A 1924 cover of the Saturday Evening Post by artist J.C. Leyendecker.
In 2021, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, I was asked to come up with a chalice lighting for July 4th zoom worship service of the Tree of Life Unitarian Congregation. The poem I came up with was inspired by that and our conflicted feelings over the Founders, Declaration of Independence, White privilege, and patriotic symbolism during a time of strife and uncertainty. Now, three years later, the details of the current crisis are different but no less fraught with danger to democracy, cherished values, and survival of life itself as we know it.
In fact the danger has never been greater. Not only does the former thug in the White House retain the mindless devotion of his MAGA minions and absolute command of the former Grand Old Party, but despite an avalanche of civil and criminal prosecutions put off a day of fatal judgement that could prevent him from winning re-election. His hand picked Supreme Court majority has not only ruled in his favor and granted willy-nilly delays, but actually struck the heart of democracy itself by decreeing that Presidents cannot be held legally liable for their “official actions” that might otherwise be criminal. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her blistering dissent:
The long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding… The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.
The Court has already gutted women’s reproductive rights and signaled support for harsh and punitive state laws aimed at virtually complete abortion bans. This week in a spate of opinions the Court also struck down the procedures for enforcement of critical environmental and safety regulations. Legal observers are certain there is more of the same—or worse—coming ahead in the new Court session this fall.
Meanwhile long standing concerns for President Joe Biden’s age and health and his alarming presentation at his first debate with the Orange Menace have left many discouraged and fearful that he cannot best his criminal rival in November. The President was already plagued with low fervor among core Democratic constituencies. Youth voters are extremely alienated and many will simply sit out the election. Climate catastrophe and opposition to support for Israel in its genocidal war in Gaza are key disappointments for young voters who turned out for Obama and against Trump in the last election. The growing Muslim vote, critical in Michigan and other must-win states, is probably completely lost while right wing Jews attack him for being at all critical Netanyahu’s bloody assaults. Black voters are unenthused and resent feeling taken for granted by Democrats. They will still skew heavily to Biden, but lower over-all turn-out may not be enough to overcome a large, hostile White electorate. Latinx voter are confused and worried about immigration and asylum issues.
Biden’s last line of defense is a huge turn-out of women motivated by outrage over restricted reproductive rights and an array of gender defining issues.
The prompt for the poem was taken from a 1924 cover of the Saturday Evening Post by artist J.C. Leyendecker.
Wake Up Uncle Sam!
Independence Day 2021
As an allegorical figure you have seen better days,
heroic posters, Saturday Evening Post covers,
Jimmy Cagney dancing stiff legged,
even stilt walkers in Main Street Parades.
But as a shrewd Yankee trader ready to sell some
cure-all elixir at inflated prices,
at least you were truer to the spirit of America
than some goddess Columbia in a Liberty Cap
or crowned Lady in a Harbor offering
conditional welcome to swarthy and pitiful refugees.
Like the Flag that bedazzles your swallow tail suit,
high top hat, and pantaloons you have become
an empty symbol of chest-thumping jingoism
devoid of the promises of that Declaration
we are supposed to celebrate today
or any of the ringing rhetoric
that promised us something different
and finer, more noble and widely embracing.
We never quite lived up to all that hokum and hurrah
no matter what a show we made of that banner
and frankly of you.
No wonder you needed a nap.
but that M-80 lit under your tilted chair
should wake you up at last.
The enemies of Liberty are afoot.
It is time to wake up defend
those old promises,
snake oil though they might have been.
—Patrick Murfin
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