The Chinese Bill of Rights

In China, laws regarding human rights
May keep a simple man awake at nights,
Suspecting that a Mand’rin guten Morgen
Might mean the harvest of a vital organ.

Old Adolf Hitler would have found his equal
With what’s played out in this Far-Eastern sequel.
The struggle’s lasted many years, but now
Confirmed: the legacy of Chairman Mao.

Inside this vast “Republic of the People”
One never sees a synagogue or steeple,
And though believers there may wonder why,
The only given is the right to die.

Folks have the right to bow before the State,
And any who object have sealed their fate.
And, too, there is the right to cringe and kneel
Beneath the Party’s red oppressive heel.

The innocent are always first to go;
In China, this is all you need to know.
God help you if you cleave to Falun Gong:
Your only right is to be treated wrong.

 

Subsidizing Poverty

When you subsidize something you get more of it.

—A fundamental law of economics

As Thomas Sowell has so often pointed out,
Black family units, by and large, remained intact
Before the massive Welfare System came about.
And illegitimacy then was not a fact

Of life the Government sustained with cash rewards.
Though most of us get up each day and go to work,
Could we resist the lure of prepaid smorgasbords?
And if they cut us off, would we then go berserk?

There’s nothing wrong with showing sensible compassion,
But when the rats come home, just who will pay the piper?
Self-pride and self-reliance, now, are out of fashion,
And Uncle Sam has soiled himself — please change his diaper!

The Welfare check has proved sufficient to disable
The market force that once kept families whole and stable.

 

C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden.  Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India.  His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.

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27 Responses

  1. Amy Foreman

    Both poems are trenchant and insightful. And I found the rhymes “piper” and “diaper” especially satisfying! 😉 Well done, Mr. Anderson.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Thank you, Amy. Some of my indictments may sound harsh, but (egads!) what a world we live in!

      Reply
  2. Joan Erickson

    This poem is great!
    Felt goose bumps as I read it.
    Brings out the truth –
    thanks for being bold enough to write it.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Thanks, Joan. As for being “bold,” for now, at least, I am protected under First Amendment rights. There are forces abroad that would love to abridge them. Until then, I will endeavor to serve no master but the truth.

      Reply
      • Joan Erickson

        I like your answer, thanks.
        I am a Falun Dafa practitioner –
        six years.

  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    The photo of the execution of that young Chinese girl is horrifying. And the executions are not just of Falun Gong adherents, but also of anyone (including faithful Chinese Catholics) who refuse to submit to the poison of a Communist police state.

    And yet that disgusting buffoon in Rome, the Antipope Jorge Bergoglio, was perfectly happy to betray the Chinese Catholics to their Communist masters, and to tolerate the Chinese state’s appointment of Communist-friendly bishops as sock-puppets to govern them.

    Bergoglio’s lickspittle Secretary of State, the toady Cardinal Parolin, says that the betrayal was done to “open up dialogue” with China.

    And yet this noisome piece of garbage Bergoglio has the effrontery to try and change the Catholic teaching on capital punishment, and declare it “non-Christian” and “immoral.” I wonder if this damned Argentine hypocrite has seen the photo that accompanies Kip’s poems.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Joe,

      As always, it’s a blessing when you decide to weigh in.

      As a nominal Protestant, I am happy to report that I no longer have anything to protest other than what traditional, conservative Roman Catholics themselves protest.

      Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        And, Joe,

        I wonder what such a dialogue, as Parolin envisions, would actually look like — an inquisition complete with tongs and thumbscrews? Much better we update our visas and emigrate to Hell.

    • C.B. Anderson

      The luck of which you speak can continue only through the practice of eternal vigilance. I sometimes wonder how much I would actually risk to preserve the principles we claim to hold so dear.

      Reply
  5. Charles Southerland

    Really nice work, C.B.
    I also explained the flour/flower comment you left on Curtis’s piece.

    Merry Christmas. How many more will we have if the State has its way?

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Charlie,

      I will look for your explanation. Wish me luck in finding it, for it will be like finding a gift-wrapped present under a Christmas tree. If I catch your drift correctly, I too cannot wait to see the State lying in state, where it belongs.

      Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      I found it, but I still don’t quite get your point. The differences are so slight that everything might come down to expedience: it is good if it sounds good.
      Let God be the judge. And BTW, if you respond to my e-mail address:

      cbanderson49@gmail.com

      then I will solicit your snail-mail address and send you a copy of my first book, which I trust you would enjoy.

      Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Joe,

      Perhaps the Chinese State is proud of their absolute power over their subjects, or it might just be a lesson directed at potential dissenters, or simply a breach of security. Who knows?

