The Actual Arena Poem by Bill Upton

Half of life is disrupted by political conversations.
Wasted good intent on saving the world
Gets swallowed by gradual erosion of moral fiber.
Money and lobbyists make the rules-check with them.
Politicians need pogo sticks to hop on and off bandwagons.
There are very few legitimate debates on right and wrong
That cannot be swayed by future voter potential.
There is money and there are lobbyists,
And half of life is disrupted by political conversations.
It takes 3 months to schedule a continuance of a meeting.
It takes more than a year to get an appointment for a veteran.
It takes 2 years to find conveniently lost government emails.
Murderers wait in prisons for years because of paper delay back-ups.
Harry Truman's 'The Buck Stops Here' sign has been misplaced.
We talk too much,
We over deliberate,
We postpone inevitabilities
In order to be politically correct-
In order not to offend anyone.
Where are the leaders who will act when the alarm goes off?
Do police and firefighters have meetings when 9-1-1 calls in?
Do they discuss the pros and cons of acting too quickly?
We are so afraid of offending a cause or a group or a person
In order to be perfect little angels on our not so perfect battlefields-
Battlefields that eat up perfect little angels.
We can't see the bottom lines anymore with the Hubble telescope.
We cater to hundreds of politically correct subplots
And nuances
And niceties
And unnecessary busy work with compromised language
While the world is on fire around our Custer's Last Stand meeting hall.
We're afraid of being politically incorrect-
At times, to the result of being unable to fix serious problems in this world.
Actually, we're just afraid, period,
So we nervously talk and put off tough decisions,
And we speak in gentle, non invasive terms.
When will we pull together and reach for the tough answers?
When will we reach for the hammer and not the tuning fork?
The solutions are within the guts and the hearts
Of the everyday citizen foot soldiers who are not afraid to speak,
And who dismiss, out of hand,
That half of life disrupted by political conversations.