"Stand up for a kid's right not to live under the scythe"
..from No Moment of Silence by broomwatr
I'm a coward, always have been. Shit I hide behind a pen name and share little pieces of me, too scared to really do much more...so damn 'weak and full of holes'. I am nonviolent, but I am mad as hell about the state of our schools in America and the ever-present threat of gun violence that our country can't seem to do anything about. So I'm going to take a small step and put something out there.
I've been working on a poem/song/call to action/policy scree, I don't know what it is honestly. Its a call to action for the gun tragedy in America. Its a takedown of the people who truly have lost their ability to see it. A takedown of toxic masculinity and the false sense of security it provides. And honestly a shout of the desperation I feel about it all, a call for others who might feel the same listlessness and sense of loss.
The premise is to call out those who don't seem to understand or care that American schools are now a system of fear and surveillance...that people can literally walk into these places of learning and destroy children with guns, and the only thing offered are moments of silence and prayers, and constant squeezing of the policies and rules tighter on these kids. No wonder these kids escape in youtube and video games, what would you do?
So the piece includes a list of every school that has had an active shooter since Columbine, although sadly, I don't even really know if the list is full and accurate. With sadness and a deep sense of failure, I'll be adding Abundant Life Christian School to the list today, its my small way to witness these events, as sad as that is and as powerless as I am.
Its gonna take something big, the next civil rights movement, people walking out of their jobs, strikes...something , its too much and its been too long.
I'm scared to put it all out there...scared to get doxed, scared that I missed schools on the list, terrified that it won't come off the way I hope it does...but I just don't think I can keep silent. If we can't fix this issue as a society we can't fix anything, and we are lost. That's how I feel right now. I don't care about NRA prayers, I don't care about some amendment made hundreds of years ago (tied to a constitution designed to be changed over time). I want our kids and our schools to stop living in fear, in 'zero tolerance', in constant flux, in drills, and occasionally in abject horror...
This piece is burning me, I feel the fire and I want to shout it out...the idea is that I would release this and anyone could take it and produce it as a poem or song and put it out there, I would give the rights away freely.
Here is an excerpt of this work I've been hiding and writing since Sandy Hook, for what its worth, I need to be braver, even if this thing never is 'done' or no one cares. I can't keep silent anymore, so I start with my own whisper into the silence and the prayers:
No Moment of Silence
a work in progress by broomwatr and anyone else who may care enough to stop being silent
A culture can't survive the demolition
of it's own children
we are here to say, this day, and every day...
No moment of silence
I will not be silent anymore
I will not look away
I will witness and witness
And never go away
you will hear me say 'hey!'
for those who disagree
I take a second to say
your always talkin so tough
Spittle spraying from your lips
As you cry about your own defense
we all wait in suspense
For the next prayer you spit
We will drown you out , your
prayers aren't enough
You aren't that tough
When we strip away away
The angry things you say
And the bump stock grains
100 round magazines
Not much left of you remains
So we are here to put you on notice
Those of us who watch the scene
Play out again and again,
Nothing to say, you don't know
Our kids sit and pray in the dark all alone
If you listen up close
You hear their prayers that we ALL own:
(Childrens voices in prayer)
Run. hide. fight.
First star i see tonight
I wish i may i wish i might
Not end up in that gun sight
Run. hide. fight.
Liberty steal my sunlight
Let me grow into the light
Keep me safe, it is my right
Hide. fight. run.
You are not the chosen one
Daniel Tiger’s got a gun
My backpack weighs a ton
Run. fight. hide.
Playground looks a mile wide
Terror on a school bus ride
Tell me am I safe inside?
Tell me am I safe inside?
---
No moment of silence
Stand up for life
Yeah i said be PRO life
And stand up with us
all us together
all that we have lost
Make it worth something
our children, our friends
a national community of
graspin' hands and then
Stand up for school
Stand up for dreams
Quit the noise and
Drop these obscene
Scenes of horror in the halls...
----i hope to have the courage to share more over time, including the list of FORTY SIX school names that I'm sure is incomplete...it takes a long time to sing 46 names in a song, but we must witness this and not be silent anymore...witness with me, its a start---
~broomwatr