Land of the Free, Home of the Brave
Published By The African American Folklorist Newspaper (Editor Lamont Jack Pearley)
Written By: Anna Lomax Wood
Not a true poem
Just a few items I thought I would mention
To everything we know, there is a new dimension.
Did you know?
Photo Credit Josh Hild
Over 5,500 black women, men, and children Shot by police “in the line of duty”
In the Land of the Free,
Home of the Brave IN THE
LAST FIVE YEARS
Four every day, four every day
In the line of duty
In the Land of the Free all men declared equal All men breathe the air of Liberty,
How sweet it is
All men choose their destinies
It was called democracy
God-fearing men fought for white-skinned women Clean and righteous they were
They loved what was theirs
From lands destined for them , They removed ungodly savages Enclosed them in reservations Those we didn’t slaughter
They knew their duty to civilization The Land of the Free
Then we found YOU
We brought you to our blessed land
We traded, shackled, used you
While you fed us, nursed our babies,
Built our homes, cities, railroads,
You made us rich with the cotton you raised Slow down, raise a finger, say a word–
We sold your little girls down river
To the house of the rising sons
Threw you in the vats
Of the sugar cane you grew
And from the sugar empires arose
The shining cities of France and England,
Stately homes, fine plantations, Our Southern towns, brick by brick Yes we did, for three hundred years We are decent and God-fearing Our women are good-looking
Photo Credit Alan Lomax
Photo Credit Alan Lomax
Soon after Freedom
Jim Crow was declared
Between Civil War and Civil Rights. Holocaust like a virus spread Another century went by
Vast prison plantations we created
In every Southern State
We rented you to farmers
Yes we worked you and your children To your unmarked graves
You were rising up
We kept you down
A game of smoke and mirrors
We played Down South
Everybody poor, whites poor too
Barefoot, hungry, can’t hardly read
You kept their wages low
Gentry didn’t like it but our hands were tied
We had to look the other way
Sometimes said a word
Folks had to let off steam.
5500 public lynchings documented
Slow death all day,
Men, women, children watching, smiling, pointing Hangings, maimings uncounted
In the woods, In a field, in the sheriff’s backroom Exclusion and humiliation every blessed day
No future for your children
For one more century,
In the Land of the Free
We have to talk about it now
Look at the photographs
Read the accounts
Say it happened
Ask for forgiveness
Some of us, we broke out
Went to school, learned to read Built colleges, universities
Beat the Harvard debaters Became doctors, lawyers, Opened our businesses
Fought in the wars with the best Left the South, went up North Broke into sports, made our music Transformed the world
Made a new America
Been pretty nice about it
Now?
Why bring up that ancient history? Id idn’tdoanything
Did it really happen?
It wasn’t all that bad
We treated the help fair
I never noticed anything
It was so long ago,
Why don’t they get on with it? Look at the lazy bums
My tax dollars fund
With Medicaid, welfare, Section 8, ObamaCare –that’s what I hate
No
This is true. This is now.
You must listen, you must look
WE cannot ignore
The lies and atrocities,
Criminality of local laws
A supremely selfish economy
An elderly woman can work like a dog Can’t declare her income
And lose her medical
She’s beating the system
Having it both ways
No, ma’am, learn to live on $460 a month It’s not my problem
Why should I pay your benefits
You made the wrong choice You shouldn’t have come here Who invited you?
What do you expect
Those people
Pushing out babies
Living off us the life of Riley
But it IS your problem, baby
You are going down too
In the Greatest Country in the World
After all, baby, it is the
Land of Free To Live on the Streets
Where we invite
Empty hearted piggy banks
Well dressed bank accounts
Without mercy or tears
To chart our course
The health of health insurers
They hold very dear
And the Middle East
They do love to save
Iraq in ruins, well, never you mind
Syria’s next and Afghanistan
Millions died, not our doing
What’re you gonna do with a bunch of fanatics? Hey! Send the poor boys over
The ones without a future
Pick them up in a parking lot
Give them something to do
Tell them they gonna study
They gonna get somewhere
Too bad it didn’t work out
And we can’t do much for
Rehab and the VA
You got PTS, you’re a hero
You lost your face, you’re a hero
You’re legs are gone, hero
You can’t get a job, hero
Mow lawns hero
You are heroes now
In the Land of the Free
Can’t help the dead
Call them heroes
What I will say next is hardly news Just a recitation of well-known facts Known for decades to one and all According to this study and to that
Photo Credit Detroit Publisher
Photo Credit Detroit Publisher
The children
The children need parents at home
But they are in prison
Millions of black men, women, and children From their families and communities taken In solitude forsaken
Oh by the way tell us, please,
How does rape take place
On the watch of Law and Order
How do folk get beat to death
Under the eyes of the Law
In your prisons
Your “facilities”
Human beings locked away
For 23 out of 24
In 7 x 8 boxes 23 of 24 hours in the day Right outside the Christian city
There’s a facility
Mostly solitary
Hear the screams driving by
My mother, my daddy, my baby boy
Your uncle, brother, nephew, self
ONE IN TWO OF AMERICANS
With family members inside
You’re in good company,
but just a little scared
Just a little bruised
Just a little raped
Just a little cut
Just a little lonesome
Just a little sick
Just a little broken
Just a little dead
Deserted by just about everyone
In a box alone
For just a few YEARS
Cries of the damned
Right next door
To your nice town
We can’t live without them Our men have jobs
Our town keeps going A great industry
A clean industry
Look at the building Like a Holiday Inn
A decision by our leaders, R&D
R&D said screw the infrastructure program
Don’t have time for it
We’re taking down Obama Care and medicare We gotta compromise
Screw the people
God forbid, another new Deal
Another damn communist program
Each state should (but can’t) fix their bridges.
