What Happened America Poem by Richard Lackman

America the beautiful what happened now to thee
To kindness born of brotherhood from sea to shining sea
To ideals of religious freedom and democracy
The willingness to fight for right and love of liberty

Who welcomed masses yearning just for opportunity
To work and learn and love amidst a new found family
Where our belief in right and wrong and moral certainty
Would carve a path to righteousness and sign our destiny

It seems we have diverted from our well-intentioned quest
A polarized society not leaning East or West
But left or right as partisans decide for us what's best
Bestowing powers on a few, ignoring all the rest

Oh God I really am in fear for our democracy
A government dependent on forthright integrity
On leaders whose intentions should be not for them but me
Please take us back from whence we came from sea to shining sea