Are we on the road to recovery?; A Hatfield Who was the Real McCoy

There’s a Detour on Wall Street
Are we on the road to recovery?

As we lose our credit rating
finding countless warning signs
and the roadwork back on Wall Street slows us down,
we’d do well to brace for potholes
and the blowouts yet to come
as we reconsider where it is we’re bound.

Detours loom when there’s construction.
Wall Street will be closed to some.
Will it be the road less taken in the end?
Or will Main Street claim more traffic?
Will we shift what drives our aims?
Will we change the fuels in which we’ve put our stock?

Realignment’s in our future.
What we’ve always done won’t work.
We Americans must tweak our age-old dream.
Owning homes and grand vacations
aren’t a given anymore.
The fatted calf we kill will be quite lean.
 

A Hatfield Who was the Real McCoy
Remembering an Oregon Senator

Mark Hatfield was the real McCoy.
Since I was but a little boy,
I watched this Oregonian
display integrity.
 
Between a rock and a hard place,
he found a way to make his case
in spite of pressures to conform
or take the easy road.
 
Professor and then Governor
and then a U. S. Senator,
he left his mark in every place
his God led him to serve.
 
A moderate Republican
he crossed the aisle (unlike some)
and let his dove-like ways be known
when hawks would win the day.
 
And through it all Mark helped us see
that compromise and decency
can bring about what you believe
our nation truly needs.
 
Where are the Hatfields of our day
who read God’s Word and daily pray,
but will not use their faith to judge
their colleagues on The Hill?