What bugs me about people, is they let things be.

Don't fight for their right or make others see.

Their insecurities getting the better of them and turning them into mats.

Other people take advantage and act like hungry rats.

We need a world where people will shout out loud,

If somebody's being mistreated, so that we can feel proud,

Of the way we take care of one another.

People duck and take cover

Yet we should be each others soldiers.

When somebody's crying, stand up and hold her.

What if it was your daughter, your dad or your son?

Would you expect people to stay silent? Hide away or run?

It doesn't matter who.

Protect the vulnerable beside you.

There is no ham in hamburger. As a child, learning this made me cry. Why not call a hamburger a beef burger or just a burger? Changing the definition of words to serve an advertising purpose or a political purpose serves no purpose. The Wizards of Smart waste their talents in the race to the bottom to befuddle and confuse when participating in such an activity.

In lieu of a formal manifesto, holding an audience captive, I offer a few examples of diametrically opposite nomenclature and the confusion it causes.

The Affordable Care Act: Not a piece of legislation designed to lower the price of or provide health care, but eliminate competition and overburden with regulations for purchasing health insurance.

Undocumented Worker: If I have employment, off the books, in which no taxation agency or regulatory arm of the government knows of my employment, I am an undocumented worker. If I enter a country without following the written laws for entry into the country, I have broken the law. I am an illegal alien.

All Beef Hot Dog: Watch what goes into hot dogs, if you dare. The chemicals and the additives are not beef. Hooves, ligaments, and mechanically separated animal parts are not beef. The casings may have once been close to a bovine, but proximity does not make it beef.

Transients: Transients are people in motion. Transient is not a description of ownership. I can travel from NY to LA and be transient whether or not I own or rent a place to live.

Second Class Citizen: To be a second class citizen, you have to be a citizen first. Just because someone does not like me, attacks me, or will not give me the time a day does not mean I automatically have citizenship.

All Natural: All things natural come from Nature. Plastic is polymerized hydrocarbons, found in nature. Uranium 235 is found (.72% by abundance) in Nature. Nature has unveiled itself to mankind cyanides, foams, harmful bacteria, insane viruses, persistent and toxic chemicals, and deadly portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays). Thus, all that is natural does not inspire safety, or health.

Retarded: If I impede the flow of a liquid, the motion of an object, or the progress of a person from one point to another (added weights, slippery surface, added obstacles), then I have retarded the object's progress. I have committed no heinous offense other than being a difficult person. Thus, some words can be uttered when properly used without a chorus of politically correct police ranting and filing lawsuits.

Child at Risk: A young human in endanger of harm, not a young human that has committed a crime. If you are about to fall off of a ladder, you are a child at risk. If you have stolen a ladder, you are a thief.

Organic: To a chemist, organic is a compound in which a carbon to hydrogen bond exists. Gasoline is organic. Water is not. Go to the local farmer's market and scan for a laugher near expensive fruits and vegetables. The word was co-opted for easy to digest advertising, not for any semblance of correctness.

Homophobia: Phobia is a suffix for fear, not hatred, not for lack of understanding, and definitely not for disagreements. The word is so constantly misused, misunderstood, and misapplied that it has nearly lost its intended meaning.

All of these miss their intended mark. Each one says one thing when it is used to say another. With instant internet access and dictionaries, it is irresponsible to continue sickening those that know the difference.

This world is characterized

By the rich and poor,

By the healthy and hurting,

By the fed and unfed.

But why must things

Be this way?

Why do there have to be people

Who go without food

For days on end?

Why are there people

Who can't get the medical services

That they need?

Why are there people

Who can't even survive

On the money they make?

This world is characterized

On awful, awful things.

We rarely realize how many die

Right outside our doors

Because of a lack of rights

That most others have.

A right to a job,

A right to medical care,

A right to food,

A right to live.

And this,

This disturbs me deep to my core

This makes me sick to my stomach.

This makes me want to cry

About the state of this world.

Can’t take another punch today

I wish this pain would go away

Another kick will lay me low

And put my heart through another go

No will to rise up and stand

Rather the Darkness holds my hand

I know well its bitter touch

And yet this world’s become too much

So as I lay down to sleep

I hope my soul, it will keep

For if tomorrow waits my gaze

I’ll welcome its numbing ways.

This heartache

Has left me so hollow

I only yearn

For another's embrace

For years I’ve tried

And infected others with my loneliness

Melancholy shining

Through my eyes

All the pain around me

This is what I died for

Oh god not again...

The sickness that you wrote

Engraved into

Every inch of my skin

Will finally be

The death of me

You think you know but couldn’t even begin to comprehend the emotions you have watching your other half decay.

You see me daily, melancholy across my face, asking how he is doing even though you already know his fate. Dying is how he is doing and that’s not going to change.. You look at me and mutter “It’s all going to be OK”!

All I want to do is look at you and scream.. Him dying is not OK and never will be!!!

Sexual abuse is eating me

crawling along inside of me

stewing underneath the surface

of my delightful mental stream

my anger seems unjust

yet i am bleeding still

i just can't share the stain

minimize my pain

minimize my life

pretend there is no rain

as this torrential flood

washes away my very soul

leaves me cold and insincere

try and block it out

your dead and gone

i live on full of regret

so keep pretending

your pain means more than mine

minimize my pain

minimize my life

I may be a shit stain

Fruits don't fall far from the tree you see

i AM

Everything you've made me

Is ignorance so blissful

tempted to lay it down

Don't you love that sound

Silence may set you free

But it condemns me

minimize my pain

minimize my life

just know as long as i am chained

you will never be free

just as your actions

haunt my memories

my life is my revenge

so be my guest

and carry on

just skip this song

you weren't worth it all along

The wounds that bleed

that I wear on my sleeve.

No one to hear,

no one sees my tears

"Help" I cry

to anyone, even God in the sky.

Yet I am still trampled.

and my world is dismantled.

Where are everyone's eyes?

On their phones, at my guise.

The facade I have created

no one sees is way outdated.

I wave my hands in their faces

yet there are no traces.

My skin hangs on my bones.

As they stare into their phones.

This soul is dying,

light deflating.

As another life

is now taken.