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My humorous thoughts about life.

"My Humorous and Helpful Thoughts About Teaching / Educational Resources for Your Classroom / Music and Random Fun"

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Facing History and Ourselves

People make choices. 
Choices make history.


Fear
Weary
Sick at heart
     What have you done?

Unmindful
Sneer at everything
Finger pointing
     What have you done?

Blame everyone but thenselves
Bellicose
Happened in city.
     What have you done?

I am weary of reasons.
I have fear and trepidation
To bring hope and inspiration,
     What have you done?


15 comments:

Handmade Jewelry Haven said...

Well. Certainly a break from humor here!
Somber but thought provoking.
Thank you for sharing.

- Lisa

An Apel a Day said...

I totally agree with this! I sent my kids to a mixed race school. There are a lot of mostly caucasian schools around here.

I love the designer Milton Glaser. He's oldish now. He did the I heart NY logo. Any how he did this poster I think you could appreciate: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2013/sep/21/milton-glaser-push-pin-studios#img-12

I have a whole pinned board on anti racism: https://www.pinterest.com/anapeladay/anti-racism/

Thanks for this post!

XmasDolly said...

Did you write this? Wow, that is definitely a mind teaser/thinker for sure. WOW!

Liz (Wimpy Fox) said...

Wow, powerful.

Anonymous said...

i can't stand the overuse of the word racism because there is no such thing as race. most people that use it are self-segregating anyway, and then blame everyone else. MOST, not all.

Ascending Butterfly said...

Indeed, folks better get and stay woke, this is going to be some turbulent years, and the only thing that will help heal them is love, kindness and extra buckets of consideration!

Happy Wordless Wednesday to all, happy I found you today!

I linked up! :-)

Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly

stevebethere said...

I agree with Liz very powerful Joyce and thought provoking

Have a nice day Joyce :-)

Unknown said...

Ahh a post for current times. Sad but true.

messymimi said...

Well said! There's so much we can do. One of my determinations is to stay in this neighborhood as it becomes more "mixed" and keep making friends of my neighbors.

Catch My Words said...

Thanks for all the comments. Yesterday, I attended a Facing History and Ourselves program which certainly gets one thinking. At the program, we viewed a clip of the five African American children killed in the church bombing of the 1960s. Is the poem my creation? Yes and No. Rabbi Milton Grafman gave his congregation a sermon on September 19, 1963. We were given the task of writing a poem using only words from his sermon. So, the words in the poem are totally his, but I strung them together to make the poem.

Zongrik's comment peaks my interest. Part of the session was in adapting new words to fit what is going on today. Racism is certainly alive and well, but there is a need to choose more select words to describe it because people have preconceived notions and feelings attached to words. For example, Instead of discussing antisemitism, we would say "Judeophobia." This word is specific to Jewish people and has not been overused to leave preconceived notions.

As for attacking people who use the word racism, did you read the poem? Without attacking anyone, the point of the poem is, "What have you done?" Meaning we all our responsible for healing the world. It's interesting for you to say there is no such thing as race. The races are certainly being watered down with multiple cultures marrying and producing multiracial children, but the complete annihilation of the races has not occurred. In a 23 and Me profile, my family is 99.4% Ashkenazi Jewish, so I would certainly beg to differ that our race is intact in my family line. . . and there are many people in the world who hate me purely because of my race. So, I beg to differ!

csuhpat1 said...

Very beautiful. As a person of color, I do like this very much.

NanaHood said...

Hate and racism are wrong and evil. Love is always the answer. Thank you for sharing and for the thoughtful poem. If I don't want to be part of the problem I need to be part of the solution. Thanks for reminding me.

Binky said...

It would be nice if one day it wasn't an issue for anyone.

Lydia C. Lee said...

Good poem. Sounds like a great workshop.

Karren Haller said...

I would like to see the day when this all goes away. We were doing pretty good until a few years ago an then we reverted back 50 years.