Langston V Santorum

Thank you Rick Santorum. By plagiarizing a gay black man's poetry you have reminded me of what formed my soul:

Let America Be America Again


by Langston Hughes



Let 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!

E-Mail joke about immigration

This morning I received an e-mail from a woman who is very nice and kind. It was a piece of propaganda disguised as a joke, and it was the straw that broke my tolerance camel's back. I am going to have to take her out to lunch and ask her to not provoke me any more. Here is the e-mail:

LET ME SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT!!!
IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.
IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.
IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.
IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET
1 - A JOB,
2 - A DRIVERS LICENSE,
3 - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
4 - WELFARE,
5 - FOOD STAMPS,
6 - CREDIT CARDS,
7 - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,
8 - FREE EDUCATION,
9 - FREE HEALTH CARE,
10 - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
11 - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
12 - AND THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT.
        I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION.  Are WE dumb or what ?????

My answer is below:

Thank you for sending me this little humorous piece about Illegal immigrants. Remember I was a welfare worker for almost thirty years, so I feel capable of answering the author from experience. See my responses below. I am trying not to get angry, but this is an example of someone starting a lie and others building it into prejudice, suspicion and discrimination.
And remember, that SOMEONE let illegals stay in this country for years and years, and so now their children, BORN HERE 18 years ago are now in high school and college. But the CHILDREN are citizens because MOM was allowed to stay 18 years ago.

Let me say that again: 18 years ago. That would be President Bush the elder and the Republican congress. and before that was Reagan and the Republican congress and Ford and Nixon and even Eisenhower. This country has had a messed up "ignore it and it will go away" attitude since 1950. So I want Congress (yes the whole bunch of 'em not just the Dems) to get off their backsides and earn the 150K a year we're paying them. Or I will work to get them jobs picking grapes in California.

And I humbly remind you that my forbears came here without "permission" from INS. And instead of erecting fences, we built Ellis Island to screen out the sick and criminal, but not to prevent anyone from coming in because of quotas or the color of their skin. My forbears mined coal and gold, waited tables, picked nuts and vegetables in the miswest. The others sold vegetables from a cart, collected rent for the owners of tenements, waited tables in delicatessens and worked as housemaids in NYC. Except the color of their skins, I come from people JUST LIKE THE ONES YOU WANT TO SHIP HOME. How far back do you want to go to select the evicted ones???

1 - A JOB, picking cotton or strawberries or gutting chickens. You want that job? I'll get it for you
2 - A DRIVERS LICENSE, NOT TRUE
3 - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, anyone can apply for a social security card, even if they are out of the country
4 - WELFARE, Nope, not a chance
5 - FOOD STAMPS, nope, also a bald lie
6 - CREDIT CARDS, see social security card. and that is private banking's decision, not yours
7 - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE, subsidy, nope another bald lie; loan see #6, you socialsit
8 - FREE EDUCATION, nope, only citizens.
9 - FREE HEALTH CARE, which we all should have. Please check with someone from Canada, Panama or South Africa
10 - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON who will represent citizens rights even more vehemently than the illegal visitor
11 - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE really? Spanish is not an AMERICAN language? Says who? We should be speaking GERMAN, but that bill lost by 1 vote in 1789. Seig Heil, Meine freunde!
12 - AND THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT Just like the Irish the Italians and the Swedes do in states a little to the north. HMMMM

Well, I still haven't learned to stop and take a breath to keep from acting out of anger. Someday I will learn. But what part of America was meant for only the first ones to get here? Doesn't freedom lose a dimention when we deny it to "others"? And where will any curtailment stop? What did all those soldiers and freedom fighters from 1776 to 1976 fight and die for if not to be the BEACON OF LIBERTY??