Sometimes I am Ashamed of Us by james bezerra

Sometimes I am Ashamed of Us
by james bezerra


Hey, remember how we
all demanded to see
Bill Clinton’s birth certificate?

Remember the dearth
of people demanding proof-of-birth
from George W. Bush?

Remember the giant
grassroots push
to get proof from George Herbert Walker Bush?

How about Ronald Regan?
When we all went on TV and made him
produce his birth certificate?

Oh, that’s right,
those things never happened.

I wonder why
we suddenly suspect
that this President
is telling a lie.

I wonder …
wonder, wonder, wonder … why?
Is there something apparent to the naked eye
that’s different
about this President?

Hmmmm?
What could it be?
Is there something that you see
that makes him
not like the others?


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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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