Wee Lives Matter

By Ernie McCray

(Written for the closing of the Social Justice Conference at City College)

(Photo: Dept. of Children and Youth Affairs/Flickr/CC)

“Black Lives Matter”
is heard
from a chorus of voices
in a protest in the street.
“All Lives Matter”
someone screams
from a car rolling by
on the street,
in denial
that Black Lives Matter
wouldn’t have come to be
if All Lives Matter
had ever been a reality
in this country
at any time
or any place.

But, listen,
we could talk about such things
until we are blue in the face
but to know what truly matters
we would need to only look a sweet baby in the face,
an innocent child,
of any color
or of any race
and we will find ourselves face-to-face
with a most precious human being
who is the face
of the future
of the whole human race.
When it comes down to
“Who Matters the Most”
the children,
the wee ones,
are the hands-down
CHAMPIONS!
Wee Lives Matter
as it’s our very young
we’re dumping a world
raw with agitated emotions on –
a problem
because their eyes are on
our every goings-on
and they don’t miss a thing.
They feel the intensity of our rhythms
and our rhymes,
sing what we sing,
swing how we swing,
speak how we speak,
to our tempo,
to our beat;
dream what we dream;
scheme what we scheme,
forever questioning,
yet, too often left to rely
on the lies:
The blacks being dumb and lazy lies.
The Muslims exist to terrorize lies;
The Mexicans take our jobs lies;
The “illegal aliens” caused our economy to take a dive lies
The affirmative action is reverse discrimination lies;
The everybody in America has an equal chance lies;
The it’s only natural for white people to have so much power lies;
The there is only one culture in our nation,
“American culture,” lies…
And if we keep on keeping these lies alive
on top of all the lies summarized
in the history books
our children read in school
they’ll be steered further away
from important truths
that can guide
them to create a world
where they can prosper and survive
all that lies
ahead of them:
less water for everyone
at the same time there is a rising of the seas ;
the continuing urbanization of our states and cities;
temperatures gradually warming degree by degree;
the necessity for discovering new sources of energy;
the witnessing of the mass extinction of various species;
having to climb tall mountains
and cross wide rivers
of ages old isms and prejudices
that gnaw at our capability
to empathize
and sympathize
with each other
and appreciate the diversity
that makes us unique.

Oh, if we could just
walk walks
and talk talks
that would reveal to the wee ones
how to love and care for
their fellow human beings
and their world –
so they can do likewise.
If we act otherwise
we just continue in the same ways
we have strayed
from our better selves
as a way of living
for generations after generations
and the children
simply won’t be able to do
what they must do:
save the human race.
If we don’t embrace
the notion that
Wee Lives Matter
who knows
what our children
will someday face?