"A Pledge to Rescue Our Youth by ~~~Maya Angelou~~~ © 2006 Young women, young men
of color, we add our
voices to the voices of your ancestors who speak to you over ancient
seas and across
impossible mountain tops. Come up from the gloom of national
neglect, you have
already been paid for. Come out of the shadow of irrational prejudice,
you owe no racial
debt to history. The blood of our bodies and
the prayers of our
souls have
bought you a future free from shame and bright beyond the
telling of it. We pledge ourselves and our resources to seek for
you clean and well-furnished schools, safe and non-threatening streets,
employment
which makes use of your talents, but does not degrade your
dignity. You are the best we have. You are all
we have. You are what we have become. We pledge you
our whole
hearts
from this day
forward. August 2, 2008 5:34 PM"
