A "Bright Light" Emerges From Together We Remember's Summit

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/