It Appears That We Are Bad

it appears that we are bad.
gluttonous, fat, slovenly, arrogant, and now cruel.
we are conquerors, imperialsts, all.
it appears that we are bad --
but how bad are we?

we occupied Haiti with the Marine Corps --
that was bad
we silenced democracy in Chile --
also, bad
we naplamed vietnamese
again, bad

but were we worse than the portugese
who grew tired one day of running a country
and left angola with no functional government and a
civil war?

were we worse than the belgians in the congo?
it is said:
they killed 10 million congolese
and that was before they started a civil war

are we worse than the french?
for despite their current preoccupation with peace
they slaughtered algerians
and had their own racist, imperial designs on central
africa

why is it that i say these things?
what meaning is there
for an aimless rant
such as my own?

not to tell sob stories
of the victims of said crimes
both stories are sad:
our failure of character
their payment for it

but rather to make a point about cruelty
from hutu to tutsi
from european to hutu
from european to european
from life to human being
from god to god

cruelty is.

and so i say
resigned to the fact that there is little reason
to hope for hope
though we -- America, U.S.A -- are indeed bad

we are the least bad yet.