How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened
Hafiz
ala Daniel Landisky
__________________________________________
Racism
It I out there
Free floating
It reveals itself in immigrants
Battered and zip-tied
In books removed from library shelves
It is present in the war on “woke”
A word emerging from black people
A warning
The streets aren’t safe for you
So keep your eyes open
Stay woke
It is woven into the fabric of our culture
Our nation
It looks like oppression and suppression
Justice denied
It is white privilege
Unseen but powerful
It is seen every time there is an assault
On diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
In the failure to admit and seek to address
Systematic oppression
Racism is the failure to be open
To the value of another human being
To the reality that the person who is
A different color or culture
(or creed?)
Is a precious soul, a child of God
It is the assumption that a person who is
BIPOC
(Black, indigenous, and people of color – any color other
than white)
Is less than
It is fear
A fear that closes our hearts and minds
A fear that blinds us to our own privilege
A fear that leads to oppression and suppression
And injustice
And inequity
And all the miseries of humankind
A racist country is not great
It is scared
And in fear behaves badly
How can America
Led by people who are (let’s admit it) racist
Ever open its heart
And live out its assertion
That all people are “created equal
that they are endowed by their Creator,
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness”
How does it let go of fear and open its heart and welcome
And embrace the beauty
Implicit in diversity
Only by feeling the encouragement of light
Against its
Being
By leaning into the One who is love
By letting the light
That has come into the world
Overcome the darkness of our souls
The hardness of our hearts
And change the way we see ourselves
And the way we see others
It is only then that we will see that there is no
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free,
There is neither male nor female;
There is neither white nor black
that all the colors of the universe
They are simply the one light
scattered
It is only then that we will understand that
It was never the case
that the distinctions we so love were valid
Jesus did not remove the distinctions
He revealed that they were never really
true
And he removed (and continues to do so in the spirit)
With his love
The fear that divides
And we must follow him
Into welcome, inclusion, and equity
And not follow those
Who would lead us back into fear
For there is no fear in love
And we are called
To not be afraid
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