America Found

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

America Found (the Awakening)

 

We have lost our way before

We are not a perfect nation

We regarded the protectors of the land

As something less than human

As beasts to be exterminated

Or tamed and put in cages

It took centuries to awaken

To know the error of our ways

But we have awakened

To set forth a better day

 

We enslaved generations of blacks

We denied their basic humanity

We put them in chains

When they demanded their freedom

We hunted them down like rabid dogs

We whipped and hobbled them

We killed and raped them

It took centuries to awaken

To accept the truth that we betrayed

But we have awakened

To a more enlightened way

 

We have fought unprovoked wars

Unjust wars of mass destruction

We have followed poor leaders

We have embraced corporate greed

We have turned the clock backwards

We have stripped away rights

We have sanctioned child labor

We have done evil things

In our God’s holy name

But we have always awakened

In the spirit of righteous shame

 

White Flag

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ISRAEL AT WAR

White Flag

 

Black Kettle camped under a flag of peace

Where the white man told him to

At Big Sandy Creek

 

Few warriors remained at his camp

Of mostly Cheyenne and Arapaho

Old men, women and children

 

Colonel Chivington and his Colorado

Volunteers attacked at daybreak

Slaughtering people like cattle

Taking scalps and body parts

To commemorate the carnage

 

The volunteers were hailed as heroes

Until the true story was told

Black Kettle survived

 

Four years later almost to the day

A cold day November 1868

The Washita River Massacre

Completed his tragic fate

Killed by Colonel Custer

Under a white flag of peace

 

Eight years later Custer’s

Story was also complete

When he and his Seventh Cavalry

Were slaughtered in defeat

 

The white flag has no meaning

To those with murder in their hearts

As long as leaders have no honor

They will rip this world apart

 

(Note: Israeli soldiers mistakenly kill

three Israeli hostages carrying a white

flag.)

Floridian History

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Floridian History

 

Native Americans were given land grants

West of the Mississippi, north of the Rio Grande

 

Choctaw and Cherokee were awarded free

Passage to Oklahoma where the wind blows

Free and the antelopes run wild

 

General Crook bravely led his troops against

A band of seasoned warriors, women and children

At Sand Creek and Washita River

 

The gallant Colonel Custer withstood a savage

Attack of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors

At the battle of Little Big Horn

 

The importation of African slaves was an

Opportunity enhancement program to prepare

Unskilled labor for the modern economy

 

The razing of Black Tulsa was the result of

Riots and angry mobs objecting to the violence

Suppression measures of law enforcement

And deputized lawful citizens

 

Lynching was the occasional result of over-

Zealous citizens taking the law into their

Own hands

 

The internment of Japanese Americans during

The Great War for freedom was simply for

their own protection

 

Prohibition and the enfranchisement of women

Were the result of wrong thinking and

Unfortunate misinformation

 

The separation of church and state goes

Against the constitution and the word of God

 

Donald Trump won two presidential

Elections by a landslide of law abiding free

White citizens

 

Crazy Horse

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Crazy Horse (Heroes)

 

Never a chief

But a leader of men

A warrior not by nature

But the fiercest of all warriors

He went to the sacred mountains

To cry for a vision

The spirits blessed him with sight

He would never be killed

By a white man’s bullets

But a friend would betray him

He could take no honors

He would not be proud

He would take no more than he needed

He would live and bleed for his people

He betrayed his vision only twice

Laying with another man’s wife

Taking the honor of a shirt bearer

Both times nearly cost him his life

He proved his courage at the Greasy Grass

What the whites call Little Big Horn

He fought with the strength of seven warriors

His vision proved true at last

He knew this world was but a dream

He believed the dream world real

He went to the other side without regret

His image the whites would not steal

His spirit live on in the sacred Black Hills

Where his truth is forever revealed:

 

“My land is where my people lay buried.”

 

Crazy Horse

Cultural Courage

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

 

Cultural Courage

 

Children have the courage of conviction

Unfiltered truth can only make them strong

Facts will serve as sound-of-mind nutrition

Sorting out the righteous from the wrong

 

History cannot survive as fiction

America’s a place where all belong

The stories of betrayal and sedition

Will not remain well hidden for too long

 

So let the truth be rendered loud and clear

Slavery and genocide were real

Confront it without compromise or fear

Let our wounds at last begin to heal

 

When finally our reckoning begins

America will light a shining flame

When we freely tell the story of our sins

The promise will be more than just a name

 

A Trail of Tears (Israel)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

A Trail of Tears

 

Andrew Jackson the Indian Killer

Cast aside the Supreme Court

Denied their fundamental authority

As a counterbalance to executive decree

The result came to be known as

The Trail of Tears

 

Thousands of Cherokees removed

From their native lands

Marched like cattle a thousand miles

To a land the whites did not yet want

 

From that moment we were no longer

A nation governed by the rule of law

 

If a president can decide which laws

To honor and which to discard

Then there is no law

 

The authority of the judiciary is not

An adjunct to democracy;

It is as essential as the Bill of Rights

The balance of powers or

Free and fair elections

 

Those who would deny that authority

Are enemies of democracy:

 

Erdogan of Turkey

Bolsonaro of Brazil

Putin of Russia

Xi Jinping of China

Trump of the USA

Netanyahu of Israel

 

The people have a right to protest

The people have an obligation

Long live democracy!

