Welcome to America

, Exeter, RI

Welcome to America: A land of opportunity
where a man on Welfare can make more than a public school teacher.
Welcome to America: A land paved in gold
where we are in trillions of dollars of debt.
Welcome to America: "Liberty and Justice for all":
where our pledge does not include minors or homosexuals;
where it is not applied to the oppressed and those in debt.
Welcome to America: A land for the people
where the cooperation is clearly a person as you and me, from a political aspect.
Welcome to America: ...and by the people
where you can buy legislative power from a governor in Illinois.
Welcome to America: A effort against the "Drug War"
where we can't even keep our police officers clean.
Welcome to America: Where people and legislature see eye to eye;
where a democracy and a republic clash heads.
Welcome to America: Separation of Church and State
where we have only had two non-Protestant Presidents.
Welcome to America: A land of freedom
where women no rights until 1848, and could not vote until 1920;
where African-Americans were isolated from society until the 1960s;
where American Citizens of the same nation had to kill each other to abolish slavery.
Welcome to America: A Nation of peace
where we are always at war.
Welcome to America: A Nation united
where states are divided.
Welcome to America: A Nation of tolerance
where "the people" see Islam in the government as more of a problem than economic reform.
Welcome to America: A Democracy
where we win votes by scandals and controversy, not political action or issues.
Welcome to America: Does the system work for you?
where fitting into the system is more important than improving it.
Welcome to America: Where several police officers were killed in a cafe a couple of weeks ago;
where no one noticed because they were too preoccupied with the fact that Tiger Woods cheated on his wife.
Welcome to America: Most politicians one were lawyers;
where it seems being a celebrity gives you power equal to that.

Welcome to America where many people who read this article never got past the second line because they would rather ignore the issues than resolve them.

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This article has 166 comments. Post your own!

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Bookwizard said...
Jun. 20, 2012 at 11:16 pm:

Deep bro. True also. I love it!!

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necci said...
Jun. 19, 2012 at 9:47 pm:

true

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Jessie D. said...
Jun. 18, 2012 at 12:23 pm:

I fell in love with this poem on the first line. It's a fantastic, eye opening piece. Love, love, love it!

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Caleb.Andrews said...
Jun. 17, 2012 at 9:05 pm:

Excellent poem! There are some flaws in logic (e.g. "A Nation of peace where we are always at war" is a non-sequitur; just because a nation is constantly at war does not at all mean that that nation is not a peaceful nation; in fact, virtually every military specialist {both personnel and scientist} would contend that, in many cases, war is needed to protect the future possibility of peace), but most of the points presented are very true. Not many people have this gift with words.

icefaerie10111 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 9:20 am :

I understand your views on war and peace. However, I believe wars such as World War II were justified, but Iraq is not.
Our national agenda should not put the lives of millions at risk unless their is a good reason to do so.

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HiddenAngelInTheDark said...
Jun. 16, 2012 at 3:54 pm:

This is what American is, it is blind by those who fear showing it's imperfect flaws and tho they must try and push to create something that cannot be there only to have more harm than good done. Great work honestly just beautiful

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MissLauraWind said...
Jun. 16, 2012 at 12:14 pm:

This piece is absolutely amazing. Not only does it follow a super effective repetitive pattern but it is also the complete truth!
Thank you for this, we need more people like you!
Great job!

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jackiee129 said...
Jun. 14, 2012 at 5:38 pm:

This article rings true and is very powerful and thought provoking. I love that you tackled such a controversial topic and brought up a lot of issues most Americans are too afraid to face.

As for the writing, i believe it could have flowed a lot more nicely, and there were some glaring spelling and grammatical errors. I did like the "Welcome to America" lines, they sumed up the point very well.

icefaerie10111 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 9:22 am :

Thank you for reading and understanding my poem.
I understand my grammer and formatting is prety terrible, this is one of my older poems. I actually cringe at the structure I wrote it in, lol. xD

jackiee129 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 10:06 am :

maybe you should try re-formatting it? just a suggestion.

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fey.sense. said...
Jun. 13, 2012 at 10:34 pm:

While it's a good idea to raise these issues, I think the tone could have used a serious attidtude adjustment. It sounds whiney. I don't think the line about how women and african americans didn't have equal rights until the 1900's actually weakened this piece. It belittles the steps America as a whole has taken- how does that encourage further progress? I can imagine in many years a similar article with the line: "Welcome to America: A country that was not free of ... (more »)

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Sunshine15 said...
Jun. 13, 2012 at 12:55 pm:

I see what you're getting at (and that last line was particularly witty) but don't you think that you're being a little harsh?

The United States may be far from perfect, but if you ask me, it's the best country out there. I live in the Middle East, and believe me when I say if some of the countries here would TRY to be more like America (like Syria for instance), we'd all have a better life.

icefaerie10111 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 9:25 am :

I understand what you are saying. However, the purpose of this poem was not to compare America to other countries. Before the US can become the "model of western democracy" we like to think we are, we have some issues to work out. I personally would not like to live in the middle east or north korea, I understand... but we should always strive to make ourselves more perfect.

BlueRain replied...
Jul. 6, 2012 at 3:03 pm :

I think that's the message people are getting wrong when responding to this poem, "sure America is a bit messed up, but look at everywhere else!" That's definitely not the point. I gave that answer to my parents when I was younger and I tried to convince them I didn't need to go into advanced classes, "I have A's, I did my job." And they kept saying that it didn't matter, that I shouldn't be judging my successes on the height of that scale, that people should always be striving to make the sc... (more »)

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AcrossTheUniverse said...
Jun. 13, 2012 at 12:07 pm:

Controversial and biased (though these qualities aren't necessarily negative). It feels overwrought with emotion and not refined enough, but who am I to judge when half of my comments are those qualities? I like it even despite its forceful perspective.

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AcrossTheUniverse said...
Jun. 13, 2012 at 12:07 pm:

icefaerie10111 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 9:14 am :

I actually agree with you on the refinement. It's one of my older poems and I cringe at the structure, three years later.

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StrangeJade said...
Jun. 11, 2012 at 8:17 pm:

Truthful, certainly, but a little too pop-culture-pat at times. And it was unclear, interestingly unclear, to me what your views on the problems presented are. Are you unbiased? I doubt that, but if it is so, I applaud you. And it is good at times to be unbiased on these things, but unless you show a deeper understanding of the problems with America, you sound less thoughtful than you might, and I do not doubt that you are a very thoughtful person.

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Bat-Mobile said...
Jun. 11, 2012 at 7:55 pm:

This feels more like a list of complaints than an uplifting poem or search for solutions

icefaerie10111 replied...
Jun. 28, 2012 at 9:06 am :

Being uplifting was not the purpose of this poem, at all. It's one of my old poems, I'lll admit I'm not a huge fan of the style I used. However, you can't fix problems until you recognize them and bring them out to the open.

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