"A New Civil War"

        Harbor Springs   1/21/10

 

We stand at a great threshold.

Tea parties blossom again;

Sumter quakes for the fear of cannon.

Trenton to Antietam,

Vicksburg to Verdun,

And Anzio to Afghanistan;

It is not rifle nor rocket which befall us.

It is as Lincoln said, a suicide within.

We now stand red to blue,

Capitalist to socialist,

Investment banker to food pantry;

Adam Smith never claimed capitalism as imperialism.

Marx never stipulated genocide for survival.

We've heard from the Prophets and others

Yet we still don't

Understand the message of their universe.

We are but grains of sand among

Planets, stars, and solar systems.

Our universe is not found in a Walmart,

But upon this great land

That commands us to remember all.

No statesman survive for fear of Rush or Sean;

No security at hand

While we cannot decide how

To live free and pure in spirit.

Our crimes are great yet we persist

In compounding war on each other

In a blame and brag all for profit.

We enslave labor to protect business

And shareholder profit from unions;

Only to find unions

Increasing their own profit

Enslaving those through fear

While driving out business.

Hospitals and insurance companies grow

Beyond credits and debits to

Lobbyists and the bigotry

Of the revenue over expense,

While people die

As the CEO gets into his Lexus.

Our strife is at hand.

No paper or news show has the guts

To explore these humble thoughts

Or they chance 

Losing viewers, readers, and market share.

We've become all that was warned

In Revelations from cave paintings through

Babylon ending at the wheat fields in Gettysburg.

The hypocrisy of our democracy has

Become complete.

As all great societies capitulate

Through their own civil wars,

We have simply created

A Great Society of the world

In the name of profit.

We now experience a civil war of the world

As it learns to live together.

Unless we take heed

Learning to break bread with peace

And a conscription of understanding,

We will continue

committing economic terrorism

Only to experience

The rabble striking back.

It's not about 60 votes.

It's about 100.

There are 7 continents not one

Street created from a Wall

Constructed to hold hostiles out.

Yet that's exactly what it does.

May we all ask forgiveness

From each other as we

Perish from our own self-righteousness.