Do We Scare You?

Do we scare you?

Us—the people you wear blue for every April?

Do we scare you?

Us—the people who have a little different way of thinking?

Do we scare you?

Us—the kids that spend their days in special education classrooms, learning the same things you do but in a different way?

Sometimes, you scare us

With your bullying and refusal to understand

Sometimes, you scare us

Because you can’t or won’t see the human underneath

The only thing you see is a target

And the people who do accept us? What do you do to them?

You bully them too because they had the courage to break away from the crowd and befriend someone who’s different

Befriend someone they don’t quite understand but are willing to learn about

You’re scared of us because we’re different

Is that it?

You’re scared because you can’t tear down the brick wall of normalcy you’ve put up in front of you

You’re too scared to look around it because you don’t know what you’ll find

How do you think it is for us, then?

We have to live in a world that isn’t equipped to handle us and our needs

A world where lights are too bright and people are too loud and clothes are itchy on our skin

A world where public schools don’t teach us right and we get pushed around

Did you ever think of putting yourself in our shoes?

I think you can’t because your fear holds you back

Fear of the unknown

Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t stop us

We’re here

We’re not leaving

In fact, we’ll do more than stay

No, we’ll survive and we’ll thrive

Buddy, prepare yourself

Prepare your heart, soul and mind

Because one day

Not today

But one day, you’ll have to find the courage to pick your head up, look us straight in the eye, and admit you were wrong

That you didn’t see how much we make the world a better place

And more than that

You’ll have to find the courage to look us in the eye and admit that we’re humans, too