by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
My favorite member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, stirred up a furor of sorts this week when she referred to Donald Trump's family prisons along the southern border as "concentration camps." Trump toadies, people like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, were indignant beyond measure that AOC would dare to say those words in relation to Trump's official policy for dealing with immigrants trying to come into the United States. But the young congresswoman from New York is not one to be easily pushed around, and she has doubled down on her claims that these facilities are concentration camps.
Here are some other facts regarding these camps. Government officials involved with the Border Patrol and ICE are denying the public access to the camps - including members of Congress who have oversight responsibilities with regard to the increasingly deplorable situation. Now we are learning the those incarcerated in these camps are being denied basic health and sanitary provisions - things like toothpaste, soap, diapers, towels, blankets, and even beds. Apparently humanitarian groups trying to get those items to the incarcerated families are being turned away by the authorities in charge of the facilities.
It certainly sounds as if AOC has hit the nail on the head with her description of these insufferable facilities as "concentration camps."
Today's selection looks at concentration camps during an earlier - and just as ugly - period in American history. During World War II many Japanese Americans were removed from their communities and their homes and hustled off to "internment" camps just because of their race. It was a low point in American history, and now here we are, seventy-five years later, relieving that disgrace.
What a shame Donald Trump has no understanding of history - or even a shred of human decency.
That Damned Fence
by Anonymous
They've sunk the posts deep into the ground
They've strung out wires all the way around.
With machine gun nests just over there,
And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage,
To fret and fume with impotent rage;
Yonder whispers the lure of the night,
But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.
We seek the softness of the midnight air
But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glad,
Awakened unreal in our nocturnal quest,
And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do,
We feel terrible, lonesome, and blue:
That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy,
Destroying our youth and making us lazy.
Imprisoned in here for a long, long time,
We know we're punished - thought we've committed no crime,
Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp,
To be locked up in a concentration camp.
Loyalty we know and patriotism we feel,
To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal,
To fight for our country, and die, perhaps;
But we're here because we happen to be Japs.
We all love life and our country best,
Our misfortune to be here in the west,
To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE,
Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENCE.
Poetry Appreciator
My favorite member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, stirred up a furor of sorts this week when she referred to Donald Trump's family prisons along the southern border as "concentration camps." Trump toadies, people like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, were indignant beyond measure that AOC would dare to say those words in relation to Trump's official policy for dealing with immigrants trying to come into the United States. But the young congresswoman from New York is not one to be easily pushed around, and she has doubled down on her claims that these facilities are concentration camps.
Here are some other facts regarding these camps. Government officials involved with the Border Patrol and ICE are denying the public access to the camps - including members of Congress who have oversight responsibilities with regard to the increasingly deplorable situation. Now we are learning the those incarcerated in these camps are being denied basic health and sanitary provisions - things like toothpaste, soap, diapers, towels, blankets, and even beds. Apparently humanitarian groups trying to get those items to the incarcerated families are being turned away by the authorities in charge of the facilities.
It certainly sounds as if AOC has hit the nail on the head with her description of these insufferable facilities as "concentration camps."
Today's selection looks at concentration camps during an earlier - and just as ugly - period in American history. During World War II many Japanese Americans were removed from their communities and their homes and hustled off to "internment" camps just because of their race. It was a low point in American history, and now here we are, seventy-five years later, relieving that disgrace.
What a shame Donald Trump has no understanding of history - or even a shred of human decency.
That Damned Fence
by Anonymous
They've sunk the posts deep into the ground
They've strung out wires all the way around.
With machine gun nests just over there,
And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage,
To fret and fume with impotent rage;
Yonder whispers the lure of the night,
But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.
We seek the softness of the midnight air
But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glad,
Awakened unreal in our nocturnal quest,
And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do,
We feel terrible, lonesome, and blue:
That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy,
Destroying our youth and making us lazy.
Imprisoned in here for a long, long time,
We know we're punished - thought we've committed no crime,
Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp,
To be locked up in a concentration camp.
Loyalty we know and patriotism we feel,
To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal,
To fight for our country, and die, perhaps;
But we're here because we happen to be Japs.
We all love life and our country best,
Our misfortune to be here in the west,
To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE,
Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENCE.
1 comment:
Hate is a pernicious weed that lays dormant, festering in souls, waiting generations to that day when conditions are ripe for it to send forth roots, shoots, leaves, and odiferous blossoms. Trump has tilled the fallow soil of human contempt and brought forth this malevolent crop.
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