The Golden Rule- Amended Poem by Jim Yerman

THE GOLDEN RULE-AMENDED

No matter what God you worship…what religion you've grown up with
or you now think is ‘cool'
isn't it amazing how every religion ever created has in their basic principles…
a form of the Golden Rule?

Yet…we hear stories every day…stories we hope and pray cannot be true….
Stories that show how people have forgotten or, worse, ignored…
‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'

We point fingers at one another…but don't we all shoulder the blame?
Isn't it up to all of us to make an attempt to treat everyone the same?

What if there is a way our Golden Rule to fix…
simply by adding one word…children…into the Golden Rule mix?

What if the new Golden Rule is from this day forward thusly repeated….
Do unto others the same way you want your children to be treated?

If we see everyone not just as a child…but our child…when we look upon their face…
would we begin to treat them differently…would the world become a better place?

Would we be as quick to judge them…as quick to close our hearts…our shores?
Would we be as quick to diminish and hate them…as quick to send them off to war?

Yes, I wonder if in every other person…our own child we would view…
If the Golden Rule would finally do…
what all our different Gods up there
intended it to do.