@be Kind Poem by Jim Yerman

I know I look at the words through simple eyes
I consider this a gift with which I've been blessed
I've grown to think that simple eyes lead to simple solutions
and simple solutions are often the best….


Every year tens of thousands of elephants are killed
this to many is a moral outrage…an insult…an affront…
which is why Ellen Degeneres created a campaign to fight this atrocity…
and calls it @Be Kind To Elephants

A noble cause…a wonderful cause…with elephants we should learn to coexist…
But did you know elephants aren't even ranked in the top 10 on the endangered species list?

Shouldn't we also be kind to the gorilla and the rhinoceros, to show them that we care…
to the tiger…the panda, the sea turtle …as well as the polar bear?

Shouldn't we coexist with every animal in every ocean, jungle and plain?
Perhaps @Be Kind to Elephants is to narrow…
Perhaps we need a @Be Kind To All The Animals campaign…

But we're also cutting down our rain forests…
The way we're endangering our plants and our environment is totally insane!
Perhaps we need to expand our scope again…
how about…A @Be Kind To Animals, Plants And The Earth campaign?

Wait, when you stop to think about the amount of refugees in the world,
the amount of abject poverty…
the amount of wars and hate and narrow-mindedness…
the amount of prejudice and bigotry…

We certainly can't leave out the people of our world …So here I ascertain
@Be Kind To People, Plants, Animals And The Earth…should be our daily campaign…

Perhaps the perfect way to coexist…so that all are intertwined…
would be to broaden the scope by shortening the name…how about just…@Be Kind!

If everyone thought ‘Be Kind' to every animal, every plant and everyone they see
this could be the type of world we all would like it to be….

It's a simple way to look at things, I know…
But think how the whole world would be blessed…
If ‘Be Kind' was our first thought before we acted….
Wouldn't this simple solution be the best?