Sunday, March 9, 2014

A Brief (Necessary) Soap Box

How can people take other for granted without being held accountable?  Is it all in the name of money? Are these recruiters just seeking their own version of the "American Dream"?  That's not what the "American Dream" is; it's not a dream at all.  For thousands of vulnerable people from rural areas in developing nations, this American greed is a nightmare painted in false hope.

You may say your giving these people an opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise.  Really?  Is that what you tell yourself?  Is that how you validate your greed?  You "promise" people who are struggling to find any way to just get by in their own countries a chance at being able to provide for their families, but you don't follow through.  Your capitalist green eyes see your own opportunity.  It doesn't matter who you trample on the way to your own success.  How fortunate you are, that you can provide for your own family, meanwhile destroying an innumerable amount of lives.

Perhaps you have removed yourself enough from the abuses in the fields, at the recruitment sites, and where these humans are treated like dogs, but you share in the blame.  So someone else does your dirty work?  Are you less at fault?  Do the tax collectors not represent Caesar when they collect more than their allotted sum?  Must you blame the minds of both Caesar and his money-hungry minions?

You're the early pioneers in this country who drew up treaties for your own benefit.  "They signed the treaty," you say, "it isn't my fault that they didn't read or understand all of its terms."  So, by that logic one might assume it is reasonable to have a child, who is not yet literate to sign an agreement that his identity is not for him to choose.  Throughout his life he will be forced to move without his consent, after all he signed the paper.  "I told him the consequences and they were clear to me.  I even consulted with my lawyers and they seemed clear to them.  What's wrong with that?  It's not my fault he doesn't understand my logic.  Maybe that will teach him not to trust people so easily."

Sometimes I'm ashamed of who I represent.
Look passed the color of my skin.
See through my ignorant kin.
I'm not proud of who we are
or who we were.

I don't claim to be perfect
but I'll be honest.
When people take others for granted
my heart breaks a little.

Because after all
I am my brother,
and my brother is me.
I am my sister,
and my sister is me.

Not until their chains are broken
can I truly be set free.

No comments:

Post a Comment