LIFE MATTERS

By Jason Walter

All lives matter. Yes, this we know.

BLACK LIVES MATTER. Why must we shout? Because all lives matter, and until BLACK LIVES MATTER rises to that same level of acceptance, forever held back will be our innately loving flow.

Life matters, it matters so much to humanity, yes, our speck-in-the-dust-of-the-vast-universe species. Life matters so much that we strive, we fight, we hunger for more, longer, easier, healthier, out of this world, every which ways, to simply stay alive.

But if it truly matters, then I must pose these questions:

Do we even know how to live without destroying that it matters whether or not we survive?

But if it truly matters, then the answer to the question is obviously: Yes, because the opposite of “to destroy” is “to create.”

Life matters, it matters so much that someday, we’ll rise up, cast aside our ignorance, that indifference that keeps us blind.

What we create when bringing forth life is the same blood that flows through these collective veins to our one united heart all the same.

BLACK LIVES MATTER. Without a shadow of a doubt, let us scream and shout!

All lives matter.

BUT until we recognize BLACK LIVES MATTER, then we won’t really know.

And these voices are but shadows, shadows, shadows…

Of a Truth forgotten long ago.

Jason Walter, Hawaii Opera Theatre’s marketing director, writes poetry and social commentary. His newest collection, The Empty Flask, is available on iBooks now.

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