I Am an American. I Am not an American.

I am an American. I am not an American.
Every time I get that feeling, it is counterbalanced
by the other.

I remember I detest national boundaries.
I look forward to the day
when nation states are gone, a thing of the past.
I remember all the sufferings and evils borders establish.

And I remember, when I walk down the street
to the corner store and
get on the bus to come back
what matters to me
is how people treat me and
how I treat them:

the guy next to me
older, Spanish speaking
who laughs when I speak to him...
The Chinese lady across the aisle of the bus
who needs help getting on and off...
the kids in the back
laughing their world into song.

what matters to me
is the yuppie who won't give the disabled
person a seat – focusing on texting
and watching a video—
what matters is not where they are from
but where they are now...

borders and boundaries and nations
poo.
what are you doing with your life?

4/11/2013 11:49 AM

My latest rant. I'm not sure it is even a poem. The main body of the work, stanzas three, four and five, does seem to be as directly related to the title, first and last stanzas as I would have liked. Still, I said some things I wanted to say and the five stanzas are all related in my mind someplace, mutual alienation I think, so I put it out for people to read and to make whatever inroads they can make into the difficult problems of alienation and international boundaries.

Thanks for visiting.

amo et avanti,

Peter

I understand your frustrations, Peter, but I have difficulty associating the pieces with the whole. Nonetheless, it is good to rant once in awhile and this is traditionally a good place to do it.

This poem reminded me of one I posted in 2007 (can't believe it was that long ago), for which the following link should work (I hope). Otherwise, you can do a search on "Where Is Your Outrage?" if you've a mind to.


[www.emule.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2013 09:06PM by hpesoj.

Rants can be therapeutic, Pete. I enjoyed the read.

Les

I can completely relate Peter. I live in a lily white city which is a good city in its way and has improved a lot with the university here getting accolades. Accolades which bring people from far and wide to study and do research. I am greatly pleased by this, because that sense of multicultural community is what I miss most about Vancouver. I however am a fan of borders, as long as they are open ones. I have always taken the long view and in this case it means that the lack of borders means the rise of the corporate state. We are already heading there, just as Heinlein predicted, and the ramifications are horrific in the extreme. Just one exmple our insurance corporation here now controls our birth certificates, marriage licences, driver‘s licences, and worse still is involved in wageism, whereby one can buy off their accidents and keep their driving record clean... if they have the money.

Then there is the cultural. South of us there is the mentality that a hand gun makes you safe, whereas here we understand that concealable firearms increase the murder rate. We have more guns here per capita than the USA, but those are long guns. Sometimes that border makes all the difference.

Your comments are wise and considerate, Bruce. The dilemma that corporate intrusion presents for the anti-government, anti-statist mentality that I dwell within most of the time is a hard nut to crack. I don't have trouble with differences between people, but with the burdens drawing borders between them produce. For example, I have heard fellow factory workers concerned about the country sending jobs overseas to take advantage of low wages there. That is the kind of problem that arises from bounders: pitting workers against workers instead of distributing profits equitably amongst all levels of worker.

But I am no economist, even if I have always known that differences in income make for some of the strongest walls restraining growth of a person. Poverty sucks of anyone, Asian, North American, African etc.

No simple solutions. But we can't ignore the difficulties.

Thanks for responding to my rant.

amo et avanti,

Peter