During Camp I joined a writing track that required us to compose a poem that includes chants that we would use at a protest rally. I think everyone should try this as a simple way to start their own protest. I included a draft of my poem plus some of the interviews that I did and promised to share below:
The media doesnt speak for us
We are our own champions
…The change we want to see
We are aggravated and disgruntled
By social prejudice and systematic oppression
In our schools and on our streets.
There is is too much going on
For too long
Too much racism
Too much homophobia
And trans-phobia
And classism
And sexism
Too much isms.
Society needs to exist for all of us
And social norms need not define how we dress
How we look
Who we marry
Or who we choose to love.
What excuse does our government has for our homeless youth
Who are sleeping on trains
And standing in soup lines
When they should be in school.
What excuse does our government has for our black brothers and sisters
Who hardly have a choice between welfare and a good job?
Where do they get employed if they are too black?
Too uneducated or too thug?
What messages do we send
To that child of a single mother
…A mother who struggles to get home
Night after night
To her sobbing child
Who is still up late and cannot sleep
Through the shock and trauma
from the ringing of bullets from her bedroom window
Where is our voice? Who answers our questions?
How do we channel our messages into actions?
We are bruised by prejudice and ignorance and we need change now!
Not because we are poor, or because we are gay or because we are black
But because we are humans!
