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The clarion call resounds, the gauntlet laid down. Unclench your fist and grasp the hands of your brothers in an expression of the unity of manhood.
United; it sounds like such a noble cause, doesn’t it? We hear it and chills cascade up and down our spines as we relish with the thought of an impending and present utopia of comfort, camaraderie, compassionate experiences, and an uninhibited expectation of happiness and bliss.
We ignore the skeletons rattling loudly in the closets as we pursue the psychologically massaged sounds of Kumbaya, as our inner audio is set on rewind, quietly humming lyrics sung in all corners of the world.
Unity has such a powerful presence because it unapologetically dares anyone to misconstrue its meaning. The great Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire explains it this way in his Pedagogy of Freedom.
No one can be authoritarianly human while he prevents others from being so . . . If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.
Those suffering violence must suffer in the darkness of cruelty, disrespect, torture, and yearn to hear the roar of the voices of a men’s global chorus singing lyrics to denounce and outlaw domestic terror of any kind.
Men, when we boldly refer to America as she or christen a ship as she, we admittedly accept and agree that our women are the mothers of the Earth. To treat them in any other manner is an abomination and scales the wall of “INJUSTICE” to its apex.
We can no longer be complicit and turn a blind, bandaged eye to the atrocities of domestic terror. Unity is not described by gender or sexual orientation, nor does it limit itself to a specific race or ethnicity; unity is humanity as a whole.
We must exit the stage and discard the scripts of denial, deception, and “not my business” by directly becoming leading men of a freshly scripted production of “THIS IS HOW I LOVE THE WOMEN OF THE EARTH.” They need us to speak, to embrace, and to become TRUE followers of their leadership.
Integrity is not a stranger to people who are in continual pursuit of honoring their legacy of civility and the love for others while understanding it may be unrequited by those whom they have freely given all they have to give.
Men, pick up the gauntlet and answer women’s call with purpose and heroism!!!
Melvin “Casey” Lars ©
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