Jeff McCallum

I don't condone bricks or bags of urine being tossed, sensless acts, like blocking the entry to a hospital or the street in front of a fire station, thoughtless; the very fear of violence has kept many regimes in power. Our voices need to be heard, not our actions condemed.

If violence

were not the fear

would helicopters

be disturbing the day

Labor Day

not so coincidently

If violence were not the threat

would we be not so similar

to a developing nation

try to shake the shackles of a regime

that tortured

killed

had secret police and prisons

and this is not the election

just a convention of like mind people

condoning a limited curtailing

of the Bill of Rights

or the freedoms they guarantee

If violence

were off the table

would the police dogs return

to snarl and snack on protesters

desiring only that their voice be heard

that freedom reign

that The Dream be actualized

Labor Day in St. Paul

Helicopters hover

or crisscross the neighbourhood by day

disturbing the peace

Sirens shatter almost perfect late summer evenings

as storm troopers rush to arrest

potential problems

A bus load of Americans

get a glimpse of Palestine

as they gather their belongings

and walk to their destination

the Holocaust comes alive

in that small way of beginnings

as gathering places are chained

people detained

searched

catalogued

Journalists are herded

harassed

handcuffed

as they gather in a garden

hungry for change

A warrant was signed by a judge

certainly not Solomon

appointed

as keeper of the status quo

Are they voices in the wind

swallowed by the mainstream media

or portend of things to come