HEADLINE VIEWS
(Written 09/15 Based Upon Headlines For Weekend OF 09/12 - 14) 2008

Human error, an act of God,
An no faith in the economy -
A commuter train, A hurricane
And a page from Deuteronomy.

As politicians bicker
The stock markets ticker
Shows a flicker of fear -
And the headline news
Only hide the views
That "The signs of the times" are here.

What could people possibly be thinking
Who say, "Your end of the boat is sinking"?

In just one 48 hour span,
In Iran, Indonesia and Japan -
The Earth "quaked" in various places
Shattering more than just vases.

The tremors run through our tomorrows.
Like the beginning of our sorrows -
Blue chip stocks reduced to rubble
In the "Times of Jacob's Troubles:

Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers
Showed a weakness in the system -
Won't be long til some others
Wonder how they could have missed them.

The tears being shed for Lehman,
I guess people have forgotten, -
Had not started with "free-" men,
But a fortune made trading cotton.

Something wicked this way blows,
Storm clouds on the horizon -
The times of Jacob's Troubles
Should not be surprising.

I'm not trying to rattle nerves,
I hope no one feels disrespected -
I just hope this poem somehow serves
To show that we are "all connected."

You couldn't build prisons fast enough
Or throw up enough border fences -
Nor stop a moral decline with a handcuff,
It's time we all came to our senses.

Banks are nervous, people are scared.
Who has time for a "War on Terror" -
It's time the Gospel Truth be declared,
We've had enough of human error.

What could people possibly be thinking?
Could their heads be buried in the sand?
Who say, "Your end of the is sinking"
Could it be that they don't understand?

"That problems up there in the hill", They say
"We'll be safe down here in the Valley" -
Or "Our streets are safe above the fray,
The problems back there in the Alley."

My health insurance covered my kids shots,
They simply scheduled vaccinations,
While in the restaurant washing pots
With Hepatitis complications.

Is the guy who tossed her chef salad
With his slightly trembling hands, -
Because his "Green Card" was never valid
He can't get checked for his swollen glands.

She said, "My kids go to private school"
And she said this all rather proudly -
The "drop out" drug dealer calls her a fool,
And walks away laughing loudly

Her kids took her jewellery to the pawnshop,
When their allowance suddenly ran dry -
And tho they felt badly, they had to cop,
They couldn't face her if they weren't high

Whatever happens on that mountaintop,
Will surely roll down into the valley -
And your "safe streets" will never stop
The crimes born "back there" in the alley.

So now we chase the Taliban,
From the mountains of Afghanistan -
Across the border into Pakistan
How long until we bomb Iran!

People please! Come to your senses!
We need more than "border fences."
All this intrigue and suspense is,
Just a part of our recompenses.

"The people shall labor in vain
And the high gates shall be burned with fire."
That's a fact that was made so plain
Way back there in Jeremiah.

"They shall impoverish Thy fenced cities
Where in Thou trusted with the sword" -
Border patrols and vigilantes
Accomplish nothing without the Lord!

The front line in the "War on Terror"
Is in our hearts and in our minds.
To blame "Islam" would be an error
Like squeezing juice from the rinds

The rinds are just the cover
What's inside is the fruit -
You must dig deeper to discover
The basis for the bitter root.

It may seem like a mystery
When in fact it's crystal clear
Just take a look at history
Man - a bomb can't stop an idea

"Where do wars and fighting come for among you?"
Do they not spring from your own desires?
Or someone speaking another tongue, who
May have something the world desires.

As long as we continue to think
That only "our way" or thinking is best -
It will always bring us to the brink
Of waving swords as if we were possessed.

The stock market tanks, the major banks,
And investment firms begin to fail, -
The president says, "They're Sacrosanct"
And got the taxpayers to "put up bail".

Now taxpayers who can't pay their mortgages,
Pay to bailout investment banks, -
Digging out of debt the sand wedges
Finding spare changes to fill their tanks.

But now "who will guard the guardians"
Who have their hands deep in our pocket -
The last stand of the Republicans
Who take out future and just "Hock it"

They want to patch it up and hope it floats
Then jump the sinking ship like rats -
That way after the country votes
They can blame it on the Democrats.

I believe in the separation,
In theory, of church for the state -
But we must seek reconciliation
We have to differentiate.

The "word" says we must pray for our leaders,
I pray we get someone we can trust.
That way we as intercedes
Won't have to look away in disgust.

As their policies enrich their friends
While "We the People" bear the burden =
And their "means" just justify their "ends,"
Before "We" can even get a word in.

Our sons fight and die on foreign soil
As the victims of a great deception -
Turns out it was all about the oil
Just sleight of hand and misdirection.

The word "man" is the root of mankind,
But what kind of man would have expected -
That our roots were not all intertwined,
Overlapping and intersected.

If someone sneezes in Hong Kong
You can get ready for the Hong Kong flu -
Cause we swap diseases like ping pong,
That could land us is the I.C.U.