Stealers-Keepers Is Being Questioned
“Stealers-Keepers” Questioned
By Elton Camp
If something has been stolen long enough
Then is it all right simply to keep the stuff?
The Guggenheim some art to Italy has sent
Illicit when bought, they had more than a hint
To the original owner, stolen stuff should go
At least United States law tells everyone so
Demands of owners have museums in a scare
Requests for return of what shouldn’t be there
Greece for return of the Elgin Marbles does speak
The way England got them of larceny does reek
Egypt, country of origin of the Rosetta Stone
Says it was an outrage how it came to be gone
If your fine automobile some crook should steal,
What if you should spot the thief behind the wheel?
“That property’s mine and I absolutely want it back.
And from you, you thief, I want to hear no slack.”
Will Mexico perhaps someday make a similar claim
“For stealing half our whole country you are to blame.”
We were told of “Manifest Destiny” back in school
It made American imperialism sound sort of cool
It glosses over an exercise in raw military powers
“People, what you have is now going to be ours.”
If, to endorse this idea, yourself you did first find
Did the idea about Mexico then change your mind?
It’s easy to be in favor of justice in the abstract
Not as much in the face of an inconvenient fact
On these controversies, I take no particular side
Demands are intensifying and are harder to hide
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