Frederick Douglass was a Republican.   I love when I read the Left try to work its way around that with lies and pretense and then try to make the case anything but than it was.  The Republicans formed in part to free the slave in America and fought the Civil War against the Democrats and then passed all three Civil Rights acts the first two against the ardent opposition of the Democratic Party.  Since my childhood, Douglass has been a hero of mine.  This poem is about him and written in reaction to a piece filled with half truths in a markedly Leftist magazine that I read to get the opposition’s view points to my own.

American Lion: Speaker of Truth
by Michael Romani

An American lion of confidence
Blessed believer in Providence
Frederick Douglass was never a mystery
In my study of American history

From the earliest days of my youth
His name stood out as a speaker of truth
Un-wielding against hollow mockery
A true voice on behalf of liberty

As he demanded an equality
For all of the voices of humanity
Woe be to the Confederated Democrats
Who scurry in darkness like dirty rats

Trying to hide the roots of Jim Crow
Counting on ignorance in that the people might not know
That it was the Democrats who fought for chains
Though now they masquerade as proponents of change

Ever and always a prophet of freedom
An undisguised Douglass has no place in a Marxist museum
Nor in the politics of identity division
Though some pose this truth as subject to derision

Douglass was and is a hero for all Americans
Such was the craftwork of freedom in his hands
Matters of patriotism are often tales of gore
Filled with a thousand nuances and often more

Strangely, the Left ignores hundreds of bits of history
To express how what did happen was some sort of mystery
And as though it wasn't what the Republicans that did
What the Democrats now wish was well hid

Then there's how Douglass held principles before color
The Marxists eerily abhor this and holler
Why would a black man support a right minded white man
Over a wrong minded black man; perhaps because he's American?

To judge not on merit but on color of skin
Should be in this nation seen as an almost mortal sin
This is the path toward the truest equality
Not the demand of reverse racial fealty

May we all so embrace these sorts of "contradictions"
May we all be as comfortable with our life's tensions
Most of all, may be become and be that we 
Like him, be lifetime proponents of life and liberty

(c) November 10, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved