Potential

In creating a new nation, our forefathers foresaw government at its best--while today we must watch government at its worst:  legislators blind to the long range effects of bad choices made from intransigent positions and personal self-interest . . .
We wait and hope that ultimately their better natures triumph.

I recall a poem I wrote at another time for other reasons:


               Potential

I believe in human potential--
       man can be more than he is
       if armed with the will to become.

I see the inherent dangers--
       power can either create or destroy
       so knowledge of it awakens fear.

I know of quantitative quality--
       that which can be expressed positively
       can likewise be expressed negatively.


       I look to civilization's development
              - the taming of fire
              - the mastery of communication
              - the understanding of order
              - the creation of beauty
              - the invention of systems
              - the development of industry
              - the perfection of technology
       laced with wars, tyranny, slavery, holocaust, bigotry,
             treason, genocide . . .

       This is my heritage, my lineage, my ancestry;
       It all came before me and is mine because I am!

       This awareness engenders painful ambivalence;
       majesty and pride joust with horror and shame.

       All this is because of human potential
       our being has changed the face of the earth.

       Man has traveled to the moon
       and he has created Auschwitz and Dachau.

                       Are we gods or demons?

       The more we refine our being
       the more aware we become of its flaws.

       Ignorance once hid from us our vast potential;
       yet once glimpsed, that image holds the mind in bondage.

       Reality forces us to live with the less that is
       while desperately longing for the more that can be.


Now, together, we are called to create a better world--
       the negatives are painfully real
       but somehow, somewhere, progress happens.

Truth demands we acknowledge our potential's full range
       without abnegating the responsibility;
       --each person's choices helps shape the future.