Killen found guilty

Well, I have lived long enough to see justice.


Time froze a little that summer.
It seems it was a summer and three/quarters.
So many folks
getting rides to the South,
spending time,
building projects,
getting vote cards signed,
getting in the way,
getting down to the business of democracy,
heading back to school,
wondering if we would ever know.

We were just kids then,
full of believing what John Kennedy had said
about asking what you could do for your country.
Does anyone ask that question these days?
Nevermind.


The one thing we knew was
the way it was
was not right.
It could be righted,
but the way it was was not right.

And they blew up churches.
And they killed men on the front porch of their little houses.
And they lynched and lynched and lynched.
And they bombed little girls in basement sacristies.
And they spat on grandmothers grieving
And they, not for a moment, ever thought they were the enemy.

but America
us
the US
the U.S.
the US us
didn't care
didn't care how many bombs
didn't care how much rope
and spit
and gasoline
and bullets
the terrorists had

We had this
This little piece of paper that reads:
WE the People of the United States
in order to form a more perfect Union...

and so
when they bombed us
and hanged us
and drenched us in blood

we sang

we sang

we shall overcome
we shall overcome
we shall overcome some da a aa aa y,
oh deep in my heart
I still believe


O


I have lived long enough to hear Justice ring out.

We find the defendant guilty.

And the summer finally begins.


Joe(Three young men, three dreamers, R I P)Nation