MOVE, RAIL, POKE, NAIL!

[JimDandy]

(A response to the Washington Post)

MOVE, RAIL, POKE, NAIL!

Bernie Sanders talks with his hands. His hands speak in the imperative-of universal single payer health care, a national $15/hr minimum wage, free college, fair taxes on corporations, prison reform, and reversing the argle-bargle of Citizens United, which sloshed the green bile of Wall Street into elections.

There are some who are deaf to those imperatives. Instead, they wag about the diction, dialect and tone of his hands and seek to modulate them, to inflict their own inflections on them.

But Bernie’s hands remain consistent. They speak in an authentic voice that does not hide in pockets, whisper behind podiums, or lie mute in clasped supplication. They MOVE, RAIL, POKE, NAIL!

Last week, from out of the distant past, we recognized his young hands, stop-motioned in half-sentence, as they spoke in their newly found powerful voice to long-ago fellow students at a college sit-in and railed against the injustices of segregated housing.

Today, his hands speak with confidence, in an even more powerful voice, making great sweeps across packed stadiums and arenas creating small air currents that we cannot see, and YUUUGGE currents of electrifying excitement that we can...excitement that jumps from person to person, in texts, tweets, blogs and forums, from Charleston, South Carolina to Portland, Oregon, and Ypsilanti, Michigan to Las Vegas, Nevada.

They are a force to be reckoned with. They gather our voices together and amplify them across this nation-our yearnings and demands for justice, fairness, and equality for all-as we join hands with his, to work together: an unstoppable force for the change we all can believe in.

Until those hands lie clasped in final stillness: MOVE , RAIL, POKE, NAIL!

by JimDandy

[bkkyosemite]

1. I'm Italian I move my hands when I speak so does Jewish people

Mothers of Jewish and Italian decent are much the same in the household. Eat your too skinny, and very vocal if you got in trouble. So I totally understand Bernie's hand gestures.

[JimDandy]

4. LOL

Last edited Tue Feb 16, 2016, 12:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Eat your too skinny, and very vocal if you got in trouble

ETA: Sounds like the grandmother in a book my children loved called "Look Out For the Chicken Feet In Your Soup" by Tommy de Paola

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Perhaps Bernie is showing people he is not reaching for your wallet or stabbing you in the back! nt

[JimDandy]

17. Sure would be hard to do that the way he uses them to talk.

I can't picture him back stabbing anyone anyway-he has scruples.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

31. Hillary is like a robot

[Siwsan]

2. I talk with my hands, A LOT

And I'm Welsh! Very expressively Welsh.

[JimDandy]

6. I think it adds to the conversation. n/t

[pangaia]

3. Well done.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

[JimDandy]

11. Thank You!

Yes, but more "a be true to yourself" message. I don't remember where, but long ago I heard that phrase about speaking in an "authentic voice" and it stayed with me. It certainly is pertinent to Bernie Sanders.

[pangaia]

13. He definitely is that.. true to himself.

[Arazi]

5. It's an adorable trait. It's so human eom

[JimDandy]

12. It is! And it is a wild juxtaposition to

the 'grumpy old man' image of him.

[gollygee]

7. I was going to reply with OH MY GOD SO WHAT?

I'm so tired of stupid stuff being complained about, by either candidate about anything. But no,you weren't doing that!

[JimDandy]

10. Those threads on DU complaining about that inspired me to write this.

[Punkingal]

8. My hubby is Italian and can't talk without his hands!

[JimDandy]

9. My sons father-in-law was born without hands.

It wasn't until I met him that I really realized how much our hands are a large part of conversing.

ETA: that's interesting seeing the Italian connection in this thread

[bkkyosemite]

18. Yes because you grew up with hands flying all over the place LOL

[kristopher]

14. I love the eloquence of these words.

Thank you.

[JimDandy]

15. Aww, that made the time I spent writing it worth it! Thanks for your encouragement!

I am trying to write more, so when I take English 101 again, I will be more confident about completing it.

[mmonk]

19. JimDandy to the rescue.

Go JimDandy Go.

[JimDandy]

21. Bernie is definitely worth defending! n/t

[beam me up scottie]

20. Wonderful op, thank you!

[JimDandy]

23. Thanks BMUS!

I always remember the initials of your DU moniker because they are the same as one of my children!

[libdem4life]

22. Great Post...thanks.

[JimDandy]

24. Glad you enjoyed it.

I posted it in the comments section of WaPo, but it hasn't appeared yet as I am a first-time commenter there. Apparently, WaPo reviews all first-time comments before they appear.

[bigwillq]

25. I talk with my hands all the time

I'm talking with them right now.

[JimDandy]

27. LOL

I hope it's cause you're typing and not gesturing...

[azmom]

26. Beautiful. Thank you.

[JimDandy]

29. Aww, shucks ma'am...

(kicks the dirt)

[bbgrunt]

28. well done!! I feel almost lyrical now.

[JimDandy]

30. Thank you, bbgrunt!

I feel hungry now, because at first I read your moniker as bbq runt. I love bbq pulled pork!