Voices Breaking Silence
Across the water, in a town beneath gray skies,
A girl told what had happened; they looked away.
Her words got lost in paperwork and cold indifference,
While the men who hurt her walked another day.
A mother held her daughter through the sirens,
Said, "You're safe with me.
I hear you now."
And somewhere in that quiet,
someone stood up
And said the rest of us
can't turn away.
It takes one voice,
then another,
One more witness who won't hide.
One more hand held out to someone
Left alone on the other side.
Our hands may shake,
our backs may bend,
But silence is a choice we can refuse.
Stand up,
speak out,
stay beside them—
There's a right way left to fight for truth.
The poor get searched beneath the streetlights,
The desperate get marched past flashing blue.
The ones with money hire a room of lawyers;
The ones they hurt are asked what they can prove.
So keep the records,
guard the doorway,
Walk them home and hear them through.
Make the names and dates come into daylight;
Let the law do what the law
must do.
It takes one voice,
then another,
One more witness who won't hide.
One more hand held out to someone
Left alone on the other side.
Our hands may shake,
our backs may bend,
But silence is a choice we can refuse.
Stand up,
speak out,
stay beside them—
There's a right way left
to fight for truth.
No mob, no revenge,
no borrowed rage That leaves another innocent to pay.
Let the guilty face a judge in daylight; Let the victims have
a place to say
What was taken, what was covered,
Who knew, who failed,
who let it stand.
A law is only worth the people Who insist it serves the
land.
It takes one voice,
then another, Till the whole town learns to hear.
Till a child can walk home safely,
Till the truth can stand up clear.
The poor deserve protection,
The harmed deserve a chance to choose.
Stand up, speak out,
stay beside them—
There's a right way left to fight for
truth.
One voice.
Then another.
Then the silence
breaks.