What if it was an awakening?
A realization & a choice like
Alcoholic. Oh, we’d say. Oh, shit.
But then we could go to a meeting
& be real for once.
Hi, I’m ___, we would say
& they’d reply, Hi, ____.
How can we help you get sober?
without help, That, as James Baldwin said,
white people are trapped in a history which we
do not understand & until we understand, we cannot
be released. What if the word racist is not the end
of freedom, but the beginning?
Admitted them? What if we
Made a list of all persons we & our country had harmed, & became willing to make amends to them all?
What if we made direct amends to such people?
What if we called those amends reparations?
What if we had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps,
so we tried to carry this message to others, & to practice these principles in all our affairs?