‘Dies irae, dies illa’. ‘Day of wrath, day of anger’. That line from Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor greeted me when I turned on ABC Classic FM a bit ago.
I’d awakened still feeling the anger and pain I’d went to bed with. I’d read too many blogs about ‘post-Constitutional America’ and the Federal courts’ craven acquiescence to legislation allowing our military to imprison people – Americans, too – indefinitely without any obligation to offer the person counsel, a hearing before a judge or a phone call to his/her family.
And then there was Pres. Obama’s appointment of Harvard Law Professor David Barron to the US First Circuit Court of Appeals. Joining the line of former prosecutors – people complicit in the perverted Justice system of the Bush II/Obama presidencies – the president of hope denied has appointed the author of the classified memorandum justifying the murder by drone of Americans abroad.
US Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is right (bet you never thought you’d see those words in this blog!) to insist on the memorandum’s release. He’d be more right to urge his Senate colleagues to reject nominees, like Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee (author whilst at the Bush II Justice Department of an infamous ‘torture’ memorandum) who have destroyed the spirit of the laws they swore to uphold and, I fear, damned us.
Add to Barron the two men with very disturbing views on women, voting rights and secession Obama has nominated to the US District Court in Georgia, I wonder if breaking the filibuster was worth the effort. What a legacy Obama is leaving us!
Then there’s the prosecution and conviction on Monday of Occupy Wall Street protester, Cecily McMillan, in what appears to have been a kangaroo court in all but name. Another craven performance by Manhattan prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, Jr….
Dies irae, dies illa!
But then I looked at the bird feeders next to the cherry tree outside my office window. Greeting me this first morning in Vermont in two months were a dozen gold finches – my favorite birds since childhood – who’ve shed their winter drab for brilliant summer coats, a half dozen red polls, a red-headed woodpecker and a blue bird.
Beyond them, a field of daffodils – yellow, orange and white – shake in the breeze. The willows in the middle ground have moved from yellow toward green and hints of green one can discern amongst the buds on other deciduous trees which still appear – all the way to Mt. Graylock – winter purple and gray.
So, instead of bemoaning our lost world, let’s revel in the new one spring brings.
Gaudete! Rejoice!
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