Falwell's downfall

The oath of Chastity at Liberty

To students is transparently a ruse

The Falwells' marriage keeps their love-life free

the student-body's their's for private use.

Endorsing TrumptyDumpty quashed the tale

that Michael Cohen meant to publicize.

For Jerry Falwell, everything's for sale,

the truth no less than any practiced lies.

A university should form adults

participating in a nation's life.

But Falwell's enterprise seems more a cult

 procuring meat to sate his cougar wife.

Humiliation's just what he enjoys,

but satisfying her needs troops of boys.

Ekev III

transactional theology's a crock;
God's not a butler, coddling your desire.
No human logic--much less Mr. Spock--
finds Springtime rains in goats consigned to fire.
Societies of angels need no rules;
Karl Marx explained the state itself away.
But to accommodate both saints and fools,
we still need codes, and people must obey.
When Job got tzurres that he'd never earned,
compounded by three friends who thought they're wise
God scoffed at what these three thought they had learned;
their victim-blaming schemes he labeled "lies".
Adults who spurn Ekev's stark quid-pro-quo
when raising children, still profess it's so.

schooled

His parents found that Don lacked discipline,
so packed him off to military school
where spare-the-rod's accounted as a sin,
and no one's paid to tolerate a fool.
We don't know what first tripped his folks' alarm
to think the beatings'd do the putz some good.
Psychiatrists attest there's lasting harm;
years later, spankings still give Donnie wood.
His cabinet's stocked in patina'ed brass
who like to think he--sometimes--reads reports.
But Don daydreams they'll keep him after class,
to drum the lesson in on his damp shorts.
Despite his party's homophobic norm
Trump can't resist a man in uniform.

"Chairman Un" (sic)

Pompeo flubs addressing Chairman Kim
How's his first name the same as his old man's?
This Harvard lawyer's more than slightly dim,
but Kochs--at least--remain his ardent fans.
Machinists fabricating aircraft doors
need more experience, and less degrees.
But now he's getting us into new wars,
there's still no evidence of that JD.
To graduate West Point, first in his class
perhaps he seemed more clever in his youth.
But presently, he seems an arrant ass,
and fails consistently to speak the truth.
Of all the candidates from which to choose,
Trump picked a sycophant who reads no news.

insecure

Rex Tillerson's the best that Donald's named
outstanding in the company he keeps
a better man than he would be ashamed
a veritable prince among these creeps
Trump's cabinet disdains to regulate
they long for broad horizons, a wild West
in Trade, or Education, even State
the Donald's confidant he knows what's best
unfettered and unsupervised to boot
invoking magic of the "Market Force"
regressing to the age of Hawley-Smoot
he'd hand the profiteers keys to the source
this cabinet's stocked from the bottom shelf
'cause he'll hire no one smarter than himself

poorly-educated

For want of values, Trump relies on price;
one number represents all things on Earth.
A one-D system that cannot suffice
to weigh a counselor's, or plan's true worth.
His cabinet owns half a continent
and sees high office as a path to more.
Strange "public servants" who'd be quite content
to turn a profit sending kids to war.
The Wharton years were wasted on this creep
no education swelled his head, or heart.
Beyond arithmetic, it's all too deep
for one so smugly certain he's so smart.
For those with eyes, catastrophe's on tap
Trump's navigating by a pre-school map.

transitions

without the boob-tube, can kids socialize?
they try for "snarky" but come off as cute
they might be Amish in their classmates' eyes
deficiency in smalltalk leaves them mute
a childhood spent in mountains, surf and streams
builds broader shoulders and expands the soul
that atrophies on endless glowing screens
that don't teach one gross motor self-control
and languages, and instruments to play...
both ends of their brief candle have to burn
there aren't enough hours in a day
for all the stuff they're told they have to learn
the old refrain that Plato might have sung
we learn too late; youth's wasted on the young

societal values

Norwegians' faith in Justice is so sweet
that even for the most horrific crime
if rehabilitation is complete
they'll free a Breyvik when he's done his time
while here, we stock warehouses of young men
expensive boarding schools for doing wrong
they're felons by the time they've left the Pen
who only went in for a joint, or bong
but Sanders was blocked by the DNC
his call for Justice barely reached the Press
discussing what our nation ought to be
deemed less news-worthy than Trump's truthiness
we blow a fortune propagating crooks
who ought to be in school, digesting books

media's monster

astonishingly, Trump's still in the race
his backwards-looking cult of the Great Past
appeals to his uneducated base
who see their dominance is fading fast
the vision Sanders offered moved the youth
who saw this country could be so much more
but this election's not about the Truth
unChristian mobs just want to blame the poor
the menu's fixed, it's Trump or Hillary
and voters don't trust either one of those
to plot out nation's new trajectory
election day, they'll stay away in droves
the demagogue our Founding Fathers feared
stepped forth as journalism disappeared

on one foot

"in brief, what's God's demand?" the stranger asked
Shammai dismissed him, brandishing a stick
Hillel acknowledged teaching's his life's task
and summarized Halakhah double quick
divinity's indwelling in us each
it's not just in a book, or in the sky
it's in your neighbor's face, within your reach
it's here and now, not waiting 'til we die
Olam haBah's constructed day by day
it's not a destination for the End
just as you'd treat a trave'ler on the way
is what you can expect from kin, or friend
Shammai laughs last, millennia of fools
have studiously smothered love, in rules

corrupted texts

triumphalism warps our teaching texts
real history includes what we've done wrong
the causes get divorced from the effects
mere lyrics in a silly children's song
internment camps must never be forgot
what in good conscience no law could allow
how farmers had to leave their crops to rot
and sweat the war-years out in the hoosgow
if we're the sov'reigns here, we need to read
the sins our fathers wrought, not just the good
ideals they didn't manifest in deed
although they knew what it was that they should
the whitewashed version helps kids sleep at night
but doesn't educate them to what's right

Nature and Nurture

dual legacies in proteges and blood
we live in those we've taught and those we've spawned
when tongue and heart are silenced in the mud
to never rise and greet another dawn
a teacher, like a parent never dies
like waves that neve wholly come to rest
constraining future options in their lives
each fledgling goes imprinted from the nest
we're shaped by culture no less than by genes
and each mutates, 'though one goes fast, one slow
'though Dawkins likes us to mere machines
we're not just what we are, but what we know
the time biologists would call a blink
spans generations where we learned to think

callous

Katehi doused the kids with pepper spray
who dared align themselves with OCCUPY
she told her cops to make them go away
by irritating nose and throat and eye
the video went viral and went big
the force was grossly disproportionate
the rent-a-cop derided as a pig
and chancellor responsible for it
and now she'd caught obscuring her own tracks
Orwellian control of what has been
the hubris to proclaim what's not a fact
slammed by Napolitano as a sin
a dire example none should emulate
debased an office sworn to educate

military/industrial complex

Dick Cheney saw an opportunity
to seize the oil resources of Iraq
when Saudis blow the Trade Center to scree
it isn't their home country we attack
two trillion dollars might have done much good
addressing problems back here in the States
but Rumsfeld showed what our Armed Forces could
do to the regime all good Bushes hate
when Sykes-Picot drew borders with no heart
they dreamed their empires got to pull the strings
now civil war tears all their plans apart
and ev'ry petty sheikh wants to be king
Democracy's not nurtured by the gun
it's only through the schools that hearts are won