Contradictions: Socialist U.S.A.

1. America is capitalist and greedy—yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized—yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims—yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government—yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer—
yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about—
yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Think about it!  Makes you wonder who is doing the math.

Three short sentences tell a lot about our current government/cultural environment:

1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics,
but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.

2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money.
But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money!
What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.

3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military
and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII,
but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.

Am I the only one getting this?

Thanks to sssbob for leaving a comment at Steve Turley today

When White Men Mow Their Lawns

Nature’s bounty is sustainably managed;

Transparency and sincerity meet at the grassroots

Children play, shrieking with laughter in 1957

Your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents

Meet and remain married

While beatniks scream in stupefied rage

The fog of war subsides

As you purchase a new sofa

The gold-backed dollar grows greener

Silver shines truer and brighter

The free market surges

Entrepreneurs create new goods and services

The grass is forced to reach a pleasing uniform height

Weeds are suppressed

American women grow more alluring

Church and state

Support each other symbiotically

Underdeveloped nations improve their infrastructures

Shamans smile cryptically in exotic lands beyond the U.S.A.

Twenty-somethings improve their Yoga asanas

Chickens begin to sing, from every pot

When white men mow their lawns


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/01/f7/4b01f7e782948743dc386cec527dc128.jpg

PENULTIMATE PROMPT #29

produce a poem that meditates, from a position of tranquility,
on an emotion you have felt powerfully.

Eighteen Hundred And Thirty

Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879)

We bring no earthly wreath for Time;
To man th’immortal Time was given—
Years should be marked by deeds sublime,
That elevate his soul to heaven.
Thou proudly passing year—thy name
Is registered in mind’s bright flame,
And louder than the roar of waves,
Thundering from ocean’s prison caves,
Comes the glad shout that hallows thee
The Year of Freedom’s Jubilee!
‘Tis strange how mind has been chained down,
And reason scourged like branded sin!
How man has shrunk before man’s frown,
And darkened heaven’s own fire within!
But Freedom breathed-the flame burst forth—
Wo to the spoilers of the earth,
Who would withstand its lightning stroke,
And heavier forge the galling yoke;—
As well the breaking reed might dare
The cataract’s rush—the whirlwind’s war!
Ay, thrones must crumble—even as clay,
Searched by the scorching sun and wind!
And crushed be Superstition’s sway
That would with writing scorpions bind
The terror-stricken conscience down
Beneath anointed monarch’s frown;
Till Truth is in her temple sought,
The soul’s unbribed, unfettered thought,
That, science-guided, soars unawed,
And reading Nature rests on God!
This must be-is-the passing year
Has rent the veil, and despots stand
In the keen glance of Truth severe,
With craven brow and palsied hand:—
Ye, who would make man’s spirit free,
And change the Old World’s destiny,
Bring forth from Learning’s halls the light,
And watch, that Virtue’s shield be bright;
Then to the ‘God of order’ raise
The vow of faith, the song of praise,
And on-and sweep Oppression’s chains,
Like ice beneath the vernal rains!
My Country, ay, thy sons are proud,
True heirs of Freedom’s glorious dower;
For never here has knee been bowed
In homage to a mortal power:
No, never here has tyrant reigned,
And never here has thought been chained!
Then who would follow Europe’s sickly light,
When here the soul may put forth all her might,
And show the nations, as they gaze in awe,
That Wisdom dwells with Liberty and Law!
O, when will Time his holiest triumph bring—
‘Freedom o’er all the earth, and Christ alone reigns King!’