The Unclad Soul

If I could, I would Stop all the wars And heal all the sores And give the less more And free the bored And individualize the hoard If I could If I could, I would Have all women revered And all children loved And the old honored And the sick well And the disabled cheered And the foreigner welcomed If I could If I could, I would Enact gay rights around the world And celebrate them as whole And give them freedom To be who they are And embrace them into The family of you and me If I could If I could, I would Empty Congress of its politicians And fill it with teachers And Poets And writers; With artists And sculptors; With farmers And ranchers; With animal lovers And stargazers; With gardeners And fishermen If I could If I could, I would Remove all bigotry And prejudice of every kind And put the redneck and the whitey and the Confederate flagger and the bully cop and the crooked judge and the ...

How did we lose the fundamental joy of the human spirit? How did we come to be so distrusting of one another? How did we learn to give in to such appalling responses to our differences? There is a beautiful stanza in one of poet laureate Billy Collins’ poems that says: “It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I could shine.” Today, though, there is this: Hateful, spiteful, ruinous politics. Superficial, sanctimonious, greedy, judgmental religion. U.S. drones that roam the world killing terrorists, yes, but far too many of the innocent. Spying on everyone by our fear soaked, paranoid government. Indifference to poverty, to domestic violence, to abandoned children, to the needs of the old. Making a mockery of our educational system by defunding its deepest budgetary needs. Cops—impulsively mean, brutal and lawless, out of control. Old time bigotry dressed up in patriotic garb. Health care for all ...

My friend Jennifer Ables reminded me the other day that not all Republicans are bad. And she is right. And the frustrations and anger I express on here toward Republicans and the Tea Party is not directed at my friends like Jennifer. Not at all. Although, as I said to her, I don’t really understand how some of my friends can vote for and support Republicans since the party seems totally controlled now by Tea Party extremists.  People like Ted Cruz who cynically uses and manipulates voters in order to elevate himself. What has he done for America? I can't think of anything positive. He and his small but noisy crowd of followers in Congress seemingly have no interest in serving our country or helping make it better for all of our citizens. They appear to only care about playing the game, beating their opponents, making lots of money, and doing everything they can to smear President Obama and keep him from leading the country. Now, after weeks of holding the nation in limbo, hurt...