I voted today \u2026
\nI voted for peace and justice and sanity
\nIn an insane world of violence and injustice.
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
I voted for clear streams, rivers, and seas;
\nBright stars in a cedar-scented night-sky;
\nWhale-songs heard in unpolluted oceans.
\nNot for the lesser of two evils,
\nBut for the greatest good for the greatest number\u2014
\nFor nothing less, I voted.<\/p>\n
I voted for climate-change victims;
\nAnd for those torn apart by war;
\nAgainst the Empire, and for the planet;
\nFor the hungry and forgotten,
\nFor the terrified and abused–
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
Against the military-industrial-media complex
\nAnd for the dream of MLK–
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
I voted for Iraqi mothers and Afghani;
\nFor Pakistani mothers, and around the world\u2014
\nBecause each of them is my mother, also,
\nWeeping like Rachel for her lost children.<\/p>\n
For Kathy Kelly and Rachel Corrie,
\nFor Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney,
\nJill Stein, Helen Caldicott and Chelsea Manning–
\nFor standing against madness and lies,
\nOpportunism and exploitation\u2014
\nFor all of them, I voted.<\/p>\n
For brothers in exile I voted;
\nFor the martyred, the betrayed, the abandoned\u2014
\nIshmael, Aguinaldo, Sandino and Guevara;
\nTashtunka Witco, Tecumseh, Snowden and Assange.
\nFor Ramzy Baroud and Howard Zinn\u2014
\nFor this council of leaders, I voted.<\/p>\n
Against slavery and wage-slavery;
\nSexploitation, television and bad food;
\nThe corruption of Art; mis-education;
\nThe torture of humans and animals;
\nOur prison-work-complex and sham democracy;
\nCitizens United; the Electoral College;
\nAnd every meme kicked down the road
\nBy glutinous politicians and their corporate masters\u2014
\nAgainst all of this, I voted.<\/p>\n
To pass from these Dark Ages
\nTo a Renaissance of Reason,
\nTo a New Age of Enlightenment–
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
That truths may be reclaimed;
\nFor the wisdom to discern;
\nThat children may be honored
\nWith cleanliness and virtue,
\nWith books and venerable teachers;
\nThat all may be protected
\nFrom the ravenous and greedy\u2014
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
To see the planet whole;
\nTo know our place upon it;
\nTo nurture and restore it;
\nTo abide in moderation,
\nWith compassionate humility;
\nThat the arts might consecrate us\u2014
\nI voted.<\/p>\n
For the best that lies within us;
\nFor the fortitude to harness;
\nFor the healing grace that\u2019s needed.
\nFor the courage to continue–
\nI voted.
\n_________________________________________<\/p>\n
An earlier version of this was first posted at CounterPunch.org in 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n Gary Corseri is a m<\/em>ember of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.<\/a> He<\/em> has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including,<\/em> TMS (Transcend Media Service<\/a>)<\/a>, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and<\/em> Counterpunch.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on<\/em> PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere.\u00a0 He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.\u00a0 Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I voted today. \u2026
\nI voted for peace and justice and sanity
\nIn an insane world of violence and injustice.
\nI voted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}