19 Feb 2024
The trip by water is fraught with difficulties,
with dangers,
with fear.
Nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide.
confusion reigns supreme.
So many voyages over the sea,
so many journeys to get here.
Some brought in chains,
some sent back to foreign lands,
for the most ignoble of endings.
Those before us,
rounded up,
fearful of the camps where they were held,
equally fearful of boarding.
Families separated,
children crying for their mothers,
mothers they would never see again.
Children born at sea,
with no comfort of their mothers,
tossed into the bosom of the sea,
the sea that never forgets,
that never releases the children in its charge.
Ancestors made their way to this land,
they knew only this place as their home,
now they are being forced to the sea -
what awaits us if we make it to the other side.
There is so much trust at sea -
trust of the captain,
trust of the boat.
When others see you only as a means to an ends,
it doesn’t matter what happens to you,
your fear doesn’t matter,
your shame doesn’t matter,
your love for family - irrelevant.
What of those who are sending us away from our home -
what will become of them.
When the heart does not know compassion,
it is already dead,
just waiting to stop beating.
They know what they do to us -
it is why they are afraid to sleep at night,
it is why they prepare themselves for the worst.
If they can do such things to others,
what more do they deserve.
They love their families,
yet despise ours.
They seek compassion and mercy,
yet withhold it from us.
They long to be understood,
but deny this understanding to others.
Would you survive at sea,
knowing that at the other end of this perilous journey,
suffering and death await?
Close the camps,
scuttle the boats.
Bring peace and aroha to our shores -
and to our hearts.
Aroha nui,
Lee Sturgis
leesturgis.eth
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