. I know that shiny black outfit was not Mrs. Romney’s personal outfit, which is a lot like lying. (Someone has already compared it to David Spade’s Members Only jacket. Ann also made #1 on the "What Were They Thinking?" slide show on Yahoo’s OMG.) I know the dark Goth nail polish on her fingertips was not her own choice for nail polish. The fact that she was wearing such a trying-to-be-hip outfit says to me that she thinks Leno is the place to reach the young, hip crowd. Once again, out of touch. Seth MacFarlane, who is hip anywhere, was on Leno too. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the Green Room! (read with the voice of Stewie Griffin)

         I have nothing against Mitt and Ann – oh, wait, yes I do. Bush-era policies, that’s what. Everywhere you go, from veterans suffering from Agent Orange or Haliburton-supplied water to supermarkets where shoppers can purchase their cancer; from being dropped from your health insurance for pre-existing conditions to higher taxes for the 99%; from no jobs to being let go just before your pension. No one will believe me, but I think we live in a Republican monarchy. It’s all beginning to sound a lot like Versailles. There’s even been some talk about certain banks contributing to both campaigns. Reminds me of Al Gore saying, “Do you still think both candidates are the same?” Hmm. Just a minute, no matter which side, aren’t both Presidential candidates potentially working for the same boss – the American people?

         That’s why I want to vote for Michelle Obama. 

         Unlike Barack, Michelle is free to operate. Her hands are not tied by politics. Initially, Michelle took up the cause of caring for our veterans’ needs with her “Joining Forces” movement. It was a daunting struggle already being undertaken by several overwhelmed government agencies. 

        Ironically, the only true way to help veterans is to end war, a task tantamount to ending bullying or greed. Michelle is not a miracle worker. However, she does have clout. She can go out and ask people to respond to her requests, which currently are elimination of food deserts, organic gardening and freedom to vote for all Americans. 

Let’s talk about food deserts. In a previous blog post, I complained about lack of any real action on this front. I was wrong and I posted that correction. Click here to read more. When I was a young macro in my twenties, just starting to look around me, I noticed that convenience stores that dispensed junk food were mostly located in the poorest and most desperate parts of cities. (Now, of course, these fake food dispensers are also located in the suburbs where rich kids as well as poor can be unhealthy anytime they want.) I recalled President Lyndon Johnson weeping about the riots in Watts, in despair over poor people’s reaction to the poverty program, which was working. I couldn’t help thinking there might have been a conspiracy to start those riots to end the poverty program. I don’t know. But, food deserts and deserts of other kinds – education, safety, cleanliness, beauty, hope - are the result. 

A business article in the Bloomberg News recently stated some of the reasons why food stores fail in poor neighborhoods. Here area few of the things stores in poor neighborhoods are up against: people will only spend a few dollars each visit; people will shoplift; security costs will be too high; people will scam you with fake “fall down” insurance scams and lastly, the store will be burned to the ground.

This last reason struck me as ironic, since our local store was burned down by an arsonist in 1994 and rebuilt overnight as a “Pantry,” a tiny hole-in-the-wall outlet of groceries, fresh produce and household necessities to serve the community until another store could be constructed. 

A food store doesn’t have to be elaborate.

Apparently, Walgreen and Walmart have responded to Michelle’s challenge. Here’s an excerpt from the same Bloomberg article – 

Food Oasis: Last July, Walgreen pledged to open or convert at least 1,000 so-called food oasis stores over the next five years in the U.S. It has so far opened nearly two dozen, according to Robert Elfinger, a company spokesman, who added that Walgreen is “on pace” to meets its goal. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company’s “urban oasis” project includes stores that carry about 750 more food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Customers now see Walgreen stores as a “destination for meal solutions,” said John Grant, market vice president for Chicago and Northwest Indiana. In food oasis locations, submarine sandwiches and fruit are selling well…Walmart, in June, 2010, vowed to open “several dozen stores” to “help eradicate food deserts and stimulate local economic development.” Since then, Wal-Mart has opened four Chicago stores. It has three more in the works, according to Steve Restivo, a company spokesman. “We will continue to identify sites where residents need jobs and better access to fresh food, while also looking for opportunities to help all Chicagoans save,” Restivo said in an e-mail. This year Wal-Mart will open between 50 and 60 stores in food deserts nationwide, he said. 

      Progress is slow. Michelle needs at least four more years to get these guys moving – Let’s Move! I remember Michelle taking Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner food shopping. Vilsack did great; he bought some organic yogurt. But Geithner looked at the lettuce as if to say, “So, this is where it comes from!”

            Michelle, we need you now.

