The Light Flickers

What was once free and brave has become shackled and brazen.

Voices of freedom are drowned out by shouts from angry mobs and parades of jacked-up pickup trucks rolling beside the amber waves of grain.

Masked agents search courtrooms, concert halls, and PTA meetings for Mother, Father, and Child.

Love thy neighbor has turned into see something, say something.

The shining beacon on a hill has turned into a detention camp in the swamp.

Where did we go wrong? Was it an election, or was it something in our hearts that went dark? When did the light begin to flicker?

Was it when billionaires told us that our problems of not being able to turn dimes into dollars were because Paul wanted to be Patty?

Did our inability to scale the fences of a confinement of our own making become the fault of those who did it to flee economic and political oppression?

When did we stop listening to the voices that made this nation great, and start listening to those who only wanted to make themselves greater?

Can we turn this around before the land of the free becomes the land to flee?

Do we remain a melting pot or become a frying pan?

Does love thy neighbor have an asterisk by it in the bible?

Is telling me I should hate someone going to make me hate them?

These are questions we have to ask ourselves... and it's time we started.