"He Is Our Father"

“He is our father,”
The young girl said of the General.
With Tears in her eyes,
Her face nearly bursting with emotion, she added,
“I hope he will be there when we march by.”

Her family swelled with pride,
Watching on TV,
As the marching soldiers
Paraded for the General.
“Look at that precision,”
Said her Mother.
“Their legs all move together,
Just like a machine.”
The whole family beamed.
Someone said,
“That is why the Arrogant Americans
Are even afraid of us.”
There was no irony,
No humor.
It was clear that
Fear
Was the glue that held it all together.
This was not Nazi Germany
Or Stalinist Russia,
Or some science-fiction movie
About a space Empire.
This was here
And now.
In North Korea.

This was a massive army

and arms buildup

A massive gun, already cocked,

and ready to go off.

I found myself
Looking inward
At my own fear.
What propaganda had
The leaders of my own country
Manufactured
To create fear in me?
Islamic Jihad?
Race riots,
The wall between us
And Mexico?
The falling dollar?
9-11?

What had been done
To control me,
To secure my blind
Obedience to the status quo.
These people aren’t animals.
They are not any different from
You and me.
They are normal folk,
Trying to survive a day,
Trying to prosper inside a system.

They have the same genes
As you and me.
They have the same
Wants and Needs –
Compassion, Love,
Home,
Health.

And the same
Fears.
And just like you are,
They are afraid to resist.
All would be lost
All Possessions,
All Property,
All Love,

Prison,
Death,
Death to family members,
Humiliation,
Degradation,
Disintegration
All at the hands of the state.

The young girl’s
Eyes were wet with tears.
“I hope Our Father,
The General,
Will come to see us march tomorrow.”
Her mother assuaged her fears.
“He is a very busy man,”
She said.

Who was this “General”?
This God-man,
This “Father,”
This Lover,
Who could move a teenage girl
To quivering
And Tears?

Who is this modern-day
Pharaoh
Who erects massive armies
And materiel,
Placards and Pictures –
Pyramids
In his own honor?
Each “citizen”
Coerced and forced
Into Worship
Into Obedience.

It’s so easy to turn away
And categorize her
And her family,
And her country.
“They are brainwashed,”
We want to say.
“They are cretins,
Unsophisticated,
Uneducated,
Uncivilized,
Nearly Savages,”
We have to say.

But we have been there,
And we are there
Now.
As we follow our so-called
Leaders
Blindly
Into war
After war
After war
In the name of Peace
And Democracy
When we have none.

Spilling the blood
Of our daughters
And sons.
Leaving rotting corpses
In the ground
For American domination
And Control
Of the
“Free” world.

I search my soul
For an exception
To Non-violence
And can find
None.
I search my soul
For an end to
A half-trillion dollar
Annual “defense” budget,
Which should be called
“Offense.”

I search my soul.
And can find none.
I can only hope,
As the beautiful
Young girl whispered
Beneath her tear-stained cheeks,
“I hope Our Father,
The General,
Will come to see us march tomorrow.”

I can only hope
We march
Well enough,
Machine-like enough,
To gain his favor.
To secure
Life and liberty
For us all
For our families.

One can only hope
He is not too busy
To see us march,
And marching well.
This modern-day Pharaoh,
This god-man,
This Father, General,
President.
One can only hope
We are worthy
Of his eyes.