Institutionalized Hate

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Institutionalized Hate

 

Bebe’s childhood must have been tough

To become so angry and so bent

Failing to see that enough is enough

To believe vengeance is heaven sent

 

When your answer to violence is violent

When you institutionalize hate

When the voice of reason goes silent silent

Perpetual war is your fate

 

When their children die mothers shed tears

The reasons no longer matter

Israel or Gaza their loved ones are dear

Their hopes and dreams are shattered

 

When your answer to violence is violence

When you institutionalize hate

When the voices of peace fall silent silent

Forever at war is your fate

 

American Killers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GUN CONTROL

American Killers

 

Who buys an AR-15 and

Fifty rounds of ammunition?

American Killers

 

Who drives 300 miles

To kill brown people in Texas?

American Killers

 

Who sprays a nightclub with bullets

Because they can’t get a date?

American Killers

 

Who amasses an arsenal of weapons

To attack a synagogue or church?

American Killers

 

Who wakes up in the morning

And says: Today is a good day to kill?

American Killers

 

Who protects the right of the mentally

Deranged to possess weapons

Of mass destruction?

American Killers

 

Only in America does this happen

Because the same court that decided

There is no right to vote

That corporations have the rights of citizens

That elections can be sold to

The highest bidder

Decided that individuals have the right

To bear arms without regard

To well-regulated militias

 

Who enables mass murder?

Politicians and the Supreme Court

American Killers

 

The Revolutionary War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Revolutionary War

 

The American Revolution 1776

A war for independence

The colonists took their licks

But they fought back like lions

A righteous cause was theirs

When France became our allies

‘Twas too much for England to bear

 

They were mostly farmers and tradesmen

Who had no real taste for war

But they fought because they believed

In liberty to the very core

When the English brought their best

And the rebels asked for more

They brought the Hessian mercenaries

All ties of blood were torn

 

Franklin, Paine and Jefferson

Stood with the rabble crowd

The monarchy was overthrown

Democracy stood proud

 

What is lost in this proud story

Are the natives and the blacks

The blacks remained in slavery

The natives were pushed back

 

Salutation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Salutation (July 4^th)

 

If you love this nation

Understand what she was founded on

The times that try men’s souls

The courage of the working class

The right to self-governance

The right to free expression

The right to worship as you will

Freedom from persecution

Equal justice under the law

Freedom from unjust authority

The right to vote and be counted

The right to engage in peaceful protest

The right to individuality

 

The nation was founded on ideals

Principles of the enlightened

The age of dignity and reason

The nation was born to overcome

The prejudice of individual men

The indignity to women and minorities

America was not meant to embrace them

 

If you love this nation

Salute her greatness, not her flaws

Salute her promise, not her failings

If you love this nation

Help her to achieve the dream

 

France on Fire

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

France on Fire

 

The killing of Nahel

The ghost of Algiers

A legacy of injustice and inequality

beneath the surface of content

The smoldering ashes of history

The spark of a young man’s death

Five days of unrest (and counting)

Five nights of burning rage

 

This is far more than one tragic death

This the promise of a nation broken

This is poverty and opportunity denied

This is minorities betrayed

 

He was only seventeen

Killed in the Paris suburb of Nantere

A traffic stop gone horribly wrong

The kid was too afraid to stop

Young, dark-skinned and poor

A resume for a tragic end

It was not the first time

It will not be the last

 

The Death of Civil Rights

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: JUSTICE

The Death of Civil Rights

 

From the march across the Pettus bridge

To the martyrdom of the King

From the passage of Voting Rights

To the cry: Let Freedom Ring!

 

It is time to mourn her passing

The fading of the light

No longer everlasting

The death of civil rights

 

The line of progress broken

The dream is in retreat

The betrayal goes unspoken

The circle incomplete

 

America must hang her head

Embarrassment and shame

The end of our great promise

Delivered in our name

 

It is time to mourn her passing

The dying of the light

No longer everlasting

The death of civil rights

 

(Supreme Court ends Affirmative Action)