I am sure you would agree that this year has contained many events no one saw coming. We never expected so many crisis' to unfold one right after the other. No one expected to feel a wide range of emotions that each month has seemed to bring. I've heard many say, "you are allowed to feel what you feel but remember we are all together in this..."
You see, I don't disagree with this statement. Of course you have permission to feel moments of uncertainty, fear, or even anger during these hard times. But the word 'together' for me has been challenged by this current humanitarian crisis.
I want you to remember any hard moments you've had or felt throughout this year. Now magnify them and multiply them year after year since the day you were born. Now I don't mean to exaggerate, but I wish to enlighten you that although in 2020 we have endured hard times "together", part of our community has been living in a quarantined crisis long before this year. And they have done it alone. It's hard to claim to be in this 'together', if we abandon fellow Americans in their struggle and battle against injustice and much more.
I have discovered this human pattern where we have to experience difficulty in order to identify that it is difficult and eventually figure out how to endure it or end it. It is a sad way of living because no one wants this type of life for themselves. But I believe that through these difficulties there is much we can learn.
As a young girl, I was taught this basic lesson in school math. First, you identify there is a problem, then you figure out how to solve it, and finally you work on finding the answer. This lesson can be applied to any problem presented to us. This problem of injustice and racism was identified in the past, but I believe it was never completely resolved. In response to what has come to light in our nation these recent weeks, people of color, more specifically the black community has endured a crisis that must come to an end.
We have failed America. We have failed to be a nation of full equality. We have failed to bring justice everywhere it is due, we have failed to be non-bias and judge solely by the contents of our hearts. We are all a part of America, so therefore we have all failed. Now I don't mean anything else by this other than, if we want unity as a nation, we have to confront our disunity as a people. We need to identify our problem once more and address it head on.
So many citizens and even officers have protested around the U.S. and the world to stand up and remind one another of the many problems this nation faces. I am unable to accurately discuss all of the nations problems, but here's what I think is important. We cannot be unified only among our race, skin color, language, or profession. We are a diverse melting pot population filled with minorities and people of color. We have to be unified through our differences of race, skin color, language, and profession. Disunity is a problem that needs to be solved.
I am sure you will agree with all I have said this far, only with a slight alteration of omitting yourself from the problem. I completely understand that you have not contributed to the problem. But if we want to be united, we must be a part of the solution. We cannot live in disunity as a people. We have to contribute to fight for our nation, to preserve our home. We have to judge solely by the content of hearts, not by outward appearance. We have to be quick to listen, and to understand. We must be passionate about change, but peaceful in how we present our ideas. We must love others just as Jesus shows us, without any exceptions. We must pray for the leaders of our states, churches and our nation. We must join in unity to end this crisis once and for all.
This phrase is so interesting to me...
"United we stand, divided we fall." -John Dickinson, U.S. Statesman
It makes me wonder how many people have falsely assumed they were standing in unity but failed to identify that 'we' includes people of color as well. YOU cannot stand in unity if you are taking some out of the picture. Black lives matter and are worthy of standing side by side next to every other American. We allowed this mistreatment to continue on for too long without shinning a national sound of alarm into this crisis. It is time. It is time we recognize we have failed and have fallen. But we must choose to get back up and fight for a "nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice FOR ALL." We cannot exclude anyone from receiving justice nor exclude anyone from the unity of this nation.
I wish to conclude my thoughts with the proclamation that we cannot stop at only identifying our nations problems. We must contribute to figuring out how to solve it, however we can and however we know how. Let every American get to work!
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
God Bless.
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