World War 3: The War to Finally be Free

World War 3: The War to Finally be Free**

Every day since the last big war
The “Powers That Be” have prepared for the next one
More bombs, more planes
More bullets, more games played to win
One small pawn at the edge of the board

So many different days, different games
The players they change but the
Game of killing and death never stops
We closed schools and Meals on Wheels
All because some men in black suits said
This was more important than that

Little children died
Mothers of color have cried over their babies
And then – their full-grown sons
The price that was paid
It was required they all said
The Communists!
The Terrorists must not win!

It was win at all cost
But did anyone stop
To think of the lives that were lost
The Black Lives that were tossed into prison
And promptly forgotten

The War on Terror
The War on Drugs
The War on Gays
The War on Thugs in gangs
The Men in Power don’t really care
What it is that they are fighting

As long as they stay in Power
For even one more dark hour
They are willing to spare nothing
When they don’t have to pay the bill

White Men in Kentucky
Believe they are lucky
And “Called by God”
To do the shit that they do

It’s intellectually lazy
And actually quite crazy
To keep on doing what White Men have done
For four hundred years

Can anything change?
By simply rearranging
The deck-chairs on the Titanic?
This ship it is sinking and
The cold waters of history are waiting
From my perspective
It’s about damn time
And this story isn’t ending
From where I am sitting
This new story is just only beginning

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 
Written by Thomas Jefferson, Slave Owner, July 4, 1776

**Who then was free?  From Wikipedia, Voting Rights in the Constitution

the 18th-century Thirteen Colonies, suffrage was restricted to white males with the following property qualifications:^[9]

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Connecticut: an estate worth 40 shillings annually or £40 of personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Delaware: fifty acres of land (twelve under cultivation) or £40 of personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Georgia: fifty acres of land

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Maryland: fifty acres of land and £40 personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Massachusetts Bay: an estate worth 40 shillings annually or £40 of personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>New Hampshire: £50 of personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>New Jersey: one-hundred acres of land, or real estate or personal property £50

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>New York: £40 of personal property or ownership of land

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>North Carolina: fifty acres of land

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Pennsylvania: fifty acres of land or £50 of personal property

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: personal property worth £40 or yielding 50 shillings annually

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>South Carolina: one-hundred acres of land on which taxes were paid; or a town house or lot worth £60 on which taxes were paid; or payment of 10 shillings in taxes

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>Virginia: fifty acres of vacant land, twenty-fives acres of cultivated land, and a house twelve feet by twelve feet; or a town lot and a house twelve feet by twelve

The United States Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., some states^[which?] allowed only white male adult property owners to vote, while others^[which?] either did not specify race, or specifically protected the rights of men of any race to vote.^{[10][11][12][13]} Freed slaves could vote in four states.^[14] 

Women were largely prohibited from voting, as were men without property. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807 (provided they could meet the property requirement) and in some local jurisdictions in other northern states. Non-white Americans could also vote in these jurisdictions^[which?], provided they could meet the property requirement.

Beginning around 1790, individual states began to reassess property ownership as a qualification for enfranchisement in favor of gender and race, with most states disenfranchising women and non-white men.^[15] By 1856, white men were allowed to vote in all states regardless of property ownership, although requirements for paying tax remained in five states.^[16][17] On the other hand, several states,^[which?] including Pennsylvania and New Jersey stripped the free black males of the right to vote in the same period.

Four of the fifteen post-Civil War constitutional amendments were ratified to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens. These extensions state that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged based on the following:

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>"Race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (Fifteenth Amendment, 1870)

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>"On account of sex" (Nineteenth Amendment, 1920)

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>"By reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax" for federal elections (Twenty-fourth Amendment, 1964)^{[Note 1]}

<![if !supportLists]>·        <![endif]>"Who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age" (Twenty-sixth Amendment, 1971)

Following the Reconstruction Era until the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow laws such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and religious tests were some of the state and local laws used in various parts of the United States to deny immigrants (including legal ones and newly naturalized citizens), non-white citizens, Native Americans, and any other locally "undesirable" groups from exercising voting rights granted under the constitution.^[18] 

Because of such state and local discriminatory practices, over time, the federal role in elections has increased, through amendments to the Constitution and enacted legislation. These reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries extended the franchise to non-whites, those who do not own property, women, and those 18–21 years old.

dg

6/27/20