An American Toast

"An American Toast" © 2015 America, rise! / The hour's at hand. / You must take back your faith, / Your way of life and the land. From these small-shouldered men / Who cry you oppress, / Stick their chins in the air / And insist they know what's best. They confiscate and scold / In equality's name. / They claim freedom and justice / Are theirs to proclaim. Your schools they've corrupted / And your culture debased. / Now hearth and home's the front line / And there's no time to waste. So unfurl the flag / If free you will stay. / Reach over the mantle / And on bended knee pray. Then swarm from the cobbles / Up from the ploughs charge, / And let the battle begin. For America ~ As it once was. As it should be. As it shall be again. One day a couple of years ago, I looked around and realized that the country I loved and grew up in, the country that I planned to pass on to my own children, was under attack and being systematically undone. The things we had always held sacred had become punchlines where they were not targeted for outright destruction. Everything was for sale. Right and wrong were negotiable. And the accumulation of power, publicity, and more "stuff" was all that mattered. Our leaders were consumed with lining their pockets and making the cover of People while the working and middle classes who were the heart of the nation were being crushed and squeezed out of existence. Spontaneously, I uttered: "America, rise up. The hour's at hand. You must take back your faith, your way of life and the land." Another moment and I whispered, "America ~ As it once was. As it should be. As it shall be again." With a little extra thought, time, and tinkering, I filled the spaces and "An American Toast" was born. And I knew that I had to put its inspirational last lines on the lips of every American who will has had enough.