Realpolitik

To know the truth,
All radicals are used.
All political activists are used.

We suffer because of our criminal records
Because a mistake made ten years ago
Keeps us from ever kneading our bread.
Thus, some resort to theft
Some resort to violence.
Some resort to dealing smack.
Some, they become homeless,
And live in humble poverty.

What does the outrage produce,
However?
Like any rebel, they march toward the destruction
Of all they love.
All that is loved gets trampled under foot
As political activists march in the streets
And destroy the pleasures they love.

Civilization is delicate.
If there were more reasonable men
Rather than political zealots,
We'd be far better off.
Yet, change never came from activism...
It only destroyed and broke
The things we loved.

I say this...
My magnum opus was about a man
Who lived in his Utilitarian utopia.
And, trying to change it he led it to its collapse.
Understand, that I know there are forces
That hate this country.
Just, the pleasures it has produced for us
The food, the streets, the plumbing, the electricity,
The shelter, there's not complete evil.

Rather, all that needs changed
Is that if a man has a criminal record
He get it expunged.
For, I too have been harassed by police
And I am white.
I get treated the same way as a black man
Because I have a criminal record.
Ought I have this sentence hang over me my whole life?
The answer is no.

And that is all that needs changed,
In my estimation.
Change that, and there will be the paradise we all desire.
And such a thing is very easily changed.
It doesn't require it that we burn down our cities.
It doesn't require it that we riot in the streets.
Rather, it requires the ratification of congress
That all criminal records,
After the sentence is fully served
Get expunged, at no expense to the defendant.
And, with that, a thief can work to knead his bread
A prostitute can have the chance to do something other than make herself dirty
A drug dealer can become a salesman.
That way, the true criminals
Those who aren't under compulsion or necessity
Cen be caught again,
And placed under their respective chains.

Woe unto them that keep a record of sin.