Am I A Threat

Ok guys I SWEAR that this won't become a blog exclusively about my time at the Hispanic youth INstitute but it really has changed me deeply. I was finally able to find a video of Jonathan who I mentioned in my HYI posts as well as the poem he wrote. I modified it a little (only fixing capitalization issues and very minor spelling) but here it is.

Am I A Threat?

Am I a threat?

When you look at me am I the plague you've come to expect

Am I so wrong for wanting to live in a better place?

Or am I CRIMINAL because of my race

I’ve come here fleeing oppression crime and poverty

Been here so long this country is a part of me

But how do I open your eyes and make you see what I see

So this is where my battle begins and probably will end

In the tip of a pen

Because with a simple signature me to El Salvador you would send

But something must change in the hearts of men

Learn compassion and how to treat your neighbor like thy own brother

Can’t you see your DESTROYING FAMILIES taking children from their mothers?

It’s not a home after you've taken the father

Tell me if you saw some one starving would give them something to eat

See him completely exhausted would you offer him a seat

Because trust my words crossing a dessert is no easy feat

Walking for days in hot sand with your bare feet

Nothing to eat even less to drink’

The sand in your eyes n it hurts when you blink

Walking towards the sun looking for a better tomorrow

Trying to escape all the pain and the sorrow

The pain of the ones you left behind

The uncertainty of seeing them again but there still on your mind

God made this world but man drew the lines

So I guess the pursuit of happiness has now turned into a crime

Cause we come to this country with nothing more than a pocket full of dreams

Searching for a land like none you've ever seen where gold flows thru the streets

You got clothes on your back and shoes on your feet

You wake up with a smile and there’s always something to eat

But now I see cold reality as I wake up with a certain level of fear

Afraid to walk out of my door because this could be my last day here

Afraid to see all your hard work and sacrifice thrown away

This is the reality my people face day by day

Why has lady liberty closed her arms to me?

Why do I feel to trapped in the land of the free

Why when I turn the news is my race being attacked?

All I want to do is educate my self but you fail to pass the dream act

Yet with fire in your eyes bass in your voice and pride in your face

You begin to attack my race

But there's ignorance in words and in your mind

What separates me and you is nothing but a line---------drawn in the sand you see these are the inventions of man

To think that a line could divide this great land

Is like trying to cover the sun with one hand

So now we’re responsible for the problems we're facing

You cry he took my job and beginning to complain

Was he really more qualified when his only word in English was his name?

But in your eyes he alone holds all the blame

You should bow your head in shame when you find your beginnings where not the same

He came battling the odds, weather and treacherous terrain

Walking for days, cramped in a car or holding on for dear life to a train

Because only after you felt what I felt or see what I’ve seen

Will you truly understand the price of the American Dream?