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Let America Be America Again

by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed– Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek– And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean– Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That’s made America the land it has become. O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home– For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we’ve dreamed And all the songs we’ve sung And all the hopes we’ve held And all the flags we’ve hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay– Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again– The land that never has been yet– And yet must be–the land where every man is free. The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME– Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose– The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath– America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain– All, all the stretch of these great green states– And make America again!

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i said what i said

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“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; one day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hallow mockery; your prayers and hyms [sic], your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

— Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), from a speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852.

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I regret to ask for assistance but I need help with rent and living costs including a consultation fee for an immigration lawyer since our government announced denaturalization of migrants and their U.S. born children.

Hello! My name is Phoenix and I’m a Jewish and Latina trans woman and union steward dating @writeswrongs a Black-Latina migrant and naturalized citizen living in Portland, Oregon.

I recently was wrongfully terminated at my unionized job working as an advocate and union steward at a homeless shelter where the company violated our just cause clause of our union contract after I told off some coworkers engaging in anti communist, antisemitic and racial harassment towards me and I have the larger union backing me demanding reinstatement with back pay and interest. We formally filed our grievance against the company outlining the violations and the demands last week and this is an ongoing process that will likely take months to resolve and may eventually require arbitration.

In the meantime, unemployment has taken more than a month due to recent changes that delay the applicant from immediately claiming weeks and due to the fact that I’m disputing with the union their misclassification of their termination of me as just cause and rent is due July 4th, 2025. I still have not received an update from unemployment and it may take some weeks to come for them to finalize their decision and approve my claimed weeks and we already ran out of money to pay other bills including a recent out of warranty phone breakage.

My migrant partner, who is also union and is currently training to be a union steward, has been supporting me financially but without income from unemployment insurance, we cannot afford housing costs. She is also the child of Salvadoran refugees from the Salvadoran Civil War and was born in Canada before she naturalized in the United States in college more than 15 years ago. We have long been awaiting the attacks on birthright citizenship from our government and are concerned where that places us in terms of our fate in this country as there is a very real ethnic cleansing of migrants occurring. We had a consultation with an immigration lawyer before these changes were announced and our concerns were dismissed (“but that would be a constitutional crisis!” well,) and now we feel we need to take extra precautions to ensure our application for a copy of her naturalization papers is completed without incident.

We need $900 to pay the pay-in-two flex payment for rent by July 4th, 2025. Your donations will also go towards potential legal fees for my partner as immigration law continues to change in ever escalating racist and repressive ways. It will also go towards any potential legal fees, weed and other support for myself as well as I have an upcoming likely trial for my alleged misdemeanor protest behaviors outside the local ICE disappearance facility.

Your donations will go to support queer and trans women of color trying to survive in a fascist landscape threatening our lives at every turn. Please share if you can’t donate. Thank you.

Cash app; $PhoenixSinger

Venmo: @Writeswrongs

PayPal: writeswrongs@gmail.com

Phoenix, Olivia and our puppy Karl Barx.

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The Drowned Halls

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Dyke March NYC

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Music in Film: Sinners (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler

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cape fear, north carolina

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yonkers is such a deeply unserious name for a place. i bet nobody even dies there

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Found in the archives: A letter from Librarian Charles Ammi Cutter, who gave us Cutter Expansive Classification (and the 'Cutter Number'). "Of course I think my classif. is better adopted to the wants not only of a college library but of any library than the D.C." (Dewey classification, I presume.)

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Oh my god where’s that one beach boys photo that looks like a hardcore show

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HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BASIL PESTO SAUCE

Follow for recipes

Is this how you roll?

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Egrets at a lake :3

Instagram|inprnt|Ko-fi|Behance

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I'm beginning to think that making visibly corrupt weapons contractors a load baring pillar of our economy might not have been a great idea.