The Ethical Self
The Ethical Self
by
Rick Folker
If there is evil here, it is complacency, and it is collective.
- Courtney Martin/columnist for On Being
The Moral Arc is bent
but not broken
It can be retrieved and repaired
like a shattered heart
withering in the penumbra
of great grief
If only we take back the responsibility
we have so casually ceded to the loudest, harshest,
and most unforgiving voices
Then we can become caretakers and caregivers
when the moral arc seems to lose the path of justice
and lies discarded and dismissed as so many hopes and dreams
are driven to despair
It is then that we must all the more forcefully stand up and stand by
our ethics, our morals, and refuse to blame 'evil' of some other
'uncontrollable force' when we are ultimately to
be held accountable for the killings, the cruelty, the craven fear
that paralyzes our better selves
and cynically opt for helplessness when these atrocities
could have been prevented.
Ultimately, we will be held accountable for the future we
and only we can make.
The moral arc in long and it does bend
but we need make sure that we bend
with it.
Copyright © Rick Folker | Year Posted 2017
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