Look Around You 6/06

I want to stand up
And say something out loud
Right now
It's time to be proud
All over again, united
As women and men
We all must shine
As beacons of light
As moral standard bearers
For all human rights

It is not enough
To say
What should and shouldn't be
Without action
We will continue to have
Moral and ethical atrocity
We have arrived
In the 21st century
Alive
But still I see
Knowledge subject to suppression
The free flow of thought
Under constriction
There are too many places to name
That suffer from
A swelled sense of nationality
That condone
Passive acceptance of cruelty
That practice
Active xenophobia
With leaders
That are hallmarks of insanity

You look at me
Beet red
And scream in your loudest voice
As if I have no choice
That you deserve respect
And I respond
With a simple suggestion
To ask yourself two questions
What do we have the right to expect?
Is it right to receive kindness
While others receive neglect?
And as you walk away
With your tail between your legs
Keep in mind
That you deserve no more
Than the man who begs
For mercy on the street
The kind you hate to meet
As you hurry on your way
Through your busy, empty day

I will not listen
So stop telling me
That any religion
Would glorify tyranny
The jihadists are wrong
The fundamentalists are wrong
The crusaders were wrong

I heard it said on TV
Recently
That everyone has a right to be stupid
It brings to mind
An image of Cupid
He fires his arrows
And misses the hearts
But hits the brains
Now all that remains
Are the great fervent masses
Who advocate their holy law
But can't forgive the trespass
Of the unbelievers
And reveal their fatal flaw

The greatest social experiment
Of the 20th century
Was communism
And it failed miserably
But so did the Great Society
And the New Deal
They all had a chance to succeed
But the inefficiencies
Inherent in any bureaucracy
Leave too much room
For corruption and greed
We had our chance
To create utopia
But since politicians
Suffer from myopia
The dream implodes
When the squabbling starts
The months drag into years
And they lose the hearts
Of the people
They're elected to serve