I speak only for myself. However, I speak as an educated, middle-aged poet who happens to live in America. I try to speak for people who have lost their voices; their hearts; sometimes their minds. For people who speak only in signs or whispers or hooded looks. For people beaten down; uncounted; uncared for. For people disrespected; with no sense of self-importance; with no clout in the world. Mostly, though, I speak for myself, as an American who is concerned about the World.
Syria, we are trying to find the truth.
We are terrified for your gassed and gagging people--and we are terrified for your neighbors.
(We still have survivors of chemical warfare--from all the other wars we entered, believing they, too, were "the right thing to do".)We have lived through those nightmares. You call them to the surface of our dreams. We awake, choking and confused; trying to believe SOMETHING has to be done to stop yet, another genocide. But what to do?
American people are NOT their government, though our government would have you believe this were true. Often, it is the wealthiest and most influential, who "own" our government,who "will" our government to do what it does. Sometimes, our people are given the wrong information. Sometimes, our people are mislead and manipulated with statistics that have been fabricated...or worse.
Sometimes our people choose to allow this deceit. (Sometimes, it is just easier.) Most times, we get pissed off.
We vote new politicians in. We school our children; gather information; try to assimilate the many changing truths of the World.
Syria, the American people are so damned tired of war. We are suffering in what our government has refused to call "a depression". (Many people forget that even in the Great Depression, when their grandparents were kids, there were rich folks who grew wealthier, still.) Not everyone was on a bread- line, or selling pencils on a street corner, nor riding the rails. The same upper caste exists, today. The same "other classes" still suffer in these new economics.
Our government continues to fight itself; to issue half-truths; to rally us to sacrifice--even as it votes itself higher pay and longer vacations...Even this "new hope" president is now dancing to the war-drums. Even he might leave his aggressive mark upon the World. Our citizens are losing homes; jobs; savings; hope. Yes, the complexion of our government is changing, but its actions remain tantalizingly familiar. Better speech-makers don't save anyone. We are all so tired of war...
O Syria, call your people to your bosom and save yourself! Stop murdering your children. Stop trying to silence those whose voices are just now beginning to be heard. The American people would like to help you reconstruct yourself, even as we continue to reconstruct ourselves. We are global citizens on a teetering planet and we all need to hold on...to each other.
No more war. Anywhere. Please. This is one American sending her words into the World.
Syria, we are trying to find the truth.
We are terrified for your gassed and gagging people--and we are terrified for your neighbors.
(We still have survivors of chemical warfare--from all the other wars we entered, believing they, too, were "the right thing to do".)We have lived through those nightmares. You call them to the surface of our dreams. We awake, choking and confused; trying to believe SOMETHING has to be done to stop yet, another genocide. But what to do?
American people are NOT their government, though our government would have you believe this were true. Often, it is the wealthiest and most influential, who "own" our government,who "will" our government to do what it does. Sometimes, our people are given the wrong information. Sometimes, our people are mislead and manipulated with statistics that have been fabricated...or worse.
Sometimes our people choose to allow this deceit. (Sometimes, it is just easier.) Most times, we get pissed off.
We vote new politicians in. We school our children; gather information; try to assimilate the many changing truths of the World.
Syria, the American people are so damned tired of war. We are suffering in what our government has refused to call "a depression". (Many people forget that even in the Great Depression, when their grandparents were kids, there were rich folks who grew wealthier, still.) Not everyone was on a bread- line, or selling pencils on a street corner, nor riding the rails. The same upper caste exists, today. The same "other classes" still suffer in these new economics.
Our government continues to fight itself; to issue half-truths; to rally us to sacrifice--even as it votes itself higher pay and longer vacations...Even this "new hope" president is now dancing to the war-drums. Even he might leave his aggressive mark upon the World. Our citizens are losing homes; jobs; savings; hope. Yes, the complexion of our government is changing, but its actions remain tantalizingly familiar. Better speech-makers don't save anyone. We are all so tired of war...
O Syria, call your people to your bosom and save yourself! Stop murdering your children. Stop trying to silence those whose voices are just now beginning to be heard. The American people would like to help you reconstruct yourself, even as we continue to reconstruct ourselves. We are global citizens on a teetering planet and we all need to hold on...to each other.
No more war. Anywhere. Please. This is one American sending her words into the World.
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