Identity

I love my country, I love the idea of freedom, I live life according to how I was raised, I love my family and humanity, I live according to the golden rule, I have dreams and hopes and loves and losses, i feel that there are many like me
As many others like me feel, we are not fully free, nor are our families, nor is the golden rule being applied to us, or our dreams and loves being fulfilled, this I see
I want to be free to not partake in capitalistic values, or to practice that which my heritage preaches, I want to learn about my peoples history without having to do it independently

Respect, its missing, deeply I feel unappreciated, unloved and unwanted by society at large, I feel unknown by a crowd uninterested to know
Yet at me is the entire history of their people thrown, at me is every accomplishment of theirs in my face, at me is no representation of me
Today I sit in a pool of my own tears, in a river of my people's tears, and in an ocean of my ancestor's tears, we cry together for our collective pain
They may love their individualism, but we long for and miss our community, they devote themselves to capitalism, and we just want to be
How deceived we have been, led to believe this is the land of the free, lied to directly when it was said this place was religiously free
Deemed witches and sorcerers for our religious practice, pagans and blasphemers for being ourselves
How can the soul bear so much torment, how can identity survive such an assault, how can our lives be full and complete, when society at large spits on us
What pain would a Catholic feel denied the body of Christ, or a Muslim denied praying towards Mecca, or the Jew denied peace on the Sabbath what pain would they know
Yet we suffer through laws making it illegal to practice, we trudge through having to live like criminals, how much pain can a culture suffer before it starts to buckle and break
Is that what they want, is it, to break us to make us feel like people without a soul, with people who need a culture to which we are allowed to belong
Is that what they want, to strip us of religion to strip us of beliefs and our identity
Is it, answer me, do you wage war against me and my humanity, do you wage war on my spirituality, come out and say it to the face of me, say you want to strip me, say you want to rape my culture, say you want me to know not who I am, say you want me to be broken, say it, say it, say it!
Just come out and say it, say you believe in your superiority, say it to each and every minority, come to our homes and be so bold, say it, and if you can and still feel you are right, know that our culture will not die without a fight
Say it, Say it, say it to me, or my Asian brothers and sisters, my African friends, say it to those you deemed Latino to each culture within them, say it to the Wiccan within you say it, Say it to the Native Americans who you nearly wiped out, Say it to all of us, come out and say it
Say it to the liberal masses who side with us, say it to humanity that you want to separate us, say to our face that you highlight the difference, say it to our face that thats whats significant, say it
For once be so bold in these modern times to reveal whats been hidden behind the blinds, say what makes people feel uncomfortable with their spirituality or their culture and heritage, tell us why you do not openly accept us
please as I have asked you many times say it