You Honor Your Ancestors To the youth and young people Keep striving toward your goals Keep enduring, stay strong in faith Stay positive, be confident Do not let the worlds negativity Steer you off the path of hope Do not lose heart Give your vision a chance to manifest For every goal and trophy you win Every obstacle conquered Every dream that comes true Every trial learned, every mistaken error that you redo right You not only honor yourself today, But you honor your ancestors of yesterday You honor those who lived in a time of injustice The beaten, the scarred, the shackled, the enslaved An era where the tone of your skin Denied you the right to read books and a access to education Where the opinions, beliefs and voice of a race Was ridiculed, punished and could not be heard Speaking would give you the lash of the whip Boasting would bring disfigurement or death. You honor your ancestors who fought for Their rights yesterday So you can have your rights today. So you can be judged on character and not color You honor... The slaves who taught themselves to read a language they were foreign to the poets and writers who had to prove they wrote their own publications The soldier who fought in wars so he can someday be free to prove his courage on the battlefield is equal to the pale skin officer who commanded him The inventor who toils long and hard to make a creation of his own innovation to solves the most intricate of problems to toil for years and make thousands of attempts until his invention is perfected and properly works right Those who boycotted and had sit ins So people no longer had to sit in the backs of buses and restaurants and freely walk with dignity in the front doors of cafes, clubs, and diners The singers, songwriters, painters, playwrights, dancers and actors who sung, wrote and danced, of the black experience so it could be relative who encouraged the revolutionaries and artists and calmed the frustrated and angered with melody and beauty The activists, and those who believed in freedom and civil rights who marched into a hail of spewed words, hatred, violence while being doused with water from a firehose You...the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren Can now stand on the shoulders of an old generation of pioneers Now have the education, tools and technology to make a new frontier To right the wrongs of the past and set a more positive course toward the future So keep doing the best you can And being the best you can be Keep searching and seeking Believing and prospering Keep taking classes and graduating Building business and becoming entrepreneurs Keep making music and films Reading and writing books Keep brainstorming and finding cures Keep uplifting and inspiring Keep persisting and enhancing Keep building strong families and communities Keep winning those accolades, Prizes, awards, trophies, medals And scholarships Shall you have the pride of a lion And the stride of a gazelle And shall you also have grace, mercy, And humbleness in your heart So your ancestors that reside in heaven Will know that their efforts And struggles were not in vain As your ancestors blazed a trail for you Shall you also blaze a trail for Your future sons and daughters To give them opportunities to have a Better life for our society, communities, humanity, the world and Earth Keep honoring your ancestors. ---Antuan Simmons
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 14:28:15 +0000