Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Championing Change

When our men were afraid, they were taught to fight
With all their abilities to make things right.
When their women cried out in pain
And they had no skills to make things right again,
They needed a group of capable others
To act as their supportive brothers.

Now we look at women and their men
As capable of being equally strong friends,
But this hasn't come without sacrifice,
And each of us is paying a bit of the price.
We can't go back to the way things were
Without ushering back in abuses that did occur.

We were taught to shun and persecute those
Who spoke differently or wore "funny" clothes.
In our lifetimes, families have been in transition;
We, who survived the changes may take it as our mission
To keep the light shining on the truth of the way
We treated each other, back in our younger days.

We are only now beginning to understand
That, the world over, every woman and man
Is subject to our own joys and fears;
We all like laughter, and we all shed tears.
The color of skin is caused by climate;
We don't choose the color that we get.

It is quite an awesome responsibility
To have our minds and hearts set free.
My mate and I struggle to relate,
But when we do, it's reason to celebrate.
We work hard to throw off our prejudice
Hoping our grandchildren will create a world more just.