Tag: USA
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Fourth of July
An old charter sat on its pedestal, edges worn from years of hands that claimed to honour it. Lately, a few visitors have begun lifting pieces from it; small ones, easy to pocket, easy to pretend were never there. The pedestal still stands. The room still applauds. But anyone looking closely can see what’s missing,…
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If The Newsroom Was a British Show
I love Aaron Sorkin’s show, The Newsroom. I think it’s one of the best pieces of television ever made. It’s also a show with a truly incredible opening sequence, wherein the main character lays out why the United States of America is, despite the propaganda, not the greatest country in the world. Here’s the clip:…
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The Parade of Polished Shoes
They polished the shoes and bent down to praise,they hung clever posters and learned all the plays.A drum got louder, a march found a beat,and neighbours began nodding in tidy, clean rows in the street. They offered neat answers with ribbons and bows,promised order, clean lists, and fewer of those.But maps made of rules leave…
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The Rise
(Inspired by, and to the tune of, The Day the Nazi Died by Chumbawamba) They said it couldn’t happen here,they said the threat had passed;that fascism was a relicin a history book at last. They told us we were safe now,that the danger had been slain,but the day we stopped believingwas the day it rose…
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The Ballad of the Vanishing Spine
They say the Capitol’s tremblinglike a fiddle in the rain,’cause the man in the big chair’s shoutingand the echoes rattle the pane.And the folks who swore to guard usjust smile and toe the line;you’d think they’d lost the ledgerwhere once they kept their spine. They check the polls at sunrise,run the numbers twice by noon,draft…