‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
Mind And Body Unite
By Peter Molenaar After thirty-three years of hard labor in the neighborhood iron foundry, one would expect this writer to have resolved the question surrounding the apparent duality between mind and body. He certainly has had ample time to think about it with his nose before the grinding wheel. It is a vexing problem. If after all our [...]
Time Won’t Wait
By Peter Molenaar Gone is the brush pile which housed the winter’s flock of sparrows. It was a cold day then. Does the city inspector harbor a mean spirit or merely a sense of duty? It is warm today. The sparrows are sampling freshly strewn seed. And so… Will the Occupy Movement return as a visible hub around which broader [...]
Tough Love & Anarchists
by Peter Molenaar Just south of Lake Street and just west of Chicago Avenue, there appears to be a significant block of resistance to the home foreclosure crisis. Bobby Hull, Vietnam War vet and life-long worker, will not be moved. Quite right: face death, pay taxes, pay the Man, have your home equity stripped, bail out the banksters, and then [...]
Smile Back Big Time
By Peter Molenaar January 14th, 2012… Marv Davidov, the world-renowned activist who quietly resided at 2615 Park Avenue, has passed. All of us would do well to “google” his name. The numerous tributes are rich in content. Should you open “The Wild Reed” site you will find him pictured smiling from his death bed. Freedom Rides, [...]
Criticism And Self-Criticism
by Peter Molenaar Yes, the revolutionary process is again unfolding and is, this time around, discernible and understandable even to us “broad masses”. It is natural, in this context, for the most “gifted” to step forward as “partisans of the people”. It is natural, as well, that a competition for leadership status will develop [...]
Mixed Bag
by Peter Molenaar Unlike the esteemed guru who, it is said, once transcended all earthly attachments, the rest of us are bound to the spiritual ups and downs which reflect the satisfactions and irritations of our existence. St. Paul’s Church, 11-11-11… It was in conjunction with the 200th birthday of Wendell Phillips, renowned [...]
Occupation Time
by Peter Molenaar Just moments ago I witnessed a national TV news report which exposed the deliberate short supply of chemotherapy drugs made available for children. Profits before people… Yet the ongoing protests against corporate greed lack a clear set of demands. Sure, the slogan “Power to The People” has merit. But what? [...]
Fishing Trip
by Peter Molenaar It is good for an inland worker to visit big water from time to time. My father and I are just now returned from fishing Lake of the Woods in northernmost Minnesota. The curvature of the horizon is discernable to the eye there. So, thank you Smith Foundry for letting me go. As I was not pressed to engage the machine, [...]
Doo Wop And Cannon Falls
by Peter Molenaar The luckier members of my generation were again able to watch public television’s annual review of the Doo Wop Pop Rock music emergence (late ‘50s—early ‘60s). As always, it was an awesome emotional head swoon. Moreover, let us self-reflect, the splendid performances of so many popular Black artists served to educate [...]
High Heat
By Peter Molenaar The weather we’ve endured recently has produced the oft heard comment: “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”. Well, OK. Let’s bear in mind, however, that temperature is a measurement of how energetically molecules are vibrating. Note: In the desert we feel comfortable even at relatively elevated temperatures. Why? [...]
