To Know Good Will
Lee Hays
If I should die one day by violence
Please take this as my written will
And in the name of simple common sense
Treat my destroyer only as one ill
As one who needed more than I could give
As one who never really learned to live
In peace and joy and love of life
But was diseased and plagued by hate and strife
My vanished life might have some meaning still
When my destroyer learns to know good will
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Pete Seeger does a reading of this poem on The Storm King, with an intro about Lee. It is worth looking up. You have to think that the inspiration for this poem came at least in part from the public lynchings he witnessed growing up in Arkansas. I am sure Lee did not think that, because there are extraordinary people who can forgive a crime of hate, that as a society we should not establish a movement to end hate crimes. Sadly,in the year 2020 that movement is still absolutely necessary. And we are working on it for sure. But as Bob Dylan once wrote, "the lines are long, and the fighting is strong. And they're breaking down the distance between right and wrong." Ring Those Bells. RIP Lee Hays, who loved beer according to Pete. And RIP Pete. You both are missed.
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