Poem for Tuesday and Summer Zoo

Protest
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.

Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.

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I had a weird Monday of changed plans because the weather in the morning was insane -- six inches of rain so hard and so fast that hundreds of local roads were closed for flooding, Paul had to go the long way around to get on the highway to go to work, and Adam was stuck in Fredericksburg all morning because it was taking people over two hours to get here from there. Having seen footage of cars floating in water a half-mile from where I live, I stayed home all morning until Adam finally arrived! Then he and Katherine went shopping with my mother and I did a bunch of chores.

My mother thought maybe Adam and Katherine would come out to dinner, not knowing they already had plans to meet Katherine's father at IKEA, look for furniture, and have dinner there, so instead Paul and I got taken out to dinner at the Silver Diner, where ironically I had thought I would be having dinner with Carrie and Angela but the former had a conflict and the latter got a headache while waiting for me to figure out my schedule. We watched this week's upsetting 9/11 episode of The Loudest Voice afterward. Some more photos from the Africa section of the Maryland Zoo: