Hey now
Young Mothers
How shall we raise our sons?
To live their lives in peace
And not take up the guns?
Hey now
Young Mothers
What shall we teach them of?
To look for beauty in the world
And use the power of love
I believe
I believe
That love will see us through
I believe
Oooh, I still believe
That love will see us through
That's the first third of Diana Ross' "Young Mothers" and it was written by Tom Baird and K. Lawrence Dunham.
Betty here, filling in for the honeymooning Rebecca. Kat, Elaine and I are including a lyric in tonight's posts we're doing. I'm not sure if I picked right. I don't think we're supposed to work it into a theme.
Well, if I got it wrong, I got it wrong. I know that song from the vinyl, double disc, Anthology. My brother had that on vinyl. I got it on tape right when CD was exploding. Anthology is really the "Diana has left the building" collection. I really don't remember ever not knowing of Diana Ross. Music always played in my home and my parents had her records, she was on the radio growing up (soul stations played her even when pop didn't).
I never had that "Diana left Motown!" moment because she was already gone. She was at RCA by the time I knew enough to know labels. I actually love those albums. I know people trash them in reviews. I think they all have moments and that each RCA album got stronger (which puts me in a minority -- something I'm quite used to!).
Why Do Fools Fall In Love? had "Mirror, Mirror" which I love. I can remember thinking it was like Snow White when I first heard it. I would get my little hand held mirror and my comb and make my father put on the song. I hated combing my hair but I would do it for that song. It also had the title track and otherwise it's okay. Then came Silk Electric which had "Muscles" (I was obsessed with that song from the moment I heard it -- as I approached my teens and continued to be obsessed with it, my father asked me what I thought the song was about -- but I've already written about that). It also had "So Close" which is a wonderful doo-wop song and "Make Me Your Woman" where Diana's voice is just beautiful. I love "Fool For Your Love" but think they placed it wrong on the album. It starts and stops, the album. Third is Ross and that's a strong one. "Pieces of Ice," "That's How You Start Over," "Love or Loneliness" (Ray Parker Jr., where are you?), "Upfront" and "Let's Go Up" -- all favorites. I didn't care for "Girls" but that's the only complaint. Then came Swept Away with the title track mixing vocals and spoken word ("You and I are on an island/ Where I thought the storm would never end . . ."), "All of You" with Julio, "Missing You" (written by Lionel), Dylan's "Forever Young," her remake of "Rescue Me," "It's Your Move," "Telephone," just one song after another that I can listen to over and over. Then came "Eaten Alive" and Michael what happened? "Muscles" was a great song he wrote for Diana. Here he and she team up with the Bee Gees (or Barry Gibb) and it's not so great. It's a fun track. Then it goes off and you have an amazing album. It's one of my favorites. Her final album for RCA is Red Hot Rhythm and Blues. I remember the TV special (I was like four or five, I think) and I remember the video for "Dirty Looks" (and how all my aunts would point out, "You know she's pregnant but you can't tell it"). I loved "Dirty Looks." (And I remember this album in Stevie Wonders' video for "Skeletons.") I loved the special but when my brother played me the record, I didn't care for it. This one took awhile to grow on me. Now I love it. (Now I also have two digits to my age.) It's really a wonderful album with "Summertime" and "Tell Me Again" -- gorgeous ballads. As well as her cover of "There Goes My Baby" and a new song, "Shockwaves," that sounds like one of Martha's hits from the sixties.
So, for me, I really don't buy the RCA years being bad years in terms of art. I wonder if and when they do a real Best of for that period, if people will grasp that?
There are two collections (I have them both). One is called something like The RCA Years. Okay, it's Greatest Hits: The RCA Years. How do you do "Greatest Hits" and not include "All of You" (hit single on pop, ac and soul), "Telephone" (hit on soul), "Pieces of Ice" (top 100 pop), etc? You can't. 18 tracks. Not all of the hits are here. The other RCA years collection is called Endless Love and it only has eight tracks. It works better for me because the songs seem to fit together (second track begins the jams and last until the end).
There's a song that was just on the flip side of the "Swept Away" single that I always loved. My brother would put on "Fight For It" and I'd dance around the room as a little girl and even older. ("What we have is so strong and true/ It keeps me coming back to you . . .")
So I think RCA was a good period artistically.
When she returned to Motown, it was a big deal in my family. I didn't care for it. There's the live jazz album and there was her last studio album which I liked. The Force Behind The Power is really the only one I think makes it as an album. But each release (and my brother was getting tapes around the time of Swept Away) was always a big deal. He'd bring them home and we'd all listen together (once he switched to cassettes, he'd usually heard some of it on the way home).
So the point is, I'm a big Diana fan. I always will be. My daughter has the doll they did of her a few years back. She actually has two of them. My brother got her the first one and she wouldn't take it out of the box. That may be because she got used to seeing it, from the crib, in the box. So I had to track down another one a year ago and this one comes out of the box and she plays with it.
