In 1682, William Penn challenged us:
“Let us then discover what love will do.”
Instead of vengeance, he advocated love.
In the wake of the shock, horror, and grief of Dallas,
it is hard to think of love when one man’s hate
leaves our streets drenched in blood,
Black blood, White blood, Hispanic blood,
LGBTQ blood--
it’s all the same;
it all bleeds red, and when too much is lost,
it leaves people dead.
The presidency of Barack Obama is testimony
to America’s potential to transcend the racial scars
left from the founding of this nation
—Whites cheating, stealing, killing, dehumanizing
Red men, women, and children,
Whites enslaving, whipping, maiming, raping, killing, dehumanizing
Black men, women, and children.
Obama a high point, and now, a low point,
Micah Johnson, the first Black mass shooter,
to join the likes of the shooters
at Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Orlando.
MLK said, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Dallas, the setting of JFK’s assassination,
52 years later, the scene of the execution of five
Dallas police officers--
the racial wound ripped open again.
At our core, we’re a nation founded on conquest
(by whatever means necessary),
violence, racism, sexism, and greed.
We hide behind words like “democracy,” “freedom,” and “liberty.”
We drape ourselves in the red, white, and blue.
But if we really look, the glaring inequalities
are right there in front of us--
in our schools,
in our cities and communities,
in our jails and prisons,
and they touch everything from
health care to the media to national security.
If we really want to end racial violence,
we need to end poverty and offer equal educations to all our children
regardless of color or gender identification status.
“Hot spot” policing and “Stop and Frisk”
wouldn’t disproportionally target poor minorities
if there wasn’t poverty,
and the “school-to-prison-pipeline” wouldn’t be so racially biased
if there was quality education for every child.
We talk, and we talk--
Black Lives Matter--
Yeah, they do! But we won’t mean it
until our tax dollars go into making
fundamental societal change.
Loving those around us helps us want
justice, truth, and equality
for them as well as ourselves.
Us versus them only encourages
injustice, fraud, and inequality.
Violence begets violence.
It can’t be us versus them
because we’re all in this together
—The United States of America,
Black, White, Red, Yellow, and Rainbow.
“Let us then discover what love will do.”
Love or hate?
There’s always a choice.
Author Bio:
Kathleen Murphey teaches composition and literature courses in the English Department at Community College of Philadelphia. She has a Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. Recently, she has started creating fiction (poetry and fiction) trying to give voice to more empowered visions of female sexuality and to social justice issues. To see more go to www.kathleenmurphey.com.
“Let us then discover what love will do.”
Instead of vengeance, he advocated love.
In the wake of the shock, horror, and grief of Dallas,
it is hard to think of love when one man’s hate
leaves our streets drenched in blood,
Black blood, White blood, Hispanic blood,
LGBTQ blood--
it’s all the same;
it all bleeds red, and when too much is lost,
it leaves people dead.
The presidency of Barack Obama is testimony
to America’s potential to transcend the racial scars
left from the founding of this nation
—Whites cheating, stealing, killing, dehumanizing
Red men, women, and children,
Whites enslaving, whipping, maiming, raping, killing, dehumanizing
Black men, women, and children.
Obama a high point, and now, a low point,
Micah Johnson, the first Black mass shooter,
to join the likes of the shooters
at Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Orlando.
MLK said, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Dallas, the setting of JFK’s assassination,
52 years later, the scene of the execution of five
Dallas police officers--
the racial wound ripped open again.
At our core, we’re a nation founded on conquest
(by whatever means necessary),
violence, racism, sexism, and greed.
We hide behind words like “democracy,” “freedom,” and “liberty.”
We drape ourselves in the red, white, and blue.
But if we really look, the glaring inequalities
are right there in front of us--
in our schools,
in our cities and communities,
in our jails and prisons,
and they touch everything from
health care to the media to national security.
If we really want to end racial violence,
we need to end poverty and offer equal educations to all our children
regardless of color or gender identification status.
“Hot spot” policing and “Stop and Frisk”
wouldn’t disproportionally target poor minorities
if there wasn’t poverty,
and the “school-to-prison-pipeline” wouldn’t be so racially biased
if there was quality education for every child.
We talk, and we talk--
Black Lives Matter--
Yeah, they do! But we won’t mean it
until our tax dollars go into making
fundamental societal change.
Loving those around us helps us want
justice, truth, and equality
for them as well as ourselves.
Us versus them only encourages
injustice, fraud, and inequality.
Violence begets violence.
It can’t be us versus them
because we’re all in this together
—The United States of America,
Black, White, Red, Yellow, and Rainbow.
“Let us then discover what love will do.”
Love or hate?
There’s always a choice.
Author Bio:
Kathleen Murphey teaches composition and literature courses in the English Department at Community College of Philadelphia. She has a Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. Recently, she has started creating fiction (poetry and fiction) trying to give voice to more empowered visions of female sexuality and to social justice issues. To see more go to www.kathleenmurphey.com.
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