Billie Holiday Sings 'Strange Fruit' For Presidents Bill And Mahmoud. . .

It occurs to me that the lyrics of 'Strange Fruit' (with only minor updating and modification) apply all too well to the public hangings that seem to be so de rigueur in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran. With any luck seeing and hearing this video of Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit' might cause UUA President Bill Sinkford, and all those happy smiling white U*Us who shared in the dubious privilege of participating in the UUA's latest misguided publicity stunt and Photo-Op, to wake up and smell the coffins. . .


Persian cranes bear strange fruit,
Blood on the streets and more blood en route?
Slack bodies swinging in the Persian breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the populist's "trees".

Political scene from the land of Mahmoud,
The bulging eyes and the hangman's hood,
Breath of Ayatollahs, sweet and fresh?
Then the sudden smell of rotting flesh.

Here is fruit for his crows to pluck,
For his reign to gather, for his wind to duck,
For the sun to rot, for his cranes to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.


Uninspired Bad Faith, Defective Action: Sinkford, Ahmadinejad, and the Blogosphere