      Reply
  7. Joseph Tessitore

    The scum of Vatican II…

    The wh___s will find their Weinstein’s…

    The alcoholic apostates of Plymouth…

    that disgusting buffoon in Rome…

    this noisome piece of garbage…

    this damned Argentine hypocrite…

    …whosoever shall say “Thou fool” shall be in danger of hell fire…

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Hold your water, Joe. You have friends in high places, and the end of disgraces is at hand. Whatsoever shall befall will reenact the all-in-all, so let your heart be free, as things now stand, and not demand a perfect ending, which you might spend the remnants of your life defending. God is good, and truth will out; just tell your neighborhood what you’re about.

      Reply
      • Joseph Tessitore

        What from this printed page I hear?
        Kind words of fellowship
        and cheer!

        Our fellow-poets’ words and Jesus words; not sure how they become my water.

        We recognize two types of sins in Catholicism; those we have done, and those we have failed to do. How loud must stridency become before it is heard as a cry for help?

        It seems that some of us may not have gotten the memo: this is the season of peace and joy; “fire and brimstone” is next month.

        Should this cost me friends in high places, ‘tis a small price indeed to pay.
        I could not be more grateful for that of my poetry which has gotten to see the light of day.

        PS. Really interesting thing going on here:
        NOT MY PRESIDENT!
        NOT MY POPE!

  8. Joseph S. Salemi

    Donald Trump was elected legally and constitutionally. He wasn’t engineered into office by a scheming coterie of homosexualist cardinals from St. Gallen, who violated canon law by doing so.

    You think Bergoglio is the Pope? OK, fine. I have a pal in Georgia who thinks Elvis is still alive.

    Reply
    • Joseph Tessitore

      To suggest that I am insane for thinking that the Pope is the Pope may well be the most astonishing and outlandish thing I’ve ever heard.

      Let me go even further and assure you that I don’t think that the Pope is the Pope – I know that the Pope is the Pope.

      The ability to test reality is a determining factor in establishing sanity – I’m not the one who’s failed the test.

      Reply
  9. Charles Southerland

    Joe Tessitore-

    I am truly surprised. Are you saying that you held your nose from the stench of Clinton, 2 Bushes and an Obama, but now you can’t hold your nose any longer because Trump is president? Really? Buy a clothespin, brother.

    Dr. Salemi is right. This “Pope” was pre-positioned by the European elite who know he is the key to them keeping power against the masses. (No pun intended.) Bergolio should be a holy man. I’m not sure he is wholly a man. He is a huge strain on the Catholic church. It is near to a breaking point. Perhaps February 2019 will tell the tale.

    Reply
    • Joseph Tessitore

      Dear Charles,

      Perhaps I wasn’t as clear there as I might have been;
      it was simply an observation and not an indication of who I did or didn’t vote for.
      I’ve written a number of poems about ideology (both sides of the aisle) and what I believe it’s done to this country; I believe it’s torn it apart.

      The Pope and politics?
      I really don’t know one way or the other.
      We were taught that Divine Intervention is the deciding factor, and that it can even over-ride whatever politics may or may not be in play.

      Reply
      • Charles Southerland

        Fair enough, Joe. And you are correct in that God intervenes, not only does he intervene but he is sovereign and directs the affairs of (all) men and their affairs.

  10. Evan Mantyk

    Dear Mr. Anderson,

    Thank you for sharing your outstanding poetry! Thomas Sowell is one of the brilliant minds of America today. Just coincidentally I was talking to someone who told me he was writing a paper on his book just the day after your poem was published.

    As for a Chinese Bill of Rights, the freedoms we Americans have guaranteed in our Bill of Rights are all found in the Chinese Constitution, including Article 36, which states “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.” Yet there is no sense of the rule of law in China and the underlying respect for human life and respect for a divine origin to the human form has been destroyed by socialist ideology (they literally call it “socialism with Chinese characteristics”). Similarly, you will find different religions, statues of Confucius, historical movies, and traditional culture movements in China today, but as with China’s constitution, they have been castrated by communism, eaten away at from within like a still standing dead tree all but a mess of rubbish on the ground. This reality becomes crystal clear when looking at the persecution of Falun Gong and I think Mr. Salemi and Mr. MacKenzie have identified another issue, which is the appointment of bishops by the Chinese Communist Party.

    Thank you again! You have an incredible breadth of mind, spanning civilizations.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Considering what you have just written, I must conclude that their Constitution is not worth the parchment it is printed on, except, perhaps, those articles that outline the powers & prerogatives of the State.

      Reply

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