Conscientious Objection

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RESISTANCE

Conscientious Objection

 

There was a man named Olaf *

I remember him quite well

I remember his defiance

On the day his brothers fell

Olaf held his principles

Until the day he died

While all around him faltered

His conscience did abide

 

The more we look around

The closer we inspect

All citizens have a right

To conscientiously object

 

We are watching as our freedom

Is threatened to the core

The truth has little value

Our rights have little more

A woman’s right to choose

The right to organize

The right to march the streets

To call out all the lies

 

The more we see their actions

The less we can respect

All citizens have a duty

To conscientiously object

 

* I Sing of Olaf by e.e. cummings

 

Outside Agitators

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Outside Agitators

 

There are always rabblerousers

In every cause and every movement

There is always an element of chaos

Born of anger, rage, frustration

But when the words Outside Agitators

Are used by the authorities beware

What follows is an act of brutal violence

In the name of law and order

 

Outside Agitators was used to batter

The marchers for civil rights

On the Edmund Pettis Bridge

 

Outside Agitators was used to justify

The killing of student protestors at

Kent and Jackson State

 

Outside Agitators was employed in the

Tear gas and baton attacks on students

Of the free speech movement in Berkeley

 

So when you hear the words Outside

Agitators beware: We know what follows

 

Remember Kent State

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Remember Kent State

 

Back in the year 1970

(most of you don’t remember)

The National Guard in the state of Ohio

Shot four students dead

They were not violent

They were not breaking the law

They were shot dead for being there

Shot dead for caring

Shot dead for the war machine

In Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

 

We knew they hated us

We didn’t know they’d kill us

After Kent State we knew

We’d never forget the bloodstained path

The tears of innocence

The end of an era of hope

 

More than any other event of the decade

Kent State divided the nation

Kent State burned itself into our psyche

It spawned a generation of distrust

A distrust of government and authority

Passed down the years to today

 

If you love this nation

If you love its principles and ideals

If you want America to endure

Then remember Kent State

Remember Jackson State

Remember the age of protest

Remember the disenchantment

And make sure it never happens again

The John Lewis Bridge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: EQUAL RIGHTS

The John Lewis Bridge

 

Edmund Pettus was a leader of the KKK

They named a bridge after him

And on that bridge years later

They beat the hell out of black marchers

Marching for equal rights

Marching for the right to vote

Marching to be recognized

 

In an enlightened age there would be

no Edmund Pettus Bridge

It would be torn down stone by stone

Iron beam by iron beam

Scattered across the nation

Placed in museums and town halls

to remind us of our former ignorance

 

Instead let us remove the name of

Edmund Pettus and replace it with

one of the brave souls beaten on that

fateful day: The John Lewis Bridge

 

Let it be remembered by all who cross

the price that was paid that day

 

Let it serve as a reminder of the triumph

of the human spirit

The power of light over the darkness

Of good over evil

 

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)

Till (on MLK Day)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CIVIL RIGHTS

Till (on MLK Day)

 

A fine young man of fourteen years

He came down from the Windy City

He walked into a southern town

Where he found a woman pretty

He might have whistled

He might have smiled

The woman was offended

She was of gentile breeding

He was from slaves descended

 

Her husband and his brother

Took the boy away

They beat him down and cut him up

Put a bullet in his brain

They threw his body in the river

Where it drifted several days

When they finally pulled the body out

His bruised and bloated remains

His mother swore they would remember

The young man they had slain

 

The shocking death that shook a mountain

That echoed on the Hill

The boy they beat and shot that day

By the name of Emmett Till