You attack the statue,
Friend,
And the flag
And the street name,
As if lancing the very heart of evil.
But I have seen you turn a blind eye
To other evils right here
In our own time and place,
And it’s hard,
To take you seriously.
I owe it to you to tell you that
It’s hard to see you as a
Lover of wisdom
And righteousness,
Or as anything more than
A hothead lashing out in anger
Or a partisan lashing out for show,
And picking a safe target
That will aggravate people
You don’t like.
I wish you would stop that
So that you and I could
Work together
To battle the tyranny
And corruption
And deceit
That has a chokehold
On our own generation.
And perhaps we could succeed
Where so many others fail,
In first sweeping our own houses clean
Before fussing about the neighbor’s.
And we could leave the statues be,
To show all that they show,
Good and bad alike,
That our grandchildren may see
And judge for themselves
And give careful thought
To how they should live.
