Here’s
the 1988 version of Haisadiam’s flag poem:
A poem to expect seeing the Stars and Stripes will
represent
true glories of America and Americans:
O say, does the
Star-Spangled Banner yet wave?
Yes, it does, … and it will.
Only seldom in triumph now;
And it will—
But who knows how?
When our cause it is not
just,
Indeed conquer we must.
But if freemen can only
stand,
From sea to shining sea,
On Lincoln’s Heaven-rescued
land;
And if far from sufficient
is our effort
To make rather than to
import,
To build rather than to
spend,
Even when our red inks have
notoriously billowed;
O say, can you see,
So true and so much
Glory of liberty and
democracy,
And success of ideals and
effort,
As in the two centuries by
one year’s short
After America rose gallantly
out of colony
To make the Star-spangled
Banner in triumph wave
Over the land of the free
And the home of the brave?
Since North and South set
slaves and the Union free,
And Mayflowers greeted in
Lady Liberty,
America has been made more
beautiful
By black brothers and
immigrants from all countries
Poor, cruel, or in trouble.
Now these our states have so
been united
No longer mainly by blood,
But already more by spirit—
To preserve and improve a
nation so great
As no other ones before in
history,
In which people have made
themselves
Free and rich in safety,
And as an inspiring model
and living example
For all other nations to
learn and excel.
O, thus be it ever for
America to remain
The best hope on earth and a
competent leader!
Will this but a faint cry so
vain
For a nation so swiftly
numbed to be a mammoth debtor?
It’s only in one decade that
our account has been turned
From sky-high blue to the
greatest red billow
That has already
half-opened,
With a crash record,
The gate of global disaster
and sorrow.
The Union is still in the
land of the free,
But not quite free in
knowing to expect,
And how to get,
The best out of our own
selves
And our democracy and
economy.
So swell, O yes,
Is this home we’ve got,
But are we ever or any more
the brave
In guarding freedom, seeking
justice,
And helping the oppressed,
As our fathers made the
victorious
Stars and Stripes wave?
Or in facing and conquering
our shortcomings,
Who really care besides
publicly swear?
And what must we do to
cure, ←↓ (In Oct., 2002: What
had happened before these: “there’s
While over our heads there’s
no rockets’ red glare, no … yet, nor … air,”—while we
No bombs bursting in the
air, already had sniper’s bullets after planes’
Those fatal problems that
have shadowed the connection thrusting into
buildings.)
Between past glories
And future’s triumph or
desolation?
Under government officials’
self-justified secrecy
And Congressmen’s tendency
to take sides
With handsome fee and
insiders’ lobbying,
Plus customary stirring,
choking and picking
Of head-lines, bottom-lines
and extras
By mass media, interest
groups and big money,
Away palely has drifted our
democracy
From the general people’s
effective consenting
And checking.
When providing excellent
goods at low cost
Is what’s former raiding
enemy Japan doing to us,
We have raiders among
ourselves who toast
For striking oil in our
defense:
Supplying hammers at
silver’s price,
Stealing or leaking secrets
about jets and missiles,
And who knows what else
In Pentagon’s rich field of
bucks?
We’re in no want of raiders
either
In other portions of
America’s lifeblood:
Money game players have
prospered
By increasing and making
tides of money on credit
While getting none of
America’s real wealth added;
Vicious mergers have
profited
By making executives fear
take-over
Even more than their
products’ failure,
And the change-over of a
company
With thousands of workers
As easy as young men’s
changing sex partners.
Aside from such
blood-staining and muscle-hollowing
In economy,
In soul we have
mammon-raking star priests on TV,
Who either declared God
would have him killed
If he was not to pocket in
million dollars more,
Or hailed dear Lord
Yet went to bed with a
whore;
While in dark streets or behind
bright nervous working
Drugs as cocaine, heroin,
and chempots* have been killing,
By poisoning,
Our nation’s blood more
fatally
Than bullets in wars from
enemy
And cars on roads to earn a
living.
And then, despite the hurt
of herpes
And the epidemic deaths of
AIDS,
If sex preoccupation and
selfish quitting
Are still so ungirt
In freedom and liberation’s
coat,
Yet without the inlook of
conscience and responsibility,
As to strip off the meaning
and merit
Of love and family,
O say, can you see,
Can you be sure there will
still be,
Before dawn’s first light,
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last
gleaming?
‘Tis not a flag in fine
cloth that we want to see,
But a nation’s glory that we
fear might no longer be,
If
we, with eyes soaring high
To
touch the face of God
For
glorifying His love,
Look
through our flag** that shines under the fair
sky,
What
is that which either a chill or a breeze,
In
the mists of the deep
As
God plans and we deserve,
Is
to conceal or to disclose?
Planet
as a grave
Or
victories of the brave?
Besides facing a decline in the Roman Empire’s
echo,
As liberty and democracy’s champion strive we
must also
For bringing a new world
Of genetic deforming and nuclear destruction
Of humanity and humankind.
So
start we must now,
Though
not knowing precisely how
Or
whether ever we may succeed,
To
correct the mistakes we have made or inherited,
And
overcome the weaknesses we have noticed,
As
well as to cast out
Beams
in our eyes and thorns in our minds,
And
regenerate passion and will
To
realize further the ideals
That
have made America great
And
humankind benefited,
So
that America will be renewed
And
the world can be saved.
Trusting
in God,
Or
the power that has blessed us,
Besides
having made and preserved us a nation,
Many
times with victory and peace
Through
noble inspiration and cooperative dedication,
We
can confidently hope that all will be well—
America
renewed we shall make,
And
the world saved in the best hope’s wake;
Though
it will only be possible
After
endeavors are made,
And
crises and tortures are made,
With
such courage, strength, sacrifice,
And
patience as contained
In
this ever-glowing hope and motto we hold;
Have
faith in God and do our best.
Thus
as in Old Abe’s trust
That
the judgment of God is just,
And
believing that God is love,
We
shall never let rainbows disappear
In
the eyes and minds of all children we will have
In
what ever color.
Before
reaching that blue-sky goal,
While
weakened and stranded we are still
In
the deteriorating dusk penetrating
The
brightness of a great affluence
And
ever-spraying the invisible darkness
Of
little remembering and appreciating
Of
the affluence’s founding
On
ideals, diligence and unitedness,
Let’s
first shake off the darkness
To
greet another great dawning
Upon
our minds and this land,
And
prove with signs that
Our
flag is still there, wavering
Through
the night,
That
the stripes are broad
And
the stars are bright.
* The word “chempot” means any of the
synthetic chemicals that
can give hallucinating effects as pot, or
marijuana, does.
** “Look through our flag that shines under the
fair sky”:
Think about it not as the national flag of America meant in the
original poem
(Haisadiam’s second flag poem for Americans),
but rather as
the flag of the country, company, school, or orga-
nization of any
one of the readers of these lines of the poem.
- - - A note added on Sept. 29, 2000.
[ The note of “In Oct., 2002:” was added on Oct. 15, 2002
by the head of ZIG, who has been W. H. Haisadiam since Nov.,
1979.
He has been suffering from web secret police oppression
directed by some
American
officials since the spring of 2000 or since early 2000, and the oppression
has been intentionally ignored by the Bush administration,
despite that it has been
clearly and repeatedly reminded by the head of ZIG that the
public revealing of his
works of ZIG (as should have been publicized by TIME,
Washington Post, New York
Times, etc. since before 1984) can cast significant good
influences on dissolving terrorism
and reducing (greatly) terrorists’ attacks. ] (ZIG; Oct. 15, 2002) 4:11 a.m., New York time.