They loot while we fight.

Everyone is half right, and half wrong, a soup of razor blades and flowers
so certain the other folks are all wrong

But they aren’t
they’re half wrong, and half right, a stew of carrots and rocks

if only we could get together
and carefully take the rocks and razor blades out
and place the rocks in the garden
and the razor blades in the recycling
and strain the soup just to be safe
and then reheat it, together,

and having added the spices of accountability and learning and listening and sharing and hugging it out
we would remember that they aren’t ill-intentioned, that they aren’t hateful, they’re just ignorant, and passionate, and protecting something sacred to them, and protecting their fear in the form of self-righteous anger
and we’re, yeah, we’re doing the same.

Then there’d be less pressure to vilify and argue and tangle while the truly smart, cynical folks watch us all fight while they make all the money and build all the too-tall ugly buildings where victory gardens and golden-lit-up homes once were.

The moneymaking world is constantly pushing art and community down, but we are weeds, and grow in the cracks. But, too, the moneymaking world is looking for weaknesses in our community, and wherever it finds them, it builds inequity and paints all the trees beige, and banishes the singing birds, and paves the earth, and heats the sky.

So we must be not just as strong but stronger in our resolution to listen, and talk, and learn, and apologize to one another—all while keeping one eye on the cynical hungry developers and hungry rich and politicians.

~

We’d rather be self-righteous than do the hard work of building peace.

~

There are fascists, and leaders who are cynical. They don’t deserve appeasement.

There are certainly people who know better and have bad intentions. But most people are being used by those people.

Most human beings have legitimate fears and generational ignorance…that is used by greedy, cynical folks toward evil, when it could be awakened through listening, talking, coming together.

It’s too easy to group everyone together and say they’re evil. It’s much harder to befriend them. Like Lincoln said, we may truly defeat our enemies only when we make them our friends.

Let’s be a little more like Daryl Davis.