I had been working the night before
and was in bed asleep
when my roommate burst in.
his face was pale with horror
as he told me
"Kurt, come see the news"
Indelible shock racked me
as I watched the second plane
smash into one of the towers
while the other burned
I watched falling people
and flying debris
as the towers collapsed
taking hope with them.
I worried for my brother in law
who was sometimes in the Pentagon
until a call from my mother
said he was not there that day.
I was numb, then sad, then wrathful
I hated all Muslims
for thinking this savagery
was the will of God
But the worst was yet to come
I watched in silent outrage
as 1933 repeated itself
and the President signed
the PATRIOT ACT into law,
thus negating the Constitution.
I watched in utter despair
as my people, with flags waving
willingly embraced Fascism
and cast aside freedom
for the illusion of safety
I saw our country destroy
those who had harbored bin Laden
but fail to find
the dreaded terrorist himself
I saw our President
use any excuse he could find
to justify a war
that would benefit the rich
I saw those who dared
to speak the truth
called terrorists
and threatened with prison
I was there
when American democracy
was dealt a death blow
and fell under the Stars and Stripes
Author notes
Written June 29th, 2005
In a list
A contest entry
- Forever In our Lives by midnight dreamer..
400 points, ended September 14, 2005, 6 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 19 of 19
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This is really good and I completely agree with you as far as the war is concerned. It benefits noone in the end....Great work and good luck in the contest!
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oops. i missed that part. sorry
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Thank you for enterning my contest! I can tell that you did not read the rules becuse you have 49 lines and the max. is 25...I'm going to let it slid this time, but please fall the rules!
Bunches of Love an Happiness
Ashley/et -
oh, and as far as Al Jazeera is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much. Joseph Goebbels was as big a liar as they are, but in the end, nobody believed him either.
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thanks Mark. I am reminded of a line from a war movie i saw once :"the only way to beat these bastards is to be as bad as they are, but what if we wake up and find we are WORSE?"
so the big question is.. how do we beat them, WITHOUT becoming worse? I wish i had a simple answer for THAT.
I guess i am still naive enough to believe that good will triumph over evil. I hope i never become cynical about that. -
Good point. The Japanese Fascists were actually worse than the Nazi's. Their total body count was about 60 million. They elevated torture to an art form. But at least the Kamikaze's didn't target civilians as a general practice as these nutjobs do. They usually flew into aircraft carriers and military installations. I think even a Kamikaze would be disgusted with the total lack of honor in some of the things terrorists do.
I'm gonna shut up now. lol
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Oh, sorry about that. I thought you were responding to me. From this and the other times we have crossed paths here, I know you to be an honorable man. For what it's worth, the abuses at Abu Ghraib made me sick, too. The public perception of America is already distorted by the steady diet of misinformation and lies fed to the Middle Eastern people by terrorist mouthpiece "news" stations like Al-Jazeera, so to have these idiots pulling crap like that definitely didn't help and set back our efforts tremendously. Your analogy of what your grandfather said he would "wanted" to do and what he did do is a perfect one. This war has got to be the strangest ever, because we're fighting someone with no rules of conduct whatsoever. I don't know how we're going to avoid fighting dirty ourselves. As the old saying goes, "To beat the devil, sometimes you need to become a devil and a half yourself." That line from The Untouchables also comes to mind - "They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue." That's the only way to win a war, or a streetfight - to be nastier than the other guy. But because of our military codes, rules of engagement, the Geneva Convention, the Constitution, and the built-in American propensity for "fair play", we can't be nastier than terrorists. They've cornered the market on treachery and ruthlessness. I don't know how we're going to protect ourselves and play fair at the same time with these maniacs.
Anyway, thank you for your service in the Navy. Your Grandpa would be proud of you.
Mark -
oh .. hand we HAVE fought this kind of enemy before. they were called Kamakazes, and we beat them.
