VERSE BY MALEKOFF

VERSE by Malekoff, Politics-plus ... All original free associations.

Melania tells children, "Be best"
The nation answers, "Surely you jest"
So side splitting
Must be kidding
C'mon First Lady, give it a rest

Somehow we made it through Watergate
That darkest of times sealed Nixon's fate
And now there's Trump
That treasonous punk
True patriots cannot allow his escape

Fast food burgers make me sick
Meat is gray and grease is slick
They make me gag
And my belly sag
Where's the the john, I gotta go quick

24 hours of stations to choose
The never ending hum of cable news
Look at the talking heads
Including retired feds
Riling me up or making me snooze

Can barely recall her mother's face
ICE police caged her up in this place
Five-sixty-five
Is mine alive?
Or has she gone missing without a trace?

Rudy Guliani said, "truth is not truth"
America's mayor is long in the tooth
So full of crap
Needs a long nap
Or a quick dip in the fountain of youth

The King of Twitter lost his mind
Left all rational thought behind
Croaks like a frog
Lies like a dog
Regarding morality he's totally blind

The base is under Donald's spell
They do not know him very well
Hypnotized
Mesmerized
As dogs reacting to Pavlov's bell

Michael Cohen has copped a plea
Soiled his pants and took a pee
He's gonna burn
Unless he turns
The tables on President DJT

Madonna co-opted the Queen of Soul
Now Ciccone is paying a toll
Despite all her cash
Huge fan backlash
When Aretha arrived they broke the mold

The ladies of Salem have arrived
To tell us Agent Orange conspired
That twisted runt
Declared "Witch hunt!"
Thou protesteth too much - So you're  fired!

From, I'd take a bullet for my boss
To, I'd like to throw him under the bus
Michael Cohen is in deep shit
Agent Orange needs to quit
It's justice served or democracy lost

A tribute to Heather Heyer
Who stepped straight into the fire
To humanity's friend
Love the world sends
Your memory won't cease to inspire

A baby blimp flew high overhead
Bopping in time with Grateful Dead
The queen feted Trump
The orange-haired lump
"A stable genius, I am," he said

If stomach-turning Hannity
Were eaten by a manatee
There'd be such glee
That a windbag like he
Was turned to waste in a tropical sea

The children of Flint drank lead
Poison then went to their heads
No one took blame
Michigan's shame
Tap water that brings only dread

To our nation's enduring disgrace
Is prejudging according to race
Bias by skin
Our original sin
Diversity we should all embrace

That guy with the orange cheeks
Moscow should be where he sleeps
He rants and he rages
And puts children in cages
But with Vladi he acts like a sheep

Mike Pence is like a mannequin
Standing beside the sultan of sin
That frozen smile
Is code for "Sig Heil"
He's Charlie McCarthy's next of kin

Agent Orange is selling us out
Sowing the seeds of eternal doubt
Vladimir's pet
Has no regret
Unprincipled lying treasonous lout

Bone spur orange dodged the draft
Misleading congress is his craft
Oh me, oh my
That boy can lie
And republicans cover his ass

"No collusion" is not really so
Agent Orange is America's foe
He cheats and he lies
Gives comfort to spies
That sorry sack of s*** must go

What leads to a meaningful life?
A career, a husband, a wife?
It's not what you'd guess
You see, life's a mess
Cannot be smoothed by a butterknife

Agent Orange is straight from hell
Take a close look and you can tell
It is not "if" or "maybe"
He's Rosemary's baby
No doubt he's profoundly unwell

He joined him alone in a room
Saw Vladi and started to swoon
His heart is so hollow
He started to swallow
One infamous Monday at noon

If Cheech & Chong met Don & Vladi
Think they'd toke some wacky tabacky?
From phony gladness
To reefer madness
The key to peace might just be a fatty

Do you feel a nagging itch
'bout the guy who's Putin's bitch
Orange face
Huge disgrace
Women beware, bring your mace

He fancies himself as Narcissus
He’s really much more like pertussis
Spreading his germs
Making us squirm
With thousands of lies so outrageous

Mar-a-Lago for golf with Vladi?
Nunes will serve as their caddy
Should be a thriller
Bare-chested killer
Asking 45: to "Who is your daddy?"