But good news is coming
To Brentwood Tennessee
CoreCivic in the Christian city
Private Prison HQ
Founders Tom Beasley, Robert Crants, Don Hutto Clean cut guys, players too
You can find them at the country club
At the country club in Nashville Tennessee CoreCivic
Core values, civic minded
Gonna help everybody help selves too
Whoa! 1.9 Billion dollars profit last year
Best of all those Injury suits
Won’t affect the stock price
So come on boys, dive in
We’ve got “detention” “centers” for kids too! Tough love, yes, indeedy
All around the country
We’ve got nice words, institutional words Administrative words, homelike words
Words that turn the nasty things
Into nice and helpful things, oh yes
Feels good doing good with facilities
Plenty of colored people here Come on in, join your prison family Bound to land here sooner or later
Schools
Public schools funded equally
Not with property taxes
Come on, is that equal education?
Buildings, equipment, books, bathrooms
Broken, substandard. missing
How do you think that makes those children feel? How about their parents on teachers day? Parents can’t come in, by the way,
No transportation
Fix that now, Best Country in the World The richest at least
Fix it, Fix it, dammit, NOW
You deserve the best,
The best teachers paid well,
To nourish your development as African American Americans Counselors who know what you go through
In all the schools, ratio one to five.
Listening, helping you through the growing years
In case you have no one
In case the links are weak. AllaloneyoungMothers, Fathers and Babies
Prenatal care for mothers to be
Kind and careful parenting support for moms and dads
Part-time jobs and schooling for the moms
Schooling, training, intensive mentoring for dads
Decent jobs
No need to lecture–they will know
Where to take it from there
A police force accountable to everyone Screening for racism and also for sadism Not to speak of obsessive hatreds
No more cabals and brotherhoods
You guys, you’re young, no place to go
Six months of training plus two years of college? What do you know?
Shoot to kill, beat to death
You are the instruments of policy.
From state to state, town to town.
Build us a corps of decent men and women Who likes us all, wants to keep us safe Especially those who need it most
Tear down the projects
Build nice 2-3 family homes
With gardens
A life to look forward to
A future
One last thing you likely don’t know
Remember the Black Codes we had in Jim Crow? Special laws for you
Put you to work where you belonged
County farms, turpentine camps
Deep in the woods, out of the way
Angola, Brazos, Parchman, Cummins
So many pens you can’t count em
Well guess what, baby, they still around
Also the ordinances, special rates and taxes Collect from communities black and brown Twice the rates whites have to pay
They are hidden but there, believe you me
And if you don’t, take a closer look
In every town across the nation
Look at Ferguson Missouri
Paid for by the black community
We call it special treatment
Take care of business, Congressional losers Dry your crocodile tears
Do what’s needed
Do what’s right
Do it all NOW
In the home of the Brave
Land of the Free,
The Fields of Plenty
Grow banks and corporations Billionaires, yesterday’s millionaires
Military complex fat like a tick It is time to pay your dues Invest in people equally
Do you not realize?
Your wealth means nothing Your children are lonely They cut themselves
They drug themselves They kill themselves
Library Of Congress
Library Of Congress
Strive
For kindergartens and prep schools,
Play dates with the cool kids
Top universities and fraternities
Strive, strive
To live magazine lives
In antiseptic condos
In white towers
And brilliant architecture
Reserved for you
Six “homes”, 24 bathrooms
On two continents and three islands
You fill each chilly hour
With things and contacts
Dinners and spas
Sufism and Buddhism
Church of Scientology
But you won’t feel the spirit
You won’t be with the lovely, lively people You will miss the warmth
The joy and the fire
Look around, look well
These are your people, you are their people
Don’t you see?
And every day they give you
Patience, kindness,
That amused tolerance you never quite get
In spite of the enormity of what we did and pretend it’s all gone In the Land of the Free, they are the Brave
Slowly and deliberately
Just the other day
Officer Derek Chauvin took George Floyd’s breath away
hile his buddies stood around
Oh my god, George Floyd, oh my god, my god Yes, we are done now
We are ALL done
Parents and Teachers, Guy on the street
Friends of the family, big brothers and sisters
Teach our children, teach all children
Show them the true past,
So they’ll always remember
Teach them to love and respect you, black people, African American Americans, And all people of color
To see that we are better together
To be grateful for the grand human beings you are,
For what we took from you
For all that you give us as a people
Your deep human values of tolerance and sharing,
Participation, inclusion, belief in love
The true democracy.
–Anna L C. Wood, June 2020
American,Black Women,Folklore,Land Of The Free,Liberty,Poetry,Race