The bottomline is more than the price tag

No boots on the ground,
but there’re drones in the sky
not to mention the airstrikes at night.
This crisis with ISIS
is cause for concern
as we partner with allies to fight.

On the frontlines of terror
we dare not shrink back.
What’s at stake is the life we have known.
The freedom from fear
and the freedom from want
and the freedom to reap what we’ve sown.

The cost of this conflict
cannot be contained.
The price tag of freedom will rise.
We must stop these beheadings
and we’ll pay what we must
so to purchase the peace justice buys.

There’s spanking and then there’s spanking

A football player whooped his boy
and lost the right to play.
The issues are not black and white
(or black and blue). They’re gray.

My dad would use his belt to spank.
My mom used her hair brush.
My grandma made me eat some soap
when I was prone to cuss.

My grandpa used a willow switch
to teach his children grace.
Instead of lashing their behinds,
he said “I’ll take your place!”

While kneeling down, he bore his back
to take their punishment!
And in the process truth was taught.
A lesson Heaven sent.

To cause a much-loved father pain
hurt more than getting spanked.
And as my mom related it
I saw how faith was banked.

It’s the Star Spangled Banner’s Bicentennial

O say did you know that a key long ago 
is what opened our patriot praise?
Anchored far out at sea, Mister Francis Scott Key
saw Old Glory still flying unfazed.

O say can it be that a lawyer like he
could describe what he saw with such grace?
Like the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air
as he watched our flag stationed in place?

O say have you heard (though I think it absurd)
that his poem was set to a tune
used for hoisting an ale when old sailors set sail
on a voyage in search of doubloons?

O say can you see that this song of the free
is deserving our time to reflect?
It’s two hundred years old, yet it glistens like gold
and its full text we tend to neglect.

Have you ever read all the verses to our National Anthem?

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Let’s hear it for rhetorical questions!

Are you ready for some football?
Is Pope Francis Catholic?
Do the Packers hate the Seahawks?
Does a candle have a wick?

Will Obama’s hair turn grayer?
Does Las Vegas still have slots?
Are the Mariners still hopeful?
Do da Bears fans love their brats?

Are the following true statements?
Denver’s bent on sweet revenge.
Richard Sherman has an ego.
Tailgate drinkers tend to binge.

Well, I guess you know the answers.
Every one calls for a yes.
So it’s clear that some are ready.
But I’m conflicted I confess.

Football is some folks religion.
And it’s really sad and odd
that the Lord’s day is now Game Day
and the pigskin is their god!