This is America

This is America, where poor people empower rich people.

This is America, where a billionaire president says he’s a man of the people, and poor people believe him.

This is America, where benefits for the poor and middle class are cut by rich people who receive lifetime pensions.

This is America, where Social Security and Medicare are scams, but tax cuts for the wealthy is progress.

This is America, where innocent Black and Brown people are killed by the police, but Capitol rioters receive pardons and paychecks.

This is America, where slavery and Jim Crow are unmentionable, but the Confederacy is exalted.

This is America, where fighting men and women are “suckers and losers,” but posers painted in orange are “strong leaders.”

This is America, where Obama and Biden were “embarrassing,” but the current president selling branded cell phones and cologne is smart business.

This is America, where smart women are never qualified, but mediocre men are always qualified.

This is America, where Christians pray for more of Jesus but ignore the Gospel.

This is America, where people read the Bible while they put children and widows in cages.

This is America, where the people who promised to “drain the swamp” build prisons in an actual swamp.

This is America, where Dr. King is lauded by the same kind of people who applauded his assassination.

This is America, where “competent White men must be in charge” of more competent non-White people.

This is America, where Medgar Evers and Harvey Milk’s names are removed from ships, but the names of traitors are returned to military bases.

This is America, where freedom and liberty are proclaimed as most people have less of both.

This is America, where eighty years ago, young men were sent to fight fascism, and eighty years later, fascism takes root in their country.

This is America, where people wonder how a man with a bad haircut and funny mustache took over a country while a man dyed orange with even worse hair takes over the country.

This is America, where poor White people will willingly give up benefits so that non-Whites will also lose them.

This is America, where people say that the President is a Christian when all evidence points to the contrary.

This is America, where people will celebrate the country’s birthday right after Congress passes a bill that oppresses most of its citizens.

This is America, where right is wrong, and wrong is right.

This is America, where the Founding Fathers wrote beautiful documents extolling freedom and liberty while owning slaves.

This is America, where The Founding Fathers allowed the formations of private militias to prevent governmental tyranny, but the government uses masked, armed mercenaries to terrorize the citizenry.

This is America, where reparations are impossible for the descendants of slaves, but reparations for White slave owners were paid out as fair recompense.

This is America, where beautiful words and speeches belie a reality of hatred and prejudice.

This is America, where words and actions rarely agree.