Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

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?
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

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?
I didn’t do anything
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

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.
All alone young Mothers, Fathers and B abies
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
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

While 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