giving fiddling a bad rep

 a poisoned environment

for decades a poison has infected our government,

a willful denial that laws are needed

to figure how problems can be solved, 

how ways forward can be found,

whether in rights, or health, or leveling the playing field,

instead, those controlling Washington, D.C.,

have viewed government as existing to be enabler,

to enable the rich to get richer,

to enable corporations to run the show and buy the votes,

no wonder so many of my students today

did not want to watch the inauguration of a new President,

for they have no personal experience or evidence

that it matters who flies about in Air Force One,

that it matters who is in the Senate or House,

for those people don’t do anything to help their world,

I ask the students what we can do

to deal with global climate change,

and they can’t come up 

with either liberal or conservative ideas,

ways forward aren’t discussed,

Senators and Representatives fiddle while California burns,

I cried with hope today

for I am Old School,

I believe that there is a way forward,

that greed, masquerading as freedom,

is not the only answer,

I disagree that there is an invisible hand

that somehow keeps society on a good and true path

with no government as parent to help us choose better paths,

wisdom can come when ideas are shared,

and people are open to revelation and change,

my victory only possible and worth anything

if your victory comes along, too,

that fairness requires sacrifice,

that self-indulgence is a dead end,

the better angels of our nature can fly

if we but let them.

by Henry H. Walker

January 20, ‘21