You Are What You Vote

From our political correspondent Dorothy Dawe:

​There was a Ku Klux Klan rally yesterday in Dayton, Ohio. Ohio went Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

A white nationalist who unsuccessfully ran for a Congressional seat in Tennessee under the slogan "Make America White Again" is holding an event on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's campus this week.  Tennessee went Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Back in 2016, the Klan held a victory parade in North Carolina to celebrate the election of Donald Trump.  North Carolina went Trump in 2016.

​The old adage "You are what you eat" is no where near as true as "You are what you vote."

​The rise in hate crimes since the election of Donald Trump -- and the rise of emboldened Klansmen and neo-Nazis across the county -- calls to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson's "The Klan selects its own Society"  (below on the left).  Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "The Soul selects her own Society" (below on the right). 

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The Klan selects its own Society –
Then – shuts the Door –
To their “divine” Majority –
They take no more –
 
Unmoved – they note their Spurious –
​     causes –
To their low base –
Unmoved – their Emperor keeps tweeting
Lies just in Case –
 
Dishonor – for our ample nation –
And Pain –
They -- chose the Value of distraction –
For Gain –

By Emily Dickinson:
 
The Soul selects her own Society  –
Then  – shuts the Door  –
To her divine Majority  –
Present no more  –

Unmoved  – she notes the Chariots  –   
     pausing  –
At her low Gate --
Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat --

I've known her  – from an ample nation  –
Choose One  –
Then  – close the Valves of her attention  –
Like Stone  –
​