Black History Month
These struggles take on a renewed meaning in our current crisis
Not so long ago, the picture below was our national reality. And yet so many urge us to wash away these memories and to burn the books that tell stories that make certain people uncomfortable. Let's not learn about Tulsa. Let's not try for diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Let's ship off those migrants to camps and back into harm's way in the nations they left out of necessity. Does this sound familiar?
Black people won Civil Rights by being inconvenient, by being uppity. By demanding equality and paying heavy costs for those demands. See Emmitt Till. See how virulent racists still shoot up monuments to him to the point of the federal govt having to make a bullet-proof monument 70 years later.
Hatred is alive and well. So we must be more alive, more present, more connected and more resilient. We must be allies to those who sadly still need them. Conversely, we get to decide what America will become (after the fever dream has been quelled) with our every choice and word.
For me, America will be the place where we expand rights and protections outward until everyone is protected and honored. It will be a nation where speaking the truth is art and the ultimate act of bravery. Where fear doesn't win. Where hate goes to die.
Further, it will be a place where the laws protect us and empower us. A free place where the power derives from the consent of the governed. And the leaders will know this, and they will see their job as one of service to the people. A place where businesses exist to profit, to pay taxes that feed the fertile ground on which they prosper, to employ people, and to provide a useful service or product. Not to extract wealth or dominate the people.
A place where women can feel safe. Where the marginalized become the formerly marginalized. Where we can afford to live and rest and explore the world around us. Where animals have rights and forests abound. Where we honor the planet that sustains us. Where we have the freedom of religion and the freedom from religion. Where aboriginal people are honored.
Much deception, thievery, mischief and sophistry stands between us and that vision. But we must embody that vision if we are to rise to the very real and immediate occasion. We were born for this.
Let's look back on courageous leaders of the past for our inspiration and realize that our lives are fleeting. But we can make a real difference. And that difference may be the only echo that remains when our lives are over. We will NOT be returning to our regularly scheduled program.
But we may be able to save our nation and make it that 'more perfect union' in the process. Death and rebirth. Here we are. What part will you play?
