Coming up!🌻 Join “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” (Washington Post), Simone Dinnerstein, in a Classical Encounters, hosted by yours truly! 🤗 Sunday, July 18 at 2pm (EDT).

Reserve your virtual (free) seat now 🔜 https://bit.ly/3qXAzRT

Simone Dinnerstein 曾被《華盛頓郵報》譽為「一位具備不容置疑的誠實個性和驚人原創點子的藝術家」，她將在美東時間7月18日下午2點在Classical Encounters與大家見面! 🤗

點擊網址搶先預定 (此活動為免費參加) 🔜 https://bit.ly/3qXAzRT

A few years ago, when news broke about the Jussie Smollett assault case, I chose to err on the side of caution and believed what he was saying, until I saw proof that made it apparent he was lying. I am not ashamed that even though I was wrong, I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt, first. That's the kind of person I want to be. Because I don't think I could live with myself, if his claims turned out to be true, and all I had for him was doubt and ridicule.

NOT THAT I THINK JUSSIE SMOLLETS IS EVER GOING TO READ MY POSTS OR CARE ABOUT MY OPINIONS.

But I have a lot of friends here, many of whom have been victims of racially motivated attacks, hate crimes and even sexual assaults. And the first thing they see, when they gather the courage to speak out against their assailants should not be, "Nah that never happened," or worse, "You're just seeking attention."

I guess that's how I feel about Meghan Markle right now. She basically just told the world that she's harbored thoughts of ending her own life because of what she's been put through by her own family, and her husband's, especially. And the response from people is dubiousness. We've seen irrefutable evidence of how the British tabloids have been dreadful to her. And please don't insult my intelligence by telling me it had nothing to do with the fact that they are racist. Yet everybody feels so easy to dismiss her claims.

Slimy lowlife degenerate Piers Morgan stormed off the set of Good Morning Britain today because he couldn't stand to be confronted about his rampant sexism and racism. He found the experience to be so traumatic that he had to remove himself from the situation. But when Harry and Meghan, the very people he constantly attacks, remove themselves from a traumatic situation, they're being ungrateful and disloyal to the Royal family?

Whether you think she's a gold digger, an attention-seeker or a fake or whatever other ridiculous assumptions you wanna make about her, I think we can agree that she's going through a very rough time. Yet most people would rather believe the gaslighting words of the gossip-mongering rags. And yes, many of you who are making these unfounded, vilifying presumptions about her still insist it not because you are racist. I bet a bunch of you didn't even wait to watch the Oprah Winfrey special - you've probably drawn your negative conclusions about this Mulatto, the minute you heard that she had the audacity to marry a white prince.

Why wouldn't she want to go, UNPAID, on Oprah to tell her side of the story?

Also, stop treating The Daily Mail like it's the paragon of journalistic integrity.

十首台灣詩X十位愛爾蘭詩人朗讀
　　
祝福　◎#孫維民
　
但願你的心神寧靜
如一小船──在夏天
下午已經過去，雲霞
因為夜色越來越美──
通過湖面，幾乎無聲。
通過畢剝的火把，流螢
字語曲折的航道
西班牙屋頂，台灣的草花
　
但願你的旅途平安
如一小船通過湖面。
縱使水中也有奇異的
生物，粗糙的石塊
難以理解，不可辯駁
的決定──黑暗的波浪
終會止息，星座仍然完整
仍然熠熠，湖底的寶藏
　
--
　
“A Blessing”
By Sun Wei-min (1959-)
Translated by Colin Bramwell and Wen-chi Li
Read by Stephen James Smith
　
I hope your mind is quiet
like a boat—it is summer
the afternoon has passed, but twilight is
more graceful when closer to night—
sailing through the lake, almost soundlessly
sailing through the crackling torch and the fireflies
the waterway is an interlacing of words
Spanish ceilings, Taiwanese flowers
　
I hope your journey will be as safe
as this boat, passing across the lake,
for even in the water
there are uncanny creatures, coarse stones
abstruse and irrefutable choices—
but know the dark waves will finally cease,
the constellations still intact, still glaring
the treasure is below the water yet
　
聽詩人Stephen James Smith朗讀：https://youtu.be/BQaOasohc8w
　
#每天為你讀一首詩 #孫維民 #Sun_Wei_min #祝福 #A_Blessing #Stephen_James_Smith #台灣詩選 #Taiwanese_Poetry #駐愛爾蘭台北代表處 #愛爾蘭文學館 #Museum_of_Literature_Ireland