So Tell Me Again… Who Is Them?

In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

“We are different so that we can know our need of one another.“

And yet, lately (and particularly as I watch the ever-widening political divide), it feels as if we have forgotten how very much we have in common. So here is a poem I share with love and hope on Valentine’s Day …

SO TELL ME AGAIN…  WHO IS THEM?
by Linda Anselmi

With all that “we” share,
how can there be
an “Us” vs “Them”?

Who is Them?

Who is it that does not share with “us”
the need for the air we breath,
the water we require to survive,
and the land that sustains us?

Who is not connected to “us”
by our need for love, joy, and happiness,
by our fear of hate, pain, and suffering,
and by the inevitableness of our final breath?

Who is not changed with ‘us’
by the ravages of diseases,
by the devastation of natural disasters,
by the betrayal of man-made catastrophes,
and by the loss of our loved ones.

Who is not interdependent with “us”
in the daily functions of each others lives —
through the water we use and drink,
food we produce and eat, roads we share and travel,
and products we consume and dispose of?

Who is not impacted like ‘us”
in every moment of our lives
by the thing other people do or don’t do,
from those we know standing beside us
to those who are strangers thousands of miles away?

Who is it that does not exist with “us”
on this one small planet
“we” call Earth?

So tell me again,
how there can be an “Us” vs “Them”
and tell me again …

Who is Them?

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And here’s a moving video (hattip to M. Oakley) that helped to clarify thoughts I’ve been trying to write about for months:

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