I, Too

"I, Too"

-Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the ktichen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Hughes, Langston.  Vintage Hughes.  (New York: Vintage Books, 2004), 12.

It reads worse than it sounded...

...and it didn't sound good!

"Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate," -Sarah Palin on her plans for education policy last night.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

I think we're just reading it wrong, though--she's speaking in verse (as Slate helped out with recently).  Here are my interpretations:

Say it ain't so, 

Joe,

there you go

again

pointing backwards

again.

***

I say, too, with education,

America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that

and our schools have got to be

really ramped up

in terms of the funding

that they are deserving.

***

My grandma was,

my dad who is

in the audience today,

he's a schoolteacher,

had been for many years.

***

My brother,

who I think

is the best schoolteacher of the year,

and here's a shout-out

to all those third-graders 

at Gladys Wood Elementary School, 

you get extra credit

Freedom's Plow

"Freedom's Plow"

-Langston Hughes

Great poem.  I stumbled across it about a week ago in my (highly) edited Hughes collection, and if it didn't violate fair use standards, I'd post it all here--it's really speaking to me.  Here's a particularly apt quote for contemporary times:  

Thus the dream became not one man's dream alone,

But a community dream.

Not my dream alone, but our dream.

Not my world alone,

But your world and my world,

Belong to all the hands who build.

47 days to go.