There are a few poets who always strike me as profound thinkers. Their poetry sticks with me, and I can call forth their art at any time. But some poetry is just only half-known – pieces of history nearly obscured by the thought some sonnet just “is” because it exists on a famous work, and people know parts of it, but not really WHY.

In this political climate, it seems this is getting dangerous. ICE snatching random people off streets, coming up with their reasoning on the fly with a bully-tactic eye.

“She looked wrong, she has to be an immigrant.”

“She was obstructing police.”

“We have reason to believe he has a record.” Words that basically mean “we don’t have a clue, but we’ll make it up later.”

How soon people forget we have a whole ass statue with a poem written about welcoming people to our land. Emma Lazarus wrote the poem to raise money for the base of the Statue of Liberty. She never saw it placed, as she died in her 30’s of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. However, to this day, her poem, The New Colossus, sits at both the base of the statue and inside the Museum of the City of New York. It means to show the reader that we are not a country of war, destruction, and horrors, but of hope and opportunity. It was written just as the end of slavery came about. Now, however, it is in harsh conflict with what our current president is doing.

The New Colossus – by Emma Lazarus (11/02/1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

This is the antithesis of the USA currently. “Give me your homeless?” If you are the wrong shade of ecru ICE might put you in a holding pen to determine if you might just be a “light skin Mexican.”

Let’s try another old historical poem, shall we? This time post-WW2 Germany. Can anyone see any connections? This is by a Lutheran Pastor who did serve in the German service. At first he agreed with Hitler. Then, sorta like a street gang, once you’re *in* you don’t get out. Like Fight Club. It is considered a post-war confessional prose piece as the author does feel guilty about what he did, and how he felt before. I take it with a grain of salt. He was a product of his time, and how he may have been raised. In Germany, at that time, there was a LOT of peer pressure, scapegoating, and overall “once someone is in power, shit is FUCKED.” Which, we have seen in the past 10 years. (I woke up the other day to discover Kansas randomly decided Trans folks that have their names changed and changed their sex marker on their drivers license suddenly have their drivers licenses INVALIDATED overnight. I feel like I live in the worst version of Alice in Wonderland.)

First They Came – by Pastor Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the Trade Unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Trade Unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

One can trade any one of these communities in this poem with marginalized people of today. Trade Communist for Person of Color. Swap Trade Unionist for LGBTQ. And well, they’re still going after the Jewish people. Socialists? Well, they’ve not been well liked for quite a long time. But for the sake of argument, swap them out for women. After all, can’t have us being all think-y like and having body autonomy. Who will stay home to make dinner and clean while the old WASP (or strangely WAS-Catholic) go off to cut off our rights and raise our drug prices..?

Read the headlines online. Get angry. Get educated on the issues.

AND VOTE THESE ASSHOLES OUT.