Dedicated to the thousands of displaced Haitian men, women and children in search of asylum.
By Carlo Campbell
Dear freedom seeker,
Refugee from hate,
Migrant from the lands of injustice,
From the hands of men who remain the beneficiaries of ill gotten gains,
Who easily forget the fragility of our interconnectedness.
I see you.
We see you.
You are the shining example of the human spirit’s indomitable nature.
The children of a forbidden truth rarely uttered in our public corridors of learning.
You are an unutterable possibility.
1804, they turned their heads
2010, again
2021, yet still
Haitian brothers and sisters,
You have shown us the value of unity, of organization…of action.
In these vulnerable times, they say you have nothing…and now less.
We love you, still.
We know that you have everything.
You are those melanated beacons.
You resist oppression, repeatedly.
You rise, still able to sing, to dance, to love, to be loved.
Blind American justice sees when and what it wants.
We love you, we the dispossessed of this American experiment,
Just a few boat stops away from your reality, inextricably tethered to your destiny.
Our love won’t blind us.
Dr. King taught that the arc of the moral universe is long and bends toward justice.
Overseers with whips,
Turn to officers with guns,
Then to state sanctioned authoritarians,
Turning again to the lash to diminish those in need.
God won’t forget.
He won’t forget that while one population was flown to safety
You were rejected, flown back to harm…
One had a chance at milk and honey the other, these loves of ours, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Thank you for reminding us of a history they would omit, only underscore our urgent need to never forget.
Carlo Campbell
Storyteller at Love Now Media | Website | + posts
Carlo Campbell is a Philadelphia native, co-founder of Theater In The X, union actor, writer, and striving human. Purchase his book Afloematic here.
