So fellow travelers,  sometimes the best response is to meet a challenge head on, as it is presented. My response came as a poem. ( Progress for me, not long ago it would have been a angry rant.)

 

Those Not Welcomed

 

There were little girls in rocking chairs

nursing bruises, crying silent tears

hiding in fear of being found.

 

There were bigger girls in dark tunnels

filled with monstrous noise, scarcely breathing

for fear of what might be found.

 

There were creative muses who crashed

and nearly burned

scorched by fears unnamed.

 

There were daughters whose pain

rang loud and threatened to loosen

vital grip of precious, loving hands.

 

There were mothers, who had to face

what all mother’s fear most and

let go of children loved no less for having four legs.

 

There were voices raised with promises

to push fear aside with hope and prayer

words of genuine comfort.

 

These voices were gentler yet stronger,

kinder yet more powerful

loving and more enduring than fear.

 

They filled a sanctuary made for beautiful creations

with an authentic spirit beyond beauty

and they would not be silenced.