In response to recent events, I channeled this poem as a transmission of global peace:

When We Respond with Violence

A Poem by Matt Kahn

When we respond with violence

we do what we oppose

and interrupt the progress

that deeper wisdom knows.

When we respond with violence

lawmakers turn away

and label us the criminals

as pawns within a play.

When we respond with violence

the dead still rest in vain

while neighborhoods are ambushed

by wounds of buried pain.

When we respond with violence

the innocent are left

without a path of progress

to unite the right and left.

When we respond with violence

a city is set ablaze

but never burns the hardship

that injustice still portrays.

When we respond with violence

we fail to use our voice

to sing the song of freedom

created by each choice.

When we respond with violence

we harm a mother’s heart

who grieves the loss of children

that hate has torn apart.

When we respond with violence

we stain a father’s pride

who needs support to deal with loss

that anger has denied.

When we respond with violence

all issues still remain

without a bigger vision

to free us from our pain.

If you respond with violence

despite the reason why

you become a problem

corruption can deny.

If you respond with violence

just stop and think again

about the dream of heroes

who touched us way back when.

A dream of bringing people

no matter deed or creed

into peaceful action

where all our fear is freed.

I do not judge the violent

I have no shame to share

I just support the justice

that heals us of despair.

I can’t agree with violence

it can’t be justified

it’s but another headline

throughout our great divide.

Let’s not join the violence

but heal the pain within

and create a brighter world

where only love can win.

Let us end the violence

united as one light

to marry fate with destiny

as differences unite.

Let us the end the violence

and mourn the tragic cost

of broken social systems

and those whom we have lost.

Let us end the violence

and may we rise above

the instincts of our anger

that only heals through love.

May we honor the precious life of Tyre Nichols and every person whose life was ended by the corruption and hatred we must now face. May we respect the request of Tyre’s grieving mother RowVaughn Wells, who urges the world to respond in peaceful unified ways. May we address and resolve these issues while embodying the dignity stripped from the lives who have perished.

May we be present with how angry, incensed, outraged, afraid, heartbroken, and disillusioned we feel in response to abuses of power. May we remember violence, not as a resolution to injustice, but an attempt to run away from the pain we cannot escape until its healed. May we face this moment, our world, and each other as leaders and elders of evolutionary progress.

May we know and help each other as residents of our one global community where the act of being helpful extinguishes the flames of helplessness. May we have a right to vent, share, express, and support each other through our most intensely burning feelings and in a way that inspires course corrective measures for all lineages of ancestry throughout our rebirthing world.

May we allow our sadness and frustration to inspire a greater passion of community outreach that helps each person to become the change we all wish to see. It's an invitation so boldly received — when many become WE.

All for Love,

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