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that was an oops! sorry about that,i was trying to delete all of her comments and got yours by mistake.
as to why i got angry with her, well, she made it personal when she said i was Anti-soldier. i'm not. i dont agree with everything they do, but i'm a vet myself, so i understand them.
as to the comparason to the SS,I was hoping some people would take that to heart, and not let the situation get that far. I know that forcing POWS to similate acts of sodomy is not the same as shooting them in the head, but even so, it made me physically sick to see Americans do that.
maybe i am naive, but i still believe in honor, and doing what is right in spite of how you feel. my grampa was a cop, and there were many times he wanted to just blow someones head off and dump the body in a ditch somewhere and say they had an "accident", but he didn't because he was an honest cop, and that's not what honest cops do. He was very conservative, but even he dispised McCarthyism because it was not the law.
I love the constitution. i swore an oath to protect it when i joined the Navy. i am no longer in the navy, but i still honor my oath. -
I'm a little confused by your angry responses here on this page and your polite ones to me personally. I'm also confused about why you deleted my comments but left your own in response. So much for debate. But I am impressed that you removed the two verses that offended me. It shows open-mindedness, which is very rare these days. As I told you, I don't disagree with everything in your poem, just the comparison of our military to Nazi's. Re. the "due process" argument, POW's and ordinary citizens who get arrested are not the same thing, nor are typical POW's and terrorist POW's. I understand your concern, and you're right - under ordinary circumstances, the Constitution should not be circumvented. Unfortunately, this situation is anything but ordinary. America is dealing with a new kind of enemy, an enemy that is trained to lie to the media about their treatment at our hands so that the American people will become divided (and it's working). Things can get pretty strange when you're fighting with insects that have no feeling for anyone, not for us, not for their own people, and not even for their own comrades. Did you know that they tape their own men to the steering wheel to drive a car bomb into a target just in case he chickens out? How are we supposed to fight these people? The U.S. soldiers are as confused as we civilians are. It's a confusing situation all the way around, and things are going to get weirder before they get better. But as long as terrorists keep dying, I'm happy. They're the Nazi's of our generation. They want everything unlike themselves exterminated, so we must exterminate them, and we're helping the moderate, forward-thinking Muslim Reformation movement in the Middle East by getting rid of them. It's their Civil War and they need our help. Most of them love us, though you'll never hear that ABC, CBS or NBC.
You'll probably delete this comment but my main purpose in writing was to say it was very honorable of you to edit your poem. That shows that you're searching for the truth in this maze, as I am.
Take care,
Mark -
for one thing.. Iam NOT a liberal
what it comes to some things I am very conservitive
especially when it comes to the honor of my country. I do not see how forcing POWs to similate acts of sodomy on one another is justifiable, even if they do behead hostages. we are supposed to be morally better than them. WE signed the geneva convention, and in so doing, we promised the world that we would not sink to the level of these barbarians. When I see our government condone forced perversion, I don't like what I see.
and I also dont like the idea that people can be imprisoned indefinately without trial, just on the mere accusation of being terrorists. i'm sorry, but was'nt the constitution set up to prevent that? I seem to remember a little thing called DUE PROCESS. What's to keep your government from sending YOU to "Camp Snoopy" (as you so rediculously named it), just becase some asshole wanted you out of the picture, and decided to trump up allegations of "Terrorism" against you, Mark Rickerby. If you don't think it can happen in America, read your fucking history because it HAS happened... RIGHT here in the good old US of A. During the 1950s, there were people who were sent to prison, and had ALL property confiscated, just on the mere accusation of having Communist sympathies. How safe do you feel now?
well I guess you're one of those people who would give up your freedom for security. If so, you will get what you deserve, but not from me... from the NeoCons you vote for. After all, Hitler was an ELECTED leader. -
I am a military veteran myself, so I know what you are saying. and yes, detaining prisoners is NOT always a simple matter, but there is a BIG difference between making them stand in the hot sun and forcing them to similate acts of sodomy, naked, with other prisoners. When we signed the Geneva convention, we made a promise not to do things like that, and to hear our "president" say that the geneva convention does not apply in this case made me physically ill. He does NOT have the right to determine that, and we are wrong to do nothing about it. My biggest fear is that history will remember the US of the early 21st century in the same light as the Germany of the 1930s and 40s. I don't want that to happen.
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There are many points I can agree and disagree with in this piece. Though, I can say the presentation of this poem - though some points are debated, is far more diplomatic than others might have been with questions put to GWB, abu Ghirab and the patriot act.
