“One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.”
–Dan Adamini, secretary of the Marquette County, Michigan, GOP, calling for "another Kent State" for protesters
But whose, sir?
If we shout down
the verbal thuggery
of a white immigrant
who thinks he belongs here
but others don’t,
are we the thugs, then?
Is our violence, which leaves him
shaken but not stirred,
somehow worse,
than stirring others to ropes
and guns, fists and knives?
Is a bullet in my brain
for saying we are all one
better than
tea tossed into the harbor
and a small fire
that hurt no one?
Do you hear yourself?
How is it calling for
“an end to violence”
to propose shooting someone
for demanding that bigots
shut the hell up?
Who is the thug here, sir?
Who is the American?
–February 15th, 2017, Harlem, New York