I was an adolescent girl, fifteen years of age

and I had a radical idea

that if we just stopped hating each other

for the sake of hate

we all might just get along

the world would be a better place

and fewer people would get hurt, traumatised, or killed

this radical idea was scuppered

by ingrained discrimination that hid in every crevice of life

that for many generations had been passed down

to be absorbed by the minds of easily influenced children

without question.

So, by the time those children grew up

too few wanted to hear me out

there are many like me, who tried

to go against the grain

swim against the tide

walk along the knife-edge

to ring the bell of change

to call time on the drunken logic of hate

whatever form it took

prejudice, violence, anger

we were seeking some form of human awakening

a common heartbeat

a universal reasoning

a bond of respect, a bond of decency.

Too few were ready for that yet

and those who did not get shot

for voicing this radical idea

still held onto this message of oneness

peace and love.

—I am pushing 50 years on this planet

and the world is still dominated by hate

ruled by dangerous minds and controlled by fear

saturated by the media and distracted

by advertisements

that tell us what we should buy

to fit in.

It makes me beyond sad

that something as fundamental

as human decency

can be so easily discarded

for vanity to take precedence over it

sometimes it seems like

there is no heart, beating

at the centre of humanity.