But, I can pray

“Don't try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.”

                             Scott Stratten

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It is hard to stand there

When people say outrageous tings

It is hard to keep quiet when people repeat things

That simply are not true

About people different from them

It it painful to see hate, and greed

And yes, racism

Unfold

Touching lives, scarring lives

Sometimes destroying lives

As for myself, I want to brilliantly present the case

For love

So powerfully that the anger is calm

The hate extinguished

But I am not a jackass whisper

I cannot change people from the inside out

Only the one who let hate and greed kill him

And yet conquered can do that.

It is not my place to argue or cajole

But I can pray

Persistently

And I can love

The person in front of me

I cannot win over the haters

And enlighten those who will not see

Otherwise I merely become what I resist

I can only live a life of love

And seek to overcome evil with good

And believe, that will be enough