My 6th grade teacher drilled us on freedoms, but with the caveat that, “your freedom ends at the end of my nose.” I think of that often in these days of controversy over climate change, reparations, what we are allowed to say, what should be taught in schools, what constitutes hate speech, and which lives matter.
First Amendment rights are crucial, and although my ears hurt from obscenities and snarky comments in the media, and I sometimes wish someone’s mic would be turned off, everyone deserves his or her chance to speak. This poem was written in the knowledge that it is our response to those comments that matter most.
Hate Speech
Quiet isn’t always peace.
Sitting down and shutting up
is a pathway to prison
but spewing obscenities
is not how freedom flourishes.
When rants run amuck
Violence eventually follows.
The past we step into
offers choices. What stands before us
is a crossroad. Will we stay stuck
in the never-ending shade,
or walk into the light of hope?
Either choice requires speaking out
but soft answers
still turn away wrath.
c Lyn Messersmith