Inconvenient Truth

If yesterday’s thoughts did not narrow my possibilities for dinner party invites, today sure will. I am going to poke the bear today. I am going to have one sided courageous conversations, designed to ask you to open your heart. I will not apologize for my thoughts. I will not ask you to apologize for yours. I hope we can come together to merge these thoughts into a solution.

I watched the interviews of many of the lovely people bringing their families to the memorial for George Floyd. I watched the press ask them questions about the why. I sat and listened hoping to hear something earth shattering. I should not have been expecting this. I was sadly disappointed.

One family answered that their reason for bringing their family down was to experience history being made. This is good. I am listening. The conversation then moved to I am bringing my children here because children need to know how they are treated in school is not ok. They need to know how the police treat them is not ok. Here is where I become lost. I become lost in my heart because I truly do not understand. PLEASE MAKE ME UNDERSTAND! This is the EXACT spreading of rhetoric that I thought everyone was fighting against. It does not matter what group we are talking about! We cannot use the word ALL! We CANNOT!

I would like to tell you what the schools do for children. We feed them, sometimes 3 meals per day. We clothe them. We provide their school supplies. We wash their clothes. We provide them with therapy. We parent. WE LOVE! At the end of the day, with what is left, WE TEACH. What more are you asking for?

This is not the school, or the police, or the mayor, or the system. This is the home. All of us need to look at our homes. We need to take a hard look at what we have relinquished to the schools, the police and the “system”. I firmly believe, it is our responsibility to teach the values to our children of love, peace, forgiveness and acceptance. It is also our responsibility to teach our children right from wrong. In all circumstances. What happened to George Floyd was WRONG! What Derek Chauvin and the other officers did was WRONG! Laying blame on an entire police department, white people and those who are speaking a different truth is also WRONG!

Yesterday I watched many times, a clip on television, of a group of mostly white people, on the ground, chanting back apologies, to a person of color, directing them to do so, all the while on their knees. This my friends is literal insanity! Are you kidding me right now! ? I really need someone to enlighten me as to how this helps fix anything.

I have many friends who are people of color, who have eaten at my table and had long deep discussions while breaking bread in my home and theirs. I have asked this very question. How does me apologizing for being white help anyone? I have asked it in a training at school. Nobody can answer me! This tells me that it is not what the problem is. If it were, it would be a very easy fix. We could all just apologize and move on. Right?

We do not know our neighbors. We do not get together with our families and our communities as often as we should. We have all become selfish and isolated. This isolation has bred hatred, mistrust, and ultimately it has relinquished control of our homes. We have relied on schools and the government to take over our responsibilities. Time to take it back.

Now I am not calling for the police to be abolished . Did you really think that is where this was going? The statistics on police using lethal force do not lie. This is not a policing problem. The catalyst for this situation we are facing, has been the horrific act of four men, who abused their power. They should pay a price and then answer to God. I am calling for people to accept that law and order, in a society are a necessity. In a society where there are no peacekeepers, there is no order, and those who have money and power will take advantage of us all. This opens the floodgates for evil to rule our lives.

The inconvenient truth in all of this is that police are not the problem for people of color. Check it out for yourself. The data is in black and white. The Washington Post has been keeping statistics on it for years. Police are not the statistic you should be looking at. They are not who are killing people of color. People of color are killing people of color. Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, saw 10 people murdered. These were 10 people of color murdered. Where were the protests? Where were the press?

I for one will not allow an inconvenient truth to disguise the fundamental problem and therefore permeate my home. I will not have my children or my family apologize for who they are. I know who they are. They are good, honest, kind, hard-working, generous and most of all, loving. We have taught them to love everyone and respect everyone. We have told them to choose their words wisely, for they matter. We have told them to hold God in their heart, and spread it to others. We have told them that setting an example is the best service to God and your fellow man. We have taught them that in the end, this is all that really matters.