As promised in the previous post, I'm back to detail some of the inaccurate, illogical, and self-contradictory assertions made in the free-verse poem "Somewhere in America," as recited by three teenage girls from the non-profit organization Get Lit, as they tour the country spreading their anti-American message. As I stated last time, I don't fault kids for being wrong and for conducting slip-shod research. I do, however, have very little patience with the adults in their lives who do not teach them better. That being said, I want to lay out some of the assertions made and give my responses to them. This is a valuable exercise as their grievances, most of which have no basis in reality, are commonly thrown at us, and are framed in such a way as to put those of us who love America on the defensive.1. In the second stanza of the poem, the complaint is directed at teachers that "You never told us what we weren't allowed to say; we just learned how to hold our tongues."

Seriously? Not allowed to say? Just learned how to hold our tongues?! As they are paid to stand on a stage and are met with applause and accolades for saying these things? There are many countries wherein these girls would have been killed for this very performance.

2. In the same stanza they lament the banning of Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, while the second amendment of our Constitution still has not been banned.

First of all, can you name me one library on Earth, in school or out of school, which does not have at least three copies of Catcher in the Rye? Neither can I. I won’t take on the gun argument right now, but you should remember that these young performers want them banned.

3. The third stanza begins with the following lines: “Because we must control what the people say, and how they think and if they want to become the overseer of their own selves, then we’ll show them a real one”

I have extensive training and experience in poetry interpretation and analysis…and I have no idea what they’re talking about.

4. Later in the same stanza they express concern that the KKK has a website that anyone can access, while Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is banned in schools.

While the beliefs of the KKK are vile, as long as they do not physically harm anyone or their property, they have the Constitutional right to exist and, yes, to have a website. Meanwhile, To Kill a Mockingbird is required reading in every high school that I am aware of.

5. In the very next breath, they claim that Maya Angelou is banned in schools (a popular assertion amongst angry feminists).

Again, I am not aware of any public school in America where Angelou is not held up to demi-god status.

6. That stanza concludes with a reminder that everywhere we go in America, we stand on “the bones of Hispanics, on the bones of the slaves, on the bones of the Native Americans, on the bones of those who fought just to speak!”

Perhaps those of us who, like me, call Texas home should give our property back to Mexico, who should give it back to Spain, who should give it back to France, who should give it back to Spain again (that’s right), who should give it back to the Comanche and Karankawa, who should give it back to the Cohuiltecan, Caddo, Apache, Tonkawa, and countless other tribes from whom they took it. Every industrialized patch of ground on Earth has a similar history, not just America. America also went to great lengths to abolish the blight of slavery within our borders. That cannot be said of every nation. It is important to note that most of the Hispanic population of the world are voting with their feet for America in favor of their home countries. This horrible, oppressive, racist nation of ours is the destination for about half of the world’s immigrants every year and is still a dream for many more. Food for thought.

7. The fifth stanza begins by asserting that the transcontinental railroad and the Japanese internment camps of WWII are not being taught in schools.

I actively monitor what is taught in our public schools' history classes, and grievances are practically all that is taught anymore. In fact the College Board, who writes the SAT test and the AP tests and their curricula, is currently under fire for anti-American bias.

8. The fifth stanza ends with a bitter critique of the wealthy and a sympathetic view of the poor.

All poverty is tragic, but generational poverty is the result of decisions on the part of individuals. The American system of government, as designed at its founding, had almost eliminated poverty until the Johnson War on Poverty began subsidizing poverty in the mid-sixties. From the turn of the century until the Johnson initiatives, the poverty level in America had fallen from about 70% down to less than 15%. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8, we will always have some poor, and as he said in too many places to enumerate here, we should help those poor. There is no system under which poverty can be absolutely eliminated (poverty is after all a relative condition), and all attempts have ended very badly. But, the American system has minimized the extent and the effects of poverty like none other.

9. The sixth stanza claims that schools “shout out your body fat percentage in class.”

This is illegal.

10. In the seventh stanza the poem talks about feeling scared and defenseless.

The guns that these girls so badly want to see banned will eliminate the physical advantages that any male aggressor might try to exploit.

11. The stanza ends with the not-so-subtle insinuation that “all” male teachers are predatory toward school girls.

That hurts.

12. The final stanza states that women are killed for rejecting dates, and that same-sex couples are not allowed to go to proms together.

That’s true…UNDER SHARIA LAW!

My purpose here is not to ridicule one specific poem, with the exception of #3 (I mean, come on). My purpose is to debunk some commonly hurled anti-American slurs. Say what you want, but you don’t see make-shift rafts being launched from Miami in the dead of night carrying desperate Americans who are risking their lives in the hope that some of them might beat the odds and survive the trip to wash up in Cuba.