Politics Archives - The Sciku Project

December 16, 2022January 13, 2023

Civil Disobedience by Jerome Berglund

honeyed words profess
or letter wrapped around brick
different windows
By Jerome Berglund

From Minneapolis – where belligerent citizens have nearly achieved meaningful abolition of their existing law enforcement institutions, are presently excitingly experimenting with innovative alternate approaches to policing not rooted in ‘slave patrols’, and utilizing social workers who do not view citizens as enemy combatants rather than goons trained to react violently – one distinctly appreciates the power and potency of responsible, cautious exertion of civil disobedience in achieving critical goals.

Just as salty suffragettes employed outside the box solutions to win their votes, one wonders what sort of inspired disruptions, boycotts and protests will become obliged to convince venal, bought politicians who ‘vote with their wallets’ to finally act in their species’ interest to seriously address the devastating industrial destruction well on its way to making the planet uninhabitable, already having wiped out 70% of existing animal populations in the span of half a century.

Further reading: Conservative republicans highly skeptical of climate scientists

Author bio:

Jerome Berglund, recently nominated for the 2022 Touchstone awards, graduated from USC’s film program, worked in the entertainment industry before returning to the midwest where he has been employed as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Jerome has exhibited many haiku, senryu and haiga online and in print, most recently in the Asahi Shimbun, Bear Creek Haiku, Bamboo Hut, Cold Moon Journal, Daily Haiga, Failed Haiku, Haiku Dialogue, Scarlet Dragonfly, Under the Basho, and the Zen Space. You can follow him on Twitter @BerglundJerome and find more of his poetry here: https://flowersunmedia.wixsite.com/jbphotography/post/haiku-senryu-and-haiga-publications

Check out more sciku from Jerome here: ‘Environmental Charlie Browns’, ‘Illusion’, ‘Vested Interests‘ and ‘Exploitation in Micro and Macro’.

November 18, 2022January 13, 2023

Environmental Charlie Browns by Jerome Berglund

children’s ambitious
chalk drawings smudged by elements
December morning
By Jerome Berglund

After Democrats, during campaigning, vocally aligning themselves with Green New Deal initiatives, the imperatives of climate science and crucial regulatory, environmental and energy reforms, Joe Biden’s energy policy has been supportive of fracking, retains $20 billion in annual subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, continues to focus on expansion of nuclear infrastructure that (beyond being potentially catastrophic) are as much as three times as costly as wind or solar alternatives.

Progressive supporters begin to feel increasingly like betrayed Charlie Browns, as one supposedly leftist representative after another double-crosses their constituents, reneges on clear promises and continues supporting the very detrimental agendas and structures they purported their stances on were the meaningful thing which separated them from science-denying or ignoring conservative opponents.

The most perfunctory analysis of who is buttering bread of politicians on both sides of the aisle gives a telling indication of which interests they are representing, and what their terms of office’s legacies in policy will look like.

Further reading: Biden’s climate agenda stalls, and progressives fume

Author bio:

Check out Jerome’s other sciku here: ‘Illusion‘, ‘Civil Disobedience’, ‘Vested Interests‘ and ‘Exploitation in Micro and Macro’.