In Spite of Headlines

Your good becomes fuzzy,

As headlines define the day:

A hundred dead in Syria,

Nuclear war on its way.

Your average member’s tendency

To anticipate oblivion

Turns a world of hope and passion

Into one not worth living in.

You harm your own surroundings,

Toss toxins to the breeze,

Douse ducklings in detergent,

Capitalize on trees.

Your hatred is pervasive

And persuasive, and mundane,

Taunt a peer inside a classroom,

Kick a Muslim off a plane.

Ingratitude taints your tone,

While half of you can’t eat;

Thousands stumble thirsty,

Innocent women are beat.

The best and brightest bicker

Clinging to their cash

And to a world away

They ship their hazardous trash.

Corrupt are the leaders

Of those who need the most;

Trivialities distract those

Who do not give, but boast.

If the headlines tell the truth,

And anyone’s keeping score,

It’s easy to see how your members

Have no faith in you anymore.

But I believe the headlines

Tell only half the tale,

And if you only see the bad,

Everything seems to fail,

But if people seek the good

And strive to give their share

We’ll find that planet Earth

Is one worthy of repair.

Easy? No, not at all,

For centuries you have shaped

A population that’s murdered,

Stolen, beaten, hated, raped.

But something can be done

If we choose to see the choice,

And it all starts with acknowledging

That every one of us has a voice.

Those with means to cry for change

Should be shamelessly crying out,

And we’ll better our global condition,

Eradicate all doubts

Because if someone thinks a movement

Can’t begin, and grow, and heal

A world that’s been mistreated

Here’s the big reveal:

We can better our environment,

Fight for peace and human rights,

Provide our peers with food and comforts,

Work all day, dream all night,

Create a world in which all are born

Fed, safe, in unity -

This is the world that can exist

If it’s the one we choose to see.

No headline can dissuade me

From what I know to be true:

Dear humanity,

I have endless faith in you.