Mistakes Were NOT Made: An Anthem for Justice (Poem by Margaret Anna Alice; Read by Vera Sharav)

It is my privilege to share Vera Sharav’s convicting reading of “Mistakes Were NOT Made: An Anthem for Justice” to celebrate the two-year anniversary of my poem. When I conceived of the video series after publishing my anthem on January 1, 2023, Vera was the first person I envisioned reading it. She recorded her reading as part of her speech for the “We Can’t Forget” event on June 28, 2024. I have broken out her reading and set it to music composed by my late beloved husband, Shawn Patrick Michael.

See my Substack for details as well as to read select exchanges with Vera:

• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-video-vera

Here is my post sharing her full “We Can’t Forget” speech along with a Profile in Courage on Vera:

• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/vera-sharavs-speech-we-cant-forget

Below is the text of the poem (see the original hyperlinked version here: https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem):

Mistakes Were NOT Made: An Anthem for Justice
by Margaret Anna Alice

The Armenian Genocide was not a mistake.
Holodomor was not a mistake.
The Final Solution was not a mistake.
The Great Leap Forward was not a mistake.
The Killing Fields were not a mistake.

Name your genocide—it was not a mistake.
That includes the Great Democide of the 2020s.
To imply otherwise is to give Them the out they are seeking.

It was not botched.
It was not bungled.
It was not a blunder.

It was not incompetence.
It was not lack of knowledge.
It was not spontaneous mass hysteria.

The planning occurred in plain sight.
The planning is still occurring in plain sight.

The philanthropaths bought The $cience™.
The modelers projected the lies.
The testers concocted the crisis.
The NGOs leased the academics.
The $cientists fabricated the findings.
The mouthpieces spewed the talking points.

The organizations declared the emergency.
The governments erected the walls.
The departments rewrote the rules.
The governors quashed the rights.
The politicians passed the laws.
The bankers installed the control grid.

The stooges laundered the money.
The DoD placed the orders.
The corporations fulfilled the contracts.
The regulators approved the solution.
The laws shielded the contractors.
The agencies ignored the signals.

The behemoths consolidated the media.
The psychologists crafted the messaging.
The propagandists chanted the slogans.
The fact-chokers smeared the dissidents.
The censors silenced the questioners.
The jackboots stomped the dissenters.

The tyrants summoned.
The puppeteers jerked.
The puppets danced.
The colluders implemented.
The doctors ordered.
The hospitals administered.

The menticiders scripted.
The bamboozled bleated.
The totalitarianized bullied.
The Covidians tattled.
The parents surrendered.
The good citizens believed … and forgot.

This was calculated.
This was formulated.
This was focus-grouped.
This was articulated.
This was manufactured.
This was falsified.
This was coerced.
This was inflicted.
This was denied.

We were terrorized.
We were isolated.
We were gaslit.

We were dehumanized.
We were wounded.
We* were killed.

Don’t let Them get away with it.
Don’t let Them get away with it.
Don’t let Them get away with it.

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*Vera read this as “Some of us.”
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Mistakes Were NOT Made Links:
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem-57a
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-one-poem-to
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-video-dr-mike
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-translations
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem-923
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-video-clip-margaret
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-video-vera
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/wake-up-toolkit#%C2%A7mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem-for-justice