CHOOSING TO LIVE IN A WORLD THAT...
BY: Keith H. Seymour
************************
I once heard a song...
from
what is now known
as the ...“Baby Boom Era.”.
The song's refrain,
“I won't live in a world without love”
is oh still so clear to me!
So, I now wonder,
has that... same generation,
once known for proselytizing
this ideal of the world,
now exchanged
the values of love, understanding, and compassion
with those of
status, established power, and wealth?
I recently had a conversation with a longtime acquaintance.
An esteemed and prosperous old Black man,
A product of that era, and once known
to espouse...and live
the ideals of that song's refrain.
As we spoke of tragic events occurring throughout the world,
he suddenly
sincerely proclaimed:
“Those people in the ninth ward of Louisiana,
those killed by Tsunamis, and those in poor wretched people in Haiti,
are all poor, desperate and lazy.
God gave them land to be productive and free!
It is because they aren't, they are are
, now
experiencing God's wrath.
So, what has occurred, is as it must be.
Still, I will lend my aid to better their cause
because next year
it is a tax write off
for me.”
I replied to his words abruptly, with an overtly offending glare
True, people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
But what if they have no boots to wear?
Sure, if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime,
but what if the source of that fish is poisoned,
and eating it
will not help sustain life, but rather...kill?
Then sir, I maintain that your proclamation
goes against... GOD'S will.
Yes. I know, no true earthly Utopia will ever exist.
Yet, shouldn't we still strive to maintain ...a world in which
someone with an extra pair, will selflessly provide
the boots and the straps
to pull up and wear, and where people acknowledge
that poisoned fish is useless as food?.
No! I refuse to live in a world without love.
So the fact that I choose to remain...well it must mean
That somewhere in this world there still must be
others working to emphasize the greatest gifts
of
Faith, Hope, and Charity,
