Re-Reading Whitman

Our leaders lack us, the people we once were, the people we were meant to be.

We no longer understand them, our leaders, nor do they understand us.

At best the national consciousness is a circus, at its worst a crime.

It’s high time for the hard stuff, not liquor or marijuana but meditation.

True calm instead of collective restiveness.

Positive new policies, crafted diligently, from open windows, open doors, north, east, south, west, a re-writing of the declaration of independence

Fresh breezes of light from coast to coast.

Take those deeper and deeper breaths, silently saying ‘no’ to the all the liars while loving them.

Then out loud, in unison, agreeing in our many disagreements that we are one.

No state secrets, no lies, no perfidy, no elections that favor the naïve or the cunning.

Laws that mean justice and justice that follows the law.

Come back antiquity, raise a glass, allow Plato to denounce democracy.

The object is not to try to be another person, the lesson is to be yourself.

A civics lesson is never ending.

On the blackboard the young schoolteacherr is still writing…