Cruelty – Jaye Em Edgecliff

It’s really sad just how petty, cruel, and hateful people can be.

“A gay couple is beaten, in broad daylight, on the streets of New York.” Sounds like the headlines of a news paper in a dystopian novel or of a barbaric and bygone era. Of course we know that humanity, and Americans are still rather barbaric and that this is common place.

Still, it makes people wake up when it’s New York City! This is a place that’s been gathering such a hodge-podge of humans that you can believably have the bartender from Keeping the Faith. People expect this kind of thing in Georgia, Arkansas, Rural Montana (actually – is there a part of Montana that isn’t rural?), Arizona, or Utah.

It doesn’t matter who you are. Gay, straight, or other. Male, female, eunuch, trans. Human, dog, cat, or parrot. Sooner or later you have to stand up and be heard for your fellow beings.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.