WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:05.790 align:middle line:84%
This has the
unglamorous title of:

00:00:05.790 --> 00:00:08.130 align:middle line:84%
To a Friend Concerning
Our Government Support

00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:09.435 align:middle line:90%
for the Dictatorship in Chile.

00:00:09.435 --> 00:00:12.060 align:middle line:90%


00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:13.980 align:middle line:84%
But I want to
emphasize to a friend,

00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:19.170 align:middle line:84%
that it's meant to be a poem of
personal consolation to someone

00:00:19.170 --> 00:00:23.290 align:middle line:84%
who is continually
ashamed of our government.

00:00:23.290 --> 00:00:27.210 align:middle line:90%


00:00:27.210 --> 00:00:31.650 align:middle line:84%
Useful on this election
day, to remind yourself

00:00:31.650 --> 00:00:35.850 align:middle line:84%
you inhabit nothing so
impersonal as a state.

00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:38.490 align:middle line:84%
That what you feel
cut off from, are

00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:43.830 align:middle line:84%
only the few people in power and
the many who freely chose them.

00:00:43.830 --> 00:00:47.460 align:middle line:84%
People like you, children
of the new world.

00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:51.570 align:middle line:84%
Not cowed by tanks,
rumbling over cobblestones.

00:00:51.570 --> 00:00:54.420 align:middle line:84%
Not followed by
police, as they stroll,

00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:57.690 align:middle line:90%
chatting, to the polling place.

00:00:57.690 --> 00:01:00.720 align:middle line:84%
Useful today, when you're
feeling powerless in a country

00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:03.330 align:middle line:84%
you can't believe
you ever believed in.

00:01:03.330 --> 00:01:06.090 align:middle line:84%
To remember that
few waiting in line

00:01:06.090 --> 00:01:08.190 align:middle line:84%
would be friendly
to a government

00:01:08.190 --> 00:01:10.470 align:middle line:90%
unfriendly to its citizens

00:01:10.470 --> 00:01:13.000 align:middle line:84%
if they could
climb a watchtower,

00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.940 align:middle line:84%
and see how the sky looks in a
prison with no visiting days.

00:01:17.940 --> 00:01:20.310 align:middle line:84%
And what would it take
for them to notice

00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.670 align:middle line:84%
our ships riding at
anchor in those harbors,

00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:26.430 align:middle line:84%
but a willingness to
distrust the leaders they're

00:01:26.430 --> 00:01:29.250 align:middle line:90%
waiting in line to elect again?

00:01:29.250 --> 00:01:33.090 align:middle line:84%
To distrust the charm of
the homely polling place,

00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:37.200 align:middle line:84%
the school gym festooned
for the fall dance,

00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:42.090 align:middle line:84%
the social hall of the church
ready for the bake sale.

00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:45.130 align:middle line:84%
Gratitude is the way
they prove to themselves

00:01:45.130 --> 00:01:47.910 align:middle line:84%
they're loving daughters
and loyal sons.

00:01:47.910 --> 00:01:50.640 align:middle line:84%
And can't you say as
you wait among them,

00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:54.630 align:middle line:84%
that you feel like a son
as well if many countries

00:01:54.630 --> 00:01:59.500 align:middle line:84%
make you angry, but only one
makes you poor and small?

00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:00.000 align:middle line:90%