It Gets Better

The boy became a young man. The young man became a cause.
The cause became the hope for the country and its laws.

Too many martyrs and too many dead.
Too many lives, too many empty words were said.
Too many times for too many angry men.
Oh let it never be again.

-Phil Ochs 

"The Ballad of Medgar Evers"

Someday at Christmas

Someday at Christmas men won't be boys
Playing with [kids] like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where [love] is free.

Someday at Christmas there'll be no [culture wars]
When we have learned what Christmas is for.
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth.

Someday at Christmas we'll see a land
With no hungry children, no empty hand.
One happy morning people will share
a world where people care.

Someday at Christmas there'll be no tears,
Where [all ages] are equal and no one has fears.
One shining moment, one prayer away
From our world today.

Someday at Christmas man will not fail,
Hate will be gone and love will prevail,
Someday a new world that we can start
With hope in every heart.

Someday all our dreams will come to be,
Someday in a world where [all] are free,
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime.

Come Gather Round (A Song)

I wrote this a few years back. It was published in an ezine in support of the cause. Please feel free to distribute it if it moves you as much as it does me. It's meant to uplift our spirit and resolve in most difficult times.

Come Gather Round

Come gather 'round--you loners and lovers and others
who're beaten in the streets and defeated by mothers
who've been breakin' us and takin' us and not givin' love
to the young cryin' and hidin' and playin' and sayin'...
"You just leave us be!"
They've been sighin' and lyin' and buyin' and tryin'
to trip us and trap us, hit us and slap us for bein' us,
and all but feeling free--

Come gather 'round--while the ink's are pressin'
and court's are messin' round and second guessin'
and tongues' professin' and hate repressin'
and stop confessin' and window dressin'...
Tell them we'll be free!
And that the world is reelin' and you're not stealin'
no child's feelin's or are concealin' no unappealin'
thoughts that make you be--

Come gather 'round--to light your candle and not
the scandal and fight the vandals and not mishandle
the child's will you love, and still be there to fill
and be ye filled and work to build a
better life for you and me!
And make it known that it's you who owns your love
that's real, that all you feel's not made to kneel
for all the world to see--

Come gather 'round--and keep on steady and at
the ready for the gangs and chains and those who fear
and keep out your ear for their lyin' and trashin' and
sighin' and bashin' and repressin' and guessin'...
From fear they won't be free.
And never stop goin' while your soul is slowin' or
age be showin' 'cause children keep growin', and never
stop knowin'...
Our Time is Soon to Be.