Tuesday – American Election Day
African American poet June Jordan says all that needs to be said on this election day: “CMON/COME OUT.” More than Congress is up for grabs as, all over the country, election-denying Republicans are running for governor, secretary of state, and other positions of power. If significant numbers of them are elected, future elections will be in doubt. As GOP Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels promised/ threatened last week, “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor.”
What I love about Jordan’s pithy little poem is that the very tree at which the silent minorities have been called to meet “AIN’ EVEN BEEN PLANTED YET.” While Julia and I voted before we left for Slovenia, we felt discouraged, knowing that our votes would count for little in solidly red Tennessee. But I take heart from an African American poet who knows, better than we do, what it’s like to strive for justice and freedom when the deck is stacked against you. Like Emily Dickinson, she dwells in possibility.
Calling on All Silent Minorities
By June Jordan
HEY
C’MON
COME OUT
WHEREVER YOU ARE
WE NEED TO HAVE THIS MEETING
AT THIS TREE
AIN’ EVEN BEEN
PLANTED
YET
