i've had mixed feelings <br />about the American flag <br />ever since they lowered it <br />for President Kennedy... <br />it took a beating during <br />the civil rights movement. <br />and then there was Vietnam, <br />all the atrocities, the lies, <br />the wasted deaths... <br />the marches, the protests, <br />the Kent State killings... <br />and the flag was burned <br />in anger, and i understood <br />the anger <br />and now the corporate takeover, <br />the loss of human rights, <br />the loss of dignity, and hope <br />how many deaths does it take? <br />JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King <br />forty thousand plus in Vietnam <br />how many in the lying oil wars <br />in Iraq and Afghanistan? <br />how many homeless and jobless <br />does it take? <br />how many migrant workers treated <br />like animals? <br />how many old people have to lose <br />the benefits they've worked for? <br /> <br />and i think back to my old hero, <br />Thomas Jefferson what would he say? <br />maybe something like this: <br />'the real American flag isnt made of cloth, <br /> it's drawn on the backs of the American workers. <br /> male and female of all races and religions, <br /> the people that built this country <br /> the heart blood of this country. <br /> when you put these people down <br /> with your greed, your lies, your apathy <br /> then you lower the flag. <br /> and it can never be raised again <br /> till all Americans walk heads up together <br /> with hope till all have an equal opportunity <br /> to live and be in freedom <br /> until such day you have no flag! '<br /><br />Eric Cockrell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/american-flag-4/
