Tag Archives: intolerance

How Joyous The Day Equality Overcame Hatred

How joyous the day equality overcame hatred,

Though with sadness I ask, “Why was it even necessary?”

We had not…no we have not moved beyond prejudice!

Replacing one group of brothers and sisters with another does not absolve us!

Oh yes! The faces are different, but the name is the same

And this–we call this progress?

Do not think me ungrateful…I am proud,

Though disheartened by so slim a margin,

Yet this is a triumphant day to be sure.

Still–there is so much softening to be done to the callous heart.

“All men are created equal” so proudly declared by so many

Is still, but a dream should you not fit their mould of convention.

Speaking as though preference of the heart is chosen

Shows their narrowness of mind.

It is not choice, it is ingrained by nature!

It is not a flaw nor is it an abomination,

It is who they are, just as you are how you were born.

That which you do not wish to understand should not draw ire,

But instead your silence…with our profound appreciation.

The time of state sanctioned intolerance is in it’s death throes

Though this alone will not change those ignorant of mind.

Yes, this battle will rage on,

For many, long after they are gone,

But know dear friends that bigotry and hate can not prevail

In the presence of humanity and love.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Authors note: I had been debating whether to write this poem firstly, because I am not a member of the LGBT community and secondly, because I don’t pretend to speak for or have any first hand knowledge of what they have gone through, but then I thought why not, we are all human beings, we all came into this world in the same way and we will all leave it the same way. I have been an observer of this struggle for equality for a very long time and quite frankly found it disgusting that it ever existed in the first place. To add to the distastefulness is the fact that public polling, for the longest time, showed that more than 50% of those polled were in favor of continuing state sanctioned discrimination. In America, we struggled for our freedom from oppression and proudly proclaim in our Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal” and yet this freedom from oppression and equality only held true if you were a God fearing heterosexual apparently. This ideal was an absolute disgrace. So long as the parties are adults, what right does any human being have to prevent another human being from marrying the one that they truly love? Religious institutions may choose not to marry same sex couples before their altars, but they surely have no standing to prevent them before the law. Of course this is simply one man’s opinion, but I stand behind it wholeheartedly. Congratulations to all of you, it has been a very long time coming and you justly deserve this landmark win.

 

Eyes of the Righteous – A Haiku

zealots

Eyes of the righteous

Burn like smoldering embers

Igniting hatred

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Unwelcome To Our Shores

Burqa, Dashiki, headscarf, turban,

Clothing nor traditions should fear instill.

Forgetting we are children of the melting pot,

Sprawling roots of Sicily, Belfast, Juarez, Berlin,

Many smaller port-of-call,

Spat on by bigots,

Held in contempt.

Amnesia plagued memory lost their father’s land,

Nothing has been learned o’er these many years,

Only the quarry has changed,

The slurs, the stares, the vindictive wit,

Disparate but analogous,

Yet none-the-less degrading.

Unwelcoming the huddled masses with open arms,

Seeing terror in every foreign face,

Like fools believing the rhetoric,

Stereotyping and profiling,

Demonizing difference.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Shame of Intolerance

Drama perseveres,
We remain shackled and chained to our past,
Bound to ideals thought long ago buried.
~~
Under the same sky we are born and die,
Returned back to the earth caste-less.
~~
Equality seems a distant dream.
~~
We feign to have grown,
Only to rebound to our stunted ways,
Taking aim at the latest victim.
~~
Shouldn’t we be color blind to the flesh by now,
Incomprehensible is it to have to legislate,
Over and over and over.
~~
These delusions are not the end,
Fear mongering has become both sport and folly,
Substituting understanding for hostility and ignorance,
Attempting to rally the naive.
~~
Those that hide behind their faith,
Calling evil, those beliefs that differ,
Claiming superiority,
Believe the propaganda.
~~
We think we have progressed,
Advanced beyond infantile characterizations,
But we have not, we have digressed ,
Becoming more intolerant.
~~
Residents of the rainbow are criticized and shamed,
As if their orientation was free will,
Demoralizing them as abominations before God.
~~
Shallow and nescient is your moral constitution,
When will those of conscience rise up,
Ushering in diversity and equality.
~~
Freeing those marginalized by a witless society,
To live full and fulfilling lives.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Frailty of Man

By D. R. DiFrancesco

Another day,

Awoken by the news,

Another tragedy,

More death and destruction.

Insensitivity on one side,

Intolerance on the other,

Differing views,

All of the same event.

Flags burned,

Flags torn to shreds,

Blamed on a celluloid debacle,

This is just a ruse.

Eleven September mere coincidence,

I think not,

Another excuse for bad behavior,

Another claim of insult to God.

We are different,

Although we are the same,

We are born, we love,

We live, we die.

We hurt, we bleed,

We suffer, we cry,

We strive for answers in this chaotic world,

Only to realize the more we know the less we know.

There is evil among us,

Tainting the good with the same broad brush,

Distilling us down to one common meld,

Can we not see past the hate!

Self-perpetuating and self-destructive,

A merry-go-round since time began,

Punch my ticket,

I want to get off.