Borders have their uses.
They tidy-up the scene,
remind us where we are,
and where we have not been.
They assign us each a plot
of able responsibility,
and call us to fulfill our task,
to act responsibly, as we ought.
Like naturalists we name each plot
to recognize ourselves within its place.
We mark paths between each plot,
a no-man’s land of sea and space.
Borders are a mere tool to use.
They can create more civility.
Or, they can abuse all gentility.
We can move across borders easily.
They were not made to stop humanity
from going where it needs to go
to find food and shelter, water and safety.
There is the rub in such a construction.
It can also lead to self-destruction.
For we are all part of the same family
of men and women descended
from a single source evolving merrily.
Until, each one of us is forced to face
the human weakness that lies within
and threatens our dreams of what we could win
if only we were better than we are.
If we were better, we could reach the stars.
Such anger we cannot allow directed at self.
We look for somewhere to place it,
when it should be put on a shelf,
placed where it can do no harm
and give us time to calm our alarm
that we are far from perfect, but still okay.
Our personal borders help us hold our evil at bay.
Instead, we project all the fear and rage
from and toward ourselves to others,
other humans being human, idiot or sage.
We carefully choose a human target
who does not quite look like us;
and not because he is truly different at all.
But in mirrored reflection of our follies
his appearance creates a place we can hide
that we are truly the same person, inside.
It would never do to project our own failings
onto another who looked just like we look.
It would prove the foolishness of railing
against all who look the same-self ailing.
So, we choose to note a difference
to justify our disdain and discrimination.
We close our borders with determination.
We miss the prize right before our eyes.
We miss the chance to accept our need
for the strength that comes with community.
We forget, for as long as we can,
that differences reinforce each man
and help us each overcome our weakness,
our circular thinking, our useless imagination
and build a stronger human-kind nation
within every border, across every border
until we kind humans no longer fear
our very selves, nor one another.
We could act as sister and brother
and settle our squabbles with love
as part of a human family.
We could project amity
and, perhaps, save humanity.
annarino writes 
BORN IN THE USA, PART 3
Americans’ willingness to bully has always seemed to this second generation Italian-American to be part and parcel of Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism, America First, the KKK, The American Conservative Council, ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, MAGA movement, and now the Trump Administration bolstered by SCOTUS, Homeland Security, DOJ and FBI. Individuals within each organization are not necessarily racist, misogynist, Christian nationalists. There are men and women who love our country and only want to serve their nation. But, they are now being swallowed up as the separation of powers, using an immune to lawful control unitary executive pushed by Republican appointees to the Supreme Court, destroys their dedication to facts and the law as guiding principles. Even the military leadership is decimated by firings and forced retirements. Even retirees like Commander and Senator Mark Kelly, and Lt. Colonel and Senator Tammy Duckworth are under attack by the nation they most ably served. What will new recruits do? What pressure will they face as they are asked to obey unlawful orders, as they watch Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth execute such orders with full support of Vice-President J.D.Vance and congressional Republicans?
In the past, we overlooked weaknesses in our leaders so long as they served the common good, in recognition of their humanity and acknowledging human foibles. There were checks and balances on human ill will and human error. We joined one another, citizen and new immigrant alike, in creating a democratic republic with global vision. We envisioned a world at peace where children could learn what they needed to know to be successful; where business and commerce could thrive; where ownership of resources was put to the common good. We built railroads, a national highway system, flood control projects, an energy grid, the internet, and now artificial intelligence.
We have been far from perfect, or even rational, but we kept trying to make a “ More Perfect Union.” We faced down our demons of racism and sexism under pressure of freedom-seeking Americans like W.E.B. Dubois, Ida Wells, A. Phillip Randolph, Ralph Abernathy, Ruby Bridges, Julian Bond, Bayard Rustin, Jo Ann Robinson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Congressman John Lewis…among thousands. Their struggle and ours continues.
It is no coincidence the four persons arrested for protesting at a white nationalist church pastored by an I.C.E. field officer in Minneapolis were African-American, including two journalists: Don Lemon and Georgia Fort. U.S. Asst. A.G. who oversees the civil rights division of the DOJ reposted a tweet referring to journalist Lemon as “ today’s clansmen.” An AI meme is circulating showing Don Lemon in chains as if he were a fugitive slave reclaimed by paid by bounty hunters. I.C.E. agents today are being paid bounties. Killing two white protesters, Rene Good and Alex Pretti while continuing to brutalize people of color stood out to white America. The arrest of Black journalists restored the racist narrative that people color are a always a threat to white America. Soon, the secret police paramilitary created by the Trump Administration will attack Haitians in Springfield, Ohio whose protected status will be allowed to expire under Republican-led House and Senate Leaders Johnson and Thune. Will white America see this for what it is? Will they connect the dots to understand the effort to divide and conquer all protesters- Black and white, and destroy the momentum which could sweep the fascists from office in coming elections? Seizure of Fulton County Georgia’s ballots has no legal benefit to the DOJ and FBI. But, if unopposed creates the narrative that seizing ballots is the usual course of election security. It is the exact opposite. It is dangerously erosive to election integrity.
In law, evidence must be held within the chain of command. Break the chain and the evidence is useless. It cannot be used easily, if at all. It will face “objection” if a party tries to in introduce it at trial to support a legal claim. Why? Because it is assumed it will be compromised. Ballots seized in a broken chain of command become a disinformation tool, a grand lie as they are altered and manipulated by those who seized them. We must object, not because we are in a court of law; but because we are in a court of public opinion. Our opinion counts as we protest. It counts even more when we vote.
I grew up in a neighborhood with bullies shouting and shoving at “dirty Catholic”, “dirty Italian” little girls. I went to a school where bullies painted Nazi insignia on the walls of the gym. I walked home form early dismissal when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated to smirks and chants from public school kids across the street “We finally killed that Catholic bastard.” I cannot remember a time when I have not been called a Commie-pinko leftist for teaching Black History and creating Black History programs. Like one out of four women I have even been sexually assaulted by bullies. Bullies cannot silence truth-seekers, journalists, educators, civil rights activists, people of color, women. They cannot be allowed to steal our votes, whenever they are cast. They cannot stop us. They have militarized the effort to stop us. They have arrested, disappeared, brutalized and killed. It will never be enough to break Americans and their insistence upon the freedoms guaranteed by a beloved Constitution and Bill of Rights. We stand together, stronger and more sure of our love for our country.
Leave a comment
Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as bullying, civil rights, court proceedings, democracy, donald-trump, Duckworth, fascism, history, immigration, Kelly, law, news, politics, protest, racism, resistance, rules of evidence, SCOTUS, Trump administration, voting rights.election integrity