Black lives matter

This has been a week.  I am a word person, and my first response to an emotionally devastating situation is to write about it.  But there are no words.  The savagery against people of color, not just in the past week, but for centuries, is inexcusable.   The senseless death of George Floyd, Ahmaud  Arberu, Breonna Tayler, and others, reflect the horrors of injustice and oppression that still pervade our entire country.  Society has failed when those whose role it is to protect lives, use their power and authority to take lives.  Society has failed when people of color are more frequently arrested, more harshly judged and more severely punished than whites.  Society has failed when the only recourse for victims of systematic oppression, is violence.

I do not have the solution. But I can and do recognize my privilege which allows me time and space to consider the problem rather than deal with it daily as a matter of life and death.  I cannot fix the problem, but I can make myself more aware of racism in all of its subtle and pervasive forms.  I can stand against racist behavior when I see it, and I can open my heart to the possibility of a future with liberty and justice for all.

Black lives matter.