Yes We Can Poem by gershon hepner

Of the future I’m a fan,
yet, when hearing, “Yes We Can! ”
I wonder if such mantra may
confuse the issue of the day,
which, in case you cannot guess,
does not depend on saying yes,
but on the past, which somewhat oddly
assumes a role that is near-godly,
for it determines, far more than
the willingness that “Yes We Can”
inspires what will happen, since
what happened once is what imprints
the present and the future more
than efforts to improve. Deplore
determinism, by all means,
but be prepared after the paeans
of “Yes We Can” for fatal faults
of hope, because so often it is false,
a fertile field for PhDs
to find out why we couldn’t. Please
ignore this if you feel you must
believe it like “In God We Trust”.

Inspired by the election of Barack Obama, whose slogan through the election has been “Yes We Can”. According to a video that I saw on YouTube, where Obama sings it, it was a creed written into the founding documents and whispered by the slaves. “Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity, yes we can repair this world, yes we can, yes, we can, yes we can…We have been warned against offering people false hope. There has never been anything false about hope.”


11/5/08