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
