To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Observercast

What Privatize Really Means

on

BY SHARON MARTIN

Sharon MartinYou want to sell our public lands

and pristine places,

 

turn public service

into for-profit business

 

until everything is owned

by a handful of old men

with nothing invested

and nothing to lose,

 

paid for by the sweat of the rest of us,

those to whom this land belongs.

 

We already stole it

fair and square,

with our guns and plows

and relentless westward movement

 

from the natives whose ancient clans

called themselves the people.

First people.

 

You want the blacks to be subservient,

women to be chattel again,

Indians to disappear.

Something went wrong

in that first attempt to erase them.

 

Something went wrong

in the centuries of owning, silencing,

burning and hanging the wise ones.

 

Something went wrong

when one of them squatted

in the White House.

 

No way he can be legit

 

when a handful of rich folk,

enriched and empowered to govern

by a smaller handful of even richer folk,

didn’t give him permission

to be the most powerful man

in the world.

 

You want your place of privilege sealed

by cutting wages,

cutting services,

 

leaving us the jobs

of staying in the shadows,

keeping quiet,

paying the taxes,

dying on the battlefields,

 

laboring for your gain,

in this plutocracy

that you’ve convinced too many voters

is their American Dream, too.

Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer