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"The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism" - Hannah Arendt In the rich and fertile land of my birth, Ancestral neighbors Raised one another's barns and Bartered the fruits of their homesteads. They were hardy folks who knew the wisdom of putting the "We" in "We the People." Until now our great moral compass, Whose self-correcting magnets Twist and adjust toward the truth That human rights belong to us all: Had earned us the world's admiration. But today, in a horror beyond all belief Our national soul has been infested By the stench and pus of demagogues Who, in their delusions think "Me" the people is superior to "We." And for whom reason and law Are for those too weak or poor to evade them. Now, like our globe on its steady axis, We must turn toward the light that sustains us And dispel the demons of corruption That have cast us into a purgatory of disfunction. As long as it's "me the people" not "we" There is no room left for us.
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May 2
May 2, 2026 at 1:57 PM UTC
CIVIC PURGATORY
"The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism" - Hannah Arendt In the rich and fertile land of my birth, Ancestral neighbors Raised one another's barns and Bartered the fruits of their homesteads. They were hardy folks who knew the wisdom of putting the "We" in "We the People." Until now our great moral compass, Whose self-correcting magnets Twist and adjust toward the truth That human rights belong to us all: Had earned us the world's admiration. But today, in a horror beyond all belief Our national soul has been infested By the stench and pus of demagogues Who, in their delusions think "Me" the people is superior to "We." And for whom reason and law Are for those too weak or poor to evade them. Now, like our globe on its steady axis, We must turn toward the light that sustains us And dispel the demons of corruption That have cast us into a purgatory of disfunction. As long as it's "me the people" not "we" There is no room left for us.
robert-c-howard
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May 2
May 2, 2026 at 1:57 PM UTC
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