No More Massacres

“First, this is not a method for cowards. It does resist. The nonviolent resistance is just as strongly opposed to the evil against which we protest as in the person who uses violence. This method is passive or non aggressive in the sense that we are not physically aggressive towards our opponent. But our mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken.
This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually. It is not aggressive physically but dynamically aggressive spiritually.”
A Message from Martin Luther King Jr.

No longer do I spread a message of violence
not even in silence
My Old Testament
was shoot anyone for whatever reason
My community was infested with gun violence
and I didn’t take a liking
just the sound alone created fear in my heart
Still I didn’t submit
Unfortunately I found myself at 13
in a hospital
a victim of gun violence
bleeding
shaking my head
Like dang
What’s the reason?
Started holstering a gun for All Seasons
morals became corrupted
trapped
in reaction without Law & Order
secretly, tactically, preparing for war
Cuz there’s brutality all over the world
See in my ghettos we groom-to-be Killers
Black-on-black killings
Hearts full of Madness
cuz we misguided from youth
But ever since congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford got shot
and that little girl Christina- Taylor greene died
that was with her
I died a little inside
truly it was then
where I realized
that my heart was divided from truth
I became teary-eyed
My new testament begins…
Now I’m picking up the shattered pieces
digging through the rubbish of my rearview
Face-to-face with my own demons
Please forgive me for my mishaps
Reality check
No more 21-gun salute
Hands up don’t shoot
I’m motivated to be a positive man
now can you tell me the same about you
Please don’t send the troops
Can I get a moment of silence
For all the victims of gun violence
Pay attention to all the pro-gun ads Across the Nation
cover with kind Pleasures
design to take over your mind
but I stand with councilwoman Janice Hahn
Keeping Columbine, Sandy Hook
Las Vegas shooting victims
Them 17 kids and Parkland
10 in Santa Fe Texas
Them church shootings in Charleston and Texas in remembrance
Let’s stand up for our little cubs
it touch my heart
When Emma Gonzalez and Edna Chavez led the march
to Washington
to approach Congress
Ignited the walkouts of classrooms in all 50 states
In a fight to ban assault weapons
Look how we took it to another level
Reuniting as one
cause the willing stop chilling
and became willing
So please get up
and don’t give up, politicians
Please stand up for us
an America’s Got Talent contestant Flau’Jae said it best
“Let’s put down the guns”
Dedicated to the victims of gun violence

by Darryl Burnside

Artwork by: Donald “C-Note” Hooker