Changes are life-transforming, and they all start with the renewing of the mind. You need change to make change. You need change to bring change. To renew your mind is to change your mind. Change it. By reading different books, listening to different podcasts or music; Feed it with life-sustaining and culture-cultivating material and influences. It matters. All of it.

Dream, like Martin Luther King Jr. once dreamed.
Hope, like our ancestors once hoped.
Live, not passively as if privileged,
but live determined to make these dreams reality,
as if your life depends on it, because it does.
By God's mercy and grace freely given, march ahead and
MOVE FORWARD!

We marched to the words of "We Shall Overcome"
courting justice to walk at our side,
seared into memory with the heat of sun

brothers and sisters, arms linked one to one
beneath that day star's unblinking eye,
we marched to the words, "We Shall Overcome."

We swore an oath to forego the gun,
to carry only freedom's cry
beneath the impassive afternoon sun,

through bludgeon and cudgel one by one,
each truncheon summoning others to rise,
to join in the words "We Shall Overcome."

As we embraced, the marching done,
a crosshairs trained a ******’s eye
to wrench malice from the indifferent sun

to hew a path in blood and bone,
to rend flesh
                     and a rasping
                                              fatal sigh . . .
in the fading caress of the afternoon sun.

Beneath the eternal arc of the sun,
again we will muster side by side,
a sanctified chorus, whose song will be sung,
let our marching echo...
                                          "We Shall Overcome.”

Copyright © 2018 Gary Brocks

Conceived after visiting the LORRAINE HOTEL (Memphis, Tennessee), the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thursday, 4 April 1968.
In 1991 the NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM at the LORRAINE HOTEL was opened to the public.

"We Shall Overcome”, an anthem, title and refrain, of the American Civil Rights Movement of the mid 20th century.

It gets sour after a while;

that righteous quaver

that merely rousing oratory

superficial hagiography

state-sponsored martyrdom . . .

The old black and white

news-clip shots.

Yes, it was necessary;

the past was tense.

You overcame.

We got over it

gets sour after a while.

Listen here listen here
The world is so **** *******
Maybe all these terrible things are happening because it’s trying to be renewed
Our president is so whack
He keeps stabbing innocents in the back
Praising Arnold Schwarzenegger by acting as if he’s the terminator
Pero his wife’s an immigrant too
American dream who

We pretend to honor the OG’s who created this land
But now your trying to get them all banned
claiming them all to be rapists and murderers
Be humble sit down i'm tired of all these racial slurs

He says “We cannot aid Puerto rico forever”
But really we need to be working on this together
Puerto Rico is just a metaphor for how this president sees all Latinos and people of color
He does not see us as his equals, nor does he sees us as his fellows

Having the mindset being male and white
Is the only possibility of being right
Were all humans , we all fit in the same race.
We should not be considered by the color of our face
Yet somehow the white get all the praise
Why are we still stuck in this racist faze

Since 1963 when Martin Luther King said in his speech
“It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later the ***** still is not free”
To this day even if they try not to say
The ***** is still treated so falsely.

Take a moment now to open up your eyes and stop all the self lies
Get rid that hate to open up the gate to a whole new perspective
A much more un discriminative kind
Then maybe just maybe the world wouldn’t be so **** *******

By Mr. Erik Young...

Born on January 15, 1929...Dr. King truly shined,
He was noble and he thought global,
In fact, Dr. King worked so well...That in 1964 he earned the Noble Peace Prize, but in the world
PEACE was on the demise.
Only fire hoses, police billy clubs, shotguns and bombs seemed to be on the rise,
So Dr. King fought to correct inequality, not only racism and segregation but also poverty...
Along with flawed Voting Laws, Dr. King deserves Major KUDOS and applause,
He was the bomb because he was bold enough to oppose the Vietnam War,
Causing many in the U.S. to call King a traitor, an ungrateful agitator
who was only a trouble creator...
But King believed in a "Holy Power" greater
Than the FBI, CIA, or "powers that be" in the USA..
He was aware of the cruel games the world might play,
And we're not only talking about James Earl Ray,
April 4, 1968 was the fateful, foul date
Where the empthasis we see was on Menphis, Tennesee,
But you see the whole world felt this extraordinary error
And now today, we have the nrve to say we live in terror.

For some members of the world community, terrorism is nothing new,
If you think the U.S. has immunity from terroism then your thoughts are untrue,
Dr. King fought to teach us that we all must follow the rules,
If not then we will all "perish together as fools,"
And we say Dr. King fought because he was on the frontline...Consistently 24/7 all the time,
Staring victorious(ly), violent mobs in the face,
looking "Kingly and Calmy,"
Practicing nonviolently, civil disobedience like Mohatma Ghandi,
But don't think for a minute that King was weak, timid nor soft,
He didn't need a hoodie, sagging jeans, hip-hop, lots of $$$$, **** or guns to go off,
In fact, King did not need a pair of Jordan's or Timberlands
Because Freedom, Justice & Equality fueled his adrenaline
To fight for the rights of all and not just a few,
Before you recite 'I have a Dream" you better decide what you want your dream to do.

A band played tonight
The first person walked inside
He saw things in black and white
He shook his head, and left.

A band played tonight
The second person danced inside
She saw the love and peace
She nodded her head to the beat.

I remember watching
Back in 1963
A Presidential funeral
There on my tv

My son watched his son
And he saw me cry
Then my son looked up and said
"Why did he have to die?"

Five years passed, a Memphis death
Was felt throughout the land
My son watched this and said to me
"I do not understand"

I looked at him, looked at the ground
And looked high into the sky
My son, said "Dad please tell me?"
"Why did he have to die?"

Again that summer, sixty eight
We stood along the track
We watched the train go past us
We knew he wasn't coming back

My son, a little older
watched as I tried not to cry
He said "it's ok to feel that dad"
"Why did he have to die?"

Years went by and he grew up
Got married moved away
I remember sitting watching
On that warm September day

Two Towers tumbled to the ground
My heart broke, and I cried
My son, went in to save them
"Why did he have to die?"

I'll never get an answer
Till the angel's song is sung
"Why did he have to die?" I'll ask
Why do the good die young?

Oh, say can you see
That racism is a big problem in our society.
A Colored citizens reality,is police brutality.
In this “land of the free”,
We are free to be attacked and harassed
We are free to starve and die
We are free to speak,
But we all know that's a lie.
If we try to make a change,
We will presumably die.
Say, if Martin Luther king didn't strive
Wouldn't he be alive?