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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

"We Have Been Here Before"



Ohio State Senator Nina Turner



Susan's prompt at Midweek Motif is Unity. Ohio State Senator Nina Turner's stirring speech at the civil rights rally in Washington is a perfect example of a rallying cry for unity. She is an inspiring orator. I hope she moves up to higher office.

It just might be that the most divisive president-elect of all time  has galvanized the nation, and everyone is more united than ever. I hope so.  If we continue speaking truth to power, and marching together, surely we can turn this ship around.


Unity,
not a word
to be spoken lightly.
More, a hand held out,
feet marching alongside other feet,
smiles exchanged,
solidarity,
common cause,
hearts that believe
in the rightness of brotherhood
and sisterhood,
social justice and
a better life for all.

Unity.
Usually not experienced in the ivory
or gold-plated towers
of Me-and-Mine.
But very familiar to the marginalized,
the disenfranchised,
the struggling,
the stressed middle class,
the working poor,
who share the little they have
in the connection
of a similar lived experience.

When the American dream
turns into a nightmare,
let us listen to the visionaries,
who will help us
to dream
(and march toward)
a new and better dream.


20 comments:

  1. Yes, I think you are right: The marginalized know more about unity than those who are in the top 1% will ever know.

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  2. So glad you worked with this ground-breaking and insightful speech! We can work toward an unforeseen unity now, taking the hand held out toward us and hearing the dreams of visionaries who tell it like it is.

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  3. Nice one, Sherry. The 2nd stanz has so much truth in it.

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  4. Loved the speech and your poem afterward, invited all of us to hold out a hand to another. Unity is a necessity.

    Elizabeth

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  5. Hey, that's the second time I heard that inspiring speech! Sadly politicians these days seem to encourage greed and diversity to the detriment of all but themselves, the investors and the millionaires. Yes we are citizens still but are primarily consumers and so have weakness which we find hard to overcome.

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  6. Inspiring poem. Unity was my focus when we brought about a change in SF's public schools. Together we can...

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  7. I stirring call to activism and an appeal to people of conscience to stand behind the visionaries who champion the change that we want in this world.

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  8. Woohoo...Fantastic speech!What a woman !

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  9. That "hand stretched" that's where it starts in earnest

    Nice write Sherry

    Much love...

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  10. Well said and beautifully written Sherry - it is often the unseens in this world who know what it means to truly unite

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  11. Unity is truly Strength..ha only the fools defy & deny that..how right you are when you say that it's only experienced by the struggling mass...a good one Sherry...

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  12. Yes, THIS:
    "More, a hand held out"

    Such a simple thing, really. But so important. Love this, Sherry.

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  13. Thanks so much for this, Sherry. I found it inspiring and hopeful, although, I am still not
    watching the inauguration.

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  14. I hope you and yours had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and are having a very HAPPY NEW YEAR. May we display your linked header on our new site directory, SiteHoundSniffs.com? As it is now, the site title (linked back to its home page) is listed, and we think displaying the linked header will attract more attention.

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  15. Yes!!!
    Nina Turner IS an inspiring and amazing woman, and we need to listen to her. Her 'three bones' reference gave me goosebumps!!
    Very powerful poem...and I just loved this piece, Sherry!

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  16. Great place you have taken the motif, Sherry. Indeed, where the many "I's" become "we", that is unity...

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