O, say can you see?

The problems held within

They shine from sea to sea

Fights many just can’t seem to win

 

Unemployment’s through the roof

College debt is mounting high

Our healthcare crisis is proof

Many just barely make it by

 

“The Senate can’t pass anything!”

Many argue this is true

There’s many reasons to worry for things

Around the world that brew

 

Internally there’s strife

As elections turn hostile

Many worry about a life

In a system so fragile

 

But, there is something to say

For a country such as this

Where every single day

Kids have public school that they can’t miss

 

I can speak, inclined

In writing or online

I’m confident I won’t be fined

For speaking my own mind

 

I can vote in an election

To choose the leader of today

Or I can protest him who won

Quiet I do not have to stay

 

And the leaders of today

Have much they have to bear

Through the heap of complexities at bay

I hope our flag’s still there

 

I must admit I’m scared

And not so often optimistic

Our country is so erred

I must be realistic

 

But I must believe that there is hope

In a country still so young

That in this downward, spiraling slope

There must be good yet still among