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Sword and Shield

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1.
Picking up my sword and shield,
I put on the uniform of the world.

They say
men should be at war.
We make love in private
and exchange
a handshake by the door,
so no one will see.
This is a story I cannot tell.
There is the name I carry with me.

Like a good soldier
Like a good boy
You buried your joy of the world
inside me
and there I keep it safe.
The others knew a hero,
But only I knew your true loveliness.

He trained you well, your father.
The mask you wore
was fashioned from years of his brutality.
He saw the gentle, eager boy
And tried to destroy the word he couldn’t bring himself to say.

This story should never be told.

Sixteen years I am your friend, lover and then husband
The richness of our life absorbed in the walls of our quiet cage.
I never asked you to expose.
You never asked me to obey.
Men like us
exist in simultaneous worlds;
sharing a holy union,
separate and profound.

And then you were taken from me.
And from among the scattered ashes
I could make no widow’s claim.
Because I wasn’t allowed to say your name.
This story should never be told.
This is a name I will not betray.

So I waited.
And no one came to comfort
And no one came to mourn
Because no one knew our delicate room existed.
But us.

2.
I carry my sword and shield.
I put on the uniform of the world.

And I say to that world
which requires men to love
in clandestine chambers
And to the father who would have smashed his soul
As crumbling metal of that day smashed his body

You never reached his heart.
I had his heart.

And this is a story that will be told.
This is the name I carry with me.
A name I finally say.

Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan.

“Sword and Shield,” by Max Gordon, is the text for a dance performance entitled, “Armide’s Revenge”, performed by Carlos Fittante, Artistic Director of the BALAM Dance Theater, and premiered at the Cool New York Dance Festival, February 3, 2011.

 

Max Gordon is a writer and activist. He has been published in the anthologies Inside Separate Worlds: Life Stories of Young Blacks, Jews and Latinos (University of Michigan Press, 1991), Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of African-American Lesbian and Gay Fiction (Henry Holt, 1996) and Mixed Messages: An Anthology of Literature to Benefit Hospice and Cancer Causes. His work has also appeared on openDemocracy, Democratic Underground and Truthout, in Z Magazine, Gay Times, Sapience, and other progressive on-line and print magazines in the U.S. and internationally.

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“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the Ethics Committee statement reads. It was posted to social media by congressional journalist Jamie Dupree.

The statement also says the committee will “announce its course of action in this matter on or before March 2, 2026.”

Congresswoman Mace is currently running for governor of South Carolina.

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She noted also that “Congress has a role. Certainly, when it comes to spending authorities, the Congress has a role in basically helping to facilitate the message that comes from our constituents, to be reflected in whether it’s legislation or appropriations, or actions or measures, that can indicate, again, the will of the Congress.”

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The “vast majority” of Americans do not support the acquisition of Greenland, Senator Murkowski added, noting that “some 75 percent will say we do not think that that is a good idea.”

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Politico reported that U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) “also took part in the visit by House and Senate lawmakers,” and “said he would push ahead with legislation to curb Trump’s power to act unilaterally.”

He also denied President Trump’s claims that Greenland is necessary to be owned by the U.S. for national security reasons.

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Just one day after threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, which would allow him to unleash domestic military forces onto American streets, President Donald Trump once again on Friday hinted he would do so while suggesting he may be “forced” to take action.

Trump targeted Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, claiming they “don’t know what to do” after he deployed roughly 3,000 federal troops to the city.

“In Minnesota,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “the Troublemakers, Agitators, and Insurrectionists are, in many cases, highly paid professionals.”

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The Guardian labeled Trump’s claims that protesters are paid as baseless.

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote: “Note that the Trump admin hasn’t yet been able to produce evidence of a SINGLE ‘paid protestor.’ They’ve had total control of the FBI and the DOJ and ICE HSI and yet despite all of that, they can’t even find ONE person who they can accuse of being paid to protest.”

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Image via Reuters

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