 

Hoka Hey!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Hoka Hey

 

“Hoka hey!  It is a good day to die!”

 

The Battle Cry of Sitting Bull

 

 

Each day as I greet the morning light

I ask myself: Have I done all I could?

All that I must do to fulfill this life?

Have I helped my fellow travelers?

Have I walked on soft soles?

Have I created more than I consumed?

Have I fulfilled my vision?

Have I honored my calling?

Have I been honest with those I love?

Have I been true to myself?

 

If I have done all these things

If I have been what I was meant to be

Then yes I am ready

And yes it is a good day to die

Hoka Hey!

 

Indian School

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: INDIAN HISTORY

Indian School

 

They kidnapped kids by force of law

Sent them to indoctrination camps

Cut out their native tongues

Severed them from tribe and family

Fed them with spiritual lies

Forbid them from being Indians

Forbid them from being themselves

Taught them that their ways were wrong

That the red road was a path to hell

 

They should have called it genocide

For that is what it was

Genocide of language and culture

Genocide of religion and history

 

When they refused to learn their lessons

They beat and abused them

They called them ungrateful animals

They learned a different lesson

That white people were cruel

That they fear the Indian ways

That if they were to survive

As individuals and as a people

They would have to escape

They would have to remember

Their language and traditions

They would have to return home

To live their lives as Indians

Proud stubborn and free

 

Epic Killers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD HISTORY

The Epic Killers (The Killing Spirit)

 

The epic killers of history

Enjoy a modest reputation

By comparison to what they did

It merits investigation

 

Mao was an epic killer

Known for his little red book

Many thousands lost their lives

Though Chinese history will not look

 

Stalin was an epic killer

Who purged political enemies

Execution was his trademark

He killed men as if they were fleas

 

Custer and Crook were epic killers

Sand Creek and Washita River

They massacred women and children

With a coldness that makes you shiver

 

But the most epic killers in history

Are those yet to come

For the killing spirit is alive and well

And the scale will leave us numb

 

(see Wasichu: The Killing Spirit

By Jack Random)

 

Indian Schools

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

Indian Schools

 

We took children from their families

Sent them away to boarding schools

To break them of their cultures

To strip them of their languages

We regarded them as savages

Unworthy of our kindness

We beat them down with our religion

Replaced their history with ours

We punished them with civil manners

We told them they were dirty

Unnatural primitive and cruel

We instructed them to forget the past

Their tribes and tribal ways

Their ancestors were animals

Their elders were lost souls

We ordered them to sever ties

With all that came before them

And oh yes, we exploited them

Sexually and physically abuse them

We stole everything they valued

Including their dignity

Now we wonder why they drink

Why they do drugs

Why they live in poverty

Why they live apart from us

Why they turn their backs away

They are proud people

With long and storied histories

Of courageous warriors

And strong women

With words of infinite wisdom

With traditions and beliefs

They do not wish to lose

They remember what we did to them

They remember Indian schools

They remember the reservations

And how they came to be

So no, they will not forget the past

They will remember always

Until the past becomes the present

And paves the red road forward

 

The Great Reckoning

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUE HISTORY

The Great Reckoning

 

Goodbye Christopher Columbus

You were never the man we thought

We bestowed on you a hero’s status

But a hero you were not

 

You enslaved and killed the natives

As if it was your god given right

For centuries the myth prevailed

Now the reckoning is in sight

 

The statues are being dismantled

The street signs are coming down

Soon a walk in the Columbus district

Will be a walk in Geronimo town

 

Do not worry you are not alone

Our history is being rewritten

From the slaughter of the buffalo

To the founding zealots from Britain

 

Manifest (Destiny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

Manifest

 

Humanity has a gift

for rationalizing behavior that exceeds

the boundaries of morality

Ripping open the earth for coal

Destroying the land for timber

Slaughtering the buffalo to kill a culture

Spreading smallpox to claim a land

Internment of the Japanese

Relocation of the Cherokee

Annihilation of the Jews

War for oil on foreign lands

 

We did it all for God

We did it all for destiny

We did it all to appease the gods

We did what we had to do

We were chosen

We will choose

 

Nothing is manifest

Nothing is written

To believe that it is

is to justify the evil deeds

that men do

 

First Nations (Native American Appreciation Day)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: NATIVE AMERICA

First Nations

 

Arapaho Cherokee Standing Rock Sioux

Laid claim to this land before me and you

Apache Hopi Cheyenne Hoh

They planted seeds that we should sow

Comanche Paiute Seminole Cree

If you cannot help then let them be

Lakota Iroquois Navaho Crow

Let the spirits rise and the four winds blow

Mohawk Inuit Huron Osage

Remember all the wars we waged

 

Their numbers followed the buffalo

Twelve million to 235 thousand

From Columbus to near extinction

There are no sides to genocide

 

But the buffalo is still alive

Along with Turtle Island’s tribes

Their way of life is still here

Like the earth mother they hold dear

 

Our first nations are owed a debt

We cannot rest until it’s met

So give respect and give again

What is the price of original sin?

 

(Today is Native American Appreciation Day)