Anthem for the Ama-gi

a blast from the past

When I was young, on a course I did steer
To change all the world with no sense of fear.
To help solve problems that all people face,
I invested my skills for the fate of the race.

Working with friends and working alone,
Learning new facts that had to be known,
Trying new methods, daring to dream
The work was quite endless, or so it did seem.

Failures and victories came by the score;
Whatever I did to open the door
Others would challenge until it was late.
Will the bet pay off? What is our fate?

Who can say what the future may bring,
Will it cause us to weep or cause us to sing?
I don't believe in predestined fate,
The future will be what we choose to create.

Each of us working and earning his property;
Keeping it private with total autonomy.
Having such love for each of these folk
Who yearn to live free and shed the yoke

Of oppression that binds with coercion and fear.
Holding a gun or arrow or spear,
Taking up arms for defense of our selves so
No one is master or owner or slave, no

Nobody owns you or me or another.
Nobody plays our father or mother.
We live together or we live far apart
Each choosing his path be it silly or smart.

We are the tribe of freedom you see.
In cuneiform writing they say "Ama-gi"
The most ancient way of writing we're free,
In wedges of clay before 2000 BC.

For four thousand years now people have known
That freedom is greatest when each is left alone.
No central planners, no central plan
Can make as much difference as one single man

Or woman or child, it matters not which:
The individual holds the key, turns the switch,
Unlocks the door to the future we seek
Next century, next year, or even next week.

Destiny is what we choose to create,
It never has been a matter of fate.
We are not robots to follow in line,
Shuffling along without reason or sign.

I am just me, this guy that you know,
You are just you with your knowledge in tow.
No numbers, no license, no permissions, no crime,
Autonomous factors with reason and rhyme.

True there are those who can't or won't see
That initiating force is wrong as can be.
They act in great haste, they do such a wrong,
We must protect the rest who belong,

Not to each other but each to herself and
Coercing none to gain wealth or land.
The things that we want come best in exchange
For things that we have or produce in a range

Of quality and value that each of us can
Make or devise by some personal plan.
Respecting you while you respect me
Guiding each other and others to see

That all of the future is unwritten as yet
And if we work smart we may still win that bet.
Laying the base on foundation of rock
So that battered by time it will take every shock.

From bottom to top, we build to the stars,
Knowing that what awaits us on Mars
Is another world of possibility, and more
Beyond Mars to a far galaxy's shore.

We travel through space, we travel through time.
There is no mountain that we cannot climb.
We face the future both together and apart,
A journey of miles with but one step to start.

The best thing is taking each seriously.
Respecting the fact of the autonomy
Of each person in order to give them the space
To develop and grow just at their own pace.

We are the Tribe of the Free: Ama-gi,
Whatever we do, we always live free.

Copyright ©2000 Jim Davidson, All Rights Reserved.

This poem first appeared at the Yahoo group for the Ama-gi, but Yahoo became burdened by an excess of attention to and from the deep state and made the groups go away. Too many people were sharing ideas with one another, or something. Thought crime has been troubling the gooferment for a long time. Another private version of this poem exists in some deep archives and includes a few verses not for general consumption. So there.

Tune in tomorrow for another poem, “On the Death of Friends,” which came to me all of a sudden one day in 1993 as I sat in the green room of the film “Reality Bites” waiting for my turn to go be an extra on screen. A strange film, but the production company had a great caterer. “Good times. Noodle salad,” to quote Jack Nicholson from “As Good as It Gets.”