Occupy Your Heart

All rich people are oppressors, just as all poor people are lazy.
All cops are fascists, just as all protesters are anarchists.
All bankers are criminals, just as all occupiers are hippies.
Corporations are instruments of imperialism,
just as labor unions are instruments of Stalinism.
Soldiers are baby killers, just as peace activists are terrorists.

One good stereotype deserves another.
Does it have to be us against them?
Let's look a little deeper now, behind the masks.

The money that supports your Americore grant was given
by a rich philanthropist who deeply admires
your work with the poor.
Village compasinos earning eighteen dollars a week
picked this coffee, the grapes in your wine,
and nearly everything you ate today.
The policeman who came to your door when you called 911
is a member of the 99%;
his job is threatened by state budget cuts.
The one holding that protest sign is a grandmother
and a retired science teacher.
That banker wears blue jeans and just made a micro-loan
to this once-homeless single mom
so she could start a pet-grooming business;
but the credit union he founded is closing
and now he can’t sleep nights.
This Wall Street occupier in the pup tent
is an Afghanistan War vet who can’t find a job.
That corporate executive would gladly hire you
if you had majored in engineering;
he manufactures solar panels to liberate you
from fossil fuels.
This union worker will take pay and pension cuts
if you promise to keep his job in America.
That Army officer will return to Afghanistan
for a fourth tour of duty
to protect school girls from men trying
to throw acid in their faces.
This peace activist used to be a Black Panther,
then he lost an arm in Viet Nam serving his country;
now he owns a successful business manufacturing
gourmet Barbecue Sauce.

Let all of them, and all of us, sit down together
at the roots of an enormous oak tree,
with no leaders, no PHD's, no political parties,
and just talk, just listen, just open up and
occupy our hearts.
When can we meet? Where is the tree?

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