First, they robbed, killed, and enslaved the Arawaks,

They smothered the indigenous with Smallpox blankets,

And they built an economy on the scarred backs of slaves.

 

Then they blazed a trail of tears,

They whipped, chained, beat, raped, and killed their blacks,

And they started the bloodiest conflict in US history.

 

Then they tightened a noose around the South,

They wrote the Chinese Exclusion Act,

And they segregated the immigrants, minorities, and poor.

 

Then they killed tens of thousands of souls in the Philippines,

They abjured the League of Nations,

And they started our very own Eugenics movement.

 

Then they voted against women’s suffrage,

They turned the M.S. St. Louis away,

And they solidified the Jim Crowe South.

 

Then they beat peaceful protesters who didn’t fight back,

They imprisoned those deemed “un-American,”

And they set Vietnam ablaze.

 

Then they propped up ruthless dictators,

They blocked the Equal Rights Amendment,

And they said that AIDS was “God’s curse on gays.”

 

Then they said, “Don’t ask. Don’t tell,”

They passed the so called Patriot Act,

And they patronized the entire Middle East.

 

Now, they disenfranchise monitories with Voter ID laws and Gerrymandering,

They insist that Obergefell v. Hodges was tyrannical,

And they want to put the health of the planet below the interests of corporations.

 

Now, they insist that “Islam hates us,” and call for a ban,

They want to put “America first” and victims of structural violence and poverty last,

And they say that refugees—even Omar Daqneesh—have no place in the country.

 

Now, they seem unable to admit that Black Lives Matter,

They want millions of undocumented humans deported and forsaken,

And they want walls on our border just like the walls in their minds.

 

Community, Peace, Diversity and Compassion,

Subordinated to the gods of Money, Power, Superiority, and Greed.

 

If we are going to make America great,

Don’t we need Kindness?