            Organic food proponents see the White House organic garden as a decoy to divert our attention away from Bush era agri-business policies and the de-regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms still in operation. I agree. But that little wooden duck is going to bite Monsanto in the ass when all the school children who are learning about organics grow up. Sure, a few of them might be traumatized by the hard work of farming, but most are going to have lots of “a-ha moment” memories of growing their own organic carrots and scallions, watching tiny sprouts turn into sustaining food, not to mention the liberating act of harvesting, cooking and eating for themselves. Everyone should learn to cook, boys and girls. Everyone should know where food comes from and the difference between real food and artificial. Thank you, Michelle. Thanks to you – and folks like Jamie Oliver and Alice Waters, two other proponents of good quality food in schools and schoolyard gardens – not to forget all the forward thinking educators out there who went ahead and did the work and dug their own schoolhouse gardens - hundreds of school children are growing gardens, and in effect, learning how to be healthy and independent.

            Learning how to feed one’s self is not a small thing. Cooking and eating have become lost skills. Also, choosing food in the market. How many times have I been at the checkout where the cashier does not know what green vegetable is in his/her hands? Again, thank you, Michelle. I hope a new generation is coming with more knowledge about simple and basic, life and health sustaining food.

            Recently, there has been a backlash about the government-mandated decrease of calories in school lunches – or, in effect, the decrease in satisfying food in school lunches.  Students are complaining about being hungry soon after eating their school lunches. This video created by Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas “We Are Hungry” has gone viral. In order for there to be such a video, and in order for such a video to go viral, there has to be many very hungry students. Why shouldn’t school lunches be healthy and satisfying? Limiting calories isn’t necessarily healthy. Maybe these schools are trying to save money along with saving calories. I am reminded of the movie Diabolique in which the murderer’s first act after killing the evil headmaster was to feed the children hefty portions of fried chicken, corn bread, gravy and greens. What’s wrong with a meal like that? Children are growing and they should never be hungry except for their meals. Remember, school lunches used to be generous and they used to be cooked at school with real food ingredients. In the early 70’s, schools nationwide opted for industrially portioned and pre-prepared meals for school children – hence the cold, dry pizza slice. One of the best tasting of these pre-prepared meals. Gruesome. 

       Now, let’s talk about the vote.  We are in America. The country where the Statue of Liberty stands at the harbor for those who are disenfranchised in their native countries, for those who come here for a better life, to be able to make a living and to be able to vote and have a say in their future. I don’t really need to tell you. But, obviously, I need to tell some people - people who are willing to take the right and ability to vote away from Americans. They are at road blocks asking for picture IDs reminiscent of Nazis asking for papers. Remember the 2008 election when actor and activist Tim Robbins was NOT on the voter list when he went to his polling place?  Robbins was quoted by TMZ as saying, "This is what you have to do to vote... I had to go down to see a judge... My name was not on the roll, and I'm not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America..."  

       And, how about the 93-year-old lady, Vivienne Applewhite who was intimidated about not having a picture ID? Vivienne Applewhite filed a lawsuit with the ACLU and NAACP challenging the new law in Pennsylvania requiring a picture ID. Applewhite marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, but this might be the first election since 1960 in which she won’t be able to vote.    

       Voting restrictions usually target students, poor people, black people and activists, anyone who is likely to vote Democrat. In Florida, early voting on Sunday morning before the election was eliminated. Called “Souls to polls” this movement made it possible for up to 30% of black voters in Florida to cast their vote after church services. New Voter Photo ID laws in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, to name a few states, caused many people who are on the voter list to be turned away from voting in the primaries; many of these people are poor and elderly, they do not drive cars, have never driven a car and do not have drivers’ licenses or any other photo ID.  

       In her remarks last week at the Congressional Black Caucus, Michelle Obama has called this fight against voter restrictions "the march or our time" and "the sit in of our day." So far, she has only made a speech making people aware that she is aware, which now-a-days is more honesty than most of our leaders are willing to stand up and claim about anything. That’s why I want to vote for Michelle Obama. 

       Okay, I get it. No one person can be all things. For example, organic proponents have started a new campaign to get Michelle to convince the President to keep his campaign promise to support GMO labeling. They say, “If she has an organic garden, she should be for labeling because Americans have the right to know what’s in their food.” But asking Mrs. Obama to approach her husband is a pathetic approach to the problem. Organic proponents should police organic quality and promote organics in their natural state – bulk and produce. This clinging to packaged and prepared foods with GMOs already in them is a waste of time and a diversion. Obama is simply carrying out Bush-era agri-business. Michelle is working against agri-business by going straight over her husband’s head to his boss – us. Wake up, America! If it’s in a box, it’s probably GMO. Organics are already labeled. Organic produce has a PLU# that begins with a 9. Stop asking Michelle to do all the work for you!

I’m still thinking about it, but I want to vote for Michelle. Hey, at least she knows how to dress herself. There’s something re-assuring about someone who can put clothes on her body in a way that makes sense and looks stylish. And, in contrast, there’s something very frightening about someone who wants to be a leader but can’t even dress herself. Not everyone who votes for Obama can afford J. Crew, the Gap or even Target, but Michelle has shown the world that you can think outside the traditional box and put it together in an awesome new way. Let’s Move! has potential. With the Obamas, there’s still hope. And, I’d love to be a fly on the wall if Michelle were ever in the Green Room with Seth MacFarlane! 

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, a thriller about two women who died and became legends in an historic New England seacoast town.

©Patricia Goodwin, 2012