When Asked Why America Fell

When asked why America fell, they will say…

We spent too much time worrying about our guns

And too little worrying about our children’s education

We gave too much credence to men who had read one book

And far too little to those who had read many

We spent too much time trying to regulate people

And not nearly enough regulating our economy

We screamed constantly about being overtaxed

And never realized most were simply underpaid

We silenced our voices, hearts and minds

And spoke, felt and thought only what we were told

We vilified, crucified, the intellectuals and educated

And raised in their places those who spoke with slogans and smiles

We mistook fanaticism and pandering for toughness

And called toughness tyranny

We marched, step-lock, to those at the extremes

And called compromise cowardice

We neglected the long-term survival of the nation

For the brightest, shiniest distractions of the present

We fought too hard against the things that didn’t matter

And never, ever hard enough for the things that did

We were unwilling to sacrifice freedom at any cost

Except where the price was paid by others

We spent all our time pointing at problems

And none of it coming up with solutions

We let those in power convince us we couldn’t change a thing

Rather than reminding them often enough that we could

When asked why America fell, they will say…

We gave up, one by one,

In fear of the world and each other,

The strength of our unity

The power of our innovation

The protection of the weak

The checking of the strong

And the voice of our nation