NVN Saturday: WE'RE BACK!
by Karen Marker
“We are not going to let the communists destroy a great American city, let alone the nation’s capital,” [Stephen] Miller told the crowd near Shake Shack inside Union Station. “And let’s just also address another thing. All these demonstrators you’ve seen out here in recent days, all these elderly white hippies, they’re not part of the city and never have been. And by the way, most of the citizens who live in Washington, D.C., are Black. So we’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old.” —The Hill, August 20, 2025
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All of us old white hippies are showing up at Union Station Shake Shack and every street corner we don’t want to miss a love in sit in heckle right here wherever they are we are wearing our long gray hair in braids like Patti Smith singing "People Have the Power" we’re blowing smoke rings into their smirking faces as they buy their burgers for the National Guard here so this won’t be another Kent State we’ve come to town in massive numbers rocking not rolling over we’re wearing our tie die tee shirts in protest chanting Hey Hey We’re the Hippies Come back and we’re not alone look closer you’ll see we’re rainbow colored, we’re stripping off their vulgar masks smacking their faces with kisses this is just the beginning we’re making it a race to the finish see what happens when we all get naked let our full glory be exposed that’s how we’ll catch them off guard take over by giving away the Abundance of our flourishing gardens throwing bouquets of chard and roses
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Oakland, CA poet Karen Marker is a social activist and retired school psychologist whose poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and journals. Her first poetry book Beneath the Blue Umbrella came out recently with Finishing Line Press. She has recently been engaged in a project of writing a poem a day off hope and protest in response to the news. The presence of the national guard in our cities has recalled her experience as 9th grader at Kent State University High School where she was witness to the horrors of May 4th. Her poetry is in the May 4th Archive at KSU.
Yes, a Love In! I'm not quite Hippie-aged, although in seventh grade, Jerry Rubin, an alum of our school, did lead us in a peaceful student sit-in in the back circle of the school where we raised the flag every morning, including that one.
Living outside DC these days, friends and I have been showing up for peaceful protests at the Washington Monument, on the Ellipse by the White House, on the Mall where our beautiful Smithsonian Museum tells TRUTHS whether they like them or not, and everywhere our First Amendment rights are being trampled. And those folks knocking us for being Americans really should do their homework about this city where they are illegally squatting--it is White and Black and Brown and Rainbow and beautiful in every way.
It is AMERICA'S CITY, and no one is keeping them here if they don't like it.
Color me fighting mad!
This poem rocks!