Though, I hate saying this - there are times in history when the american military (in isolated incidences) have acted in ways that are not quite as embraceable as we'd like to think. In every war there are situations that we are never privy to. The best we can hope for is that our men and women on a larger level conduct themselves with mercy towards those they encounter.
I know in vietnam, British forces stepped in when Charlie Co. was alleged to have killed many of their people, including children, older members of a village, etc. All of this is so very sad - but it is also something that happens in warfare.
Those that are proven wrong face their demons. Those that conduct themselves honorably, reflect what we love most about our country. My brother was a US Marine Reconn. in Desert Storm. He brought home the most riveting pictures of captured prisoners that were sat in long lines outside of US military vehicles. The worst of their punishment by those men were to be restrained by common and un-extreme means and have to sit in the sun. It's a shame that all acts of holding prisoners can't be that simple.
The end result of these thoughts of mine - we can't say what our country may have done before 9/11... nor what other countries may have done. It's a moot point at this stage of the game and we're not privy to such strategies. That is the job of the military and I'll be glad that it's not on my plate - how sad a job it must be to make such decisions, good or bad.
Thanks for the entry and the fuel for debate.
Kim -
we didnt destroy Afganistan, but we did destroy the Taliban who were ruling Afghanistan (not that anyone really misses them), but my point was... we didn't get Osama bin Laden.
as for the point I was making about Abu Ghirab, it does't matter what nationality the prisoners are, The US signed the Geneva Convention, PROMISING not to treat POWS like that. Our current Government has broken that promise. -
You may, or may not be aware, that I hate free verse with a passion, but I occasionally read one on here which I like (it's about 1 in 50), and this is one of them.
It might also have something to do with the fact that I agree with your sentiments.
I don't understand why Bush didn't just seek permission from harbouring nations to go in and destroy Al Quaeda, with the help, and under the guidance of the United Nations.
Nobody in the world could have objected to that. But, to go and invade countries of the most tenuous of reasons is wrong, and, being a Brit, we were wrong to go with you.
Well done.
Robin
I think the level of opposition to US forces in Iraq has been a big shock to your leaders! -
Well written poem. I good poetic political polemic (perhaps not the right word, but doesn't "poetic political polemic" sound great?). You capture the voice of a many people (and perhaps the ire of others). Not a word was wasted. Though I don't tend to make poetry overtly political, I can definately shine a sympathetic eye on it when it's well done (even from the right wing). You Yanks are alright. Remember, Facism fell.
Cheers,
Yossarian -
truth
A touching and mostly correct poem. I think you overstated
"I saw our country destroy
those who had harbored bin Laden
but fail to find
the dreaded terrorist himself"
The taliban demanded the evidence the US had on Bin Laden. Which the US refused. While the taliban were theocrats and I despise them. Any country in the world would have demanded some kind of evidence back in those days when "due process" meant something.
Now I think the world is cowed. We know what happens to those who demand due process or evidence. -
GOOD
My god thats good m8. Spoken from the heart and an honest transformation the reader sees take place. Your poem here is seriously one of the best I've read, and although I am new, I wish I had more time to review but Ive got to run to "school". Keep speaking the truth, hope to give you a more indepth on this one soon!
--Alright well, back as promised
. After re-reading I can see that there was alot of genuine feel to it, it was more from the heart than prettied up into any form of expressed poetry, which is good. The metaphors were interesting and sometimes I foud it to read like a book. And now that I've judged it as a poem I will say that I agree with many of your political statements, it doesnt seem like the US military shows any signs of pulling out of Iraq anytime soon either...it must be difficult being an American at this time, for you unfathomable for me really. I had never seen the World Trade Centers; I cant even imagine what the chaos must have been like in New York once the giants collapsed. That famed "yankee" resolve is what the world saw soonafter.
--Cheers again,
Sol
Edited on Jun 30, 10:07 p.m. because ''. -
10/10
You know this went far diffenrent than I had expected. I actually agree with you. I'd say why but you probably know why, the same reasons you believe this in the first place. Good job deary.
Ta-Ta,
Emonquente
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