We The People

“Politicians are like diapers.  They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”

~Author Unknown

Today is our election day.  These words aren’t what I’d planned.
But here I am with all these thoughts.  I guess I’ll raise my hand.

I won’t get into right or wrong, or who I think should win.
Just take a look at what we need.  Our choice is pretty thin.

Our country doesn’t need a tweak, it needs an overhaul.
And if we don’t address it soon, we’ll smash into a wall.

Our education lies in fragments, shattered on the floor.
We the people must declare that we won’t take it any more.

Social Security is a joke, but not of the HA-HA kind.
How can we cast a careful vote, and keep it absent from our mind?

The economy… I shouldn’t start.  I might not ever stop.
Didn’t we all know the other shoe was bound to drop?

Now what I am about to say, I admit it’s touchy stuff,
but I don’t think that either guy can really do enough.

There’s just too much that must be done that isn’t in the scheme.
And If it goes unheeded, we will surely dim the dream.

Empires fade from suicide.  They whither from within.
We can peer through history to find ourselves a twin.

There are plenty parallels, let’s take some time to see;
Roman gladiators echoed on reality TV.

Each of us should do our share, and understand the facts.
Take the time to comprehend, minus the attacks.

It isn’t only black and white, most everything is gray.
Before we reach tomorrow, we should talk about today.

We didn’t get to where we are by some grand accident.
We’re only here because of how our decades have been spent.

We buy a lot, we spend a lot, and then we hit repeat.
We never want the sour, but we always want the sweet.

On this fair election day, I suggest we all reflect.
There are more important things than who we should elect.

The most important thing we have is who we are inside.
Can we stand up tall and wave our country’s flag with pride?

We shouldn’t look to Washington to solve our every hitch,
to keep us all from going poor, or help to make us rich.

Government by populace means populace should rule.
We must be intelligent and never act the fool.

I am optimistic that we’ll pull a proper course.
Wipe the dust away, and swing back on our horse.

Today is our election day.  Tomorrow is first light.
No matter who the winner, it is our chance to do things right.

Writer Dad

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10 Ways to Fight Writer Insecurity: A Writer Dad, Copyblogger guest post

A New Renaissance

The New Renaissance

We have indeed found ourselves amidst the first undulating waves of a brand new Renaissance.  Last Monday was the first time I’d made any effort to get my words beneath the eyes of anyone other than Daisy.  Good communication cannot exist in isolation; it was time to clear my throat and step to the podium.  

Now, I imagine that to do this blogging thing well, you have to be at least the teeniest bit geeky.  

Check, no problem there.  

Throughout the week, I spent a few moments here and there, studying my feedburner numbers, more out of curiosity than anything.  I’m still trying to figure out how all this works, and I know I won’t improve if I don’t absorb as much information as well as I can.  So, I started looking through the stats.  On Monday and Tuesday, I saw pretty much exactly what I expected to see – a bunch of random looking hits from across the United States.  By Wednesday, Canada was saying, “Eh.”  By Thursday, the United Kingdom was saying, “Cheers.”  

By Friday, I was looking at evidence of a new Renaissance.

Feeds from The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, along with Australia, Russia, and (I kid you not) Uraguay.  

Wow.  A new Renaissance indeed.

I don’t want to kick a dead horse in his teeth, but the internet is a spectacular space.  In fact, the web runs right by amazing while he’s off staring into the ether, then rockets around the world in an internet instant, so he can sneak up behind amazing and slap him on the back of his head.  Saying that, I don’t think most of us even realize how primitive it still really is.  

Not since Guttenberg introduced movable type has there been such a quantum leap in communication.  Now, anyone can have a voice.  Someday, probably, everyone will.  When Andy Warhol said that in the future we’d all have our fifteen minutes, he couldn’t have had any idea how right he’d turn out to be or that a new renaissance was waiting right around the corner.

With so many views screaming for attention, one might argue that the odds of having a single voice make the impact of Martin Luther with his 95 Theses, or Thomas Paine with Common Sense are slim.  

I strongly disagree.  

History works in cycles.  Always has.  Truth finds its voice, and then power starts to shift.  Right now, power is shifting.  If someone has something new to say, relevant to moving us all forward, and they articulate it with enough truth and clarity, people will listen.  

Art and ideas have never been exchanged so efficiently.  We’ve never held so much potential.

Our world is at the brink of a brand new Renaissance, but it’s only ours if we demand it.

Writer Dad