Don't be deceived my dear friends
Putin sees America's end
45 in his pocket
Nuclear tipped rocket
A missile of death he will send

Shady old Paul Manafort
Is headed to criminal court
He'll do the time
Lest he drop a dime
From 45 there'll be no support

Be prepared to get out the vote
Take a car, a train or a boat
We have a choice
Amplify your voice
Grab your coat, keep freedom afloat!

For all of the POTUS's vanity
And transparent acts of insanity
FOX is his lair
That vicious broodmare
Sowing his seed with Sean Hannity

If you're ever feeling hell-bent
Don't you bitch, instead dissent
Make some waves
Not rants & raves
Stand up, speak out & represent

When a football player takes a knee
He's excercising free speech you see
Peaceful protest is patriotic
Shutting it down is idiotic
Take a knee for Emmett Till, Rosa Parks & MLK

There's something about adolescents
They're brooding or effervescent
What is it with teens
That live in between
Darkness & blinding incandescence?

I just had surgery for a hernia
By the Ancient Order of Hibernia
They closed up the hole
And charged me a toll
So now one might say I'm superbia!

Michael Cohen has 45 on tape
Fancies himself as a hero in a cape
But it's not really so
He's just another schmo
An attorney on paper but in truth a great ape

On Friday there'll be a blood moon
July 27 coming real soon
Eclipse of the heart
Adrip in the dark
Prophecy or marching dragoon?

I sleep with someone that snores
So loud it rattles the doors
My eyes are wide shut
I lie still like King Tut
Can't sleep so I get up & do chores

Migrant kids' psyches we're battered
On US soil dreams were shattered
Came to escape
Violence and rape
To 45 none of it mattered

When Agent Orange disappears
Many folks will stomp and cheer
That won't hide
The great divide
Racial strife will remain my dears

Religion can be good or evil
One's morality strong or feeble
Feed the poor or
Take for yourself more
A generous heart or deceitful

We teach our children not to lie
Yet POTUS says sea is sky
Up is down
Flat is round
Truth means nothing to this guy

Mayor Giuliani has run out of time
America's Mayor swims in slime
At a great cost
Integrity lost
Trading it all for a spot on prime time

Big boss is under the gun
Mueller has got him on the run
Now I can see
Him taking a plea
Quiet as a mouse, cat got his tongue

Let's not sugar coat the truth
Trump committed child abuse
At the border
He did murder
Thousands of souls with no excuse

Whose the greatest fraud of all
Orange cheeks mean and cruel
Has a base
With no taste
Sells false hope to hordes of fools

I don't like glaring at Kindle or Nook
I like the delicious feel of a book
Turning the pages
Paper in cages
I'll take a hardback by hook or by crook

Give me liberty or take my breath
Free speech or spiritual death
Who is this guy?
A Russian spy?
King of s*** mountain or dime store Macbeth

Sleepless days & sleepless nights
Freddie Fender go fly a kite
Country twang
Purple gang
These pants look good but man they're tight

On the way to kingdom come
I chewed a piece of bubblegum
Bazooka Joe
Eddie & Flo
Pearly gates and bottle of rum

Agent Orange is a lying pig
Separates families, takes the kids
Not my prez
I hereby sez
Crushing human rights is his gig

The folks at the rallies are odd
Pretending 45 is a god
They live by mob rule
And stammer and drool
Then bow to a fake, a phony & fraud

Ivanka got the poor to stitch
Stuff but not Abercrombie & Fitch
Paid pennies an hour
Held court in Trump Tower
Starved still they did as she got rich

POTUS slammed the great LeBron
A man of character, Don's got none
He's helping it seems
To fulfill kids' dreams
As POTUS tears families apart by the seams

When Donald Junior was a tot
He dreamed about a Russian plot
It took all he had
To dig dirt for dad
And soon he'll have a prison cot

Suffering from our collective amnesia
Still fast asleep from the anesthesia
It still isn't too late
To escape this cruel fate
Need a stiff shot of Milk of Magnesia

Agent Orange says: "Stand & Salute"
Bellowing orders from an empty suit
Anti-minority
No moral authority
Players who kneel he cannot uproot

Mueller will indict a Stone
Poor Roger too late to atone
Sneaky guy
Gonna fry
Prison next and final home

Our system of justice he demeans
Many in congress will not intervene
The future is bleak
Acting like sheep
Kissing up so pathetically obscene

