I will not dishonor their memory

By forgetting the true cause
Those souls sacrificed
To hatred embraced by angry hearts

I will not dishonor their memory
By forgetting the chance we were given
To come together, to hold one another
To be a nation united, by grief
By Love

I will not dishonor their memory
By allowing hate and di-vision
To sway my Vision
The Vision of our forefathers
Of the true American Dream

The Dream was never
Money or material things
The Dream was about Truths self-evident
Self-evident to all eyes
All eyes that are not closed
That all men
All Men
All Mankind
Regardless of color, nationality,
Race, gender, orientation,
Or what name by which they love God
Are Created Equal

Those who hate forget these Truths
Or perhaps they never understood at all
That it was hatred and division which gave us
This memory we must not dishonor

I will not dishonor their memory
By hating

Those swayed by hatred and division
Those who have stumbled onto the path
Of an Eye for an Eye
Of Shoot First
Of Get Them Before They Get Us
They have forgotten the Law
The basic Law of physics
And chemistry and biology
And every other science
Every other truth

You cannot cancel out a negative with a negative

Only love can conquer hate
It is the first law of the universe
The energy which fuels
The self-evident Truth
The Dream

To heal this world
To step toward peace
To be one again
To make sure
They did not die in vain
We must remember Love

Hatred must stop

I will honor the memory
Of those souls, on that day
By letting it stop
With me

-Gayle Nastasi, 11 Sept 2016-