The National Rifle Association (NRA)
has the country by the throat
It doesn’t matter what we think
or feel
The NRA will have its way
They have their member’s addresses
all five million of them and their friends
and these people vote
and they vote for guns
The U.S. is the only country in the world
where an average citizen can buy an assault weapon
The NRA members say
“It is our right
it says so right there in the Constitution:
‘The government shall not impinge on the right to bear arms’”
which, of course, means
joe blow, down the street
can buy a surface-to-air missile
bullets that can pierce bullet-proof vests
and guns that go rat-a-tat-tat
Ms. Gonzales said it all:
“It’s all BS”
of course it is
just listen to the arguments of the NRA supporters,
all BS every word of it
Reason has left the building
On the other hand, the NRA opponents say:
“Tell me again, why does a person need to own an assault rifle?”
and
“What did the Founding Fathers mean by that line in the Constitution?”
But the NRA’s words are not the only BS flying around the country
Most of what we hear on the political commentators every night
on TV is BS
BS which is perfumed to be exciting and be “breaking news”
BS which has as it’s primary purpose to boost ratings
and thus bring in big bucks (with nauseating ads)
making millions for the TV stations and
for he big mouths yelling at each other
Reason has left the building
There is BS in our national debt
In matter of fact, our national debt is drenched in BS
Obama was cheered because he cut the deficit in half
That’s right
he brought the deficit up to $1 trillion a year
and then brought it back to $500 billion a year
and Trump trashed him for that……..until he got into office
Then Trump found out how easy it was to hand over a credit card
After all Reagan did say: “Deficits don’t matter.”
and got away with it
So why can’t the Bush’s, Clinton, Obama, and Trump?
Let’s just wait to hear what our kids have to say about it
when we hand them the credit card bill!
And there’s BS in our hurricanes, floods and draughts
in fact, it’s pouring BS
“Basket cases”
is a polite phrase
for what has happened to Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Virgin Islands
not to mention the floods in Louisiana, the fires in California, and the draughts in Africa
The victims of these disasters
plea to help them rebuild
until next year
when everything will be destroyed again
Oh, but we ask,
“how could this happen?
After all, we do recycle our cans and bottles
and we did stop using sprays
and we did buy a Prius”
“Dumping hundreds of millions of tons
of carbon into the atmosphere every year
couldn’t possibly have a negative effect.”
“Our animals, our cars, our deforestation,
our carnivore diet, and our bloated consumption
couldn’t possibly be a cause”
But we can’t give these things up
They create “jobs, jobs, jobs”
and we have the right to have these things
My rights and my freedom come before the earth’s health
And the poor
in this country and around the world
all cry out:
“Don’t ask me to sacrifice
until I am equal to you
until I can produce and consume as much as you
till I can destroy the earth as much as you do
and then we’ll talk”
BS, BS, BS
Reason has left the building
The kids were right
But wait till the shit really hits the fan
And then we’ll see what they have to say
Let’s talk about war
Let’s again prove how great we are
by bombing North Korea, Iran, maybe even Yemen
(but not the big countries
they might bomb us back)
We beat our chests
forgetting about what happened
in World War I and II, and the Vietnam war
Only the guys in nursing homes remember
So let’s do it again
just one more time
Bob Dylan is still singing
“The answers, my friend,
are blowin in the wind”
and indeed they are:
austerity
charity
responsibility
sacrifice
and world government
Indeed, reason has left the building! What are we left with? All the BS that you mentioned. What has happened to humanity?
I feel so strongly about this poem, RG. I am at loss of words how dismayed I am with what’s happening, every day, I open up the news and tell myself, what’s another BS for today?
David and Davina,
We’re on the same page! So, what can we do?
We can put in our two cents. Write an email to a Congressman, talk to a friend, insist on reason.
And what is reason? Let’s see……..2+2 = 4. Not 5, not 3, but 4. Ok, perhaps absolute truth is too hard to obtain, perhaps we live in the mythology of truth. But we can still have faith in our reason, that is, 2+2 really is 4 (even if the ultimate reality is that 2+2= 4.0000001. But 4 is good enough for our purposes.
So how can we apply reason to politics? Let’s see:
We need to get the lobbyists and the lawyers out of our thinking process. They contaminate our brains. They pump money into the democratic thinking process — the dialectic — for their interest groups, and themselves.
We can work towards spending only what we have, and not give the bill to our kids.
Take assault weapons, and most other guns, out of citizen’s hands
Do what is good for all groups in the long run.
We can work towards a world government (that is, against world destruction). Wow, that’s quite a project!
We can work towards consuming less (austerity) and encouraging others to do the same. We can work towards creating a sustainable earth. (Quite a project, to say the least, but we can make a small step. At least we can move in that direction. We can quit the “world destruction” team.)
We would like to do more, but all we got is two cents. But that’s enough, if we spend it with love.
Tx for your comments.
RG
“My rights and my freedom come before the earth’s health” It saddens me that we’ve come to this point in our society.
Tiffany,
Tx for your thoughtful response. You’ve asked a profound question: what is more important, the health of the earth or my individual freedom (that is, inauthentic freedom — to do whatever I want, when I want).
In other words, what is more important, my personal good or the common good?
Of course, we have this nutty philosophy in this country — created by a warped interpretation of the free enterprise economic theory that: if everyone pursues their individual self-interests, the whole country and the whole world will be just fine.
Tx again,
RG
We’re living in a world of BS! Have we come to a point of no return? I hope not. Just imagine the world we’re leaving to our kids.