Can You Hear Me Now

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

Langston Hughes

Tomorrow is voting day here in The United States and I am still trying to make sense of the Trump voter. How is it possible for them to continue supporting a man who constantly spews lies, racist tropes, threats of violence, dementia craziness, misogyny, attacks on democracy, and the words of a would-be dictator? What are they hearing that I am not?

I could only stomach so much of the hatred Trump and his cronies shoveled out at the recent Madison Square Garden rally before I began to feel nauseous. As Maya Angelou said so well, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Why is that so hard for nearly half the country to understand what he has been telling us for years?

Juicing Us

A few years ago, I saw Tropicana orange juice commercial that greatly disturbed me. Taking place in a supermarket’s frozen food section, it showed a woman reaching into a cooler for a carton of juice. The shelf appeared to be empty so she was forced to reach as far back into the cooler as she could. The twist was that she unknowingly reached through the cooler into an orange grove where one of the orchard workers put a carton of juice into her hand. Get it? The juice is supposed to be so fresh that it’s as if it comes straight from the orange tree to you.

Why did I find this so disturbing? When they showed the grove there were pickers, guys loading the truck, and what appeared to be a foreman. This is typical of most operations, but in the commercial every one of the workers was a white male. I don’t know where this orchard was supposed to be, but across the world, fruits and vegetables are typically not picked by white men. Manual laborers are predominantly women and men of color. This is true for both the United States and places like South America where Tropicana’s juice most likely comes from.

It made me ask, “What do they think they are doing?” Are they afraid to show who really works in their orchards? Do they think that if we see a Mexican man or woman handing the woman the carton of juice we will think less of their product? Will we feel that the juice or their company has been tainted?

As everyone knows, Trump made immigration his top go-to issue. But like this commercial, he is not engaged in an honest and realistic debate. These immigrants are doing many, if not most, of the jobs that keep food on our tables and juice in our glasses. They are also the folks that care for the elderly (including my 97-year-old mother and 93-year-old mother-in-law), do lawn work, paint houses, clean office buildings, and pick up the trash.

Instead of recognizing the important role immigrants play in our daily lives, Trump and the MAGA movement chooses to demonize them. They call them filth and attempt to dehumanize them. Spoiler alert, they are not eating dogs and cats. The MAGA movement wraps itself in Christian rhetoric while disgracing the teachings of Jesus. Trump’s evangelical base actually thinks of him as the second coming.

I am not one to quote the Bible, but it doesn’t take long to see what it says about Trump’s hateful words.

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

Matthew 25:35

Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brethren you did it to me.

Matthew 25:40

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.

Hebrews 13:1-3

What, if any of that, is espoused by today’s Republican party?

Praying for the Light

I am praying this darkness will soon be over, but expect it will require multi generational change to make real differences. There is so much to do and the headwinds are strong. If I am lucky, I will be alive long enough to bear witness to a better world. Until then, I will continue to fight for justice, kindness, and fairness.

When my mind is jumbled and confused, I often turn to poetry to help ground me. While I would have preferred something more soothing to come from my stressed mind, these three poems are helping me find a way to channel my fears into a more hopeful space.

Yes, they are angry poems, but they are an honest anger and honesty is something I desperately need these days.

Thank you for reading. If you haven’t already done so, vote blue.

Charlottesville

Evil smolders behind fear and ignorance
ugly words and hateful actions
behind eyes that turn from bias and injustice
pretending there is nothing there to see

Evil smolders behind lies and shiny teeth smiles
behind the knife and the gun
the pen and paper

In campaign speeches and ballot boxes
in flickering images and crackling voices beamed into our brains
evil smolders until it’s faced head-on and direct
until it’s doused with truth and the ferocity of love

Forty Five

Hatred creeps sure footed and steady
like the cat on hushed paws eying a songbird

It speaks through clenched fists and angry words
it reveals itself in the decayed heart and the wrathful ballot

Inch by inch
hatred slinks and hatred slithers
ready to strike
ready to devour

America, I do not Understand You

America, I do not understand you
your appetite for excess while millions starve
or the poisons you endlessly spew into water and air

Do you not thirst
do you not breathe
do you care so little for the land you profess to love

America, I do not understand you
not your politicians who think only of themselves
nor your disdain of those who are different
I am baffled by your lusts
your obsessions and demands
I am confused by the greed and the waste
your propensity for fear and war

America, I do not understand you
neither your selfishness nor your anger
your claims of being exceptional
while you drink your way to numbness
and you drug yourselves to death

America, I do not understand you
not the guns you use for slaughter
nor the lies you use for control

America, I do not understand you
as I do not understand myself