Lament For American Progress Poem by Frank Bana

America messes up the Middle East
Leaves itself beholden to dictators
And Chinese communist creditors
Its public schools are largely a disgrace
And she may not notice but the
Mutilees de guerre
Are almost everywhere

America never gets anything right
Not since World War Two and the rebuilding of Germany
Spends its common treasure on foreign misadventures
And on handouts to political
lobbies and contractors

And then wonders why there's a weak dollar
And a financial crisis
Corporate execs walk out from the rubble
Smiling deep into their bonuses
One hand greases off another

Builds useless walls with Mexico
Bans drugs criminalizes the black male populace
Builds weapons to threaten from space
Never builds coast levees high enough
Or accepts its role in global warming

Loses 2,000-plus souls in a terror attack
And spends the next seven-plus years
Disputing the design of a monument

Thinks the definition of civilisation
Is carrying a gun
Can't be bothered even to understand
Its own Constitution!

(Look up the second amendment
And read the whole paragraph -
Not just the convenient part!) .

The gross malfeasance
Of those in government
Never gets punished
So is constantly repeated
Congressional investigations mocked and defeated
Senators found guilty of a crime
Can't even summon the shame to resign!

America never gets anything done
Blame a corrupt power elite if you will
The party hacks on the laps of the lobbyists
Instead of the people who keep right on
Voting for clowns and crooks or don't vote at all
I won't blame you.

America sure got one thing right
His name is Obama
But if history is a guide
We should all be afraid

For America never got to the bottom
America never got to the truth
And soon stopped demanding
Or even asking for the truth:
Who shot John Kennedy
And why
Who shot Robert Kennedy
And why
Who shot Martin Luther King
And why

And who is protecting
The President now?
A President who understands the stakes
And the reality of the Power

Health care reform
Is the eye of the storm

People elect an honest man
Through the electoral industry
And then the mass corporate interests come
To ensure he gets almost nothing done!