Decent People In Good Faith

Decent people in good faith

Sometimes engage in violence,

If it’s genuine, pure, if it helps

To fix a screwed up world.

Decent people in good faith

Get lied to, and then lie to us

So we don’t have to feel guilty,

Disappointed, but decent and good

No matter what. It’s a religion.

In school I heard the shot

Heard round the world, then fought

To make my mission a reflection

Of us, decent and good. Once

Upon a time these lands lacked

Liberation from idleness, only fauna

And flora, and Indians missing

Their chances, unaware of the gold

Beneath their camps, inside their pelt

And meat hunts.  Decent people

In good faith said, “There’s no

Stopping progress!” Epic bloodshed

Ensued, as if an ancient poem

Were taking place. In the aftermath,

Decent people in good faith

Tallied the dead, and decided

The price paid was worth it, and now

Going forward, let us all try hard

To relieve the suffering of the victims.

Decent people in good faith feel

The need to help the frail, those

Whose grasp of reality is in question,

Who might become decent too,

If they would only listen to us

And agree that our version is decent

And human, and whatever we do

We always do it in good faith.