A once proud nation, brought to it's knees by religious zealots, hangs it's head in shame. The founding principles have been shattered, scorned and discarded, like yesterday's garbage. Hope, the bright star of the future, all but extinguished by profit mongering, greed encouraging people. And this is the price we pay for the sound of our silence, for our willingness to refrain from disturbing the ever so precious status quo. This spreading blood is the blood of the poor, the ones seeking that extinguished star, Hope. Farewell, America. You have met your end, not on the horns of an outside enemy, but on the blades of those who seek to suppress all who are different. Farewell, America, my dying rose.