Preventable Epidemic?

Inspired by and dedicated to the Youth
(especially Adam Smith of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk,
Unitarian Universalist).

Yes, education is the remedy
   To cure the malady called ignorance;
But hatred and deep-seated bigotry
   Can build rock-hard impregnable defense
Against known facts as mighty as the sea.

So racism and fears of difference,
   And festering, phobic longtime bigotry
Surround the hater with a shield that's dense
   Enough to render vain the pounding sea
Breaking in vain against the rocks of ignorance.

Education grows vast like the ocean,
   With ideas coming in with every tide;
Facts and attitudes, even emotions
   Expand and grow, becoming deep and wide;
But bigotry arrests all growth, all motion.

Therefore, it behooves the School of Light
   To shine its beacon beams upon the youth,
And teach them to seek out the good and right,
   To explore various routes toward the truth
that makes us free to fight the righteous fight.

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By William "Bill" Carroll
First published in Songs, Scenes, and Sentiments, 2003.
Subsequently published in The New Journal and Guide, 2003.

Copyright 2002 by Bill Carroll.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry 360 with permission of the author.

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