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Hi, my name is Jim Macdonald, and I have an odd assortment of interests. In no particular order, I love Yellowstone, I am an anti-authoritarian activist and organizer, and I have a background in philosophy, having taught at the college level. My blog has a lot more links to my writing and my other Web sites. In Jim's Eclectic World, I try to give a holistic view of my many interests. Often, all three passions show themselves interweaving in the very same blog. Anyhow, I think it's a little different. But, that's me. I'm not so much out there, but taken together, I'm a little unusual.

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    Thursday, September 21, 2023

    I Hate the Police (September 2021)

    I wrote this poem in September 2021, reading it at an open mic poetry night over at the Steep Mountain Tea House. It was in response to police brutality here in Bozeman.

    I hate the police
    I hate police passionately
    Never met a cop I liked
    Hate how they beat black men in the streets
    With my own eyes, I once witnessed
    More than a dozen DC police
    Beating one black man
    Now they also hog tie women
    Here in our town
    Here in Bozeman
    But what I hate more than police
    I hate that we think we need them
    I hate that we think we have no power
    To take care of each other
    To protect each other
    To stand for justice together
    I hate the radical disempowerment
    The powerlessness that people feel
    And I hate that when another cop
    Assaults another person
    We think there are just a few bad apples
    Not that the system is rotten
    Not that we have given up our power
    To them
    To these abusive monsters
    I hate the police
    And I hate that we think
    That collectively
    We can’t do anything about them
    I hate that I will share this poem
    And you, you who sit there
    If you’re even listening
    Will think my radical words
    Unrealistic
    Somehow, humans lived 150,000 years
    And only dreamed up police
    In the 1800s to protect property in the North
    To protect slaveholders in the South

    And we think this is normal
    That we can’t live without them
    That we need them to protect us!
    Less than 200 years wipes out 150,000
    Just like that
    That I’m the radical one
    When there’s nothing normal
    Sane, or conservative about a
    Militarized police force

    And sadder still, you’ll think that

    We are powerless
    That solidarity is useless
    That we can’t possibly do anything
    Such a self-fulfilling prophecy
     
    Or you’ll vote
    You’ll vote for someone else
    To take the power from you
    And hopefully do the right thing
    And when they don’t
    You’ll vote again
    And again
    And again
    And what will ever change
    When did any significant change
    Happen by voting?
    What if MLK and Gandhi had decided
    To wait for someone else
    To make change and simply vote
     
    So, I hate the police
    And I hate that so few of us
    Believe in us
    In all we can do together
     
    But I still believe
    So, if you still believe
    Find me, and let’s get to work

    -jsm 9/24/2021

     

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