QUIET VIOLENCE

Written By Al Staggs

by Al Staggs

Structures of gross inequality

push their weight against our citizens.

Freedom is only a word, not a reality.

Capitalism is holding liberty hostage.

Lower our flags to half mast,

for symbolism without substance

is a farce and a tragedy.

The most damaging violence in this society

comes from the perpetrators

of its lethal structures of tax cuts,

hedge funds, prime mortgages,

inflated incomes and excessive luxury

for those perpetrators, the super-rich,

while the rest of us are powerless

to change our economic fate.

Financial structures of this nature

are always legal, though seldom moral.

It boils down to 21st-century slavery,

and perhaps only another civil war

could free the economically enslaved

from this extraordinary and cruel inequality.

Originally published in Mammon We Trust

Al Staggs

Alfred “Al” Staggs combines his artistic talents as a performing artist, author, and poet with his years as an ordained minister and chaplain to speak to justice issues in his several dramatic one-man plays of heroes of the faith such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Clarence Jordan, William Sloane Coffin, and more. He has authored five books including What Would Bonhoeffer Say?, A Pilgrim in Rome, and Fragments of Life. He uses his story of growing up in a dysfunctional home, his degrees in psychology, and theology, and training in humor therapy to touch audiences with his Laughter for Life program, impersonating many beloved and infamous characters.

https://www.peacewithjustice.com/
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