In this holiday time, a repost of my 2006 poem seems to be appropriate.

Happy Holidays!!

 

And the Land Shall Be Made Good Again

George K. Staropoli, Copyright © 2006- 2017 George K. Staropoli

In the beginning

There was the land,

And the land was good

And the people were happy.

 

Soon upon the land

Came the moneychangers

In the guise of builders

Of the community.

 

And the moneychangers said

Behold, the covenants, conditions and restrictions

Were sacred and holy works,

And the people shall flourish and prosper.

 

And the legislature looked upon these CC&Rs

And said they were sacred and holy,

And that land values shall multiply ten-fold,

And the people shall flourish and prosper.

 

But the moneychangers were not content,

Seeking laws that forced the people

Against their judgment and wishes

Into mandated planned communities.

 

Soon, the multitude became angry at their plight,

Yet the moneychangers and legislature

Cast the people into involuntary servitudes

With continued tithes while disputes went unresolved.

 

The child-like people, seeking paradise

On earth and the gates of heaven,

Were not permitted audiences

With the magistrates.

 

And so the multitude suffered

A long and terrible time,

Praying for a savior one day

To deliver them from their existence.

 

One sect sought the accommodation

With the ruling powers and moneychangers.

Another sought a cleansing

Of an unworkable oppression upon the people.

 

Those seeking accommodation held fast to their desires

To see their fortunes on earth multiply ten-fold,

And that all such plans were good and just,

For the land values increased for all the community.

 

But many saw the desecration of the beliefs, values and ideals

Of the founders of the Great Nation that covered the land,

Saying behold the society that thou hast created,

Where Me First has replaced Love Thy Neighbor.

 

A babble of communities arose

By the followers of the moneychangers,

With beliefs, values and ideals of the Old Ways,

Once rejected by the Founders of the Great Nation.

 

Woe unto the followers of the moneychangers

For the sins of the fathers shall be cast upon the sons.

Repent now and restore the beliefs, values and ideals

Of the Great Nation and make the land good once again.