Repollo

Ayer pedí una ensalada. Estaba muy feliz de aprender que el repollo no es algo como “recontra pollo.”

John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

I’d been looking for this quote for quite a while. It’s stuck in my brain. What a great book. I must reread this soon.

“It has always seemed strange to me…The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Who are we kidding

The day that cops
lay on the streets
of America
breathing heavy
stomachs heaving
against gravity
not from gunshot wounds
but heavy hearts
rough pavement leaving
marks on their skin
then perhaps
we’ll be a little closer
to justice

The day that hospitals
close their doors indefinitely
to insurance companies
and medicine is distributed
based on need and not balance
When teachers are scolded
for focusing on test scores
instead of the needs of their students
then
we’ll be a little closer
to justice.

When the hearts of those who
pick our sweet fruit and cook our savory food
and sew our clothes and clean our homes
and mow our lawns and assemble our gadgets
and stock our shelves and collect our refuse
and die on rigs harvesting our oil
and see the barrels of our guns in their faces
pushed through their homes

When their hearts are happy
and their stomachs full
then we’ll be a little closer

to justice. 

But right now,
who are we kidding?

You know what would be revolutionary?

You know what would be revolutionary? If a group of white open-carry aficionados took over a federal building demanding an end to police brutality and the prison industrial complex. If they get up in arms about two farmers being sent to prison because it’s such an injustice, but stay silent about the daily killings of unarmed Black Brown Asian adults and youth, well, that’s unfortunate. Maybe that’s more their world, and who am I to say what they should and shouldn’t protest. It is clear that the media, and the police, sure are treating them (us: white people) differently than the Ferguson or Baltimore protesters. That’s on us.

You know what would be revolutionary? If cops raised their voices against the injustices that their fellow officers do, not to rat them out, but to protect and serve the community they so pretend to care about. If police officers put down their riot gear and marched with protesters. If officers came out and said “Yea, shooting a 12 year old with a toy gun in an open carry state two seconds after arriving is wrong, and reckless, and would not have happened to a white boy on a playground, and he should be held responsible” then maybe the community would have more trust in them, and there would be more respect.

But they keep their mouths shut. And they lie in their police reports. And they shoot more unarmed youth. And they shoot more unarmed men. And they shoot more unarmed women who open the door next to a raid. And they won’t be indicted. And they won’t be held responsible. And the “armed protesters” in Oregon keep “fighting” for their cause without police presence, and I’m writing on facebook, and nothing changes.