Georgia On My Mind
In November of 2020, the majority of the American people chose decency over depravity, truth over lies, compassion over spite, and kindness over cruelty. Joe Biden is now President-Elect, Kamala Harris will be the first Black, Indian, Mixed-Race woman to be Vice President, and we, as a country, have taken our first steps back towards the light.
The Democrats are the majority in the House, but if we want to have any hope of enacting real progressive change in this country – if we want any hope of combatting Covid-19, fixing our wretched healthcare system, reversing climate change, solving wealth inequality… if we want to overturn Trump’s abominable and inhumane immigration policies, reunite families, and stop family separation at the border… if we want real criminal justice reform and to enact policies that erode corrosive racial bias… if we want equality and civil rights for all… if we want any of this – then the Democrats need a majority in the Senate, too. The Biden Administration is going to have a hard enough time righting the wrongs of Trumpism during a pandemic; it will be almost impossible for Biden to act if he doesn’t have the support of the majority in Congress.
We’ve endured too much and fought too hard to give up now, and hope – real hope – is within our reach.
The fate of the Senate hinges on two runoff elections in Georgia that are set for January. It is imperative that we do all we can to ensure that Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff win.
IMPORTANT DATES FOR GEORGIA RESIDENTS
November 18: Absentee ballots begin going out
December 7: Deadline to register
December 14: Early In-Person voting begins
January 5: Election Runoff
17-year-olds – if you will be 18 by Election Day, you can register now and vote on January 5.
Request an absentee ballot here.
REMEMBER: You MUST be registered to vote by DECEMBER 7.
Not from Georgia but you want to help? Please donate what you can to Warnock and Ossoff’s campaigns, chip in to help Fair Fight and Black Voters Matter get out the vote, and sign up to write letters and postcards with Vote Forward, Georgia Postcard Project, and Flip the West. We’ll keep you posted on BPAL’s social media as new opportunities to help arise.
Georgia, you are on my mind, and I will do everything I can to help Warnock and Ossoff – two truly decent people – win Georgia’s Senate seats. Proceeds from these scents benefit Fair Fight and Black Voters Matter. We can win this together.
Illustrations generously donated by Tanya Bjork to help our fundraising project!
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I Hear America Singing Perfume Oil
Add to cartI hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day-at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
– Walt WhitmanA bright, sparkling scent, effervescent with joy and fiery with rekindled hope: golden musk and crystalline amber with Calabrian lemon peel, ti leaf, sweet vetiver, ginger root, neroli, and lime blossom.
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Let America Be America Again Perfume Oil
Add to cartLet America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today-O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home-
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay-
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.O, let America be America again-
The land that never has been yet-
And yet must be-the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine-the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME-
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath-
America will be!Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain-
All, all the stretch of these great green states-
And make America again!
– Langston HughesO, let America be America again – the land that never has been yet: waving green grasses, purple-hued amber, smoked sandalwood, bay rum, clove bud, cardamom, and black pepper.
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Wisdom, Justice, Moderation Perfume Oil
Add to cartA poem about Georgia, sung through scent: red cedar, sweetgum, yellow jasmine, peach, and honey.