Poem of the Week--Preamble to the Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, Mike Perkins

We were going to run another poem this week (sorry, Ryan, next week, we PROMISE), and Mike Perkins has recently starred in this feature with "Welcome". But when we received this poem from him, asking if we'd like to use it, we had to say yes and it had to be this week. It is sobering and terrifying. More evidence is emerging that the shooter was indeed mentally ill and not necessarily affected by the harsh political climate , but why should that be an excuse to continue with discourse that has left civility stranded along the side of the road and that uttered in any other arena would be cause to alert police?

In case you couldn't tell, we're liberals, but no matter your political affiliation, we hope you join us in mourning the senseless deaths of those in Arizona and wishing Gabrielle Giffords and others a speedy and total recovery.

Preamble to the Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords


(A found poem)

by Mike Perkins

Prelude

"Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could." – Glenn Beck


We the People of the United States,

"This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington.” - Sarah Palin

in Order to form a more perfect Union,

"I just wish Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out, and I wouldn't have rescued them." - Bill O’Reilly

establish Justice,

“Capital punishment is our way of demonstrating the sanctity of life." - Orrin Hatch

insure domestic Tranquility,

''The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.'' —Pat Robertson

provide for the common defence,

"When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining." – The Glenn Beck Program,

promote the general Welfare,

“God says, "Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.” – Ann Coulter

and secure the Blessings of Liberty

“If you think the United States has stood still, who would have built the largest shopping center in the world?” - Richard M. Nixon

to ourselves and our Posterity,

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for." - Rush Limbaugh

do ordain and establish

“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work. “ - Rush Limbaugh

this Constitution for the United States of America.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee,’ That's just a joke, for you in the media." - Ann Coulter

Epilogue

"I went to Safeway the movies this weekend with a gun." - Glenn Beck