10/17/18
What’s happened in our land
That we have stopped talking to each other
Choosing not to listen,
And quick to judge and blame?
What’s happened in our land
That we allow others to sow
Seeds of distrust and hatred,
So a group comes to think
It owns the truth and the rest are blind to it?
What’s happened in our land
That we seem unable to pause and ponder,
Look inside ourselves
Reach out and parley
Without cursing
Without threatening.
Truth is neither yours nor mine
No one owns it
It owns us.
It doesn’t lie within you or me
But between us
Revealing itself when there’s a will
To bridge the gap,
A will to listen
And be listened to
So we both are counted.
To hate is to fear
Fearful minds cannot build bridges
To help us see that we are and have always been
In our brothers and sisters,
As they are and have always been
In us.
But face our fear and we will find the strength
To reach across,
Face it not
And we will see enemies where there are none
And the promise that was our country
Will be lost.
So let us take heart and dare to reflect
And ask,
Am I not in my brother and sister as they are in me?
Let us take heart and seek to understand,
And when we do
Truth will reveal itself
In the embrace
Of our brother and our sister,
No matter what they have done,
where they have been,
what color their skin.
And if our brother and sister can be more than they are now
Then, in the embrace,
They will be more,
And if they cannot be more
Then they will be more as they are,
For in the embrace there will be peace,
For you and for me
And a better chance to be all we can be.
Will it happen in our land?
Oscar Valdes 