Writing prompt: What is bringing you hope right now OR, what pandemic would you hope to end? Eulogy to Power, Ellen My first day of kindergarten, my teacher lied to me, Thinking I was too young to handle the truth, she kept it from me. When I discovered the truth I cried twice as hard - once for the truth and once for the lie. I learned then that adults are not to be trusted. In first grade, Joshua got beat up on the bus-ride home, He wasn't bold enough or tough enough and became an easy target for the big kids, The bus driver watched in the rearview mirror emotionlessly, as Joshua covered his head. That day I learned that adults often don't care and rarely offer protection. In 11th grade, the principal suspended the smartest kid in school, Punishing him for using drugs was perhaps more important that providing him with support. That kid overdosed three years after high school and I wondered what might have been different if the adults in charge who entered his life, had cared more about healing and less about discipline. In 12th grade, a teacher was written up for failing a student for cheating, The school wanted more to protect the student's privilege and their school's reputation, Than to demonstrate the importance of honor and accountability. The student is running his family's company now, a heavy salary to show for that honest work. When I worked in juvenile detention they proudly demonstrated their JDAI program, Instituted by policymakers in DC to eliminate racial bias that so often plagues the court and jail, Which would have been a good tool if those using it could not override the scale, So that black youth made up only 60% of the city's population, but were 98% of youth detained. And when I moved into my first house, I bought it from a white couple with a four-year-old child. The schools in the county outperformed the city schools in grades and in safety, So then whose children should be obligated to attend a school that is unfit for anyone's child? So unfit that children skip school to avoid violence, but then end up in juvie because the scale is skewed. From the world of education to the systems of law, policy, healthy, and housing, Those in power continue to demonstrate corruption and injustice - Yield power to a world benefitting those children whose skin tones reflect that of 44 of the US presidents, So today I draft a eulogy to power, in hopes of destroying the powers that be and creating equality. World Peace, Avaeta A What does it mean, To want peace? Would they get it, If we were gone? If they looked around, And saw nothing but the same, Would that bring them peace? Would they stop killing? Would they stop invading? Isn't that what they had, Before exploring? Before Christopher "discovered" This "New" World, That already existed.
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