Liberty and Equality; Fraternity Can Come Later by Michael Ceraolo

From his American Gallery Series


Liberty and Equality;
Fraternity Can Come Later


I wasn't rescued from a life-threatening situation;
I had been dead nearly eighty years at the time
No, I was rescued from the historical anonymity
that is the fate of almost everyone
Getting a couple thousand voted in a long-ago election
should have kept me anonymous; I was lucky
My name is George Edwin Taylor,
and I ran for President in 1904
as the standard-bearer of the National Liberty Party


I knew that I had no chance of winning,
but went ahead anyway,
because
"The campaign will be of an educational nature"
Though even the papers of my race ignored me,
I brought up many issues,
some of which were specific to that year
and have since been resolved
And
though I don't claim any special prescience,
some of the other issues I raised,
though some terms and numbers have changed,
remain relevant over a hundred years later


"Why offer to compromise the suffrage right
(the only true rights) of ten million
loyal,
patriotic,
liberty-loving people?"


"when men conform themselves
to party instead of principles
they become party slaves"


"We firmly protest against interference
of the Government in the Orient
until paramount political issues
of the races, capital and labor
are settled and settled right at home"


"We wish that the general Government
own and control all public carriers
in the United States
so that the citizens of the United States
could not be denied equal accommodations"


"The people of the District of Columbia . . .
should be allowed representation
in the two branches of Congress"


"We ask that the national laws
be so remedied as to give any citizen,
being next of kin,
the right to demand an indemnity
of the National Government
for the taking of life
or the injuring of any citizen
other than by due process of law"


I could go on, but
"Begin here . . .
and spread it all over the nation"


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