Restoring Our Humanity Poem by Jim Yerman

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

When a person, any person, tramples on another person's human rights
we may see it as bizarre…
but if we stand by and do nothing…we're no better than they are.

We should be shocked, we should be outraged
We should be speak up…create a fuss
because the rights being trampled are human rights
and they belong to all of us.

When any person's human rights are denied…
shouldn't we all agree
that in denying them their human rights…
we deny their humanity?

Because when we see a person any person
trample another person's human's rights….
What they're doing isn't human
and it certainly isn't right.

Now is the time we must look inside our souls
for if we are truly the land of the free
we must, once again, be the home of the brave
and restore our humanity.