By Ben Cantrell with contributions from Youth Action Fellows
BEN CANTRELL OFFERED A VISION FOR A MORE PEACEFUL FUTURE AT THE GLOBAL ALLYSHIP SUMMIT WITH A POEM, reminding ATTENDEES THAT WE CAN FORGE OUR OWN PATH OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT.
Bright Light
The message burns ever so bright in my mind,
As a ball of light passes from one heart to another
Over state lines, over seas, through the universe
And it is my dream to share this until we are united.
As this bright light passes through the night
Tears are shed
Love is given and gained
For a greater cause, for a greater us;
One match is all it took-
Before we could even fathom why
We are here in the first place;
The universe was crafting our very own path to the light.
Allyship goes beyond you and me,
It goes beyond the bounds of our communities,
It belongs at the epicenter of our hearts
And at the epicenter of our world.
I came from a suburban area
In the United States
Inspired by someone, by something I could barely fathom
Ever being possible: forgiveness
But this isn’t solely my story to share
This is a collective story
Of collective memory to collective action that is burning
Brighter than ever before.
In a world divided by hate
We must inspire humanity- to move in love,
To strive in love,
To unite in love.
Never again has been stated over and over
And now it’s our turn to carry our light into the world,
It’s our turn to burn brighter than ever;
Because the victims and the survivors and
The upstanders before us carried their light,
Because never again can be a reality
If only we keep pushing
Forward.
For: peace and unity
For: love and companionship
For: Compassion and acceptance
For: Hope and recovery
For: Resilience and courage
To unite so we can see a world with
More love than hate,
Space to accept, every one. As they are
Justice, for all the people we have lost
Flaming passion to repair what has been broken
Empathy instead of apathy
Because together we remember
Irena Sendler
Eva Kor
Halmia Bashir
John Lewis
Together we remember
The Holocaust
The Cambodian Genocide
The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
The Darfur Genocide
The Anfal Genocide
The Armenian Genocide
The Srebrenica Genocide
And far too many more cases of identity based violence.
History repeats itself if only we allow it to so,
Together we can build our communities up
By shining our lights as allies in the world,
As those before us did
So we can create a community, a home full of peace.
Ben Cantrell is a history major at Indiana State University. He is currently acting as the Pride Center of Terre Haute’s Social Justice Director and is a Youth Action Fellow with Together We Remember. He formerly helped co-found Terre Haute Teens for Action. His work is what drives him to dream and work for a vibrant and diverse society around the world.
Banner Image Source: https://www.hopehealthco.org/blog/shining-lights-a-symbol-of-hope-and-healing-across-religions/