Unshackled! Ii Poem by Bill Grace

When Fortune magazine on its cover proclaimed:
Unshackled! I felt a strange unease.
These were the Reagan years
A man I liked but was unsure of
If emptying the mental hospitals in California
Was the way to balance a state budget
For me government's monstrous size and power
Can only protect us from the other monsters.
Ultimately so much revolves to the integrity of lanquage -
the discernment of those who hear -
which is a subtle thing too often ignored.