01/25/2025
January 23, 2025
Small egos
started to appear
in the cracks
of democracy
and religious tolerance
gets lost in the chatter
as people sat
in front of their tv’s
or staring into the limelight
of computer screens
where it seems
justice is lost
seeing news
simply as entertainment
played out in front of them
blindly lost in
a disconnect
a numbness
even fears
adopting a strategy
that citizens can hide
to justify inaction
a total social amnesia
while democracy
is falling at a rapid pace
with a single stroke of a sharpe
in the hand of one man
with expansionist dreams
so let’s turn to history
remember Italy
under the boot of Fascism
the opera remained open
remember Germany
under the heel of Na**sm
the symphony remained open
and remember Imperial Japan
where kabuki was performed
behind the masks
of loyalty to militarism
you see entertainment soothed
the masses in these regimes
will America be remembered
pacified and subdued
with keyboard and screens
I hope an awakened resistance
can see the truth unfolding
and put down their channel changers
look out their doors
onto empty streets
empty of hope
quietly pleading
them to rise
to the spirit
of Edmund Burke
when in 1795 said,
“Those who don't know
history are doomed
to repeat it.”
Will history be on our side?
January 22, 2025
Richard Peppinck
