It was hard at first
Like ripping off a Band-Aid
The duct tape of society’s expectations and my own inhibitions kept my eyes cast down And my mouth sealed shut
But after that brief pain the words came flowing forth like water bursting from a dam to fragile to hold them back
And now I can’t stop
Speaking
The words have a life of their own a soul that is more than mine alone
They say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and I know this is true
These words
They have power
To confront and compel
To caress and comfort
But most importantly to create a reality
Reality apart from what we know
Reality in the direction of what we desire
I can not
Should not
Will not
Remain silent any longer
Twenty-seven
Twenty children
CHILDREN!
Six adults
Educators
And the coward that did it turned that weapon of destruction on himself
Sandy Hook should have put an end to it
Would have, if it weren’t for cowardice and corruption
A steady march of death is the new anthem of this country
The land of the free and home of the brave
Until bullets rip through flesh and shatter bone
Snuffing the flames of life
The promise
The hope
The future
Well I call bullshit
Bullshit that we can’t summon the willpower to protect our children
The willpower to stand up to laws that have not caught up with technology
And now another 17 are dead
But these dead won’t remain silent
The survivors speak for them in voices true and strong
They shall not waver in their determination
They seek change
They seek justice
And we must all stand up with them
We must raise our voices with theirs until our chorus of “NO” cannot be drowned out
Our willpower will be undeniable and our passion will be clear for all to see
They scoff at us
Say how Millennials are “ruining everything”
But what did we inherit but a broken system built to keep you in power and us submissive
Well not anymore
We’ve had it up to here with your status quo and “tradition”
We’ve had it up to here with watching our friends and colleagues die before our eyes
We’ve had it up to here with the refusal to even study the problem in hopes of finding a solution
We’ve had it up to here with lack of change
We’ve had it up to here with nothing more than “thoughts and prayers”
We’ve reached the end of frayed and unwinding ropes
We’ve had
Enough
