inalienable rights

a defiant stand in verse. In ink, Dabbler

"as words fall like glass from politician’s lips" These words might be promises yes?, falling like glass that is easily broken. "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" Thomas Jefferson Gritty write frost

A voice, statement and truth eloquently and directly stated. It is one thing to applaude the courage and honour the deaths of our young people sent to fight wars for corporate bosses and profits. It is quite another to say stop this madness! It must not happen! We don't believe your lies any more. cheers, Jess

well after the m-16 Mattel rifles m-15s and "Roach's" famous grenade launching they dont use bayonets they do use boys My mother indoctrinated us to the horrors of war at twelve crying and asking us if we would kill when we became of age they already lived through World War Two Korea and then Vietnam I was for country My brother was not Freedom so we can continue to consume fossil fuels freedom so we can continue to Harmoginize a kind of equality in the vitality of zeal that is not bred but soaked in the blood of birth and raised by hate and might of something mightier after watching U tube footage of enemy fighters using a compact car as a moving mortar gun position on a US base and continuing to watch the madness I can only forsee a non ending conflict in wich the result will be increased cost of both fuel and young blood Your Poem stikes to the heart of mothers fathers and young persons Bravo

My mother, who has been a law abiding Christian citizen all her life has said she would lie and go to gaol rather than see any of her children or grandchildren sent to war. cheers, Jess

well written piece... should be forwarded to all political blogs on the net.. because it isn't just you that feels this way, but you sure can say it eloquently... much enjoyed and agreed with your poem.. Richard

and daughters shed thier blood, dying for some calculated political chess match, only to win or lose, then simply reset the board and do it again. One thing as certain as life and death is, there will always be war. Touching write, Mark

Like an arrow to the heart. What a mad, insane and cruel world we live in. No punches pulled. Powerful writing. Best wishes ... Leonard

Such beauty in your words, to describe a terrible situation "Innocence is served by the wicked shards scattered upon the land of the free" AMEN and BRAVO

This should be forwarded immediately to Dubya and Cheney. Outstanding job done here, and a very big congrats on spotlight. Bring the boys (and girls) home! ~Jess K. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ~ "Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer!" ~ "Your inferiority complex is better than mine!"

Very well done, and so deserved, thoughts shared by many in the U.K, we have been calling for our men for some time, Greed and dictation is a cruel way to lead, Let me say this, had it not been for oil to be involved, this would never have happened, Take Care Ronda, Very Best Regards Peter ~~~~~~~~~Creativity Is to think more efficiently~~~~~~~~~~

Very powerful write. Good structure and very passionate. Rett: They say that money talks. Sadly, my wallet has laryngitis!

Well they actually could get the Enola Gay flying again if need be and as far as I know "Old Ironsides" just needs rigging and sails and a crew however it is in my impression that we Canadians in the Peaceke---ohh no wait War in Afghanistan are using German Made Leopard Tanks so they are just using their effeciency to be "against everyone" Swiss can be said maybe to be peaceful but Lo there is a barrier to what colour what belief what race and Wars sigh* we are men men fight wars Women did too and are again and have been there alonside the men Masada Civil-War (woman hid her identity and fought like a man and even got a pension years later pretty good) We tend to obliterate and consume or shove but above all proliferate more then we can kill each other off over name brands or God or any other idiocies not eveyone is a corporate dick and there are lots of people who do live in peace and create new cool inventions to help people in true need So far as far as we crush we enhance and breath life into Australlia did all the aboriginals a hard go of it Official apologys now Cant live without guns even Star Trek had its body count phasers and aliens and Tasers in this country seem to kill just as dead as a well aimed bullet by a trained peace/police officer I dont have a gun but if a raging mob was coming up #11 for my city here I would get at least a handy club to defend my Lori and her children should they be threatened I guess two airplanes in eight years and three thousand some odd horrible deaths in a few hours was a pretty good hit Much like Pearl Harbour But Hey guess whos making the number one cars now in this country In less then a century even but also in less then two hundred a black man here may become president Mr Lincoln did not die in Vain its just in us to compete aggresively i think only viruses are the other comparable yah its endless this debate so is wars (but watch it if people start coughing and dying around you My bets on the bug more then man for the Big End!)

