Each day, down at the courts,
We elders shmooze.
A harmless bunch,
We argue sports,
And politics,
Watch the girls go by,
And reminisce.
One day, an elder
Blew the cool
That age tends to invoke,
And emailed everyone he knew
Demanding that we boycott
A film because
Jane Fonda played a role.
Why? Because, disturbed,
She went to North Viet Nam,
Risked her life and status
Many years ago,
Attempting to assuage
Her country’s and her own
Bruised conscience.
That foolish elder fell
Before one mindless principle:
“Our country! In her intercourse
With foreign nations,
May she always be in the right;
But our country, right or wrong.”
“Wrong,” I guess, just doesn’t count.
The famous actress,
Driven by morality,
Believed: “My country, right or wrong;
If right, to be kept right;
And if wrong, to be set right.”
Who do we honor—amoral nationalists
Or a courageous woman, firm to set us right?
Who, finally, is the betrayer
Of everything America professes to portray—
The defender of an ugly
And illegal war that killed
Fifty-eight thousand U.S. troops,
Or the brave actress
Who condemned that ugliness?
(8/28/13)