Have you seen the bumper sticker that declares, “If you’re not outraged, you are not paying attention?”
I’m lucky enough to be associated with many poets. Glenis Redmond among them. She woke me up this morning with her history lesson of life on a plantation. “Show me your papers,” was a common demand. Of a non-freed slave. Or even a freed slave.
The demand has been made on the President of the United States.How is it that the entire country is not raising their voice? I ask in my own poem, “What IS a voice if it remains silent against leagues of tyranny?”

Dear Fellow Citizens:
Wake up. This is NOT a giant reality show, this IS reality. While the pundits are engaged in the center ring with Donald Trump, now moving to disparaging the education of the President, the deeper message is more insidious. When ever a comic opens a gig with, “Some of my best friends are black,” you know you are preparing for a joke based on the irony of racism.
Fellow Americans, WAKE UP. If you have a message you share on your break, at the coffee counter or with friends, NOW is the time to make that voice heard. Write. Call. Text. Email. One person DOES make a difference and remaining silent in the face of so many offenses and assaults on the health and vitality of our country is silent assent. BE INSPIRED TO ACT – confident that from the many, a message will form.
Dear souls…we each live aspiring for a greater good, a deeper spiritual practice and more harmonious way of placing our feet on the planet. As the nation’s conversation becomes increasingly unkind rational voices must be heard. BE HEARD !
Yesterday my husband paid $99 (read this, ninety – nine dollars) to fill the gas tank on our single, faithful vehicle. The last time I was responsible for taking our tank from empty to full, not that long ago, it cost $64. THIS should be the national conversation.
My good friend, an effervescent soul, has just put her precious, tended-with-care home on the market. She has been jobless for seven months and this is her only alternative to meet the obligations of her life. THIS should be the national conversation.
A subtly racist, discriminating dialogue is being tolerated before the nation’s television-attached beings. And in so many cases, not so subtle (hear Trump saying, “I get along fine with the blacks.”_ Would anyone let me say, without chiding, “I get along fine with everyone in the country that wears hot pink hair bands?” It is equally ridiculous.
Funding educational systems, not building prisons. Supporting the national story, not shutting down NPR. Living up to the reputation that we have built, as a united country, over the last centuries. Let the world see our people engaging in matters of consequence, once again.
Rather than being outraged as the bumper sticker suggests, consider being OUTSPOKEN. Friends – WAKE UP. Put some power behind that peaceful yoga practice, measure your mediation with a heart felt action. With open eyes do not let the parade pass your street and rob your property of its value and joy. This is a message which, at its root, is tied to DAILY JOYS and SIMPLE PLEASURES. The focus of the leadership of our country is being lost to trivialities. “Adjust the dial”– give breath your voice. Please.