Sassy Black Friend

Let America Be America Again

Since we’re sharing poetry, here’s an old favorite. I was so militant, right?

Let America Be America Again
- Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

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.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay–
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again! Read more »

Kubla Khan

A favorite poem from my childhood. I was a weird kid.

Text after the jump Read more »

Television shopping fun for the whole family

The big move has started. And surprisingly the most dramatic thing so far has been trying to buy a television with my boyfriend’s mother. Why? Because I’m an idiot. His parents came down to DC to help with the move (sort of – in a not really helpful way), and have been here since Sunday. So, he’s a bout done with them.

This morning his mom called and asked if I needed help with any errands. Since I knew he needed a break from them, I suggested that she go shopping with me. She agreed and picked me up around 11. We had a nice lunch and headed to get the television.

Now, we’ve talked about my love of gadgets and electronics before, but this trip tested that love.

Dan’s mom is a really smart woman, and we get along well. But she couldn’t care less about televisions and it showed. She got bored and started talking about unrelated things every five minutes. I thought the salesperson was going to smack us both and kick us out of the store.

I eventually had to send her off to look for something else so I could finish drooling, asking questions and figuring out warranty stuff.

The saga continues.

Sebelius confirmed… lots of work for her to do

Amidst the Arlen Specter move to the Democratic party and more cases of swine flu, the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius as HHS secretary got a little lost. But the spreading flu makes her post even more important. I’m not going to look back at some of the HHS chief disasters in the past, but feel free to think of them if you like. Sebelius is smart, practical and capable. Here’s hoping everything goes well.

And as someone with a chronic disease and health insurance I really can’t afford, I’d like her to get the hell to work ASAP on doing something about healthcare in this country.

The great paint war of 2009

I’m taking a long weekend to deal with yet more moving stuff. I swear, all the work I’m putting into this house I’m staying a really long time. Anyway, before heading out for errands #129-143, I thought I’d share a little story about the argument the boyfriend and I are calling the great paint war of 2009.

We pretty much knew the colors for the few rooms we are going to paint. That part was simple. Until we actually bought everything. First of all, the house doesn’t need painting, the walls are in great shape. I just wanted to make it a little more us, add some color and make the rooms match our furniture better.

So things were going to be very simple. Four rooms get a couple coats of paint, the end. Uh, I wish. The battle lines were drawn when the subject of painting trims (baseboards, around windows etc) was brought up. i said there’s no need since everything looks fine. All of the colors we chose will look great with white trim, so why add the extra and may I add tedious work?

The boyfriend tells me laziness is not a reason to have white trim. That was not the issue at all. But, of course that turned into a huge fight about every single task each of us has done to get ready for the move. Two hours later we had yelled, slammed doors, waved lists and credit card bills in each other’s faces, and finally calmed the fuck down.

In the end we agreed that both of us have been putting way too much time and energy into this thing, and that we needed to chill out. It was a good tension release too. Plus, the trim stays white. Read more »

Thanks, but no…

Is it necessary to play a trailer for Obsessed every 10 minutes? I miss cable…

White She Devil the movie? Not interested.