The River of Inhumanity
What would it take?

What would it take to leave the only country, customs and traditions you have ever known;

 

What would it take for you to pick up whatever you could and leave;

 

What would it take to leave ill or elderly loved ones behind;

 

What would it take to decide which children leave and which children stay;

 

What would it take to leave and know you may never see your loved ones again;

 

What would it take to leave and know you will be walking for a thousand miles without adequate subsistence;

 

What would it take to leave and not know where you will spend your nights;

 

What you do know is the horror you have been living with every day; and

 

Wherever you wind up, it will be better and safer than the place you left;

 

What would it take for you to set out to reach the one place that was built on welcoming the oppressed;

 

And

 

What if there is no place.

poem by Frederick Goldstein