I wrote this poem for Entertainment night at our annual beach vacation 2018:<\/p>\n
Living in a Dictatorship
By Michelle Brodie
July 20, 2018<\/p>\n
I was born in the baby boom<\/p>\n
The Greatest Generation had rid the world of a despot and from impending doom<\/p>\n
Rosie the Riveter could put those muscles to rest<\/p>\n
And replace them with a baby at the breast<\/p>\n
We baby boomers were taught to respect , to aspire, to reach ever higher<\/p>\n
Even be president<\/p>\n
But can anybody be president?\u00a0 I was very skeptical<\/p>\n
In fact, it seemed quite impractical<\/p>\n
We would find out quite soon<\/p>\n
For then we had Ronald Reagan, a B Movie Actor and quite the buffoon<\/p>\n
Amazed so many found him appealing<\/p>\n
I was only pleased he raised the speed limit ceiling<\/p>\n
Next was a Rhodes Scholar<\/p>\n
I remember election day well, how it made me holler<\/p>\n
Yes, he turned out to be a lascivious little cad<\/p>\n
But the unemployment rate went down quite a bit more than a tad<\/p>\n
Anybody could get a job<\/p>\n
Even a worthless lazy slob<\/p>\n
Things in our little democracy seemed to get better<\/p>\n
A decade of economic prosperity and a president who could even write a letter<\/p>\n
But then we had a president as dumb as a rock<\/p>\n
Followed by a constitutional law professor, our very own Barack<\/p>\n
Eight blissful years seemed to make a mockery of Plato\u2019s proclamation<\/p>\n
Until the election of 2016 nearly brought an end to our democratic nation<\/p>\n
\u201cOh Vladimir<\/p>\n
I always want you near<\/p>\n
Let me whisper in your ear<\/p>\n
Oh Vladimir<\/p>\n
I want to be just like you<\/p>\n
I want you to help me see this through<\/p>\n
Oh Vladimir, my darling Vladimir<\/p>\n
I want to be just like you, a bully, a tyrant, and a brute<\/p>\n
A monster, a killer dressed up in\u00a0 a suit<\/p>\n
I already have luxuries and lavish possessions<\/p>\n
Now help me Vladimir restore my white supremacist obsessions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Policy Makers condemned Socrates to death<\/p>\n
And it was like a doctor being persecuted by a pastry chef<\/p>\n
I think the calamity Plato had predicted<\/p>\n
Was coming to fruition and democracy was being evicted<\/p>\n
I think I am living in a dictatorship<\/p>\n
Our president and the brutish killer Putin are joined at the hip<\/p>\n
Clean water, clean air, open spaces, ecological diversity, and yes, even human diversity too<\/p>\n
All dispensable in the current milieu<\/p>\n
The things I cherish most are vanishing before my very eyes<\/p>\n
My beloved Grand Staircase stolen for the coal and oil it contains: I shouldn\u2019t be surprised<\/p>\n
But I won\u2019t stand by and let the brute prevail<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll go to the land of ice and snow,<\/p>\n
The land of Sulphur works, fumaroles, steam vents, hostile cattle ranchers, and stinky cows<\/p>\n
And there I\u2019ll cast my ballot all blue<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter who<\/p>\n
As long as the column isn\u2019t red<\/p>\n
I will have done my duty to stop this country from becoming a white supremacist hotbed<\/p>\n
And when people ages hence<\/p>\n
Ask how did your country become so forsaken?<\/p>\n
For it seems you are living in a dictatorship of your own making,<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be able to stand up and say, \u201cNo I did not make Schindler\u2019s list<\/p>\n
But by god, I did resist!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wrote this poem for Entertainment night at our annual beach vacation 2018: Living in a DictatorshipBy Michelle BrodieJuly 20, 2018 I was born in the baby boom The Greatest Generation had rid the world of a despot and from impending doom Rosie the Riveter could put those muscles to rest And replace them with a baby at the breast We baby boomers were taught to respect , to aspire, to reach ever higher Even be president But can anybody be president?\u00a0 I was very skeptical In fact, it seemed quite impractical We would find out quite soon For then we had Ronald Reagan, a B Movie Actor and quite the buffoon Amazed so many found him appealing I was only pleased he raised the speed limit ceiling Next was a Rhodes Scholar I remember election day well, how it made me holler Yes, he turned out to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":770,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-785","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/785\/revisions\/787"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellebrodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}