Dropping at thirty two feet per second per second the terminal velocity comes to mean quite a lot to me.

If I have to hit rock bottom then I hope I've a long way to fall,
I want time to call the bookmaker who will take a bet anti post or anti rock and will get a shock if I collect, then a direct call to him up above to ask just who it was that decided to give poor me a shove, you can't trust anyone except the one that you love.

At thirty two feet in a second I meet the next and it rushes past like a bat out of hell, I never fell, did not fall, I was pushed and I make that clear in the call.

We have to hit and some will bounce, some will not, some will leave a nasty stain, a bruising blot and the chalk outline outlines ****** all,
I also make that clear in the call.

But if I wake before the final take, before the camera crew pack away and the light comes flooding in to pin my eyes to another day someone's sure to push me down, hold me under 'til I drown,
I think I'd rather fall,
that's also clearly stated in the call.

In about 1868,
William Torrey Harris,
Wanted to teach the great.
He instituted early efforts in schools,
To reach his goal, now and forever,
To educate the gifted,
And make them even more clever.

In about 1901,
In Worcester, Massachusetts,
Teachers opened the first school,
Specifically for gifted students.

In about 1954,
Ann Isaacs was really not a bore.
It was under her leadership that it was founded,
An association that propounded.
The association was therefore called,
The National Association of Gifted Children, one and all.

In about 1972,
The Marland Report was issued to schools,
T’was the first formal meaning,
Of giftedness and it’s teaching.
Teachers were strongly encouraged,
To define it broadly, with courage.
With academic, intellectual, and leadership achieving,
Visual and performing,
Arts, creative and productive thinking,
Gifted people were diagnosed,
And the teachers became engrossed,
In teaching them the most.

In about 1974,
The Office of the Gifted and Talented was given a status,
Like never before.
Finally it was,
Made to be official,
The Office of G&T;,
Was now more beneficial.

In about 1988,
Congress passed,
The Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act.
This was a rather large part,
Something that was just right smart,
Of the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In about 1990,
The National Research Center for Gifted and Talented,
Was established.
At the University of Connecticut it was located,
And it was also associated,
With the included researchers, none named Prinia,
At the Unis of Georgia, Yale, and Virginia,

Imagine you're in class, and there's a boy with a cross dangled on his neck.
I bet everyone thinks it's normal because his name's Jared, and his daddy drives a Corvette.
What about Isaac, the boy in English class who wears a yarmulke on his head, and fasts for holidays?
Were your anti-semetic slurs not enough to make him want to end his days?
And how about Iman from your class of History?
Why do your peers at school same her because she chooses to practice her faith differently?
Society has taught people that there are only certain religions to follow,
So excuse me, supremacists,
If America is so great, why does the environment feel so hollow?

So Jared, he must be pretty cool, right?
I bet he keeps his hair gelled and his jeans real tight.
He doesn't get called weird, and he doesn't get asked to take his necklace off.
So why does he get a free pass when everytime Iman walks by, a few people stare and scoff.
"So like, do you even have any hair?" they ask her as she walks down the hall.
She fixes her hijab annd puts her head down and drowns in a sea of embarrassment.
She can't help but sit and wonder why she even came to school at all.
the next day the kids at lunch rip off Isaacs yarmulke,
and ask about the labor of his ancestors.
"Well you have to know. you're Jewish!" they say. but they don't acknowledge his pain inside that festers.
"You should be proud of who you are and not judge others" the teachers chant.
But they cannot look me in the eye and tell me that that they haven't give "The Muslim and the Jew" a second glance.
So, excuse me, supremacists,
I beg of you; Let the children be free, let them dance through the day.
Let those with shadowed beliefs speak out, and say what they want to say.
Let the broken hearted children have the freedom to peacefully pray.

In your so called "Pledge of Allegiance" that you make the children rise for, you recite that we are all indivisible, and under God, but do you really believe that?
I mean you must not, since half of you reading this have done nothing and seen someone of another religion or race treated like crap.
So tell me, when was God decided to be marked absent in the classrooms where we are supposed to be taught?
Freedom? Equality? Justice? Aren't those the things for which our brothers fought?
Excuse me, Supremacists, let me tell you that closing the doors to God, opens the doors for the Devil,
and we cannot let the ignorance of those who are afraid to believe bring us down another level.

Those that you pushed down before? They pushed back, only harder
The boy you called a "***** Jew" , his faith only grew stronger.
The girl you called a "terrorist" and a "*******" , she went home and prayed a little longer.
Your hate wiil only fuel their faith. Your negativity is what burnt yours out.
You gave up on God, and the belief that he wasn't there to help you, filled your heads with doubt.
So, tell me supremacists,
Is it really those who peacefully practice that are in the wrong?
Or is it you, who lost faith and is scared,
So you keep singing the same old song?
Let the children be free,
Let the children live,
For if you deprive them of their religious freedom and acceptance,
They will have nothing left to give.

Why am I here? I ask myself constantly
All of this superficiality is slowly consuming me
Caught up in the hair and the nails,
But blind to the fact that that is a living hell
They sit back and they laugh at something on their Iphones
But I simply sit back and watch and stay in my android zone.
 So why am I here? I ask myself once more
As I watch them walk into a very expensive store
Knowing that I don't wear Gucci and Calvin Klein
I sit back to myself with my own humble mind
Why am I here? I ask myself while I'm sitting alone
I don't even really know, so I guess I'll go home

                                  ~Leilah E. Isaacs