In time we come to know, we understand
there is no saving grace in lies and misleading.
Deep and real differences may hold our families;
But there is no saving grace in lies and using
what misleads. Across canyons of time and space,
listening to the voices of trusted elders and
honored friends, “Through love alone will hate be healed.”
Be healed and know we have awakened before,
left behind our ignorance, the delusions of our greed,
hatred, and fear. Slowly, we are abandoning the belief
that a man or woman can own another, assume
or create a relation that does not recognize the
inherent rights and dignity of another. At work
as in marriage, community, and state relations
this entitlement is now a birthright, an achievement
of what is best in all of us. We are awakening, slowly
reaching the understanding that war is not a sustainable
choice. The war in Vietnam, the war in Iraq, wherever
we may look, we are coming to know that war profits
a small minority of citizens. We have heard all their lies,
the reasons why our sons and daughters must continue to die,
why those of us who have the most merit further incentives
to accumulate even more. There is no saving grace in being
misled. We are also awakening to the fragile gift of democracy,
how your voice and vote is equal to all others. Will it ever be
easy to recognize and accept how we have been used?
Each of us knows the answer to this common experience.
But as the typhoons come and the tornados grow stronger, as
species extinction accelerates, and our divorce rates incline,
as our coastal cities submerge and our elders die of unrelenting
heat, we can awaken, recognize how we have been used.
What comes to mind when I hear their notion that we should
deport millions of our brothers and sisters seeking as we have
sought a better life, or listen to their war cry, drill baby drill,
what comes to mind is, “They just let you do it.”