Divine Verdict
(By Walter Beck)
Our Bi Laureate at Rally Against HJR-6 Terre Haute, Indiana October 11, 2013
God won’t judge America for the millions of Native Americans slaughtered over the last 200 years.
He won’t judge her for the Trail of Tears,
He won’t judge her for smallpox-infected blankets,
He won’t judge her for the concentration camps of reservations
Or the current policy of elimination through poverty and starvation.
God won’t judge America for 89 years of slavery where millions of Africans were kidnapped and put on her plantations.
He won’t judge her for the whippings, brandings, and gags of chains & iron,
He won’t judge her for the families torn apart by the auctioneer’s gavel,
He won’t judge her for the women treated like breed cattle for the master’s bank account
Or the whitewashing of history 150 years later.
God won’t judge America for the millions of civilians killed overseas in collateral damage in her wars.
He won’t judge her for Japanese women raped in an orgy of victory at Okinawa,
He won’t judge her for little girls scorched with napalm in Vietnam,
He won’t judge her for aspirin factories and schools bombed in Iraq
Or for Marines who slaughtered innocents in Hadith.
God won’t judge America for children crying hungry in the richest nation in the world.
He won’t judge her for her youth forced to sell their bodies in the gutters,
He won’t judge her for the sneers and jeers her public gives to her poorest people,
He won’t judge her officials for slashing food stamps while increasing the number of bombs and bullets
Or for police arresting people who dared to feed the homeless.
God won’t judge America for her open worship of money, where CEOs and celebrities are idolized while millions struggle to pay the rent.
He won’t judge her churches sparkling with gold crosses and multi-million dollar sound systems,
He won’t judge her citizens for trampling people to death on Black Friday to get a better bargain,
He won’t judge her bosses for stealing wages right under the employees’ noses
Or for people selling themselves for fifteen minutes of reality fame.
God won’t judge America for politicians selling her lands to be polluted, for her rivers to run black and her skies to go gray from smog.
He won’t judge her for cancer caused by Koch Industries,
He won’t judge her for spinning in a post-truth society,
He won’t judge her for declaring that corporations are people too
Or for the “For Sale” sign pasted over her once proud democracy.
God won’t judge America for two hundred years of bloodshed and greed.
God won’t judge America for shattered lives and broken dreams.
God won’t judge America for blackened skies and hardened hearts.
God will judge America for two grown men kissing.