A Gift from the People of the United States of America

A Gift From The People Of The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA*

by gladys b. vargas * stamped in large print on all emergency food packages sent to conquered countries

Growing Pains feeling the weight of America now, the collapse as people riot for justice, as loved ones are lost to courts/prisons/judges with no shame, as illness tears through our bodies. it feels like learning a lesson the hard way / turning, thrashing, shifting under increasingly uncomfortable / oppressive / harmful structures. outgrowing them. learning learning learning, and growing toward something better. change is good / painful / inevitable change is life.

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THOSE WHO COMMIT THE MURDERS... ...WRITE THE REPORTS

...WRITE THE REPORTS THE MURDERS...

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“W

hatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture.

“

“But the rupture exists.

“And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves.

“Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew.

This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

“We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us.

“Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world.

“And ready to fight for it.”

Citations 1. (title page) from a footnote of Audre Lorde’s, “Peace on Earth,” December 25, 1989 2. (pages 6-7) Audre Lorde, “Timing,” The Black Unicorn, 1978.

3. (pages 18-19) Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law In All It’s Phases,” February 13, 1893.

4. (pages 24-25) Steve Sanfield, “The earth shakes,” The Perfect Breeze, 2010.

5. (page 26) Vienna Rye (@vrye on instagram) September 9, 2020 presented with Gladys B. Vargas (@gladysbvargas) September 10, 2020 6. (pages 30-31) Arundhati Roy, “The Pandemic is a Portal,” April 3, 2020.

Thank You Thank You Thank You