[Newspoetry] A Message from The Good Guys

[Paul Kotheimer]

A Message from The Good Guys

(To be spoken in alternating lines by three handsome boys-in-uniform with
perfect teeth, or to be broadcast over loudspeakers in downtown Nagasaki
or Managua or Baghdad, or to be acted out by ten-year-olds using a chorus
of collectible G. I. Joes With Kung Fu Grip.)

Esteemed enemies:

We would like you to know, before you are exterminated, suppressed,
silenced, defeated, and/or violated,
That we did not intend for you to be shelled, machine-gunned, or
teargassed 
While we were shelling, machine-gunning, and teargassing you.
We simply wanted you to comply.

Because, you see, we're The Good Guys.  
We always win in the End, which justifies the Means;
And we're only here to fight for what's Right, as our Might makes it so.

For Us.  The Good Guys.

You may have thought, up until now, that you were doing what was right,
And that is understandable--being, as you are, the wrong nation, the wrong
creed,
The wrong class, the wrong race, the wrong sex, the wrong ideology,
Indigenous to the wrong continent in the wrong century,
With the wrong skin color and the wrong Economic Interests to protect.

That is perfectly understandable.

But, since GOD is on our side, 
And since we, The Good Guys, have the will and the strong moral character
To Be All That We Can Be,

We hope that you will understand
That when we detonate that thermonuclear device at your ground zero;
When we hand you that blanket infected with smallpox;
When we break your picket line with water cannons and your demonstration
with rubber bullets;
When we put you on the blacklist and send you to the gas chamber;
And defoliate you with napalm;
And pacify you with pepper spray;
That it is Us who are doing the right thing.

Because we are The Good Guys.

--pjk
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