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The Lines Are Ended

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Message Stephen C. Rose
The lines were ended when I first spoke out,
There is no blood that specifies degree;
Let boot heels march and hateful voices shout,
The truth is there for all with eyes to see.

The scapegoat vanishes with binaries,
The yeses and the nos, the all opposed;
The scream of mobs disperses in the breeze,
More easily than might have been supposed.

Those in denial once were too naive,
Death knells of evil rang throughout the halls;
And few there were who could see Abba grieve,
In killer and in killed behind those walls.

And yet the seeing spoke apposite truth,
When they said we must move to a new stage;
Moving one by one from un to couth,
Accepting suffering with less than rage.

If suffering is needed to prevail,
Against the haters and the insecure;
Then we shall stand for truth or else we fail,
And live mid lies of races high and pure.

The human race is one, Abba's in all,
Abba went to the ovens in each one;
Abba's denied whenever hatreds fall,
As clouds so dismal they blot out the sun.

The human race is one, Abba's in all,
Kill one, you kill Abba each time you kill;
That Abba lives is so, life cannot fall,
Before the depredations of our will.

The lines were ended when I first spoke out,
There is no blood that specifies degree;
And more and more we learn what life's about,
And how we all can be all we can be.
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Stephen C. Rose Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Born in NYC, attended Oberlin & Trinity Schools, then Exeter and Williams (Phi Beta Kappa 1958). Worked with the Reverend James Robinson, finished Union Theological Seminary in NYC (1961). Joined Student Interracial Ministry in Nashville. Founded (more...)
 
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