She loves to go through my brother's albums with him or by herself, looking at the pictures. She wants a story for each one (my brother spoiled her) and after you tell her the story, she'll smile and say, "That's nice." She says it like the sweetest, elderly woman. It always makes me smile and I've heard her do it probably a million times now.
All of her dolls are "Dianas" or Kitty Kitty's -- it's the only names she has for them. And until recently, they were all Dianas. I wish now that I'd named her Diana. She loves that name. And, like me when I was a little girl, she loves it when Diana's on the stereo. We were in the store last week with Kat and she was in the buggy. She got very upset because Kat was helping my sons with something and I was pulling cereal off the shelf. She did this big dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes back in her head. When she knew she had our attention, she looked at us shaking our heads and pointed to the ceiling (where a speaker was), "That is Di-an-a."
It was too. It was "Endless Love" (the duet version with Lionel).
If you ask her to "Sing Diana" she'll bounce her head up and down as she sings "Baby, baby" from "Where Did Our Love Go?".
So the point is, I was raised by Diana lovers, I'm a Diana lover and I've got at least one Diana lover. (They all love "If We Hold On" but they call it "Land Before Time" -- the name of the movie the song was in.)
So a few years ago, ten?, I got Anthology on CD (two discs). It is not the cassette line up. There are differences. I didn't even think to look at the track listing. But, as I was listening, I told myself, "If it has 'Young Mothers' on it, I'm fine." It did.
I've always loved that song. When I was a little girl, I don't know what I thought of it. I just know I sang along with it. But around the age of ten, I started really getting into the lyrics and wonder what I was going to tell my children and how I would raise them?
What were my responsibilities to them and would I live up to those responsibilities?
I think I've made many mistakes but on this -- I think I lived up to it.
The boys have no war toys. When someone breaks the rule, that was in place before Iraq and Afghanistan, I say "no, take it back." For many Black people, the military is the only way to advance (or dangles that hope anyway -- I know too many disabled struggling with the Veterans' Hospital) and I saw that in high school long before graduation loomed. I knew some people who went in, more females than males actually, and I knew they were hoping it would pay for college or provide them with training. I hope it did.
But I knew I didn't want any child I ever had to grow up thinking war was a game. There's enough pressure on you without thinking of it as a game. My boys will tell you the war is wrong and my oldest will tell you exactly why.
So on that I suceeded. (That's true even if all three enlist one day. They'll go in with their eyes open.) So when we were talking about a song, this one came to mind immediately. It's one that I grew up singing along with and not grasping one word for several years. Then the message of it seeped in: the responsibilty we have.
Today, it would have to be "What shall we tell our sons and daughters" but I think the message is still a strong one today. On that note, here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot"
Chaos and violence continues today, Tuesday, August 1, 2006. The bombings continue, the shootings continue, the death continues with the estimated number of the dead jumping in the last hour and half from at least 39 to at least 63. (Possibly Damien Cave will write in tomorrow's New York Times "at least 12"?) Reuters notes that among the dead are "at least 26 soldiers" (Iraqis as well as one British soldier stationed in Basra).
Bombings.
A series of bombings throughout Iraq account for the largest reported fatalities. CNN places the first as a roadside bomb that targeted "a bust carrying members of the Iraqi military". AFP notes this as "the bloodiest incident, a massive roadside bomb ripped apart a bus carrying soldiers from Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul". Al Jazeera places the death toll at 24 minimum. Reuters notes "[t]he charred remains" that "were scattered across the bus" and "[t]wo skulls . . . in the vehicle along an empty highway." AFP reports that in addition to those killed (they say "at least 23"), 20 more were wounded. Joshua Partlow and Saad al-Izzi (Washington Post) note an Interior Ministry source who placed the number wounded at 40 (killed at 23).
The BBC notes "at least 14 people died" in Baghdad when a car bomb ("suicide") went off "outside a bank where security forces were collecting pay." Sandra Lupien on KPFA's The Morning Show noted the timing and planning involved in that attack. Jane Peel (BBC) noted the "black fumes" wafting from the bombing to the sky and that, "The security forces seem unable to stop the attacks." [C.I. said that if the link to Peel doesn't work, use the link to the report on the page "BBC notes" goes to.] Partlow and al-Izzi (Washington Post) report: "The soldiers had blocked off part of a street in front of the Zuwiyah Bank, where they were withdrawing their monthly salaries." Reuters notes a child of 12-years-old "sobbing and tearing his shirt after seeing his dead mother" and kisosk owner Abu Fadhil saying: "We should carry guns to protect ourselves. If we expect Iraqi security forces to protect us we will burn, just like those innocenct people."
Reuters notes that at least seven died and fifteen were left wounded from a car bombing in Muqdadiya. Partlow and al-Izzi (Washington Post) note that the car in question was "a Kia sedan" and that the bombing took place outside a hospital.
David Fickling, Ben Hammersley "and agencies" (Guardian of London) report the death of a British soldier today in Basra forma "mortar attack". CBS and AP note: "The infantry soldier died after being airlifted from a base in Basra to a field hospital outside the city, said the spokeswoman on customary condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy."
