On both the smaller stages of local politics and the larger stage
of world relations we seem to have lost the ability to work in harmony with
each other. Everything is about deception and the game within the game. We join
together to explore space and turn it into an arms race. Our religions promise
love and deliver hatred. We ban together to defeat disease and then work to
find even deadlier germs. We will create something by the accidental, the
fortuitous interaction of people and events and then fight until we have destroyed
it. We are like children playing with blocks or building sand castles. The joy seems
to be not in the creation but in the destruction.
We are a world ruled by impulse decisions. Society is buried
in the ashes of actions fueled by emotion and then we bring in the analysts to
dig through the rubble and try to find a reason to explain the mess.
It is an endless cycle delivered by leaders unable to rise
above the latent anger that fuels the fires, and citizens without the courage
to stand up and demand something different. I wrote the poem “Am I a Man” (Daydreams,
Snap Screen Press, 2004) to ask the question whether we as individuals
still have the courage to stand up and do the “right” thing when everyone seems
to be moving against us. Lately everyone seems to pick a side and ride it to
the bitter end regardless of the damage it may do to our society or broader civilization.
And of course defining “right” is the big issue. To me it
falls into the “you know it when you see it” category. See how comfortable you
feel when you are carrying the pitchfork and you will probably have your
answer.
At any rate, I hope in this coming election, we will hold
our leaders to a higher standard than we have in the past. I hope we will all
have the courage to raise our hand and take our country to a better place.
Am I a Man
I am a man, I am a man,
A man I am, if only I can,
If only I can, take a stand,
If I can stand, and raise my hand.
When honor calls, calls me to
stay,
While others called, are fading
away,
I hope that day, I can display,
The strength within, to find my
way.
When I see crowds, in panic fly,
And in that panic, the truth deny,
Trampling in hate, those who defy,
The panicked flight to invented
lie.
Then I’ll find if I am a man,
If against that crowd I can then
stand,
Can I stand and raise my hand,
Stop
From saying, “I’m only a man”.
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