I Can’t Help But Resist

by Ernie McCray

I heard a man say
we shouldn’t
resist the president
because leftwing presidents
before him committed political wrongs
in their day.

And to him I say,
hey, what somebody
did or didn’t do back in the day
has no say
in why I resist
this man
who occupies the White House today.

First of all just look at his heroes,
Loony tune kind of folks
like one of the baddest dudes in the Milky Way,
Vladimir Putin,
a bare chested
horse riding
vote stealing
former agent
of Russia’s
version of the CIA;
a gangsta kind of hombre
named Rodrigo Duterte,
who slays any
drug users
and abusers
and petty criminals
and children
who get in his way;
a foolish ghoulish man born on the dark side of the moon,
Kim Jong-un,
who smiles in that dictator’s way
as military parades
and super flashy nuclear detonations
and executions
and assassinations
make his day…

All to say neither the president
or these dudes he looks up to
matches the way I sway.
And my resistance
isn’t based on
left or right
or liberal or conservative
or black or white
or democrat or republican
or who’s wrong or right
or whether the economy
and job loss data are going right –
but based on the shenanigans
we Americans
have to put up with
from this man both day and night
with no relief, seemingly, anywhere in sight.
I mean this man acts with jazz hand delight,
leaving, in his wake, countless reasons,
for me to resist him with all my might

like:

He’s a white supremacist
and I’m black
and I’m offended
every times he goes on the attack
against my fellow blacks
talking smack
as he did
signifying that Maxine Waters,
a woman I love and respect,
lacks intellect,
propping up
centuries old
“dumb Negro” attitudes,
pouring fuel
in the anger pool
of racist yahoos
who want to
go back to the
“Good old days”
when “darkies” knew their place,
emboldened by the
honorary head of the nazis and the kkk
who hasn’t really thought about them
for any second of any day
as all he cares about is
he, himself, and him,
so because of such narcism
I resist him both on purpose
and as a whim.

I resist him

because he calls Mexicans names
and I count many Latinos as friends.
I resist him
because Malcolm X was my man
and he hates Muslims.
I resist him because he wanted Colin Kaepernick’s neck
for kneeling during the anthem
when I’d, at the other extreme,
offer him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
for bringing the nation’s attention
to inequalities
in our inner cities.
I resist him
because he has no one around him
who looks or thinks like me,
or because I have a daughter
who is a journalist
and he sees such people as the enemy,
making life for them
more dangerous than it need be.

I resist him

because he separates children from their parents
and I’m a father,
grandfather,
and great-grandfather
who fed his family
by helping children learn
and become loving and giving members
of our society.
I resist him
because he’s a nationalist
and I believe that the world
is a community.

So no walls for me.

I resist him

because he praises the police unconditionally
and I think a number of them should
be eyed closely
and constantly and set free
when they don’t respect all members
of the citizenry.
I resist him because he:
gives tax breaks
to billionaires
while the rest of us pay;
I smog my carand he allows coal to foul the air,
jeopardizing people everywhere.

But I resist him mostly

because he lies incessantly
and purposely
as easily as one breathes
and I believe
a society should hold the truth
as it’s most precious commodity.

Such would lessen the need
for resisting, in the way I see,
because when a people
seek the truth
they’ll find true the old adage:

“The Truth Will Set You Free.”

But meanwhile
we should all, I think,
resist people like Trump
every day of our lives
for the rest of our lives.

I guess it’s easy for me to say all this
as I can’t help but resist.