i hope that the day will come soon when we can all obtain that golden silence i hope that beginning tomorrow we will not awaken to hear the sounds of war in a distant land. i hope that the people of israel, palestine, syria and other countries will no longer hear the loud explosions and rumbles of war. i hope we will not hear the anguished cries of mothers whose children have been slain and whose mangled bodies hey clutch in a refusal to accept their death. i hope we will not hear the whimper of fear from children as bombs explode around them. shots are fired from afar and the sound of death surrounds them.
i hope we no longer hear the tears of our own people as men and women are killed in the streets of our country. i long for the day when we no longer hear the deep sobs of mothers ringing thru our neighborhoods when their innocent children die a needless death due to the thoughtless, heartless and unforgivable actions of others. i wait for the day when we turn on the news and we don't hear of another murder, another kidnapping, another gunshot in our schools, our churches or the corners of our own streets. i want to walk outside tonight and not hear gunshots in our own city or the screams of a brother or sister or a mother or father who witnesses the life fade out of one of their own while they lay on the sidewalk or the street, the blood staining the sidewalk outside their own home. i no longer want to hear the sirens of police or ambulances racing to the scene of yet another case of violence in the city i live, the city i walk and the city where i plan on remaining.
i wait for the day when i no longer hear the soft weeping of mothers who worry about where the next meal for their children is coming from. i no longer want to hear the anguish of these mothers when they sit awake at nite in a car, an abandoned house, a tent or a park to guard their children until daybreak because they have no shelter. i wait for that day when i do not hear the soft words that tell me yet another man has died homeless and alone, joining an already too long list of those that died before him. i wait and hope for that day. I wait for the day when empty words of homeless agencies don't echo off missions and shelters that are bursting at the seams with homeless men, women and children.
i hope for the day when i no longer hear words of hate or discontent spew from our mouths as we shout across lines of color, race, ethnic or economic barriers. i wait for the day when we as a country speak as one for the good of all. i long for the day when our government once again works as "we the people" and operates for the people, by the people and of the people. i wait for the day when the words that government speaks is true, clear, for us all and not just phrases and words to capture a moment of publicity.
i wait today for all of us to stop speaking and just listen....to nothing...and to everything. i hope for that silence that will unite us all. i long for the silence of strength, the silence of peace, the silence of love, the silence of tolerance, the quiet contentment of living together...in peace. yes indeed, silence could be golden.
see you around town