Power belongs to the people!

America is a country where power emerges from its people and not from a monarchy or centralized government. In 2020, Aileen Cassinetto published her poem “There are no kings in America.” I feel this is the best time to bring this piece back to your memory. —— “There are no kings in America” by Aileen Cassinetto we are not that kind of country. We are sanctuary for the hungry, the homeless, the huddled, held together by an idea our immigrant fathers believed in. Rendered, it meant independence. Pursued, it kindled war, ordinance, a fighting chance. Forty thousand musket balls, by themselves, did not shape the boundaries on which we map our days. To draw our borders, we needed more than firecakes. More than a pound of meat with bone and gristle, or salt fish and a gill of peas. We needed the faith and grit of people who were not yet Americans. To be an American is to recognize the sacrifice of the widow and the orphan; it is to understand the weft of tent cities expecting caravans, and the heft of a child in a camp not meant for children, or sitting before a judge awaiting judgement. What do we say to the native whose lands we now inhabit? What do we say to our immigrant fathers who held certain truths to be self-evident? Do we now still pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor. There are no kings in America. Only gilded men we can topple again and again. [Copyright Aileen Cassinetto. This poem originally appeared in Vox Populi July 4, 2020]. —— America's sovereignty emanates from its people, rather than any king or monarch.