it's not race that keeps us divided as in some cities. it's not political ideologies that prevent us from speaking and sharing ideas. it's not ethnicity that prevents us from walking together. i am racially diverse, i share multiple and varied political values and i am the product of many and various ethnic origins. i am truly a rainbow nation within a nation. i am not gender specific. the place that i live has men, women, children and they all have equal value, or lack of it in your world, and the same opportunity. the world i now i live in shows no bias, no discrimination and eagerly accepts all that happen to cross the wall between us.
you could not know my world unless you have lived in it. like news from another country involved in turmoil, you hear rumors and stories of the world behind this wall. you hear of the people who live here thru your social media and occasionally you take the time to peruse photographs and videos of the people who live here. but these do no justice to the ones who live behind that wall that protects you from the realities of my world. you sometimes find something so disturbing about events behind this wall that you may feel compelled to tiptoe and look over, but the closer you come, the more you decide that it's better left to the people behind the wall to deal with their own world. you tiptoe away without looking, other than a sideways glance at the top of the wall.
i know your world, i lived in it. i know how you walk, how you talk , how you work, how you sleep, how you play. like you, i was aware of this wall that separates us but i chose, like you, to never glance at it other than momentarily. like you, i chose to ignore the refugees living behind this wall, trapped in a world that i was not familiar with and did not want to come to acknowledge, much less walk in. unlike the chosen lack of knowledge of my world by you, i know yours. unlike the lack of familiarity by you of those around me, i am aware of the people in your world. like you, i did not see this wall that winds thru every street, around every sidewalk, thru every field, every community and every building in my city. now i know only too well the size and depth of this wall. i've walked every inch, every foot and every mile of it. i have seen every face, every man, every woman, every child that lives in this world. i've seen those you have chosen to forget.
we are a nation divided, but not how you might imagine in todays politically and ideologically charged world. we are divided by our own choosing and lack of vision. there is a wall that separates the homeless. and to use president reagans famous line....we need to tear down that wall. the people you have forgotten and have chosen not to see are behind it. we need to let them be free and once again be a part of your world. from your side the wall does not look that large and it may seem like an easy obstacle to overcome. from this side it is daunting and formidable. there is a way out but the fear, trepidation and that large grey wall overcome the desire to escape.
look over the wall...they are there. tear it down...block by block, person by person.
see you around town
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