Agent Orange despises black & brown
Vituperation spins his world 'round
How did this creature
Became such a feature?
His sense of omnipotence makes the earth frown

Forty-five thinks the Earth is flat
On global warming he smells a rat
Ridiculous putz
Ideas so nuts
Fancies himself an aristocrat

Sharp Objects is a funky show
Southern gals on the down low
Camille feeling torn
Since she was born
Her mama Adora drinking bordeaux

In a mid-morning tweet monologue
Forty-five called Omarosa a dog
She said he's corrupt
Wants his ass whupped
In a White House that's stuck in a fog

Raging parents in the Sooner State
Threatening a trans teen to castrate!
Diversity be damned
Hatred's in their hands
Stand up, speak out & demonstrate!

Brennan's clearance taken away
With 45 it's watch what you say
Attack free speech
The right to preach
Unless your willing to pay to play

Omarosa, she has some gall
Got Agent Orange by the balls
She's not hoarding
Lots of recordings
Setting the table for a great fall

Trump is tainting the jury
To the constitution's fury
Rule of law
In his craw
Their verdict won't end this story

Copyright Andrew Malekoff 2018

Some of these appear under my friend @feministlimericks account on Instagram

POST-ELECTION, IT'S TIME TO OPEN DIALOGUE WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

If you are a sentient being you’re well aware of the alarming degree of divisiveness that has been generated as a result of the presidential campaign. Given the growing incidence of hateful speech and action, there is a desperate need for open dialogue with young people.

I can vividly recall meeting with a therapy group for troubled teens some 25 years ago. They raised the subject of race and racism after having been exposed repeatedly to the videotaped TV footage of the Rodney King beating, which foreshadowed the current era of cell phone videos and body cams.

Rodney King was an African-American man who became widely known after being beaten by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. A local resident witnessed the beating and videotaped it from his nearby apartment. The officers were tried in court but were found not guilty.

The two minority members of the group spoke about their own fear and “paranoia.” I listened and then told them “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”

In 1968, psychiatrists William Greir and Price Cobbs noted in their book Black Rage that, for some people, a suspiciousness of one’s environment is necessary for survival.

Indeed, the phenomenon of adaptive paranoia—which recognizes real threats, not imaginary ones—is not at all uncommon to minority groups who have experienced profound prejudice historically and who now, after the brutal 2016 campaign, are more concerned than ever.

Here’s what we know for sure: Reports of hateful intimidation and harassment are on the rise since the election.  According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were more than 850 accounts of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia between November 9 and the morning of November 14. 

Recently, I posed these questions on social media: What is the emotional impact of the trickle-down divisive campaign rhetoric on the nation's children? What signs are you seeing? What can you do? Here are two responses:

“Hispanic students are afraid to go to school because classmates bully them and tell them they are being deported.”

“Immigrant children are terrified! They are afraid their parents are going to be sent away. I think it is important to allow a space for dialogue.”

Now, more than ever, rather than squash discussion on these sensitive matters, we owe it to the young people in our lives to foster open dialogue. Noted family therapist Harry Aponte’s reflection on diversity might serve us well as a guideline. He said,

“Diversity is not about us-versus-them. And neither is it about easy agreement among different cultural, ethnic and racial groups… It is a bold, rich and complex tapestry. It has to do with being different in values, traditions and speech, and the same in human need, suffering and love. It has to do with living in separate neighborhoods, and together in the larger common community of nation. Diversity of culture, ethnicity and race gets its significance and specialness in the context of our universal identification as human beings.”

Although a better understanding and respect for cultural differences is important, we owe it to our children to reach for commonalties experienced across cultures. That is the way we will open new pathways for connection.

https://longislandweekly.com/post-election-time-have-open-dialogue-young-people/

Bio: Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or find them on Facebook.

SHORTSIGHTED CUTS TO DRUG TREATMENT

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/letters/letter-shortsighted-cuts-to-drug-treatment-1.4809203

Shortsighted cuts to drug treatment

Andrew Malekoff

March 14, 2013

Regarding the escalating drug problem on Long Island ["Deadly turn to heroin," News, March 11], six months ago, County Executive Edward Mangano held a news conference on the growing heroin and prescription pill problem in Nassau County. He stood with the mothers of children who died from drug overdoses.

To remedy this he announced that Nassau had been certified by the New York State Department of Health to train its employees, as well as families of at-risk individuals, in administering the overdose-reversal agent Narcan to anyone who has ingested large amounts of opioids like heroin.

