Poetry Sunday

Yesterday we celebrated the 250th birthday of the United States of America. It was an opportunity to honor our history, warts and all, although for the current inhabitant of the partially-demolished White House, those warts don't exist. Everything is perfect. Emperors actually do have clothes. And the Reflecting Pool really is American Flag Blue.

The "No Kings" movement speaks to true Americans as we look back at our history and forward into a new period of national trauma. This poem by Aileen Cassinetto should resonate with everyone who loves the promise, if not the reality, of the our country.

There Are No Kings in America

by Aileen Cassinetto

we are not that kind of country.

We are sanctuary for the hungry,

the homeless, the huddled,

held together by an idea

our immigrant fathers believed in.

Rendered, it meant independence.

Pursued, it kindled war, ordinance,

a fighting chance. Forty thousand

musket balls, by themselves, did not

shape the boundaries on which we

map our days. To draw our borders,

we needed more than firecakes.

More than a pound of meat

with bone and gristle,

or salt fish and a gill of peas.

We needed the faith and grit of people

who were not yet Americans.

To be an American is to

recognize the sacrifice

of the widow and the orphan;

it is to understand the weft of tent

cities expecting caravans,

and the heft of a child in a camp

not meant for children, or sitting

before a judge awaiting judgement.

What do we say to the native

whose lands we now inhabit?

What do we say to our immigrant

fathers who held certain truths

to be self-evident?

Do we now still pledge to each

other our lives, our fortunes,

our sacred honor.

There are no kings in America.

Only gilded men we can topple

again and again.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. Remember that "My country, right or wrong" is only half of the famous quotation by Senator Carl Schurz in his 1872 speech to the Senate ... the rest is, "if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." *

A good thought as we move forward into an uncertain future.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* If you actually want to read the whole speech, know that this famous line is the very last line of a long speech. Don't give up before you get there.