Serving Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Serving Democracy

 

A nation born to displace all the monarchies

and aristocracies of old Europe

The right of hereditary succession

The right of lords and princes

to rule over the people with an iron fist

The right to make and enforce laws

The right to tax and seize property

Can never fall to one man rule

without sacrificing its soul

 

Have we failed to teach our children

the essential value of democracy?

Have we failed to learn as a people

what makes America special?

 

We are the longest running democratic

government on the planet earth

We are the greatest hope of humankind

We are the reason our nation is not

afflicted with perpetual civil war

For though we have our differences

(some that move us to our core)

We are all agreed on this:

 

We will have another election

We will have a chance to change

our direction our representatives

and our president every four years

 

We can all agree on this:

As long as we are a democracy

we are the United States of America

If we are no longer a democracy

we are neither united nor America