Any step to save lives is welcome. However, at the news conference there was no mention of $7.3 million in human services funding that was cut on July 5, 2012, which included $1.75 million for outpatient drug treatment.

I am reminded of the parable about the small village on the edge of a river. One day a villager saw a baby floating down the river. He jumped in the river and saved the baby. The next day he saw two babies floating down the river. He and another villager dived in and saved them. Each day that followed, more babies were found floating down the river. The villagers organized themselves, training teams of swimmers to rescue the babies. They were soon working around the clock.

Although they could not save all the babies, the rescue squad members felt good and were lauded for saving as many babies as they could. However, one day, one of the villagers asked: "Where are all these babies coming from? Why don't we organize a team to head upstream to find out who's throwing the babies into the river in the first place!"

Mobilizing county resources to pull babies from the river while simultaneously cutting back on activities to prevent the babies from being tossed into the river in the first place makes no sense.

Andrew Malekoff

Editor's note: The writer is the executive director of the nonprofit North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.

ASSAULT ON HUMAN SERVICES

Anton Community Newspapers • 132 East 2nd Street • Mineola, NY 11501

ASSAULT ON HUMAN SERVICES
by Andrew Malekoff© September 20, 2012

September 5, 2012 marked two months since 7.3 million dollars, earmarked to support human services, were shifted to the general fund. We were told that this was due to the Nassau County legislature’s failure to pass $41 million in bonding for property tax refunds. But, it is not that simple.

How did all of this get started? In 2009, then-County Executive Tom Suozzi "enlisted" the county's most vulnerable citizens as unpaid lobbyists to advocate for red-light cameras, cigarette taxes and traffic-violation reform. Mr. Suozzi threatened scores of agencies serving tens of thousands of youths and families that they would be closed down or crippled unless the revenue enhancers were passed through Albany.

Red-light camera legislation passed and local agencies were assured, by unanimous vote of the full Nassau County legislature, that related revenues would become a sustainable source funding for these services. Three years later, that agreement is null and void. Our young people are now the collateral damage in a political war over bonding and redistricting.

More than two months have passed since the July 5, 2012 cuts to human services, which included $1.75 million of chemical dependency treatment funding. Despite extensive testimony, protests and media coverage, not a thing has changed. Advocates, young and old, have held press conferences, prayer vigils and a symbolic funeral for youth services. On August 6, several young people and adults attended a legislative meeting symbolically bound, gagged and blindfolded to point out that youth services were being held hostage.

What is the outcome of all of this activity and attention? Democrat and Republican legislators continue to point fingers and holler at one another in front of hundreds of disbelieving youths and family members who have become regular attendees at legislative meetings as well as activists in addressing this issue.

Youth services organizations that depend almost exclusively on County funds will close in a short time. Agencies with more diversified funding may not go out of business, but will have to shutter critical services such as after-school and summer programs as well as suicide, pregnancy, gang and drug-prevention programs that keep kids safe, provide enriching activities and offer a sense of belonging and relationships with caring adults during the non-school hours.

The developmental tasks necessary for adolescents in our culture to become healthy, functioning adults require great effort and time and more than parent and school support alone. These tasks include forging relationships with peers and adults that lead to the achievement of emotional independence from parents, developing a healthy sexual identity, building a capacity for greater intimacy with peers, learning skills and selecting an economic career; also developing a moral value and an ethical system to guide one’s behavior as well as desiring and employing socially responsible behavior.

Adolescence today is an age of particular vulnerability, a time in which youngsters are experiencing the sexual awakenings of puberty earlier than ever while facing increasing social and educational demands, and experimenting with more freedom, autonomy and choice than ever before. The politically-motivated de-funding of youth services is therefore an attack on the family.

Nassau County’s broken promises and its propensity to use vulnerable young people as pawns in promoting partisan political interests represents a moral failing and a lack of leadership. Our elected representatives on both sides of the aisle should be ashamed of themselves for putting our most vulnerable young people in the political crosshairs. Who among them will stand and deliver to put an end to this madness?

**Andrew Malekoff is Executive Director / CEO, North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center

Roslyn Heights, New York 11577 and author of Group Work with Adolescents: Principles and Practice (Guilford Press), now in its second edtion. E-mail: amalekoff@northshorechildguidance.org