Democracy, government of the people
Maastricht, Euro, important questions
Issues that would have been rejected
By the who should have been asked:
The only sovereign in a democracy.
The sovereign was ignored to avoid
A vision destroyed.
A dream unfulfilled.
The sovereign - sacrificed to the dream of one.
The sovereign - sacrificed to an egomaniac´s vision.
Democracy, where are you ?

Honesty
Opposition criticises government, pretending to have alternatives.
Yet, when the opposition becomes government
They do it the same way as their predecessors.
They do the same things as their predecessors
And the show starts again, with different roles.
No alternatives, at all.
Your veils are seen-through, your lies are detected.
Stop pretending, lay your hypocrisy aside
Stop lying – but this is something that will not happen.
Honesty, where are you ?

Change
No more monarchs, no more court jesters.
Policy for the care of the people, they claim.
Yet, those in parliament
Sit in their own world, care about themselves
And fool the people.
The people are the court jesters
Of those elected, to the court of politicians.
The sovereign is the court jester of those
Employed by the sovereign.
Change, where are you ?

Tolerance
Discrimination is the word.
No matter where, when and which kind:
Racial, sexual, religious, the list goes ever on.
They say that things have been improved.
The tune we are marching to is the same
Only the direction has changed.
This is praised as a change.
This is praised as an improvement.
And where are the true changes, the true improvements ?
Tolerance, where are you ?

Justice
Someone guilty of making pirate copies
Is sentenced like someone who
Deals with drugs, rapes women, abuses children.
They all have to be tried an punished, no doubt about that.
The relations, however, are distorted:
Financial damage weighs as much
As souls destroyed, as lives ruined.
“Justice” – an empty word, meaningless, just a cynicism.
“Justice” – unwelcome, not desired, driven away.
Justice, where are you ?

Respect
Terrorism,
Fanaticism,
Oppression,
El Kaida, Hamas, IRA
Whatever else may be their names.
Killing the innocent, in the name of whatever…
Nothing but hatred and contempt
Against those only guilty of
Having been born to “the other side.”
Respect, where are you ?

Future
Corruption in highest positions
Economy on its downfall
Environment, dying
Dog eat dog, the globe a kennel.
Greed of those who have it all.
Children trained to hate and kill.
The present, the now, needs to be altered
Yet, no one makes a start - thus, no one can follow.
The course remains the same - destination apocalypse.
Future…. where are you ?

(© Sparrowhawk, November 2004)