Friday Haiku

look closely
who-who do you see
one great horned owl

Bear Creek Greenbelt Park. February 28, 2025

Thank you, Amy Law, for showing me the owl nest. While we didn’t see American Dippers, it was still a lovely walk and talk.

Friday Haiku + notes: on Nazism

new administration
billionaire’s Nazi salute
believe what you see

NOTES:
1) The above shows Elon Musk at Trump’s inaugural parade on January 20, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
2) The American Defamation League (ADL) which supposedly exists to combat antisemitism, responded to Musk’s Nazi salute with this [emphasis mine]:
“This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety,” the ADL wrote in a Monday post on Musk’s social platform X. “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”
In case you’ve forgotten, last year the ADL decried the “antisemitism” of college students (many of them Jewish) who protested their tuition and taxes being used to fund the genocide in Palestine. Notably, the ADL url for their “Campus Crisis Daily” contains the words “no tolerance for antisemitism.”  Apparently, ADL can tolerate Nazi salutes from white supremacist billionaires, but draws the line at Jewish students speaking out against genocide.
3) It’s not only the ADL tripping over themselves to excuse a Nazi salute, a TV weather forecaster from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was fired after calling out Musk’s Nazi salute on social media.
4)  NBC News edited their footage to remove the Nazi salute while the Washington Post referred to Musk’s appearance as “exuberant.”
5) Religion Dispatches breaks down the media coverage in the U.S. and around the world: While Global Media Are Clear on Musk’s Nazi Salute US Media Engage in ‘Nazi-Washing’ 
6) This is a very good time to remember George Orwell’s book 1984:

For above graphic: h/t to @thelazycanuck.bsky.social

Take them at their words and actions. Believe what you see. Reject the gaslighting.

Friday Haiku: on freedom of the press

religious school mob
attacks journalist
supremacist frenzy

Note: this happened on June 5 in occupied Jerusalem during the “Flag March.” Palestinian journalist Saif Al-Qawasmi was attacked, first by students of a religious school and then beaten by Israeli police. Journalist Nir Hasson tried to protect Qawasmi and was also beaten. Hasson, who works for the newspaper Haaretz, took this photo. Other images can be seen here.

Friday Haiku: on democracy

try to guess the crime
protesting a genocide
state-sponsored terror

OR (because I’m all about revision)
criminalizing
protest against genocide
state-sponsored terror

Please add your own haiku in the comments (and feel free to revise)!

NOTE: The caption beneath that photo in Los Angeles Times: Hundreds of law enforcement personnel descended on UC Irvine to move hundreds of pro-Palestinian students, faculty and supporters protesting the UC system’s investments in Israel. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Friday Haiku + surprise

As I often do on Fridays, I went in search of a photo to use as a haiku prompt and landed on one from a visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in August of 2021.  This image reminded me of childhood when our mother tried to wrangle the five kids for a decent photo that was inevitably ruined by someone flashing bunny ears behind a sibling or making a face or turning away from the camera. Clearly, these cormorants couldn’t care less about me getting a good shot.

And so I wrote this haiku:

many cormorants
but majority headless
group photo challenge

Before posting it I took a closer look, zooming in on the birds nearest the center of the photo, and decided to crop the image to only show those four cormorants. And that’s when I discovered something I’d missed. Do you see it?

A skull!

Holy guacamole. This calls for a whole new haiku:

glossy birds sunbathe
pronghorn antelope keeps watch
sprinting days over

Please join in the fun and comment with your own haiku for this photo!