“Divide Us, Unite Us” is a contemporary slam poem written by Gary R. Hess in hopes to inform the world about the ever-growing class war that’s taking place. Americans and people around the world are being divided by those in power by putting us into groups: skin color and sexual preference being two of the most common divisions. They are doing this as they take billions out of our economies as they put it back into their pocket. No, it does not “trickle down”. It stays there with the elite class as we fight over who has weirder hair and what Miley Cyrus did this weekend. We are being shoved pointless drivel and fighting pointlessly among ourselves instead of focusing on uniting against what our true enemy is: inequality of wealth, healthcare, and social justice.
DIVIDE US, UNITED US by Gary R. Hess
They want to divide us.
They want us to see color,
to see religion, to see ethnicity, and see gender,
to anger us and separate us
so we don’t see the truth
of what really divides us:
money.
You can sit there and think about
all the crimes that
are meant for us.
Now think of their penalty.
Now think about all the crimes
meant for the rich.
What’s their penalty?
As you sit back and think
of a reason why
please keep in mind
we all have to lose
and what they have lost
and tell me how this can be.
When one of us lives and dies
it might make a line in the paper.
When they live and die,
books for generations are written of their “excellence”
and their “prosperity.”
But…we…
No, we are not meant for this world.
We are not meant for this Earth,
and if we try they push us back,
and if…
and if we succeed we become them
or else we fall back.
This world is not meant for the poor
and not meant for the moral.
It’s meant for animals.
This class war–
yes this class war
has been going on for decades or more
and we are losing.
And losing hard
because they divide us.
We see Republican and Democrat,
and we see black or white,
gay or straight,
instead of seeing what combines us:
our struggle.
To get through this struggle
we must unite and find a way
to win this fight
and beat this life
to bring us back
to crack this…
War.
