What We Are Together

In the past year I have become a very big fan of audio books. When "Books on Tape" was first a thing, I was not a big fan. My feeling was that I preferred to read on my own and give the characters the voices in my head. I didn't want to give the control of the story to the reader. About 2 years ago, I took advantage of an offer of 1 free book on Audible. I picked Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham. I picked this book for 2 reasons. I adore Lauren Graham and Gilmore Girls, and she was the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the audible experience, so much so, that often times when I was listening in the car, I would remain in the car after I reached my destination to "get to a good stopping place." Since then, I have listened to several audio books thanks to the fact that I can do it for free through the library. Before COVID-19 and my remote work situation, I was going through quite a few. Since March and "Staying home" I haven't really listened to many, but I have started listening while I am working at home. Friday afternoon I finished a book called An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. Hank Green is the brother of John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, Paper Towns and many others. To my knowledge, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is Hank's first novel. WOW!!!! As I sat in my living room taking my "lunch" Friday, I cried through the last 2 chapters. Now, I am an emotional person. A lot of things make me cry. I tear up quite often, but I think what really got to me in this book (which was released in 2018) was how much it spoke to everything we are going through right now and have been going through for most of 2020. A quote from the book, "We are each individuals, but the far greater thing is what we are together, and if that isn't protected and cherished, we are headed to a bad place." This is not a new thought or concept. "Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much." ~ Helen Keller, "A House Divided against itself shall not stand." ~ Jesus. I could go on and on and fill this page with wisdom about Unity. The problem is we just don't seem to get it. Why have we not learned that we need to come together? I am 56 years old, and I have been through a lot of things in my time, but I am amazed at every thing we are going through right now, and the absolute disregard that people have for human life. It makes me so sad. I saw something on Facebook today, that had several statements responding to the folks who respond to Black Lives Matter with All Lives Matter.
We have not "cherished what we are together, and this, this time right now is our "bad place." How will you respond?

A Hug Emoji is Not Enough!

Once again, I am up late, night owl that I am, and I have been running through all kinds of posts on social media, tonight mostly Instagram. As you can imagine, most people's feeds and stories are filled with posts about George Floyd, and the protests and riots that have resulted from him being murdered by a white policeman. I have waited a while to write about this, because I truthfully do not know what to say. Here's the sad thing. This is nothing new. I remember sitting in my apartment in September of 1992, 9 months pregnant with my first child, watching the riots being filmed and broadcast after the Rodney King verdict was released. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I was born in 1963, so I lived through the civil rights movement, but I was really to young to realize what was going on around me. 1992 was really the first time I saw what was going on with my own two eyes. It was so scary to me. I watched film footage of two black men going up to the cab of an 18-wheeler, opening the door and pulling the white driver out and beating him with baseball bats. I was shocked. I remember thinking, "I'm glad that's not here." But you know what else I did?...NOTHING. That was the first real event involving race that I really remember. Fast forward to 2012, and the murder of Trayvon Martin. Oh, you'll be so proud of me. I posted on Facebook about his death. I changed my profile picture to his image. I even wrote a blog post about what I thought when the verdict came down. You know what else I did?....NOTHING. Then I watched the video posted of the policeman who shot and murdered Philando Castile in 2017 (ironically also in Minnesota). This time I was very distraught. I truthfully could not believe what I was seeing. I wrote a blog post then, too. Don't worry. This one even had a tone of anger and outrage! I try to look at things logically. I try to see both sides. There is nothing worse than blabbing on and on when you don't know what you're talking about. In my opinion, you do more harm to the cause than good. This was the first time, and I am ashamed to say it, that I really saw what I didn't want to see. I didn't want to believe that this was happening. So you know what else I did?....NOTHING. I have scrolled through Facebook, and I have seen posts from my black friends and colleagues about how much they are hurting, and I started to hover, and use the "Hug Emoji, " and then I thought to myself, "Are you kidding?!? A hug Emoji? It's so trite! It's meaningless. I cannot even pretend to know what is going through any black person's mind right now, and trying to pretend that I know or can feel what they are going through is just BULLSHIT! It's not about me! I'm white. And this has nothing to do with guilt. I'm not apologizing for being white. I can't change the color of my skin anymore than a black person can change the color of theirs. What I am saying, and please hear me. I have no idea what it is like to be you. I would not even begin to say I can relate. I cannot. But I know that this cannot go on, and it needs to stop, and I want to be part of the solution, not the problem. Something has got to change. Do you know why there is a hashtag and phrasing everywhere that says black lives matter? It's because over and over this nation has proven that they don't. Sorry, plain and simple. I don't have to say white lives matter because I have never been shown that they don't. When I began this post, I looked up whether the officer who murdered Philando Castile was convicted. He wasn't. I cannot believe that any jury member who watched that video could have done anything else but convict. When I was raising my girls, and they would do something to hurt my feelings, or each others, they would always say they were sorry. My response to them was. Don't tell me you're sorry. Words mean nothing. Show me you're sorry. Change your behavior so I know that your words mean something. We can hug emoji, and hashtag all we want. We can post and say how outraged we are, and it means NOTHING! unless we change the way we act. No Justice! No Peace! Know justice! Know peace!