Once to every thinking person
comes a moment to decide
whether to improve or worsen
life for those who share the ride.
In a culture populated
equally by right and wrong,
half are glorified; half hated.
All must rise to get along.
Those who choose the path of kindness
have a duty to the horde
lacking empathy whose blindness
simply cannot be ignored.
Never will the sound of silence
in the wake of cruel deeds
be acceptable. Nonviolence
doesn’t mean “abandon needs”.
Standing up for truth and justice,
quell the panic, lest we fall
for a web of lies that thrust us
straight into the devil’s thrall.
Citizen of earth and nation
striving for the common good,
raise a thundering vibration
over every neighborhood.
Only in a coalition
born of passionate desire
can a movement gain volition
going forward through the fire.
ccby 2020 Mary Boren
The two opening lines are borrowed from a hymn written by James Lowell Russell in 1845.
