“The News You Don’t Get at Home” by Luis J. Rodriguez – Anthology & Interpretation

“The News You Don’t Get At Home” by Luis J. Rodriguez

The news you don’t get at home
is the dangling flesh of peasants and workers,
in the silenced tongues of poets and journalists,
in the machine-gunned remains of women and
children.

The news you don’t get at home
is molded, packaged, abbreviated,
synthesized, and castrated,
through the phone lines,
from the bleeding pens of eyeless stooges
who went to all the fine schools,
worked on all the fine newspapers,
who covered the great wars
(“Hey, is this Lebanon or El Salvador?”)
who wired in the fabrications to fit the ignorance,
who sat in small, dingy hotels with great scotch
and claimed to be truthsayers.

Somehow these “journalists” failed to see
the election fraud; the names of the dead
resurrected on election rosters
(and they say there are no miracles in this world!)
They failed to see the trucked-in thugs
from out of town
and the death threats carved on the inside
of a woman’s thigh.

My Interpretation

The cries of the poor are not heard.
Regardless of
color,
religion,
speech,
or leaders.
Their cries fall of deaf ears ringing with
silent opinions. Why don’t they see
the afflictions of the-
poor,
flailing,
beaten,
destroyed,
desecrated.
We become the innocent bystanders in
a bloody war. One that will not, does not,
chooses not to stop. Every once-in-a-while
we choose to
see,
hear,
help,
find,
alleviate,
protect.
For what is the point? Why
do we need to fully comprehend the situation-
tone down the violence and hatred
in the world. It is easy to
not listen,
not see,
“forget”,
misplace,
laugh-it-off.
Those who have the resources to make
a difference, don’t. They complain about
the inconvenience,
lack of time,
no resources,
why?
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
All excuses to feed into their compliance
and rest their consciousness. Every once in a while
one stands up and yells at the injustice.
They make a scene, they advocate.
We have to listen,
take action,
help,
unite,
save.
We need to open our eyes. Work
together, and breath as one in this world.
We need to learn how to help our neighbor
and live by a greater commandment.
We need to be
as one,
as a community,
as a friend to all.
Those who you disagree with.
Those who frustrate you.
Those who are different from you.
We share this world with every
man,
woman,
child —
living next to you,
across an ocean from you,
steps over a boarder from you.
We need to find it in us to help not only
our friends, but those who too, live for
a better tomorrow.

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