I sing of Patriots loud and dumb:

Those who cry “We love our country!”

But freeze to the spot, silent,

When asked to sing

                     Or hum

                     Or whistle

The Star Spangled Banner

Or God Bless America

I sing of Patriots loud and dumb:

Those who won’t listen to criticism of Bush

But can’t tell you for sure what he’s done

Besides September Eleventh

             The War on Iraq         

             The Patriot Act

And even then they’re spouting off names

Without understanding what’s happening

I sing of Patriots loud and dumb

And I cry because I sing

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I hope that this is clear, but I’ll say it just in case: I’m not talking about the Patriots sports team (I don’t even know what sport they play!).  I’m talking about the people that wave their flags and shout racial slurs and bash Muslims and Liberals without even knowing what they’re talking about, accusing all these groups of being anti-American.  And even worse are the members of that horrible group of people whom, when asked basic facts about their country—the words to the pledge, the words to the Star Spangled Banner, how many stripes are on the flag, what the Emancipation Proclamation is—are left with dumb stares and no words.  Those people make me angry, and I’m sorry to have ranted about it here.  I hope you enjoyed the poem.

- - - - - -

I hate to do this, but since my reviewer was Anonymous (show some spine and leave an e-mail address, people!), I have nowhere to reply except here.  I apologize, and maybe I’ll turn this into an essay or something later to that the person who attacked my poem might actually read this.

“Oh please, your hypocrisy makes me sick. Quick question: Who accused opponents of being un-American: Teresa Heinz Kerry or Laura Bush? Surprise-surprise, it's Kerry. The fact that you can be so damn STUPID as to call others ignorant when you're so disturbingly UNAWARE of the situation yourself. I bet you can't tell me ONE THING the Patriot Act ACTUALLY DOES (besides the demonizing 'restricting our freedoms' tripe the democrats have forced down our throats.) Honestly, whenever I try to debate it with someone, they name all these things that fall under other laws.
In other words: Stop trying to stand on the moral high ground, you self-contradicting idiot. We know you like to portray Bush-supporters as blindly obedient republicans, but the fact is that more often than not, Bush-opposers are blindly enraged democrats who can't think clearly enough to push a solid policy speech past their mush-mouthed FACES. The only thing we know about Kerry is 'he wouldn't do things the way Bush did them' and yet somehow he remains ahead in the polls, thanks to you hypnotized, ignorant sheep, who think they're thinking independently. Idiots.
Oh, and this isn't a poem, loser. This is an opinion chopped into a poem in an act of incredible arrogance and pretentiousness. God, I hate people like you.”

Okay.  I said the poem was vaguely anti-Bush, but I never specified that I was talking about Republicans in my poem, and there’s a reason for that: I wasn’t talking about just Republicans!  I’ve encountered people like I described everywhere, and they weren’t all Republicans!  A lot of them were, but I live in central Texas, so that’s only to be expected.  Others have labeled themselves as any number of the following: Democrats, Liberals, swing-voters, and Independents.  Quite a few of the rest of them said they “just didn’t care about politics one way or the other.” 

This was not an attack on Republicans.  It wasn’t a political attack at all, or at least it wasn’t intended to be.  It was an attack on people who got into this great sense of patriotism after September 11th—and that was great—but then corrupted and misused it.  It’s an attack on the people who started thinking that anyone worshiping at a Mosque was automatically a terrorist, or that everyone in the Middle-East is looking forward to America’s downfall and suffering.  Those are the people I’m attacking, not the Republicans.  I do wonder, however, just why you automatically jumped to the conclusion that I was attacking you and your political party.  Guilty conscience on your part, perhaps?

Oh, and just to let you know: I never said I was an expert on the Patriot Act.  In fact, I only know a limited amount about it, and I certainly couldn’t hold my own in a “debate” about it.  I do, however, know more about it than a lot of people I’ve encountered where I live, and that’s just sad.  I do know it does mention the following, however: discrimination.

SEC. 102. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONDEMNING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ARAB AND MUSLIM AMERICANS.

(a) FINDINGS- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, and Americans from South Asia play a vital role in our Nation and are entitled to nothing less than the full rights of every American.

(2) The acts of violence that have been taken against Arab and Muslim Americans since the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States should be and are condemned by all Americans who value freedom.

(3) The concept of individual responsibility for wrongdoing is sacrosanct in American society, and applies equally to all religious, racial, and ethnic groups.

(4) When American citizens commit acts of violence against those who are, or are perceived to be, of Arab or Muslim descent, they should be punished to the full extent of the law.

(5) Muslim Americans have become so fearful of harassment that many Muslim women are changing the way they dress to avoid becoming targets.

(6) Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent, who is believed to have gone to the World Trade Center to offer rescue assistance and is now missing.

(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS- It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans, including Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, and Americans from South Asia, must be protected, and that every effort must be taken to preserve their safety;

(2) any acts of violence or discrimination against any Americans be condemned; and

(3) the Nation is called upon to recognize the patriotism of fellow citizens from all ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.

See that?  They wrote that for a reason, and the reason is what I was replying to or attacking.  Notice I didn’t just list all of the “privacy invasions?”  I did that for a reason: I don’t think that the Patriot Act is completely bad, I just don’t agree with all of it.  At least I checked into it myself, if only a little bit.  I know a lot of people—Republicans and Democrats—that didn’t.

Am I still so much of a hypocrite?