This diary was written to be read while listening to Rusted Root’s “Cruel Sun” off their album “When I Woke” (1994)
Click to listen….then click ‘play’…
Cruel Sun
See the bloody faces lifted to the sky
Do you want to run to a future left behind?
I remember asking why, there lies aggression.
Separation where there should be love
Power plays while the people die
Let it rain and protect us from this cruel sun
Let it rain and protect us from this cruel sun
I remember asking why, there lies aggression
Separation where there should be love
Power plays while the people die
I remember asking why, I remember asking why
I remember asking why, I remember asking why, why.
Open up your eyes, your eyes and let the child learn.
Open up your eyes, and let the child learn
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
Why does war kill only the small man?
Why does war kill only the small man?
I think we know, yes, we know
I think we know, know, know
I remember asking why.
I remember asking why.
I remember asking why.
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
Let it rain, and protect us from this cruel sun
My mother was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer on September 10th, 2001…a day before the Twin Towers were felled.
We sat there we two, in front of the telly, mesmerized like the rest of the world…numb…unable to function…motionless…expressionless…empty.
I had just happened to fly home to visit my mother in California for a week and was unable to leave…all flights grounded…how could I leave her alone in her condition anyway???
I stayed and took care of her, of course…I don’t shirk my responsibilities…I had to leave my job and school in Miami Beach, Florida, gave up my apartment and split with my then boyfriend, whom I am now married to. Luckily he was very understanding…
I was her only child, and she raised me by herself…it was always just the two of us.
So, on October 6th, the night before the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, aggravated by the recent politics and propaganda, I climbed into bed with my mother for the first time in my adult life and held her tight.
As we both lie there crying for what was about to happen, I remember asking why…why did we jump so quickly and so blindly into war without so much as an investigation?
I remember asking why…was war even a possibility with so many other tools at our disposal, we were such a civilized society here in the states, that there must be some other avenues to trod down first. Pre-emptive war must always be the last straw, not first thought.