We March

We march to overturn past elections. We march for the opportunity to re-fight past wars. We march for the Constitution, now in tatters. We march for capitalism, now discredited. We march for our educational system, now corrupt. We march to demonstrate our reawakening to the political process. We march to reassert what’s left of our political power. We march.

We’ve overslept; we’ve failed to heed the alarms. We look at the clock. We’ve missed our train. Now we march.

The sun is already high over the horizon; we march to put the genie back into the bottle. Common sense tells us it cannot be done. We know we must start again at the beginning. We must start at ground zero. Our enemies have had a head start by about 40 years or so.

We march. We know that in order to save ourselves we must catch up. We must rally our troops. We recognize our disadvantage; the impossibility of what still lies ahead, demanding to be done. Still, we march.

Despite the long odds, we also recognize that we have allies. We have the numbers; we have our tradition; we have the truth on our side. The truth always wins out, they say. This gives us comfort. This alone makes the attempt worthwhile.

No great cause is achieved (or maintained) without sacrifice; without effort. We’ve been lazy – running on fumes; on the sweat and sacrifice of our forefathers. We’ve had to do nothing for a very long time. And nothing is exactly what we did. It’s brought us to this point; it’s brought us Obama; it’s emboldened those who would seek us harm.

They, on the other hand, have not been asleep. They’ve plotted and planned. They’ve taken baby steps that have gathered into miles – steps we have consistently ignored or swept under the proverbial rug. Now we’ve been forced to move – cast out of our own house and into the house of a stranger. The moving van is outside, waiting. The carpet goes too. We roll it up and are forced to confront all the broken things underneath it: the Constitution; our educational system; our foreign policy; our free-market economy; our legal system; our melting pot; our morality; our capacity for ignoring important things.

Now we march. We take the first step. We hope. We pray. God helps those who help themselves, they say. We pray it’s not too late.

God’s speed, marchers!