Dismantle the Hero: Part I

these men & women with guns
these hired killers
these individuals who walk with a flag tattooed on their arm
these nationalists by default
these tools of the great military-industrial complex
these robots who get wd-40 squirted on their gears
ever so often,
ARE
NOT
HEROES.

s/he whose statue sits in every country’s capital
displaying for all of its citizens
a visual representation of just what it takes
to sacrifice yourself completely
because others have told you to do so---
in one way or another,
those with property
those who wield power &
those who point the finger at the poor
telling us that 
if we worked harder that we could someday be like them,
it is THEY who have started the ball rolling in the mid east
it is THEY who sign the pointless papers which send off the sons & daughters of
the poor,
while never offering up themselves or their own kin for
target practice &
it is THEY who complain when others criticize 
what the massive killing force known as the US military
does in the rest of the world
by beating others senseless or dead
in the name of THEIR democracy.

start with dismantling this idea that to do the bidding of the rich
by grabbing a gun & allowing yourself to be sent to the next “enemy” of 
ours,
is not what it seems---
YOU ARE NOT A HERO
you are a target, a stopping point between those that the world policeman 
has beat so hard that they finally want to retaliate, because they see no other
recourse.

a decent person would flip those tables that sit at the bottom of the subway steps
in poor neighborhoods in this country---
a decent person would flip the tables and run the recruiters off the premises 
because they have no place in our communities
recruiting future cadavers.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2012



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Date: 1/16/2012 11:15:00 AM
wow, wonderful insight, Andrew... i'd never thought of it like that- Great poem! Love, J.
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