Automatically given
All the advantages,
Without having done
Anything to earn them,
The comfort of oblivion,
Complacency of right,
It becomes natural to feel
A surge of disdain
Toward lessers who aren’t
Part of your tribe,
Who have the audacity
To want the same things
You’ve always had.
It requires no
Wisdom, imagination,
Courage, to do
Something awful
To someone else.
It’s easy to exclude
Others from joining
One’s little game,
Keep their grubby,
Different hands off things.
It’s far more difficult
To let go of fear and
Reach out to people
In need, no matter
Who they are.
It’s not that
They can’t help people,
It’s just that
They choose not to.
Inhumanity
Is simply the
Inability to
Move past fear.
We all do better
When we look out
For each other,
Courageously.
It takes a particular
Personality to vilify
Another group just
Because it doesn’t
Agree with one’s own
Biases, an entrenched
Fear and mistrust of
Things that are different,
A compulsion to classify
Whole groups of people,
Forcing them into a
Box labeled enemy.
He’s unable to
See the world
From someone else’s
Perspective, an
Unimaginable
Shortcoming
For someone who
Is in charge of
Caring for others.
He encounters a problem
And calls customer service.
Not again, a voice with
An accent on the other end.
He rages about the
Person trying to help him but not
About the company outsourcing jobs,
Paying some hapless human being
A quarter of what they
Would pay someone in
This country just to
Make a few people
That much richer.
It takes no creativity
To slap together a
System based on fear,
Just a few coarse
Words or insinuations
Designed to push
Waiting buttons.
Selfishness doesn’t
Involve deliberation.
What requires far more
Concern and forethought is
Finding ways to care
For human beings and
Building a world where
Empathy is the norm
And everyone matters.
They’ll welcome you
With a smile at
The coffee shop
On main street
As long as you
Follow the rules
And look normal.
A sneering arrogance learned
On the lap of previous generations,
Surrounded by enablers cheering
As other human beings are
Reduced to objects of abuse
Gleefully spewed on them by
Whooping simpletons driven by
The ever-present fear that their
Actions will one day come back
To haunt them and fate will see
Them subjected to the same torment
If they don’t reign supreme.
