In retrospect, this poem was quite prophetic.
JULY 4th - 2002: FREEDOM LOST
In 1776, a country took its stand:
Freedom for every man!
Over time, throughout the world
people of color loathed and cried.
"The free men lied,
Freedom for us has died."
The hearts and minds of
war-torn refugees,
become malnutritioned
by their desperate poverty
bordering on, if not lost to, insanity.
Is it any wonder they hear
Terror whispering in their ears:
"Give the free man something to fear.
Destroy all that he holds dear.
Corrupt what he reveres."
Too corrupt to pass Terror's test,
Free man's greed and perversion being too vast,
Profit, pleasure, and power remain his quest.
The wealthy free men are selfish, brutal, and cruel.
His progress has always required the fuel
of slavery's blood, sweat, and tears
extracted and forced
from millions of men
for hundreds of years.
The masses are murdered,
maimed, and enslaved
as wealthy, power hungry free men
become more and more depraved.
In recent years,
in the so-called nations of the free,
a new weapon to control the masses
has been deployed:
Fear of being blown up and
Fear of becoming unemployed.
Fear convinces even the most brilliant of men
To trade their freedom to feel secure again
As long as their leaders use an appropriate acronym*.
Slowly, subtlely, and ever so covertly,
True freedom will become a memory past.
In short, fear will convince free man to give up his rights.
He will become too overwhelmend and exhausted to fight.
Survival will become the strong man's best.
Death will be preferred by the rest.
In the end, stripped of all he once held so dear,
facing a future grim,
will the free man learn:
What fear convinces him he must have,
has, in fact, entrapped him.
*A good example being the USA PATRIOT ACT, which means:
"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"
Tools like:
Listening to our phone calls;
Reading our bank statements;
Photographing our peace demonstrations; and
Gathering our Internet records from our Internet Providers
So, if we have nothing to hide,
why should we object.
Being guiltless, we can be free of fear.
Hopefully, the home-bound and truly curious,
who randomly research things heard about,
like conspiracy theories, etc.,
will not be accused of being unpatriotic or treasonous.
Hopefully, internet curiousity will not imprison or kill us someday.
This was written when I learned about the 3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT new dwell-time mission and The United States Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2
2008, The Year July 4th Died
Nobody will listen, I'm afraid it is too late
Our liberties are over as of October, 2008.
Posse Comitatus will die,
without public outcry.
Call your Senators and Representatives SOON.
To avoid swalling the Freedom Lost Pill.
Demand curtailment of DoDs latest tools,
Demand that Government
follow the Constitution's rules.
Does anyone really understand?
NorthComm is ready to take command.
Please, citizen, this is really happening.
In retrospect, in 2002, the future was crystal clear.
The only question that remains is whether or not our military women and men would follow orders against the people in support of a fascist (corporate ruled) takeover if, we the people, were to protest too strongly from the duress of reduced wages, unemployment, unaffordable housing, increased food prices, voter suppression, questionable election results, the errosion of public education, oppressive student debt, the war on women, the reduction/elimination of safety nets, destruction from storms and fires, and .....well the list of societal grievances seems to grow exponentially from year to year.
Occupy made it crystal clear that, if and when people nationally began to protest, that the Feds would help coordinate a crack downas we watched, in cities across the nation Occupy protests dismantled with the same justifications and tactics.
We now know that the Feds have stored every word we have written and even our telephone calls, etc. How will this be used?
The future:
July 4th 2013
I find my heart is too heavy
to write.
My only hope is that people
will be willing to unite
and take a stand,
once again asserting our demand
"that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
According to General Smedley Butler, in 1933 Corporate America tried to takeover our Government once before:
You can hear General Butler's words at minute 1:43 and and his Congressional Testimony at minute 2:05
1933 launched a movement that is now 80 years old: Corporate America Against the New Deal
Eisenhower warned us about The Military Industrial Complex:
In closing, George Carling puts our circumstance in perspective: They Own Us
GOTV 2014
Peter Yarrow - "Have you been to jail for justice?" I love this guy, he showed up and sang this in the freezing cold and snow for the Wisconsin protesters. Remember when his supportative performance made the national news? Right.....
Anne Feeney sets the stage for this song she wrote:
Lyrics:
Have You Been To Jail For Justice
Was it Cesar Chavez or Rosa Parks that day?
Some say Dr. King or Ghandi
Set them on their way
No matter who your mentors are
It's pretty plain to see
That if you've been to jail for justice
You're in good company
Have you been to jail for justice?
I want to shake your hand
'Cause sitting in and laying down
Are ways to take a stand
Have you sung a song for freedom
Or marched that picket line?
Have you been to jail for justice?
Then you're a friend of mine
You law abiding citizens
Come listen to this song
Laws are made by people
And people can be wrong
Once unions were against the law
But slavery was fine
Women were denied the vote
While children worked the mine
The more you study history
The less you can deny it
A rotten law stays on the books
'til folks with guts defy it!
Have you been to jail for justice?
I want to shake your hand
'Cause sitting in and laying down
Are ways to take a stand
Have you sung a song for freedom
Or marched that picket line?
Have you been to jail for justice?
Then you're a friend of mine
Well the law is supposed to serve us
And so are the police
When the system fails
It's up to us to speak our piece
We must be ever vigilant
For justice to prevail
So get courage from your convictions
Let 'em haul you off to jail!
Have you been to jail for justice?
I want to shake your hand
'Cause sitting in and laying down
Are ways to take a stand
Have you sung a song for freedom
Or marched that picket line?
Have you been to jail for justice?
Then you're a friend of mine
Have you been to jail for justice
Have you been to jail for justice
Have you been to jail for justice
Then you're a friend of mine