Here is a poem in honor of America's birthday by Josue Rojas, a 17-year-old high school senior whose parents came to California from El Salvador. Rojas is a spoken word artist and an illustrator for YO! Youth Outlook, a monthly newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

A.M.E.R.I.C.A.N. -- the breakdown

Let me start from the beginning, at the top of the list,

A

"A" is for Afraid
of the young and underpaid,
causing immigration raids
in the heart of east L.A.

M

"M" is for mistreating African kings and priests,
burning their churches and, to say the least,
treating them as slaves and leash-bearing beasts.

E

"E" is for the exploitation of third-world nations' resources
which forces
widows and orphans to slave for skimpy food rations..
... and calling it "friendly foreign relations."

R

"R" is for the ridiculous mentality
of insanity and vanity
Selfism beyond compare -- forgetting those in poverty,
the mentality
that sees a man bleeding on the floor and says "everything's fine and dandy."

I

"I" is for the fact that I had to see to believe,
my heart could not perceive
how this gov't has people deceived
ignorant to know that destruction's eve
is close and won't soon leave.

C

"C" is for contamination and pollution from the annihilation
of the life sustaining South American forest station
the bed and nest for creation
under convenient termination.

A

"A" is for aches and pains placed on God's heart,
because of man's lack of faith and abundant lust,
his nation's turned it back on him and still proclaims
"in God we Trust"

N