Whatever happened to the summer of love?
Peace? Compassion? Where?
Whence comes the divisiveness
Our bones are too tight, Wilma
Are we looking for someone to blame?
Creating our own fear?
Where does that kind of hate come from?
Not like me
“If you are not with us you are against us”
Bull!
It’s the popularity of hate
Homogenize
Hypnotize
Kill debate
Still afraid of the monsters under our beds
We make them
Still afraid of the monsters under our beds
“We have met the enemy and he is us”
Still afraid of the monsters under our beds
We pull it out
“They, them, other are playing the ‘N’ card”
And thus we de-legitimize, devalue
So easy to say
We say it so ugly, so smugly
If it sounds cute
Trite
Sound bite
We pick it up toss it out
Spread it like wildfire
Spread it as truth
“Simplify and repeat”
Fact checking is little more than:
“Fits my fear?”
“Check”
“Popular talk show host said it?”
“Check”
“Aligns with my prejudices?”
“Wait I don’t have any why some of my best friends are…”
But remember:
“Fear always springs from ignorance.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
And
“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.” Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Give me the girl in the old Don Henley song…
“Crazy people walkin round with blood in their eyes
And all she wants to do is dance, dance, dance
Wild-eyed pistols wavers who ain’t afraid to die
And all she wants to do is dance”
Maybe if more of us wanted to dance
We’d have less time to waste on hate
“After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary”
Jimi Hendrix
