How can I speak for someone I don’t know?
Someone whose life I have not led,
whose history I do not hold,
whose shoes I do not walk in?
How can I speak for hurting people
whose pain is their own,
whose loss is a turning knife,
giving them no rest,
no peace,
no space to breathe?
How can I speak for a race
that carries the weight
of the sins of my ancestors,
the chains of oppression
reaching back centuries,
profaning the planet with
a clung-to ignorance,
individuals daily sacrificed
in the name of greed?
How can I share
in the journey of a people
headed for a land I never left,
generations seeking a freedom
that is always coming soon
but slightly, slightly out of reach?
~~~
How can I not?
Lindy Thompson 
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