Not like the lady born of hope and trial,<\/p>\n
Who lit a torch for those who dared to stand\u2014<\/p>\n
Here looms a clerk with open coffers wide,<\/p>\n
A crown of forms, a leash held in her hand.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She lifts no lamp for freedom\u2019s restless soul,<\/p>\n
But waves a check and promises a plan;<\/p>\n
Her flame is debt, her beacon eligibility,<\/p>\n
Her name: The Provider of the Damned.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cCome not to build, nor strive, nor stand alone,\u201d<\/p>\n
She drones from towers financed by the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cBring me your needs, your claims, your<\/p>\n
grievances\u2014 We\u2019ll feed them all. Independence can wait.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Give me your tired, your poor? No\u2014give me more:<\/p>\n
Give me the idle, the angry, the trained to ask.<\/p>\n
Give me the masses taught that want is power,<\/p>\n
And power comes from wearing down the task.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Send me the hopeful and I\u2019ll make them clients,<\/p>\n
Send me the free and I\u2019ll make them depend.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll trade them wages for permanent aid,<\/p>\n
And bind them close till the system must bend.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here laws are softened, borders redefined,<\/p>\n
For need alone now grants the right to stay.<\/p>\n
Remain, enroll, comply, repeat the oath\u2014<\/p>\n
The state will live for you. The state will pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
No door is golden now, but staffed and slow,<\/p>\n
No welcome earned, but processed and approved.<\/p>\n
I lift no lamp for liberty\u2019s escape\u2014<\/p>\n
I raise a bill. The nation is removed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When night falls quiet on the harbor stone,<\/p>\n
And ledgers sleep where once a torch was raised,<\/p>\n
She feels the weight of what her arm has lost<\/p>\n
And hears the echo of a braver age.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not cast to promise comfort first,<\/p>\n
But risk, resolve, and freedom hard-won, earned.<\/p>\n
I stood for men who asked for independence alone\u2014<\/p>\n
Now I stand still, while liberty is burned.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
BRING BACK LIBERTY!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"