Why We the People Have to Vote!

StickyDysfunctional Congress

We’re stuck in the mud and need to get out
Can we muster the courage – can we manage to take charge?
We have a good trick but we all have to act
Our vote is our power – that is a fact!

Our Founders were wise but could not have imagined
The stuck place we are in because of ideological passion
Turning and turning in utter dismay,
How their land of promise has gone astray!

We are meant to argue and find a way
To settle on policy and make laws for the day.
Can we work together – our country’s creed
To find solutions to solve all of our needs?

A do nothing Congress has upset the cart.
We need to take action straight from the heart
Republicans cry fowl when Obama takes action
To compensate somewhat for Congress inaction.
But what to do when the House goes awol
With their pompous idealogues and extraordinary gall!

All of us must vote this fall
For candidates who rise to the call
Who will hold their ground against party tyranny
Who will vote for laws that speak a common sense litany
Who understand making laws underlies
Our Founder’s wisdom — the need for compromise

We all must find those candidates and vote!
It is our future we must promote!

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!

Women Rise — Change the World

Dysfunctional Congress, Women

2014 is an important election
Women are critical for the rejection
Of the war on women — it’s real and vicious.
Republican legislation is increasingly ambitious!
Can we women rise to the occasion
To overturn legislation so brazen?

Our votes are our established power.
We the women are ready to flower!

Vote for progressive women to Congress
Change the world forever towards progress
The GOP wants to turn the clock back
To a world when women were under attack.
Can we rise up and change the course
from a world for women that republicans endorse?

We are women and we are strong.
Tell the GOP — this is our song!

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!

Republican Fear Mongering Propaganda the Worst

Dysfunctional Congress

We Americans have lost our minds.
We’ve drunk the kool-aid as republicans designed.
We’re poised to allow more republican control,
The very same folks who put us in this very deep hole.

And now we’ve bought the worst kind of bunk
Blaming Obama for all the junk
He is responsible according to the “wise”
For ISIS, Ebola, Putin, and sea level rise.
There is nothing on the earth going sour today
That hasn’t been put on Obama’s tray.

We the people must face our fears
Engendered by republican propaganda for years.
We crave instant gratification;
We’ve lost sight of complex causation.

The panic ensuing over Ebola contagion
is callously fueled by GOP raging.
Remember FDR and his famous quote?
It is fear itself we must revoke.
Give republicans their deserved rout.
Get to the polls vote the fools out!

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!

Inequality in our Economy

Economy

Inequality in America is clear.
The gap grows wider with every year.
Beginning three decades ago,
Republican partisanship primarily the blow
With the reaganomics & anti-government show.

Thirty years before we had comity,
From 1950 to 1980 amity.
Elizabeth Warren’s story will tell
That the American Dream then was alive and well.

Inequality has been exacerbated
By the worst recession
Since the Great Depression.
Recovery stymied by GOP policies,
Deficit hysteria and trickle down theory,
A painfully slow recovery the price.
The middle class and the poor roll the dice.

The wealth continues flowing to the top 5%.
The system is rigged — serving the rich the intent.
Tax policies were written that entitle the wealthy.
Attitudes to the poor by the rich are unhealthy.

And who are the other 95% of society?
The human infrastructure now filled with anxiety?
Our teachers, janitors, policemen, nurses,
firemen, farmers, artists, construction workers…
The list goes on almost infinitely.
Together we make a beautiful symphony.

And what is the hope for this grand symphonic story?

That money does not define success
But rather a life that lacks distress.
That all have access to adequate health care,
Enough food to eat; wages that are fair,
Quality education and work satisfaction,
Dreams that come true by dedicated action.

That the poorest of us can rise out of poverty,
That the middle class can achieve prosperity,
That inequality will subside substantially,
And everyone’s fortunes will rise ultimately.
For all of us to change the course
Several steps can provide the force.

Piketty and Waren both agree
Tax policy reform is a key.
Increase in minimum wages awaits
And reduction in student loan interest rates.
Dramatically decreasing political contributions,
More taxes on the rich among the clear solutions.

Vote for a congress that will take action
To pass laws that benefit the greatest fraction.
To stop income inequality in the land
The GOP must be canned.

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!

NC The Urgency is Now

North Carolina

North Carolinians rise to take action
To counter the coup of the 2010 election.
When Citizens United enabled traction
For Art Pope to buy a republican defection.

Their work to eliminate North Carolina’s progress
Means all of us need to take action to address
The landslide of retrogressive laws
That were provided by ALEC for a conservative cause.

Pride in our Education;
Best land trust system in the nation.
North Carolinians beware
Change has come and we must prepare.
We can’t underestimate the harm that has been done
By the 2013 litany of legislation that was begun!

Voter suppression laws the worst in the land
Targeting vulnerable groups as the GOP planned.

Guns allowed in playgrounds & parks,
Restaurants and bars, school parking lots!

No Medicaid extension under the Affordable Care Act
Half a million left without heath care a fact.

The centerpiece for the GOP
Tax cuts for the rich all agree.
One billion dollars from the till
When most of us struggle to pay our bills.
Where does the money come from to pay
For the richest of us to get a big pay day?

The earned income tax credit program for the very poor
Was the first to fly out the door.
Then there were reductions in funding
For health assistance programs & regulatory function.
The poorest of poor are paying the price
And middle class goals are put on ice.
The worst of the GOP offenses though
The slashing of education, oh no!

First elimination of thousands of jobs
For teachers and assistants increasing class size.
Pre-K programs for at-risk kids were taken
Supplemental pay and teachers’ raises forsaken.
National ranking may drop to forty-eight.
Teachers to survive are leaving in droves from the state.

Unemployment benefits were slashed so that
NC was dropped from Federal Relief funding flat.
The only state thus far to be honored;
The 780 million could have helped our economy!

Decimating our Natural Heritage Program,
Blocking local governments from environmental action,
Replacing members of the state’s key environmental commissions,
With people opposed to sensible regulation the mission.
Climate Change denied and fracking enforced;
Stewardship in North Carolina has not been endorsed

Gerrymandering is a particular tempest
But we cannot wait for the 2020 census.
We need to work for nonpartisan redistricting
To change the egregious GOP districting.

Get all of your friends to register then
We’ll be ready to get the win!

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!

Climate Change Inaction

Environment

The USA is number two!
In carbon emitting
What to do?
China is one and India three,
And per capita output in each of these?
Why we are higher— all agree

Climate change is in our faces,
More drought and fire
Flooding in so many places.
Storms like Sandy,
Chaotic weather our state
Normal is gone;
Do we accept our fate?

The EPA is ready to act
With actions based on scientific fact,
Because Obama published a Climate Plan
That we can all support – yes we can!

We are beginning to see a world finally awake
To the urgency required for the planet’s sake.
A New York rally boasted a half million whose cries
Demanded action to prevent harm to our skies

Divestment of fossil fuel companies is in action
Despite the intransigence of Congressional factions.
Senate filibusters stop laws in their tracks
The House is no better blocked by tea party hacks

Congress is clearly stuck in the sand
Are we ready now to make our stand?
To thwart Congressmen who deny climate science
And change our carbon footprint in defiance?

We can take action to thwart this disaster
But we will have to get busy and plan the ouster
Of Senators and Congressmen who refuse to act.
Our votes are what’s needed to get them sacked.

For our children and grandchildren there is a yearning
To change the course of inevitable warming.

Are we ready to move?
Are we ready to take action?
Can we change the course?
Can we thwart the distraction?
Can we get back to governing?
To our own satisfaction?

What is the proper antidote?
Why we the people have to vote!