RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Independence Day Reflection
Last night we celebrated Independence Day
With fireworks food and libations
Knowing that the birth of the nation
Was deeply flawed in so many ways
Blacks browns Asians and natives have
Little reason to celebrate liberation
From one nation when another
Holds them hostage
A slave cares little who he calls master
Women were exempt from independence
Though they aided their husbands’ struggle
As if they were fully invested
They had no rights under British rule
They had no rights in the new world
And yet we celebrate the birth of the republic
Modern democracy with all its flaws
With gerrymandering and disenfranchisement
With its new and improved Jim Crow laws
We celebrate the ideals
We celebrate the principles
We celebrate the vision and the hope
For what our white forefathers gave us
Remains the brightest light on earth
We inherited a dream of freedom
With equal rights and justice for all
If falls to us to remember that dream
And to fulfill its promise
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