"Labels"...Why Do We Use Them?
We were children; we came into this world through no means of our own!
We were children we played in the park night and day
We were children we learned from those who came before us.
We were children yet before we knew it, we were so much more
We were a canvas
We were formed
We were molded
By those who came before us
Look at the kindergarten Class Room
Look at the nursing home dinning room
At lot has happened in between
When I was very young we wrote with big fat pencils.
As we grew older, we were given finer instruments
We were told to be careful with indelible pencils
Because what we wrote with these could not be erased
For too many of us
We can not erase that which is about us.
We can not erase that which is about us.
We follow lock stock and barrel the path that is set before us
Robert Frost wrote about the road not taken
but who among those who spout the Party line, ever even considered the other road
How can we walk in each other’s shoes
if we cannot imagine that path that got each of us where we are now?
Therefore, when I hear people use labels like conservative, socialist, marxist, liberal, troll, I remember that we were all once children, whose potential exceeded a label.It gives each of us a comfort to label someone else as the ‘other/different’.But just the like the classroom, the dining room, the cars and busses, offices, playgrounds…where we all congregate, we are all breathing the same air. Please, take note of the lack of diversity within the photo of the children at the top of the page and this one of the senior citizens. Once we view both photos, it would appear that those latter in life have not maintained close friendships with anyone other than those that look “just like us”.
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Take a look at the photographs below. Do you notice any difference in these two campaign photos? Which groups of people are locked in the labeling patterns of the past and which group is ready to move us toward a better future? In other words…”which one plays well with others”? Crosby, Stills and Nash said it best…”Won’t you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring…We can change the world…rearrange the world.” [Note: I realize that these lyrics were written for a different time and place, but how appropriate to use as a calling to all of those people who would come to Grant Park on election night.]
Michelle
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