The Dark Side of Patriotic Pride

"America the Beautiful"

We sing with pride

Yet we are blind

To our own dark side

People are starving for hope

Starving for a scrap of food

While the rich step on their backs

To gloat and they say,

"These wellfare people,

They're no good."

"America the Beautiful"

They cry, turning a blind eye

To the deafening cry

Of the hungry

The poor

The sick

The list goes on

Yet,

I could keep saying

These lines and the rich would only listen

Then yawn, as if they hear nothing at all

"America the Beautiful"

We try to sing with pride

While others are denied

The most basic right

To have pride in themselves

In their community

In their colors that proclaim 

"Love is Love, we are here,

And we will not give in to hate."

"America the Beautiful"

Is something I can no longer

Sing with pride

For I can have none

Until this broken country

Can rise again, as One