I was of the South
Born in my ways I could not control
My path of rocks and stickerbriars
Led no where , I had no where to go

"I'm going back to Selma !. . . Selma !
And I had no reason just before
I'm going to Selma ! . . . Selma !
And I just don't know what for"

Do I really have the courage ?

Maybe love is a broken window
With cold air blowing in
Maybe salvation is just a desire
And it will be there at the end

Do I really know ?

Losing love is just the other part
And how do I depart
In Selma what is there to find ?
I'm sure it can't be kind

Take U S 80 , between I -20 and I -65
If I leave now I can be sure
To be there to see the sunrise
From the Edmund Pettus Bridge

****** Sunday , March  7 , 1965
Beaten trying to cross the bridge
God's rights marching upon trampled sights
Home to take back from the giver

Easy to forget Selma 1965
All to easy to forget the hate
Leading to Memphis April  4 , 1968
And to more than a simple mistake

Will the shooting ever end ?

January 20 , 2013 Jackson , Mississippi
Blackman shot , MLK celebration parade
The blood flows from Birmingham , to Selma
To Memphis and Mississippi's charade

Still I'm going to Selma .

"I'm going back to Selma ! . . . Selma !
But I have no reason why
I'm going back to Selma ! . . . Selma !
I think it will be just to cry"

written January 20 , 2013

"Justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream"

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Brothers and sisters
Arm in arm
In grace
With faith
And agape love
Marched towards hate
And the steel of repression

     No door to heaven is easily opened
     Sometimes the only choice is to die
     Not quickly
     But slowly and painfully

The arc of justice bends under the weight of human sacrifice

They thought
"This is it for me"
Yes this was it
But it was time
Time for the signs to come down
The signs that said
     "You here"
          "You there"
               "Not for you"
                    "Sit in the back"

Separate but equal
A lie of monstrous proportion
There is no equality
When all is not shared
There is no equality
When a night stick crushes inalienable rights
There is no equality
When a child is called a __
There is no equality
When the love of Jesus
     Is not enough for some people
When the love of Jesus
     Is not enough for some hearts
When the love of Jesus
    Is not enough for grace on earth


Let me take a moment


To cry


To feel the shame


Let us take a moment


And understand why some among us remember Selma
A memory of pride and pain
A memory of the willingness to die
For what is right
To give up their life
To give up their complaints
To give up their selfishness
To give up what we take for granted
So that they might die
For someone else
Because it was time

Can I borrow your voice, because I’ve seem to have lost mine. In search of a purpose, that I’ve found in a line. About love that’s been found in a place without hope, that oppresses its people without shackles or ropes. In a place with a light that shines in the dark, that echoes of praise, music and baby shark. Where the youth of tomorrow step for what’s right, in the name of equality and justice with unwavering might. A place where we have all given so much, and received even more from the people we’ve touched. But our yesterdays have passed and out tomorrow is today, and I struggle for happiness as Selma drivers away. So I stare out the window with my mind in a daze, as this once alien scenery catches my gaze. And the trees pass in rhythm as I fall victim to sleep, with only one thought on my mind…the company I keep. For I have been blessed by the company I hold, the experiences we’ve had and the stories we’ve told. By the games we’ve played and the relationships we’ve formed, by the tears we have shed for weathering the racial storm. And as I stir from my sleep I wake without fear, because the people I’d bleed for are sitting so near. So with my voice fading fast I say to you all, if the road gets too hard, don’t be afraid to call. For your callous hands look exactly like mine, from the work that we’ve done to make Teppers shine. And if you need a wise word or a shoulder to cry, I can be there for your lows and even your highs.  This trip has meant more to me then words can express, and its you with my heart that I choose to invest. So with these last and final words, I compassionately say to you. Keep you minds always open and your heart will stay true. Because our world is always changing no matter what we do, and it is you whom I love that will bridge the old and the new.