and yes I loved that odd strange story about floods and survival the figure escaping the jail the Bootheel king the pyro and the fool the tragic members who bid goodnight to rotes stage of writers and here we are New Orleans Big Sur Fires Bird Flue epidemics and soldier wars and biker wars basic man against everything including the virus of Kings story Made me read many books on Virology I am well read!!! and that includes this site too yah my parents loved me and cared for me so I got to read and hang around home until late in life only late i got to hit the road and meet the dumpsters food banks soup kitchens grifters and hustlers and i have not slept now for about thirty some hours maybe it shows but will be okay soon I will come down from the moon its dreams I fear not the dark

Blood flows in the shape of stars and stripes this line stands out among all of the excellent lines. Your poem is outstanding. I cannot add anymore then already has been said.without being redundant. Bravo wonderful work Chrystalie

but I do not totally agree. The Stars and Stripes are being hunted by fanatical madman... should we not try to stop them? America is NOT the problem. I won't respond to any of the hundereds of comments I'm sure to provoke here. Not my intention, and certainly not on Rhonda's page. If you must reply, send me a private message...but I do not intend to reply or allow this debate to escalate as did "A Painting..."

Strive always for peace, but somewhere there will always be war. Sad reality. Thank you for your bold, unabashed stand, as a mother, citizen and a human being. Your anger, our anthem. Very powerful write Ronda. Yours, Frangipangi "write,write,write catapult the people into a writhing, raging force for change write,write,write sweetly lullabye the safe babes to slumber" Fran Gipangi

Where power corrupts,poetry cleanses.

I do not agree that boys do the work of men in war. They do the work of fools. Yours in peace, (Cynthia McKinney for president) Synchro

Ronda, this is for all posters on your piece. I enjoyed the write but the ensuing conversations have inspired this little rant. Entertainment. This is war. Boredom. This is war. Honor, virtue, protest. These too are war. I did not ask to be a human. Did you? We must decide whether procreating is worth the risk. The risk of being a mother or father, with a child. A child that can be described as a commodity for the state. A weapon of war. A good tax payer. A consumer. You push them into careers, even if you say they can do whatever makes them happy. You still want them to HAVE. Luxury and comfort cost us so much pain. Decadence and scientific advancement cost us so much pain. Discovery and brotherhood cost us so much pain. Are you that protest war ready to relinquish these habits and addictions? Are you that support war ready to admit these inspirations and excuses? I once screamed "What about Peace?" from the top of my Neopoet mountain. But I have had an epiphany. Only shaking the Etch-a-Sketch will achieve peace. An efficient virus such as Ebola is peace. Our understanding of peace is based on a set of virtues that seek rewards. Rewards as simple as gasping oxygen are still selfish. I want peace. Even if I or my loved ones do not reap the benefits of it. Even if we are dead. Did you ask to be human? Do you ask to remain human everyday? Perhaps you do. Perhaps this is why peace will not stand naked before us. Peace should be for all forms of life if it is to exist. Humans are so ethnocentric. Can you even define peace without envisioning how great it would feel for you and your own? To HAVE. -Daniel

for this poem, Ronda, you deserve accolades of praise: this courageous personal statement against the institutional evil that are sending young men and women to die grisly deaths for the benefit of the psychopathic few. And I wouldn't be deterred by some of the comments made about how "history is full of war: big deal. I mean, that may be true, yet I can't help thinking it is another cerebral excuse we make as Americans to reject the painful recognition that we are behaving like monstrous bullies and imperialists. It is another excuse for resignation in the face of Moloch. Great poem! GB

He (or perhaps she) really hits it squarely. I too, resent the philosophy that "it has always been that way and always will be"...which does not speak to the issue at all. We are the change we need...always! Your conclusion is a killer. Congrats, Quill! Yours in peace, (Cynthia McKinney for president) Synchro

This just makes me feel feelings I didn't know I had. Powerful and riviting through me. IMO a masterpiece Mark

are a lady with great thought i admire you , you are sensible yet not cold in the way you write, that is good to me, your words have sprung from the page and swept my apathy away, you have given me force-