Why I Dislike Debates
(June 27, 2024)

This coming Thursday night
two older men will try to engage our minds
and hopes from disparate places
and with wrinkled faces.
Will we cringe at one’s lies
and incoherent babble
while the other stammers his message
with a mixture of honesty and hope?
Or will our thoughts project us to another time
when as a nation we never knew that
political campaigns were by and for clowns
and lies were permitted only when
uttered innocently by children?

Will we awaken to that day of yesteryear
when donated money was spent for the good that we could do?
When we were not taken for granted?
When our leaders did not try to buy our loyalty with favors
with no concern for trust?

“Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses” our treasured Lady in the
Harbor implores.
Now we ask “for what?”
To watch us bend and kneel obediently
at the goings-on of a clown show?

“Send these the homeless tempest-tost to me”
she cries yet…

Will we instead seek to dishonor her
by selecting one who steals our most secret plans
A destroyer of our democracy
Who casts aspersions on our immigrants
Knows not our heritage
Regales against our forebears
and scoffs at our hopes for a better future?

God grant us the strength to fight for our honor
To know which future we want to defend…
When we call upon our own wisdom
by thinking before voting.

Will we choose to mold our own destiny
Have the courage to safeguard our past
Show the tenacity to protect our present
And rebuild the only future worthy of our hopes...
Before they send in the clowns?