(c) MrsMyth
The town was just your usual town; a tiny village size.
The townsfolk were your usual mix; some dull, some others wise.
At first glance it seemed normal, without issues too complex;
but this town had a secret!: They were quite obsessed with sects.
Their passion on this matter was immense, almost obscene.
As I describe the town to you, you'll soon see what I mean.
One rural store, one hardware stop, one hair cut place, one pub.
One take-away, one newsagent, one local bowling club,
one petrol place, one post office, one supermarket too.
Until it shut, as many have, they had a bank there too.
One Pre-school, and one High-school, but for Primary schools there's two!
Apparently for Catholic kids, the local wouldn't do.
So what's the message for the kids? Accept your fellow man?
Or splinter off and start a sect? Is this some holy plan?
But maybe it was like a sign; the writing on the wall.
Let's face it, kids grow up to learn the real truth after all.
Well, when it comes to raising kids, this might have been revealing.
'Coz this town had religion like a hospital had healing.
The Catholic church, the Bapist church, the Methodist Uniting,
the Anglicans, the Mason's lodge. So talk about in-fighting!
And these were just the ones in town, within the CBD!
Within a fifteen minute drive, at least another three.
The tally moves on up to ten if drivinghalf an hour!
What drove these folk to build them all? Some strange religious power?
But then one day a woman came to live within the town.
A mystic mum who'd seen the world, but now was settling down.
She had outside perspective, and she'd often like to read.
She saw the town's potential, and she understood it's need.
She called a public meeting to put forth her 'vision splendid'.
Who could have guessed the way that this town meeting finally ended!?
So in this rural district where the wheat and sheep were farmed
the townsfolk rallied to the call 'Alert but not unarmed'.
They'd heard about the terrorists, and dangerous 'sleeper cells',
but far more dangerous, as she knew, the poer of "sects cells".
"Good evening, everybody. Welcome . Thanks for coming here.
Tonight I hope we'll share ideas, 'least that's the whole idea.
I have a dream, a plan for peace, to put to each of you....
To re-unite the town as one, just one church ought to do.
A multi-national, multi-lingual, place to pay respects.
And end the mad obsession with the sects, sects!, sects!!
For as it stands, our kids grow up united by division.
Sectarianism has run amuck, deserving of derision.
If kids learn from role-modelling, and examples that we set,
the full effects of all the sects have not been realised yet.
So tolerance, and empathy, and common understanding
are far more of significance than the sects empires expanding.
Our kids aren't taught to empathise, to understand each other.
They're taught to focus on the sects of each sister or brother.
Sects schools, in all reality, are just indoctrination.
Without free choice or critical thought, it's not an education.
By telling our kids what to feel, or what to think or say
denies them to explore their life, and grow along the way.
So bring on in the Hindu's, and the Buddists, Mormon's too.
Welcome in each Christian sect, each Muslim, and each Jew.
Don't forget Agnostics, we should welcome them in too.
And also all the Atheists; to hear their point of view.
We'd make them all feel welcome in one place to pay respects.
And end the mad obsession with the sects, sects!, sects!!
So the townsfolk from the district where the wheat and sheep were farmed
responded to the call as one. 'Alert, but not alarmed'.
They now knew of the danger, having heard the "sects cells" news,
but thought best stick to what they know; ... ethnocentric views.
(c) MrsMyth, TJMcGowan
