The Chains That Bind

by Chryses

Throughout my life I would say I have faced many trials and tribulations. I have been the object of ridicule-never one to retaliate or discriminate against others for their actions against my friends, or me I am, in simple terms - a watcher. Always fully aware of my surroundings, ever-conscious and, ever watching. I have sat back, enjoyed the free show as people come and go, as my mom shows my little brother how to do his homework, the poor man on the street-even on the street being thrown from it, I see the single mother with her child in her hand making her way from store to store; business to business; searching for some means of work; turned down at every door for who she is, I see my neighbor bloodied from being jumped- a beat in I saw just minutes ago as I made my way home. I see these things...do nothing about it.

Why?

In simple terms, and because I am a simple person, because I am like them. Try as they may, try as they must, try as hard as they can, they can not and will not be allowed to rise up from the rigors they are subjected and sometimes born into, as myself, into the so called Land of the Free, however not as bad off as those before me that I have mentioned. I go to the local park and stand atop on its highest point- a point in the midst of such a run down and deprived area, a point of tranquility and peacefulness, ever quiet and ever still, and I look down, I see all that I have mentioned, it never stops. The man sitting atop the tallest building in the city in a fine and furnished office looks down. He sees his colleagues, friends, neighbors, he see what he desires to see. And just across the street he sees another building where more of his friends are leaving, and just beyond on them, mere inches away, he sees what I see. He sees the Land of the Free, he sees one United Nation, undivided firm and strong in its disposition in the pursuit of liberty, knowledge, and happiness. He doesn’t seem to see it crumble as he turns away from the window and the man is asked to move because he is in the way.