Freedom and Equality for All??
Today’s boycott reminds me of a comedic theater piece by the celebrated playwright, actor and one of the co-founders of the Negro Ensemble Company, Douglas Turner Ward. It is a story told in one act entitled Day of Absence.
It’s a satire about an imaginary Southern town where all the black people have suddenly disappeared. The only ones left are sick and lying in hospital beds, refusing to get well. Infants are crying because strange parents are tending them.
The Mayor pleads for the President, Governor, and the NAACP to send him "a jackpot of jigaboos." On a nationwide radio network broadcast he calls on the blacks, wherever they are, to come back. In a telecast he shows them the cloths with which they wash cars and the brushes with which they shine shoes as sentimental reminders of the goodies that await them.
In the end the blacks begin to reappear, as mysteriously as they had vanished, and the white community, sobered by what has transpired, breathes a sigh of relief at the return of the rather uneasy status quo. What will happen next is left unsaid, but the suggestion is strong that things will never quite be the same again.
I am reminded of this piece because it was the emancipation of blacks from enslavement and the historic legislation that followed that led to the rights and status of immigrants, legal and illegal in this country. If not for the emancipation and the historic landmark amendments guaranteeing freedom and equality, (see United States Constitution Amendments 13 and 14), for all people that followed, millions of people from all over the world would not have risked life and limb to be in this place that offered an opportunity to do better. The French gave us the statue that stands on Liberty Island in New Jersey, outside Manhattan, because our nation was a beacon of hope.
Why are the Republicans and so many millions of Americans determined to turn off the light?
It’s a satire about an imaginary Southern town where all the black people have suddenly disappeared. The only ones left are sick and lying in hospital beds, refusing to get well. Infants are crying because strange parents are tending them.
The Mayor pleads for the President, Governor, and the NAACP to send him "a jackpot of jigaboos." On a nationwide radio network broadcast he calls on the blacks, wherever they are, to come back. In a telecast he shows them the cloths with which they wash cars and the brushes with which they shine shoes as sentimental reminders of the goodies that await them.
In the end the blacks begin to reappear, as mysteriously as they had vanished, and the white community, sobered by what has transpired, breathes a sigh of relief at the return of the rather uneasy status quo. What will happen next is left unsaid, but the suggestion is strong that things will never quite be the same again.
I am reminded of this piece because it was the emancipation of blacks from enslavement and the historic legislation that followed that led to the rights and status of immigrants, legal and illegal in this country. If not for the emancipation and the historic landmark amendments guaranteeing freedom and equality, (see United States Constitution Amendments 13 and 14), for all people that followed, millions of people from all over the world would not have risked life and limb to be in this place that offered an opportunity to do better. The French gave us the statue that stands on Liberty Island in New Jersey, outside Manhattan, because our nation was a beacon of hope.
Why are the Republicans and so many millions of Americans determined to turn off the light?
posted by You Think at 12:42 AM
2 Comments:
I don't recall any reports that on Monday massive amounts of money were lost because the dirty little illegals came across the border and didn't go to work under the table.
If it were possible to put them all on several large boats, or make a convoy of buses to take them back , I'd ffer to pilot a boat or drive the bus!
3:30 PM
Betty, Betty, please don't be so shy about expressing your thoughts. We invite all comments. Thank you for visiting. Come back soon, ya'hear?
6:24 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home