Mike Marshall  Patriotism

The politicians have been milking the patriotism cow for some time, at the same time they want to ignore veterans' needs. As soon as some citizen on the street or representative in Congress or the white house starts espousing patriotism, a big red flag goes up in my mind. "Patriotism" is the first refuge of carpetbaggers, and it trips my gag reflex.

True patriots are not shouting their esprit from the rooftops or in front of microphones. True patriots are quietly doing patriotic things and they ask for no recognition for doing what seems natural and necessary.

Our alleged leaders get us into wars that are unnecessary and often detrimental to our own best interests. Our soldiers, sailors, and airmen do their bidding, right or wrong. They do so without asking for anything from us except support. And we can support the soldiers without necessarily condoning the leaders who put them in harm’s way, and often forget about them when they come home, unless it's election time. Then these same self-gratifying idiots bring out the flags and thump their chests.

Let's remember the flag is merely a cloth with a design on it that represents some very great and lofty goals, including the right to express our opinions, our dreams, and our dissent. We cannot lessen the worthiness of those goals by burning a red white and blue piece of fabric or kneeling during the playing of our national anthem. But we can damage those aspirations and the symbolism of our flag and anthem by denying our fellow humans the right to express them.

Let's focus instead on upholding those things we believe in. Let's buy a meal for a homeless person. Let's make sure our neighbor does not have to choose between eating and buying needed medicine or health care. Let's ensure children don't have to go hungry. Let's endeavor to provide an affordable education to all of our children because that secures their future and the future of this country. The thing I have the least time to consider is whether or not some human is burning a flag or taking a knee somewhere. And standing for the anthem doesn't make you a patriot any more than wearing a cowboy hat makes you a cowboy.

Each verse of The Star-Spangled Banner ends with "O'er the land of the free." Both the flag and the anthem symbolize the freedoms our forefathers gave their lives for. Why? Because they valued those principles (freedom of speech, etc.) so highly. Freedom of expression is freedom of speech. That was decided hundreds of years ago. I would defend anyone's right to freely express themselves. That means they can stand, kneel, squat, sit, lay down, or stand on their heads. But I will never defend any person's right to suppress the very rights that our flag and anthem symbolize.
I reject the divisiveness of Trump and every other small mind that does not understand or appreciate how freedom of speech actually works and is actually represented by our flag and anthem.
The ultimate disrespect to our country, to our flag, to our national anthem, to our founding fathers, and to the soldiers who suffered for us to protect our right to take a knee is to deny the absolute freedom of speech embodied in our Constitution.

I want to chisel away
That outer layer that calloused
My voice,
  It's always toughest when
The words bounce of like
A hardened clay I did not
Mold,or intend to mold,
But shapes I don't recognise,
    Climb the ladder of your
Walks that you take alone,
Whenever you come back
You seem to have ascended
To some higher place,
    An experienced wall
Between us,
The hindrance of your sweet
Melancholy that seems to
Grace the dead petals at the
Sunken Gardens, where the water drowns
The plants but is still the life
Of all that is,
Breathe,
I want to understand
Why I don't understand,
And why each time I ask
You, you gaze up at me
And smile with those
Eye's of solitudes,
   You confine me to these graces,
And I forget why I asked
At all....

It would be too easy then
to say: all is cast in iron
the will should withdraw
recede and the eyes no longer dare upon
the face of fate confront-

look not away
only allow your patience
faith and courage to hold you
in position. Stay, stay
never mind the oppression
and angst of the day
the heart is not made
for pampering
it's tougher than you knew
what if it should bleed?

Nothing
(if you will make
your stand and seek not
the easy route--the escape passage)
is ever cast in iron
for man is born
to be tested and tried
in the burning cauldron
(he's the raw material
to be forged, moulded
and shaped
to reach the finished product
that makes him larger
than a Promethean)--

the pain
the suffering
time and again
is the in-between
of time and the struggling
to be--what if the sun
shows no mercy
the rain
pelts the eye
what if the earth
shakes and the sea
in its rage breaks its bank
and inundates
the shore
and the night
blinds the weary traveller?

every flicker
of a hope then
shall be a beacon
and coalesce
into a tonne
of strength

nothing is cast in iron
for the tougher -than-
steel-man.

I have never met such  
A universal conundrum
As the God of my truth,
The God of my folly.

You need God in your life,
They told me once when
I was drowned in to a river
Baptised by a southern gentlemen,

The snakes like the feel of
Grass on their bellies I thought,
And yet get whacked with a
Shovel once discovered;

What did I do to God to get
Born and then asked to find
Him, some glorified game
Of Hide and seek and ye will find?

Still there is no driving force
In this world as to who is right,
Or who is wrong on God's Monopoly board game, the dice roll

And it's my turn,
This poem might burn in hell,
But if I get a get out of hell free card, I might as well finish
The game.