I Want To Believe in The Dream

There are words we speak in silence,

Words we cannot bear to share.

Be for it the judgement we may receive,

Or the Criticism that will hinder our progression.

I have had these thoughts hover, Had them cripple my resolve.

Eat away at my mind until I had no soul.

To cause harm is not my intent.

I only wish to understand,

How time has shown me the truth to who I am.

There are titles we are given,

Names whispered amongst the growing crowd.

We have been told we’re the privileged,

Advantaged to the rights many have been denied.

Disbelief and Denial were many the response.

For images of racist dictators and the superficial stereotypes,

Were the first to mind.

I did not want to believe that was me,

Nor did I want to acknowledge,

The turmoil and controversy that has raged a nation.

The father who had raised me, be not by blood,

Had skin descendant from a Tongan Heritage.

It is his skin that he past down to his first and only son.

The child that no one believed to be my little brother.

We grew up in the same home, laughed and cried together.

Made the most of our time and were the family we could only hope to be.

I did not want to be a racist, but time could only prove,

I was privileged and lucky for the life I was given.

I only had to redefine the phrase to understand its meaning.

There are experiences in our lives that are out of our hands,

Choices that are beyond our control.

We do not decide what genitals we are born with,

The country or the social standing we are born into.

We cannot pick the color of our skin, as much as we can choose the color of our eyes.

I wish the society and the warped world that we lived in.

Did not repress groups for who they were and who they wanted to be.

For me, living in this distorted world meant that I was one of the lucky few.

I was born in Australia where War did not plague our streets. Not in my time.

I had a home and shelter and access to clean water.

I have access to an education where most would not.

I was born female; I was born with skin as white as snow.

Not once, have I known repression to be the result of my complexion.

I do not know if I am straight, or If I simply am not attracted to either gender.

But I know, I have never been harmed due to my sexuality or the people I love.

Even then, I have experienced heartache, tasted trauma and known illness.

How sad it is to think, that is considered lucky.

The world is surely on the brink of insanity.

Although many choices are beyond our control,

There are a few decisions and actions that we all can learn to practice.

It’s the relationships we foster, the empathy we share for ourselves and others.

It is the steps that we can take to save the lives of those here,

And those who are yet to be born.

As said by Martin Luther King himself,

‘I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a Nation,

Where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content’.

Our childhood years are the foundation to how we live our life as adults.

The environment we learn in, the experiences we see,

Determine whether this cycle of constant brutality against each other, will continue.

Its hard to believe that anything we do can make a difference,

Can change the hardships that have continued over more than one generation.

But I believe if we do nothing. If we do not evolve as people and learn from our mistakes.

Then our species should come to its extinction. As dark as that may sound.

Until then, I do not want to sit around and wait for this to happen.

I want to do something to make my children and all our children’s children, proud.

We all have to start somewhere, and I choose to start with the youth.

Volunteering to make a difference, in Hospitals, in the streets or from recommendations from you. Tell me, What should I do?