"In these challenging times I am hopeful that this poem, Skin on the Rope, will highlight the individual responsibility we ALL share to curb this bias.
Our Alliance for Truth and Justice (ATJ) member Valada Flewellyn is the poem’s author.
She reads it as a short 2 min video on our website."
~Charley Williams, former Co-President, LWVOC
Visit www.ocoeemassacre.com and learn more about ATJ and the upcoming exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center of the 100th year anniversary of what has been termed "the bloodiest day in American political history."
Skin On The Rope
by Valada Flewellyn written January 28, 2020
We all have skin on the rope
Whether a neck on the rope
Or a hand on the rope
We all have skin on the rope
The pain of that connection
Grips us, entangles us
Compels us to examine
Our history, then construct
Tomorrow to manifest the
Wounds that need
More than a band-aid
Wounds that warrant more
Than a cursory examination
We must dissect the
Fibers of our history
Inspect our suspect
Moral Consciousness
Which allows sin to fester
As we turn our heads
Away from the atrocities
That grab our children
Drowning them in the muck
Of our making
Leaving them unprepared
Unprotected but infected
Generation after generation
From our refusal to acknowledge
How we have Failed
Our children…All
We ALL have skin on the rope.