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WARNING: THIS POST HAS CONTENT THAT MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!
The Civil War's End
(Or, "Racial Discrimination's End")
Let us trample a broken chain, as
we are tired of this anger and shame;
Let us trample a broken chain, since
we were never meant to be in such pain;
Let us trample a broken chain, because
we should heal that which makes us lame;
Let us trample a broken chain, because
we need to be working toward change;
Let us trample a broken chain, since
we need to overcome placing blame;
Let us trample a broken chain, as
we celebrate not being the same!
-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Small All White in The Forest)
"I am no barrier to its sun; the light and I are as one!"
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My Poetic Notes:
The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: This poem was originally written on my "The Official White House Poet" blog, which is one of the sixteen blogs that I decided to relocate within my current blogs. And this poem was originally published on "The Official White House Poet" blog on July 9th, 2010, along with another poem that I wrote on that same day titled, "The 'One, True Path' Of God," which is published on this blog.
And I was going to republish this poem on July 9th, 2015, in order to represent the original publishing date. However, the year 2015 is the 150th Anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment to The United States Constitution, which "abolished slavery and involuntary servitude..." (The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864 and by the House on January 31, 1865; and was ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865; and was then proclaimed on December 18, 1865.)
So, I decided to republished this poem on April 8, 2015, in order to represent the 150th Anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment to The United States Constitution, which is also the day before I republished "The 'One, True Path' Of God," since these two poems were originally published on the same day and are related by topic with regard to racial bigotry and discrimination. (Please see the "Thirteenth Amendment to The United States Constitution" in labels for the poem.)
And this poem was also published on my "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blogs (please see the hyperlink below for the blogs), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through "Poet, Artist and Philosopher and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."
This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.
-Paulee
https://poetartistandphilosopher.blogspot.com
https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com
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"Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—which is funded primarily through donations from millions of individuals around the world, including this blogger (I make a totally affordable monthly donation):
"The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
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October 15th, 2022 Update: I read an excellent Time Magazine article dated October 12th, 2022 that is titled, "Lincoln Saved American Democracy. We Can Too," which I heard about from one of the daily emails that I received today, October 15th, 2022, from Time since I am a subscriber:
https://time.com/6221209/lincoln-saved-american-democracy-we-can-too
And, in the article is a quote by President Abraham Lincoln—who is known as a great thinker of his time—which I think sums up the obvious reason that slavery is just plain wrong: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."
So, I decided to look up the full quote and found the following on the National Park Service website:
Lincoln Quote on Slavery
August 1, 1858: On Slavery
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy.
https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/onslavery.htm
Then, I continued to search for that quote in order to find the context in which it was written, and on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum website I found an article titled, "LINCOLN DRAWS THE LINE ON SLAVERY," which explains that the quote was from Lincoln's notes that he wrote to himself:
"Among the most fascinating of Abraham Lincoln's writings are the notes he wrote to himself. Mostly discovered after his death, they offer few clues as to their origin and intent, but they give us glimpses into his thought process."
The article explains a lot more about the quote; however, this article does not credit the quote with any kind of date for when it was written:
"Among the items in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s collection is another note that will be on display in our Treasures Gallery for the upcoming year. Commonly referred to as the 'Definition of Democracy,' it is much shorter ... and a bit more of a mystery. None of Lincoln’s contemporaries tell us anything about this note or when he wrote it. However, its text is bold and intriguing:
'As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.'"
[By the way, in Lincoln's quote from the Presidential Library website, they depict his "bolding" of the words 'slave' and 'master' as italicized, however I underscored those words, because I usually italicize text from sources that are not my own writing, in these 'updates' that I write, in order to make them stand out from my own writing; and, besides that, Lincoln himself underscored those words, in order to emphasize them, which you can see from an image of his quote from the aforementioned article.]
https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Blog/Posts/108/Abraham-Lincoln/2021/2/Lincoln-Draws-the-Line-on-Slavery/blog-post
Anyway, I was really impressed by Lincoln's words because I think that they are a true representation of a quote by Jesus The Christ—who is known as the greatest thinker of all time—and the words of His quote are also called the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."
–Paul Whiting (written October 15th, 2022 and revised December 6th, 2022)
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This "Small All White in the Forest" Post No. 191 was edited on May 3rd, 2024.
"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]
