Dennis Spilchuk | + Follow Poet |
Verse | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

We Are Not Afraid

We Are Not Afraid

Why should we be afraid?
If this were the case,
There would be no United States.

The founding fathers were not afraid
To face imprisonment or death;
General Washington led the Continental Army
To defeat British tyranny of America.

And if the Electoral College had not been constituted,
Abraham Lincoln would not have been elected.
And if President Lincoln had been afraid
Of the plantation owners, and sympathizers,
And the Supreme Court justices;
Black Americans would still be enslaved.

And so, when bullied for political belief
Remember FDR’s inaugural speech
To the Nation during the Great Depression,
‘The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.’
Stand up and say, “We are not afraid!”
                         ***

Notes:
1) George Washington: 1st President of the United States (1789 to 1797) – no political party.

2) Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865) – Republican Party.

3) Franklin D. Roosevelt: 32nd President of the United States (1933 to 1945) – Democratic Party.

4) Sept. 17, 1787: ‘Constitution of the United States of America’ adopted and signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

5) March 6, 1857: ‘Dred Scott Decision, aka Dred Scott v. Sandford’ (United States Supreme Court): ruling 7 – 2 in favor of Sandford. In the opinion authorized by Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that ‘Persons of African descent cannot be, nor were ever intended to be, citizens under the U.S. Constitution…’ i.e. Black people were not and never could be American citizens and therefore not protected under the Constitution.

6) November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party was elected POTUS with 40% of the popular vote but won the majority of the electoral college with 180 electoral votes out of 303. One hundred and fifty-two electoral votes were needed to win.

7) The Great Depression (1929-1939): The Great Depression was a  period of severe economic hardship, affecting the industrialized Western World.

Please Login to post a comment