What if America WAS America???

Friends,

On this day in 1787 the United States Constitution was adopted, having been ratified by two-thirds of the colonies. Although a grossly imperfect document, - it can be argued that it was designed by the founding fathers, who were by and large lawyers, land owners and slave owners, to preserve their influence over the nation's political economy. - it created the possibility of something beyond the absolute power of hereditary sovereigns. One might say that the U.S. has gone through a long learning process that has resulted in various amendments along the way, as well as divisive Supreme Court decisions on subjects ranging from slavery to abortion.

As I consider the meaning of this day, I find the words of Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again ringing in my ears. Hughes speaks of a fundamental truth about America; that it is in essence a yet unfulfilled promise: "The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free."


At the end of the poem Hughes reminds us that it is up to us to capture the promise of America. "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!" For those of us living in the U.S., that means never letting up the struggle for equality for all people, and pushing back against the powers that seek to make an elite few rich at the expense of others while plundering the resources that should be enough to sustain everyone if only they were used wisely.

So I leave you in solitude to read Langston Hughes poem, and consider where we have come 222 years since the Constitution was adopted, how far we still have to go, and how we can "bring back our mighty dream again".

Peace,

Leonard

Photo Credit: http://youthincontrol.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/589/quotes_langston-hughes1/

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Let America Be America Again
by 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!