This soapbox
is flimsy,
the wood is
a little weak,
but I shall
do my best to
stand on it,
even if there
is a little
wobble.
It’s June
and that means
it’s Pride
Month, and Juneteenth,
it’s also
National Ice Tea Month
for some
reason.
Iced Tea is okay,
I guess.
Each of those
June recognition's
seems to involve
our attempts
to heal the
wounds of our hate filled pasts.
I’m not sure
about the Iced Tea thing
but somebody
probably hates it.
It is
important to me,
in these
highly electric times,
we focus on
the things that make us the same,
rather than
the things that appear different,
but I’m ill
prepared to do so.
On this
rickety soapbox,
which I’ve
pulled out so many times
to stand on,
and shout from and decry the
various
injustices I have been forced to
witness from
my safe, straight, white, male perspective.
It’s easy
for me to say and do practically
whatever I
want. It’s unlikely this soapbox
will be
kicked out from underneath me by anyone,
other than
some other straight, white male with
anger and
rationality issues. That’s who I’m actually most
worried
about being perched up here.
It is easy
to hate. It takes guts to love.
It is easy
to judge people if they are a little
different.
It’s difficult to accept them as they are.
I have dealt
with these demons in my past, and
learned to
overcome. And continue to learn.
It is my
hope that I can retire this
rickety
soapbox someday.
When the
world embraces our
similarities
rather than superficial
differences.
That we can
engage each other
with loving
civility and compassion
rather than
mistrust and ignorance.
But I worry
that I’ll be standing
here again
soon enough.
Trying to
balance without breaking through,
the wood and
the lies, the rot and the chaos,
the rusty
nails and the eroded values of a
equal and
just society.
I’ll end
with someone else’s
words as I
try to balance
on this
precarious soapbox,
“The price
of hating other human beings
is loving oneself less.” ― Eldridge Cleaver
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