Here is an article from NPR on the passing this month of, Carolyn Goodman, mother of murdered civil rights worker Andrew Goodman - she was 91. [An audio link is provided at the top of the page]
Here is an article that I wrote for my blog IT MAKES YOUR BLOOD RUN COLD written in 2005 following a Civil Rights Tour of the Mississippi and Alabama.
As a movement
we learn
that there will be set backs
think back all of these years
perhaps on this day
someone said
this struggle is too difficult
we can't go on
or worse yet
set out to take an eye for an eye
we must honor our martyrs
keep their names on our lips
but remember
peace is like the honey on our lips
mixing with the bitter taste of loss
our job is to move
toward a more just world
if you want peace
work for justice
if you want justice
be prepared to forgive
perhaps not forget
B I R D
Poem Copyright
©2007, Frederick Douglass Perry, All Rights Reserved
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of
time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
Martha Graham
Kintango: Who can tell me if there was a tribal war, and the men of Mandinga had the enemy surrounded on three sides, what should be the next thing done?
Boy: The men of the Mandinga will enclose the circle and surround the enemy.
Kintango: No, the goal of war is not to kill. The goal of war is to win. By surrounding the enemy, you would force him only to fight more desperately. If you surround him on three sides and leave him an escape route, he will leave your land and there will less blood spilled on both sides. For a warrior of the Mandinga, courage is not enough.
Boy: But sir, won't an enemy who escapes alive fight you again?
Kintango: It is impossible to kill an enemy. You may end a man's life, but his son becomes your new enemy. A warrior respects another warrior, even he is his enemy. A warrior kills only to protect his family, or to keep from becoming a slave. We believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man's life. The way of the Mandinga is not easy, but it is best.
From Alex Haley's Roots
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops
of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
Here is an article that I wrote for my blog IT MAKES YOUR BLOOD RUN COLD written in 2005 following a Civil Rights Tour of the Mississippi and Alabama.
As a movement
we learn
that there will be set backs
think back all of these years
perhaps on this day
someone said
this struggle is too difficult
we can't go on
or worse yet
set out to take an eye for an eye
we must honor our martyrs
keep their names on our lips
but remember
peace is like the honey on our lips
mixing with the bitter taste of loss
our job is to move
toward a more just world
if you want peace
work for justice
if you want justice
be prepared to forgive
perhaps not forget
B I R D
Poem Copyright
©2007, Frederick Douglass Perry, All Rights Reserved
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of
time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
-Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
Martha Graham
Kintango: Who can tell me if there was a tribal war, and the men of Mandinga had the enemy surrounded on three sides, what should be the next thing done?
Boy: The men of the Mandinga will enclose the circle and surround the enemy.
Kintango: No, the goal of war is not to kill. The goal of war is to win. By surrounding the enemy, you would force him only to fight more desperately. If you surround him on three sides and leave him an escape route, he will leave your land and there will less blood spilled on both sides. For a warrior of the Mandinga, courage is not enough.
Boy: But sir, won't an enemy who escapes alive fight you again?
Kintango: It is impossible to kill an enemy. You may end a man's life, but his son becomes your new enemy. A warrior respects another warrior, even he is his enemy. A warrior kills only to protect his family, or to keep from becoming a slave. We believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man's life. The way of the Mandinga is not easy, but it is best.
From Alex Haley's Roots
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops
of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
No comments:
Post a Comment