RING YOUR BELL (FOR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE)

VOICES 2023

For Miguel Hidalgo

Happiness is a state of grace, your friend holding your hand when you need it, a joy that’s way too often recognized only after it’s gone. It’s plain all beings deserve to know that grace, all life deserves that kindness, and all people are one family, yet every day now that sort of love and respect is under attack.

Crying about injustice bitches up even more injustice, more hurt, another horror-flashing headline, another set of children left to fend for themselves, more killing, more dying, like a flood everywhere, wow, how catastrophe and violence thrive. Our big collective heart aches in action, in reaction, in inaction.

There’s no reason to let what you cherish waste away. Ring your bell, gather together, shout, act, now is the time. Come on, speak out children, every parent, too. Say it loud, say it clear, you are ready to make a change.

Drop hate, no more casting anyone aside because of a fear of what they might be doing. Get free, no more praising ignorance, intolerance and the disease of needing to fit in. Stop abuse, no more tearing apart the planet, or anyone, for the sake of progress or satisfaction. Be aware, no more leaving others to straighten out the mess made by the choices you make.

It is the right of all people to organize and to free themselves of every and any tyranny. Ring your bell, gather together, shout, act, now is the time. To suffer the oppression of others, of what’s always been done, is no longer an option. The matter is urgent, so is your determination, we-the-people, our collective happiness, will not survive without it.