Still I Rise

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.	Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.	Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.	Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.			You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?	Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise. I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.	Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.	I rise. I rise. I rise.
Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise" from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994).
25-Point Brand New Deal To Repair and Reform America 🇺🇸 Slavery is America’s original sin and is crime not only unto people of color, but also to society at-large. It created a cultural climate of immorality, hobbled a legitimate southern economy, thus creating a shroud of challenges for society to advance #Reparations #SocialJustice #SocialChange. The greatest challenges facing people of color are steeped in socioeconomics. Socioeconomics knows no color and effects all those who lack resources and opportunity. I propose a reformation of society, systems, institutions, and a reimagining of how some of our tax dollars are spent and overseen. The following 25-Point Plan is what I offer to the conversation to cleanse society of its original sin, level the playing field for any person disenfranchised through socioeconomics and advance forward to the great American ideal to be something greater. 1 - Broadcast a live Truth and Reconciliation Commission on television 📺 for people to speak their truth about crimes against humanity or confess their sins to offer closure and a stepping stone to update and reinvent systems of government and society. 2 - Move confederate monuments to state and national museums 🖼️ where than can be both preserved and presented in full historical context and with an explanation of all viewpoints. 3 - Provide free college education 🏫 from state colleges and universities from an associates degree all the way through doctoral study. 4 - Offer free training for certificate and non degree programs for high value marketplace skills in demand running-the-gamut from learning how to be an electrician to learning to write code 💻. 5 - Offer guaranteed 2.5% startup business loans 🏦, contingent upon completing an MBA program. 6 - Offer guaranteed 2.5% home loans 🏠. 7 - Implement a $20 minimum wage 💵. 8 - Offer free after school and toddler day care services 🚸 for all who need them. 9 - Build inner-city free food forests 🌳. 10 - Universal free federal healthcare for all. If you want it, use it. If you don’t, keep your employed sponsored healthcare or buy your own. 11 - Remove and replace the current system of policing 🚓 with one that removes of focus upon micro policing petty crime, removes all current policing responsibilities to those involving violent crime, and creates unarmed specialists in new divisions to handle the things that police officers were previously handling that was outside of their area of expertise. 12 - End the war on drugs ☢️. Legalize recreational marijuana in all 50 states. Restructure the legal system to consider drug addicts victims of crimes and not perpetrators of crime. Discontinue the imprisonment of people for drug usage. 13 - Amend the 13th Amendment. Discontinue the constitutional legalization of slavery and involuntary servitude as a form of punishment for the duly convicted. If working while incarcerated, prisoners must be paid a fair competitive wage 💵. 14 - Allow felons to vote in all states after they have served their ⌛. 15 - Create a guest worker program for foreign nationals to work 9 months of a year in industries in-demand for an immigrant labor force 💪🏽. 16 - Level the immigration playing field 📐. Accept an equal percentage of immigrants from all countries instead of an arbitrary number that favors the statistics of getting for one country over another. 17 - Abolish the electoral college 📊. 18 - Take money out of politics. Limit 🚫 campaigning to 1 week. Allow independents to participate on the main stage. 19 - Make voting 🗳️ a national holiday and allow voters to vote online, or by mail, if they cannot come to a polling station. 20 - End presidential primaries ⛔. Have one election where you vote on the same day for all candidates on the ballot. 21 - Ban Gerrymandering. Congressional districts will be based upon county lines. 22 - Include representatives from all stations in life 🌈 in the Senate and House of Representatives instead of nearly all lawyers. 23 - Extend the terms for Senators and Congressmen, but institute a singular 8-year term limit to keep money out of politics 💸, as congressmen will not have to raise funds for reelection and government will continuously have a stream of new ideas. >24 - Implement a constitutional amendment 📜 abolishing income-tax and replace it with a national sales tax. 25 - End lifetime appointments on the Supreme Court ⚖️. An investment into society is an investment to all of our futures. This aforementioned my suggestion to begin the conversation. Christopher C. Odom