Oh Captain! my Captain! - again

Below is an item I posted in December of 2010, which is now buried at the bottom of this blog. I thought it worth bringing to the top again. BTW, I did not receive a response from the White House.

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I am deeply disappointed with my president. Below is the text from a letter I sent to him a few days ago. The poem is a parody of one written by Whitman in response to the death of Abraham Lincoln.


December 16, 2010

With apologies to Walt Whitman:

        O Captain! my Captain!
        Rise up and feel our pain.
        Why have you deserted us
        Time and time again?

        O Captain! my Captain!
        I fear that they have won.
        All our hopes and all our dreams,
        Our "fearful trip" undone.

        My Captain does not answer;
        He seems no longer to care.
        And we are left to face the storm
        In heartache and despair.

Dear Mr. President:

How have you so badly lost your way in just these two years. We gave you our money and our vote; you gave us watered down health care. We gave you our faith and our hope; you sent more troops to Afghanistan. We gave you our trust and our love; you gave tax cuts to millionaires.

Where is the President of our hopes and dreams? Where is the President who would lead us from the wilderness of ill health, the valley of financial oppression, and the battlefields of needless wars.

Enough of compromise! Just do it! Damn the filibusters! Full speed ahead! We didn't elect you to negotiate; we elected you to lead! Damn it, Man! Take back the wheel and steer our ship of state out of this political storm and into the tranquil waters of justice, equality, and peace.

No more compromise!
No more compromise!
No more compromise!

With waning respect,

John Floyd
--a citizen in Waxhaw, NC