Plant Gardens Not Prisons

Plant Gardens Not Prisons

I hereby offer this mantra for your consideration: Plant Gardens Not Prisons.

As we work to decompose systemic white supremacy, police brutality, and racism, we must begin to imagine what ourselves, our nation and our world could become.  How do we rebuild and remake ourselves and our communities as safe, healthy, and nurturing environments that truly support prosperity for all? 

I am reminded of the wisdom of the garden. Let’s plant gardens – in our yards, in our hearts, in our neighborhoods, in our parks, on top of buildings, on balconies, in kitchen windows, in our policies, in our relationships, in our families, in our healthcare system, in our police and emergency care workers, in our schools, in our scientists, in parking lots, in  empty malls, in the trunks of our cars, on the backs of bicycles, on the brims our hats . . .  let’s plant and plant and plant. Let’s allow the nutritious soil to enter under our fingernails. Let’s allow the soil to plant itself inside us, merge with our cells,  so that the garden glows from within. Let’s plant gardens not prisons.  

Let’s plant so many gardens that there isn’t a single spare inch of  room for prisons. We will tear down the prisons and plant gardens. Prisons that dehumanize the imprisoned and the guards. Tear down the prisons that serve no one and no purpose except to kill. Let’s tear down the prisons in our minds that limit our thinking — that block us from understanding how it is for someone else. Let’s tear down the prisons that prevent  that prevent us from seeing what could be. It doesn’t have to be like this. It isn’t really like this, if we don’t believe it to be. Let’s plant gardens and stop planting prisons. Let’s nourish each other and this land while we are here – so that our children and grandchildren won’t know anything about prisons or killing. Plant Gardens Not Prisons.