Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Must be Nurtured.




Was that last post too obtuse?
Here, try this one:



Dear “Birther”
You’re just a racist.

If you don’t like it here,
feel free to go back to the northern European country that your ancestors left of their own free will.
And stay there.
Because we don’t need you here.

America has a complicated racial past
which we are all still trying to get past.
And just because you don’t call for lynching
and don’t use epithets,
doesn’t mean you aren’t a racist.

Assuming that the black guy isn’t as American as you
is racist; is not patriotic.

And vocally disliking the President doesn’t
somehow make Jefferson proud.
That tree of liberty, watered from time to time by the blood of patriots,
must be nurtured by them too.

And hiding behind the Constitution
doesn’t make it more yours than mine.
Doesn’t make this country more yours than mine.
Doesn’t make America more yours than anybody else’s.
And screaming loudest, just makes you loudest, not most virtuous.

This country is a project.
A massive, huge, too big, too bold, too ambitious project that we all undertake together every day.
And you are not helping. So go away.

Or, at least,
calm your bitter angels.
Read that Constitution that you wave so high.
Please quiet your impassioned pleas and think before you speak.
Or, at least, think about why you speak and what it means and what a wonderful right it is and how and why you abuse it so.

And please calm the hell down about the birth certificate (which has been on the internet for two years already).



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