In addition to the above, Reuters also notes a "roadside bomb . . . in northeastern Baghdad" that killed one civilian and left one wounded; a car bomb aimed at "an Iraqi army patrol" that left "two civilians" wounded; and that the US military announced today that a "U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Monday".
Shootings?
RTE News reports the an attack on a minibus carrying electricity board employees which left four dead and four wounded "when their minibus was sprayed with gunfire in central Baghdad." AP raises the numbers to "five killed and injured the other six". Reuters notes two separate shooting deaths in Mosul; in Kirkuk, "A member of the Arab Consultative Assembly . . gunned down"; and, "outskirts of Baghdad," an attack on an Iraqi checkpoint left four Iraqi soldiers wounded as well as one civilian. AFP gives Sheik Abdul Razak al-Ibadi as the name of the ACA member gunned down and notes that he "was shot dead outside his home."
Corpses?
CBS and AP note that two corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes that three corpses were discovered in Baquba. Reuters also notes that "[t]he body of Adel al-Mansouri, a correspondent for al-Alam television station, was found dumped with bullet holes on a street". By Reuters count, al-Mansouri is the eleventh journalist reported killed in Iraq this year. On April 14th of this year, Dahr Jamail's web site featured the Mosaic Video Stream featuring a report al-Mansouri had done for Abu Dhabi TV. Adel al-Mansouri opened with this statement: "Iraqis hope that their political leaders will be able to overcome their differences and quickly form the new government in order to deal with the problems that plague the country." Not only did that not happen quickly the rumors now float about a shake up in Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet (with the Interior Minister being mentioned most often as at least one person who will be replaced). Since that report, Baghdad has been under the so-called "crackdown" for over six weeks and now an estimated 4,000 US troops are being repositioned in the capitol.
The Associated Press is reporting that Asaad Abu Kilal (governor of Najaf) has announced that six buses were "waylaid" and that "45 people from Najaf" have been kidnapped. The AP quotes an Interior Ministry flack who says the number is correct but the kidnappings have taken place "over the last two weeks" and it's "[l]ike two or three people snatched a day." Apparently that's when you panic if you serve in the Interior Ministry -- not when 45 people are kidnapped over a two week period, when they are kidnapped all at once. It doesn't change the number but apparently spreading it out over several days lessens the impact. Vijay Joshi (AP) notes: "U.S. officials estimate an average of 30-40 people are kidnapped each day in Iraq, although the real figure may be higher because few families contact the police."
In Australia, the inquiry into the April 21st death in Baghdad of Jake Kovco continues.
The AAP reports that Kovco's former roommates (billes as "Soldier 17" and "Soldier 19") provided DNA on Saturday. The gun believed to have been utilized had Jake Kovco's DNA on it as well as unidentified DNA. Malcom Brown (Sydney Morning Herald) reports that the DNA has been tested and the roommates' DNA doesn't match what is on the gun so Wayne Hayes ("Detective Inspector) is heading Iraq "to ask other soldiers in hi platoon to give DNA samples." The current developments were best summed in this exchange on Australia's The World Today -- Eleanor Hall (host) asked, "So Conor, the source of the DNA remains a mystery then?" to which Conor Duffy (reporters) responded, "That's right Eleanor, like so much of what happened in room 8 at the Australian embassy where Jake Kovco died, the source of the DNA on the gun that took his life remains a mystery."
Dan Box (The Australian) reports: "Evidence presented to a military board of inquiry into Kovco's death and failed repatriation now suggests the soldier killed himself in a tragic accident, probably without realising his pistol was loaded. But the army's decision to clean his room and wash his roommates' clothes after he died has destroyed almost all the forensic evidence and may now mean the exact cause of death will never be known." Brown notes that Soldier 19 testified "no way, sir" that Kovco would have committed suicide and AAP notes that 19 states he didn't see the shooting because "he was bending down at a bar fridge in the room". Conor Duffy noted that this would put 19 "probably about one to two meters away from Private Kovco at the time" and that both 19 and 17 are "expected to remain in Sydney for at least this week before they return to Baghdad."
In peace news, Carol A. Clark (Los Alamos Monitor) reports that Cindy Sheehan will speak at Ashley Pond on August 6th ("this year's Hiroshima Day") for an event that will include others and last from two to nine p.m. and will include "free buttons and balloons, live music, face painting and activities for the kids" as well as "the lighting of 3,000 floating candles on Ashley Pond at dusk."
CODEPINK's Troops Home Fast is on Day 29 with over 4,350 people participating from all over the world. David Howard (Countercurrents.org) writes about the reasons for participating in the fast including "to end the immense horror and suffering for Iraqis and to ensure that our high school graduates of 2006 and 2007 don't end up dead, like Tony Butterfield." Tony Butterfield was Anthony E. Butterfield ("Lance Cpl.") who died on July 29th in the Anbar Province at the age of 19. In addition, as Howard notes, Butterfield was "a 2005 graduate of Buchanan High school in Clovis, California." The fast is ongoing (until September 21st) and people can pick a one-day, one-day a week, or more at any point between now and September 21st. More information is available at Troops Home Fast.
