(Fold)

Change
It starts with a change
An aberration straying from the norm
Unexpected, yet foreseeable
Once one removes the patriotic blinders
The exceptionalism myth
Taught in school to glaze over the slavery, genocide , and empire building
It can happen here
It can happen to us

(Fold)

And then the question becomes
What if we want to undo that change?
It’s simple right?
Reclaim our rose tinted view of the world?
Putting renewed faith in the institutions that failed us
The definition of madness
Doing the same nonsense again
And again

(Unfold)

But the marks are still there
The history of abusing the things we are supposed to hold most dear
The betrayal of shared values
A fracturing of belonging
And these things can now happen again
Because the taboos have been broken

(Refold)

And now there is a road map of fault lines
Well traveled and now a playbook
Much easier for one more step
One more outrage
That is ignored
Or accepted

(Fold)

And to slide

(Fold)

An inexorable slippage into what we have always said we despised

(Fold)

And the realization

(Fold)

That this is what we are
Smaller, less important
To ourselves
And to others
Fallible
And not in a position to lecture anyone

(Unfold)

Because the scars of what we have done to ourselves are not going away
It will never be the same again
And maybe we should just…

(Crumple)

Start again.