Summer Soldier (2008)

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
~~~
Thomas Paine, 1776

Today, all Americans have become sunshine patriots.
We shrink from service to our country.
We know the crisis. We know the enemy:
The tyranny of the corporate fascists,
The betrayal of the congressional quislings,
The crimes of an immoral White House.
We know and we shrink.

We shrink when we do not vote.
We shrink when we say we are powerless,
We shrink when we listen to Fox news,
We shrink when we shop for distraction.
We shrink when we soldier for corporate profits
And call it freedom.

What love can we expect for one another,
What thanks can we hope from our children,
What hope can we hold for a decent future?
When the winter of a collapsing nation
Is upon us, what love can we ask
When we did so little?

“Give me your tired, your poor”
and I will use them to fight for oil in Iraq.
“Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”
And I will sell them all the imports they can afford.
“Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me”
And I will suffocate them in my inner city slums

These are, indeed, the times that try our souls.
This is the summer of our spirit’s discontent
As it weeps in the face of the enemy
And excuses its absence on the field of battle.
In what triumph can we expect glory?