Sitting at my young Dad’s knee
with thoughts swirling all about me
I had to know what the larger world
was trying to tell me, and help me see.
Daddy, daddy, daddy dear,
lend this little daughter your ear.
Why do they call Japanese people Japs?
Why do they call German people Krauts?
Why do they call Italian people Dagos?
Why do they call Arab people Towel Heads?
Why do they call women Cunts?
Why do they call Viet-Names people Gooks?
Why do they call African-American people “N”?
Why do they call Jewish people Kikes?
I do not understand, but it feels bad.
Sweet girl, my Daddy replied
with a glance and shrug quite mortified.
In the military I learned the reason why.
It is enough to make a grown man cry.
But, I shall tell you the reason why.
It is hard to kill a fellow human being.
It is easier to kill someone you do not see
is as human and wonderful as you and me.
It makes it easier to harm, and wound, and kill.
It is easier to demean, and hate, and impose our will.
Undocumented refugees become “Illegals.”
Asylum seekers become “gang member criminals.”
Confucius said presciently, “The ordering of society
begins with the rightness of words.”
Republicans 2025 say, “The destruction of society
begins with the wrongness of words.”
FOX “news” is not news at all;
yet, keeps too many in its thrall.
Karoline Leavitt tries to make us believe
good questions allow her answers to deceive.
Pam Bondi investigates her own untruths,
accusing her accusers of being uncouth.
Kristi Noem prances and dances before the gates
of concentration camps, seeking a date?
Such liars are pretty, dainty and sweet.
Americans, especially young men, fall at their feet.
How do truth tellers compete?
The jousters of old travelled from court to court,
making jokes of despots’ overreach without harm.
No dungeons for jousters in the good ole’ days.
Now, the jesters are banished from dinners to honor
newspersons dedicated to uncovering liars and lies;
and Amber Ruffin’s scheduled comedic performance
is suddenly, fearfully, cowardly cancelled.
Truth now lives in the dungeons, walking there
willingly, and blind. Such willfulness rankles.
When the words are removed and truth set aside,
it is easier to harm, wound and kill
without losing one’s pride.
How proud will we be when we realize
we killed our country to save our pride?
