“What we have here… is a failure… to communicate!”

Caught in a vicious and vitriolic tailspin,
By design stupefying the masses,
Revealing little more than hyperbole and rhetoric,
And enflaming Mr and Mrs. Suburbia,
Both sides, right and left,
Proclaiming from on high,
The moral superiority,
And divine right,
Of manifest destiny.

Tailspin,
Ever more,
Main street caught in the minutiae,
Of legislative wrangling,
Kept in the dark,
Through the lens of polarization,
Tea parties with insular Madhatters,
Like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin,
Inciting more than violent thought,
Leading to shameful rocks thrown,
While the seeds of what is right,
Are destroyed.

As a Canadian,
I am proud,
Of the systems that were put in place,
By men like Tommy and Trudeau,
Designed to create a better society,
Not a utopian one,
Just better,
For we all surely,
Can constantly improve,
On the legacy of those that fought for every man, woman and child,
Regardless of class, religion or race.

As a North American,
I stand ashamed,
And vocally so,
That the polarization of left and right,
Resting on the laurels of their military might,
Wage war in lands so far from their own backyards,
Predicated on lies and deceit,
While their own citizens are dying on the street,
Surely they can do better,
As we did,
Choosing not to leave the weak behind,
For on the symbol of their great land stands tall,
Lady Liberty, proclaiming for all to see:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The tired and poor, ever growing in the land of liberty,
The huddled masses teeming from their shores,
The homeless increase each day,
As subprime and credit default swaps impact,
Lead to TARP,
Wall Street traders and bankers,
Lining their pockets with the misery and demise of Civil Society,
For it is clear… civil society it is not.

As foreclosures continue to exponentially advance,
Those homeowners left without a chance,
Lady Liberty,
Seemingly swallowed by the Colossus,
Of the brazen few,
The 1%,
Who earn more in a minute,
Than most in ten years,
All leading me to ask:

When is it enough?
When will she live up to the promise written on her base?
When will she stop borrowing against the future,
Put an end to this intergenerational tyranny?
When I ask you?
When?

SDM