What are we doing?....What have we become?

 

We’re just gang banging…

 

Lampin’: Hanging out under a street-light, on gangsta turf

waitin’ for a Ghetto Star: A top street drug dealer

to drop some Elbow: A pound of drugs.

 

We got a Biscuit: a gat: a puppy: a pump: a nine:

That’s gun to a gangsta and that’s all fine.

 

We are On Point: getting ready to fight.

 

Drinking Milk: Code for targeting someone or killing a rival,

 

Ain’t scared –a-no-Hotel, or jail.

 

Hell Doin’ a Nickel or five years in prison, ain’t no big thang.

 

That kid on the corner or walkin’ down the middle of the street

done Jumped in:

He’s already taken his initiation beating.

 

He ain’t no Wanksta: a wannabe gangster,

He’s a Picasso:  He’ s good with a knife and he won’t hesitate to

do some serious slashing leaving another brother

lying in the street with a Buck Fifty: that’s 150 stitches.

 

What are we doing?....What have we become?

 

Long ago we declared war on drugs

it is a war we’re losing.

Illegal drugs are flooding into America

like never before. 

It’s nothing personal…it’s just business.

 

We are finally giving in and legalizing

some drugs – for (Medical Reasons) they want us to believe.

If you can’t beat ‘em

join ‘em and tax ‘em for it too.

 

We are overtaxed – underpaid – many of us

living in poverty or at the very least –

barely getting by.

And all along, the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

We are sick and tired of seeing people

standing on street corners with signs

begging for money,

 

We are sick and tired of not being able to

afford health coverage and we are sick and tired

of the Federal Government meddling in

what little coverage we do have.

 

We are sick and tired of hearing politicians

running for office promise to fight big government

because they think that’s what we want to hear.

We are sick and tired of our government

fighting amongst itself.

We are sick and tired of politicians

lying to us.

 

We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

 

Add to that the suppression of women’s health rights;

A group of women speak out against them,

and they are harassed, bullied,

and stalked for daring to do so.

Insults and death threats abound.

 

We want to dictate who someone should be allowed to love and marry.

We use our religion to base our judgment of the LGBT American Citizen.

We thump our Bible while using it to justify our ignorance.

 

We are rioting in the streets

we are at war with one another

Today we are looting and destroying businesses

that yesterday we supported -

All in the name of justice.

We are angry and we have been pushed to our limit.

 

We holler about our “God Given Right” to bear arms.

In the local shopping centers, armed citizens mill about.

We dine at restaurants with rifles on our back.

We hand out leaflets to motorists,

We get into arguments defending those rights.

 

We have to arm ourselves,

We have to have campus police..

We have to arm teachers in order to thwart

anyone -  and not just terrorists

but the ordinary American citizen

who finally snaps from all the craziness

and would massacre our schoolchildren.

 

What are we doing?....What have we become?

 

There are weapons of war on U.S. city streets

There’s something gut-wrenching about the photos.

We see police officers with powerful, military-style guns

from the roof of armored, military-style vehicles;

we see those officers pointing these weapons

at unarmed civilians.

 

Why do police need roof-mounted machine guns

on armored vehicles – weapons “built to fight a faraway war”

Why are they now turned homeward?

 

The Department of Homeland Security

encouraged militarization of police

through federal funds for (“terrorism prevention.” )

 

The armored vehicles, assault weapons, and body armor

borne by the police in our streets

are the fruit of turning police into soldiers.

 

It’s not that individual police officers are bad people

 – it’s that shift in the American culture of policing

that encourages officers to think of the people they serve

as enemies.

 

This is not some nameless Middle Eastern country,

torn apart by strife.

 

This is the United States of America.

 

What are we doing?...What have we become?