I Just Feel So 'Equally' Patriotic Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Many movements ago...
When the land seemed active,
With reactive participation.
Weed puffed and flowers worn in the hair,
Upon the heads of people who cared...
And shared their dreams.
Then considered 'hippies'...
Singing 'Up Up and Away'.
And 'Monday Monday' everyday!
As they 'hopped and scotched'
Across the national scene.
How innocent...
Those times once demeaned.
Now gone to accomodate,
The greed that has been going on.

Rejected and dejected,
By those doing undercover shady things.
As today many look back,
Wishing to 'update' those priorities.
In a hopeful restored flashback!
To actively practice...
A more meaningful satisfaction to gain.
With a purpose that sustains.

'We're being stripped of our means! '
Tea party 'groupies scream.
As they witness a diminishing democracy.
Corrupted with the selling,
And the outsourcing of their treasured dreams.
The dreams of the 'hippies'...
They collectively demeaned.

'...and 'if' you're going to San Francisco...'

Now these same people,
Who ostracized and shunned the 'mavericks'.
Say they were nonconformists then...
Of set standards.
Defined by an 'exclusiveness'...
Those qualified and selected to express them.

And today...
Ruined by their deformities of blatant greed.
They 'consciously' say they wish a unity existed!
One that is proactively practiced.
To get a society off its racist knees.
But those are not the knees...
Seen begging in pleas.

Many movements ago...
When the land seemed active,
With reactive participation.
Weed puffed and flowers worn in the hair,
Upon the heads of people who cared...
And shared their dreams.
Then considered 'hippies'...
Singing 'Up Up and Away'.
And 'Monday Monday' everyday!
As they 'hopped and scotched'
Across the national scene.
How innocent...
Those times once demeaned.

How distant and insecure,
A slipping from greatness...
Exposes realities!
From torn and shredded seams.

'Oh beautiful.
For spacious skies.
For amber waves of grain.
For purple mountain majesties.
Above the fruited plain! '

~What gives YOU the right to sing that song?
You are an African-American.
Not a true American.
Like the rest of US! ~

'Oh...
My apologies.
I had no idea,
You were Native American Indian.
With Aztec, African and Chinese blood.
The original inhabitants,
Of this great land of ours.
You look so...
Different.

No offense I hope is taken.
I just feel so 'equally' patriotic! '