A Lesson Unlearned

18 September 2012

I wake, excited to start the day's work,
  decide to check the news and sip my coffee.

The excitement now gone,
  replaced by a deep sorrow,
  tears,
  and the question
  that begs for an answer...

Why do we cause each other
  such pain?
  Through the ages,
  all peoples,
  every society...

Some find their way
  to positions of power and control
  over others.

To get and stay there,
  they systematically
  oppress,
  suppress,
  kill,
  maim,
  destroy

everything

in their path.

Those of us upon whom they tread
  stand up,
  crowd the streets,
  chant and cry and demand
  that it stop,
  that we deserve the
  life they are destroying.

But, still they come,
  armed with money and resources
  they stole from us,
  skilled in the ways of
  deception,
  propaganda,
  control,
  creation of fear,

turning us on ourselves,
  so that we lay blame
  at the feet of another
  equally hurt by the
  ruse created
  so maliciously,
  so intentionally,
  so effectively,

by the 1%.

We shall find our hope
  when we gaze in the mirror,
  when we join with our neighbor,
  when we embrace each other
  regardless of our differences,
  when we realize

that life
  does not demand
  sacrifice of another
  for its own sustenance.

Life thrives on love,
  grows through celebrating difference,
  expands through giving,
  reveals its exquisite beauty
  in each and every face
  and in each and every
  gift given.

This must be an extremely important lesson for humankind,
  as every age and every people
  has been confronted
  with the demise caused
  by insatiable greed
  turned into malice against others.

Witnessing the oppression
  of the people,
  weeping for their pain,
  praying for the souls lost,

wondering,
  how we will finally learn
  this most fundamental
  lesson.