Poem expresses support for Gates
Middlebury College professor Gary Margolis showed his support for Henry Louis Gates Jr. with this poem:
Ajar
Who hasn’t lost the keys to his
own house, searched for a window
to crawl through, kicked a back door
open, to see if it was left open?
Frost did at his Ripton farm house.
I’m telling you I climb through
a window when he isn’t there so I can
look around. No one’s around to call
the police who rarely exist up there.
Frost is a bridge to Cambridge.
He lived there, too. And now
Henry Louis Gates Jr. who the police
find in his own house. Mr. Gates
isn’t broke and entering. He lives
in his own house. Frost didn’t have
to carry an ID. Berryman found
the key to his own Henry and then
water under a bridge, I’m sorry to say.
The police want us to think it’s all
water under the bridge. I have to say
I’m sorry. For them. Someone has to
pay his respects. I expect we haven’t
heard the last of this. A poem needs
its refrain. White-haired Frost doesn’t
leave a key under his mat for me
when I come home late, when I’ve
forgotten which window I’ve left unlocked.
Like this:
~ by artofficial26 on July 27, 2009.
Posted in Black In America
Tags: activism, Activist, african american, african american history, african history, Ajar, Barack Obama, black america, cambridge police, civil rights, Gary Margolis, harvard, Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr, Henry Louis Gates, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Racism
[...] Perhaps the most unusual support for Gates came in the form of a poem titled “Ajar,” by Middlebury College professor Gary Margolis, who heads the Vermont college’s Mental Health Services. It begins: Who hasn’t lost the keys to his own house, searched for a window to crawl through, kicked a back door open, to see if it was left open? To read it in full, click here. [...]
From academia, an outpouring for Gates « Ebonyx said this on July 27, 2009 at 10:08 pm |
I have HQ audio of the Henry Gates 911 call, Moderator, If you are interested
The caller seems to be trying to keep the calm and not judge the situation at all. She clearly stated that both men were with suit cases so the may have lived there, and she saw them trying to enter the house like the door was “stuck”. This should have been a routine check because it sounds like a misunderstanding.
Here is the dispatch call by the police to go with the 911 audio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDapglzINc