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Learning All the Time
A history buff, I must admit, I’ve really never been
But once or twice a story comes that makes me think again
It would be nice to have a grasp much deeper than I do
Of truth behind the headlines blared to likes of me and you
When I was in my younger days, a teen in high school class
The journalism bug reared head to bite my shapely (insert body part which rhymes with ‘class’)
Impassioned then to write the truth and help correct life’s ills
Reality came front and center – mem’ry serves me still
It seemed to me athletics there got all the press and flare
And I, a band and drama geek, must second mention bear
But since, as editor, I thought I’d follow different bend
I penned op-ed with plan to publish – quickly that would end
A visit to the principal mandated some review
Apparently my heart-felt piece had sides of one and two
My side, as written, just might nettle school board members’ plans
(The paper’s funding then approved by their auspicious hand)
The piece was cut – politely I declined to change my stance
And lesson learned that truth when set to dollars has poor chance
Perhaps that’s why I still suspect each thing I read and hear
And wonder whose agenda serves to sound that message near
I think how stories we all know are written from a view
Which might affirm, condemn, deny or other shade milieu
It’s not enough for protest launch – though some might seek that end
But I’d just like to know the truth, as best reports could wend
So in the current social clime a name presented me
With reason to read decades old a tale of history
I’d never known Pete* Norman’s name – not then or in years since
His story, though, gives hope; perchance this hope will yet convince
That bleaker times, today or then, will yet be overcome
When groups disband from frenzied stand to do the work of one
His power then, quite personal, still rings the message true
Do what you can, in righteous love, when path is given you
*Peter Norman
http://www.filmsforaction.org/articl...in-that-photo/
©RhymeLovingWriter 2016
A history buff, I must admit, I’ve really never been
But once or twice a story comes that makes me think again
It would be nice to have a grasp much deeper than I do
Of truth behind the headlines blared to likes of me and you
When I was in my younger days, a teen in high school class
The journalism bug reared head to bite my shapely (insert body part which rhymes with ‘class’)
Impassioned then to write the truth and help correct life’s ills
Reality came front and center – mem’ry serves me still
It seemed to me athletics there got all the press and flare
And I, a band and drama geek, must second mention bear
But since, as editor, I thought I’d follow different bend
I penned op-ed with plan to publish – quickly that would end
A visit to the principal mandated some review
Apparently my heart-felt piece had sides of one and two
My side, as written, just might nettle school board members’ plans
(The paper’s funding then approved by their auspicious hand)
The piece was cut – politely I declined to change my stance
And lesson learned that truth when set to dollars has poor chance
Perhaps that’s why I still suspect each thing I read and hear
And wonder whose agenda serves to sound that message near
I think how stories we all know are written from a view
Which might affirm, condemn, deny or other shade milieu
It’s not enough for protest launch – though some might seek that end
But I’d just like to know the truth, as best reports could wend
So in the current social clime a name presented me
With reason to read decades old a tale of history
I’d never known Pete* Norman’s name – not then or in years since
His story, though, gives hope; perchance this hope will yet convince
That bleaker times, today or then, will yet be overcome
When groups disband from frenzied stand to do the work of one
His power then, quite personal, still rings the message true
Do what you can, in righteous love, when path is given you
*Peter Norman
http://www.filmsforaction.org/articl...in-that-photo/
©RhymeLovingWriter 2016
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