Nicki Minaj offered her own rendition of Maya Angelou's 1978 poem Still I Rise, on Wednesday night in Los Angeles's Shrine auditorium, for the recorded event Shining a Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America.
Same as usual today, until a woman near the back of the courtroom rose to her feet and shouted, "I rise on behalf of democracy; overturn Citizens United!" Two officers immediately pounced on the woman, grabbing her and, apparently (I heard later), throwing her to the ground just outside the courtroom where her head hit the floor with a thud.
Scotusblog picks up the story: "Just after the justices had taken the bench at 10 a.m., and as they were about to announce opinions, a woman stood from her seat near the back of the courtroom and said, 'I rise on behalf of democracy.' She continued with a mention of Citizens United, the 2010 ruling that removed limits on independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.
Davis clicked his phone shut and addressed the mostly empty chamber: "Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on H. R. 5683, the Government Accountability Office Act of 2008".
Finally, breathing for two, I rose up on my knees.
This morning (we living lately in the garret,) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other, clothes but them.
I rose, put on all five of my shirts (I had no coat), and drove down in my Nova, de-icing the windshield as I went, via reaching out the window and hacking with a putty knife I kept for that purpose.
This morning I rose early, snapped on the pack, put my iPhone inside, along with my keys and old-school headset, and headed out.
Thanks to some stirring war poetry and a biography of Elizabeth I, her star rose on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1940s, and she was feted by Oxford and Hollywood.
It won't be any feeble, conventional wings I'll rise on — not I, born of poor parents.
