THE SYSTEM
Politicians who run on change
and give us chump changeA system where the young drown
in loan debtA system where half the Congress
Are millionaires
Protecting their millionaire brothersManufacturing dead
Workers unemployed or forced to work
at low paying jobs
that cannot sustain a familyMen and women
Who have worked half their lives
Laid off
Given a two-week severance checkA Supreme Court of politicians
Dressed in black robes
who declare corporations
an Individual
And money
The 21st Century GodA system that fears voices of dissent
A system that stifles peaceful demonstrations
A system where pepper spray and tear gas
Are used on protestors
Like bug spray on weedsTear gas and clubs remind me of the 60s
The Vietnam protests the Chicago brutality
If you learn anything from history
you have learned nothingYou speak of the sin of our national debt
But the real sin is the homeless
Gay bashing wall street criminals
Greedy bankers and politicians
Bought by lobbyistsAs we build more prisons
To discourage revolution
While cutting back
On food stamps for the poor
In order to give the rich
More tax breaksRight wing radio calls the protestors
Hippie scum
When all they are doing
is crying out for economic justice
in a failed systemI worked the better part of my life,
But I can no longer pledge allegiance
to the flag of the U.S.
And everything it no longer stands forI will not bow down to corporate America
And the tea party
I cannot accept your moral bankruptcy
Your greenback God
Buying and selling human lives
on the stock market exchange
Where Ka-ching Ka-ching
Has become the new National Anthem.America
We protestors are not your enemy
We are your conscience
You have become one big insane asylum
Run by right wing extremists
Your manic-depressive innkeepers
Waging war on the masses
A war this time
You cannot
And will not
Win
Speaking of pledging, here’s an old piece which I hoped I could retire, but find it perhaps more apropos now than ever:
AND BY THE WAY
i do not choose
to pledge allegiance
to black divided from white
red states from blues
shades of brown
divided
in every town
one nation, all too divisible
baptist divided from catholic
gentile from jew
muslim from buddhist
me from you
one nation, under whose god ?
white collars
washed separately from
blue collars
in an oh, so
delicate cycle
while collarless slaves
dig their own graves
trying to get to the
one nation, invisible
once they’re here
there’s plenty to fear
some living large
others quite small
i’ll pledge allegiance
when there’s justice for all
– Ralph Murre 2004
Don’t ever retire this one, Al!