And Create a New World

Who decided America's

beauty should be hidden

beneath asphalt and concrete?

Profit motives serve up

excuses for the swallowing

of all natural, pastoral

pleasures by corporations,

cities and suburbs.

What happened

to the wide frontier?

It seems to be missing

along with the teeming

herds of prairie wildlife

that once scattered

across the open plains.

When did this nation stop

being Woody Guthrie's

promised legacy, your

land and my land?

As fences caged

wilderness, reining

freedom of movement

and lifestyle, individual

choices and opportunities

narrowed into servitude

to one corporate

master or another.

Where does all poison

polluting our rivers

originate and spread?

Dams wall up

waterways fish travel

to spawn and feed,

while factories dump

their sludge and cities

flush chemical waste

right into the aortal

veins of earthly life,

lapping genetic deformity

and pestilence up

against muddy shores.

How can so many

just sit back and allow

so few to set every

agenda and determine

the world's future?

The power of change

vests in the crowds

who gather together

and speak with one

voice, creating a clamor

which cannot be ignored

as they pile out

of offices and cease

filing income taxes -

standing up to wealth

and looking suffocating

waste and consumerism

right and the eye

as they boldly cry out

"I'm mad as hell

and I'm not gonna

take it anymore."

Why is it all we hear

spoken anymore

are discouraging words?

From newscasters

to radio personalities

to politicians to bloggers

to everyone on the street,

didactic opinion unwilling

to listen to anyone else

dominates the American

soundscape, promoting

one point of view

or another, but always

serving the personal

interests of some group

of the wealthy class.

No one seems to understand,

acquiescence is acceptance,

and the failure to take back

your own birthright: freedom,

liberty, natural beauty, a clean

and pristine landscape

with a widely diverse

teeming wildlife, cooperation

of effort for the benefit

of everyone, peace and security

without violence, eradication

of all weapons of mass destruction,

yes the failure to demand

and obtain hope for tomorrow

through true human destined

legacy is your own doing

and expresses greed and lust

and envy and anger and pride

and laziness and gluttony -

and you raise them to the nth

degree of exponential power

as humanity overpopulates

the planet like a virus or cancer;

yet, the mass of you together

can change course anytime

you decide you want

and create a new world.

The phrase, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore," is a quote from the 1976 released and copyrighted movie "Network," produced by Howard Gottfried for MGM, written by Paddy Chayefsky, and directed by Sidney Lumet and is used without anyone's permission.