Wednesday, December 30, 2020

day FOURTEEN HUNDRED and FORTY THREE

BENEATH THE SURFACE OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

“American exceptionalism? Exceptional at what? Waging wars against innocent people for fake reasons? Exceptional at what? Being addicted to pharmaceutical drugs that have people's minds wasted? Exceptional at what? Eating more junk food and becoming the most obese nation on Earth?”

---Gerald Celente


Beneath the surface
Of American Exceptionalism
Lies the more arrogant and pernicious lies,
The lies every president and politician
Has told you all your life,
The lies you still believe, accept, and trust.

In an authoritarian voice,
They told you America is Exceptional,
Claiming the US
Is the leader of the free world,
And the world’s sole superpower.

When Big Corporations
Started looting America,
Because it affected you personally,
You started asking questions.

Why did Congress
Give Wall Street
And Big Corporations
$5 trillion dollars?
The largest upward transfer
Of wealth in US history,
A CARES ACT welfare gift
To the oligarchy,
While throwing crumbs
To small businesses
And the middle class
During the worst pandemic
In the history of the country.

While other industrialized countries
Continue to pay their workers
During quarantine,
Putting cash directly in the hands
Of impacted workers.

Why did 40 million people
Lose their jobs?

Why did 14 million people
Lose their healthcare
When Congress could have passed
Medicare for All?

Why have 60% of small businesses
Closed permanently?

Why are 19 million people
Being evicted from their homes
On the last day of December?

Why were there thousands of cars
Lined up for miles
Waiting to receive food
From the North Texas Food Bank? 

Why is there always money for war
But not for our crumbling infrastructure
And not for the citizenry,
And not for safety nets for the poor?

Why isn’t Congress withdrawing troops
From over 800 bases
In 80 countries worldwide,
Which costs over 100 billion dollars
A year to support?

Why is the US still in Afghanistan,
After 19 years,
An unwinnable war,
The longest war in American history?

Why did Congress allocate
Another 740 billion dollars
Toward the military budget,
A budget already larger than
The next 10 countries combined?

With over 300,000 dead from COVID-19
When will you admit
American Exceptionalism is a myth?

Will it be when
You have a ventilator
Crammed in your mouth,
Brainwashed and arguing
COVID-19 is a political hoax? 

And the last face
You will ever see 
Is a respiratory therapist,
Dressed in blue PPE,
Wearing a plastic shield
Over her face.

--Victor Henry

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