Tuesday, October 8, 2019

"Land of Bondage, Land of the Free", by Raul Manglapus

The tao does not come here tonight to be judged-// but to judge!// Hear then/ his accusation and his sentence.//
I indict the Spanish encomendero// for inventing taxes impossible to bear:// I indict the usurer for saddling me with debts impossible to pay.//
I indict the irresponsible radical leaders/ who undermine with insidious eloquence/ the confidence of my kind in our government.//
You accuse me of not supporting my family.// Free me from bondage/ and I shall prove you false.//
You accuse me of ignorance.// But I am ignorant because my master finds it profitable to keep me ignorant.// Free me from bondage / and I shall prove you false.//
You accuse me of indolence.// But I am indolent/ not because I have no will,./ but because I have no hope.// Why should I labor/ if all the fruits of my labor/ go to pay an unpayable debt?// Free me from bondage/ and I shall prove you false.//
Give me land.// Land to own.// Land ‘unbeholden to any tyrant.// Land that will be free.// Give me land for I am starving.// Give me land that my children may not die.// Sell it to me,/ sell it to me at a fair price./ as one freeman sells to another/ and not as a usurer sells to a slave./// I am poor, / but I will pay it!// I will work,/ work/ until I fall from weariness for my privileges,/ for my inalienable right to be free.//
BUT IF YOU WILL NOT GRANT ME THIS… // If you will not grant me this last request,/ this ultimate demand,// then build a wall around your home//… build it // place a sentry on every parapet!… for I who have been silent these three hundred years/ will come in the night when you are feasting,/ with my cry, and my bolo at your door.// And may God/ have mercy on your soul.

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