July 14,2013
I woke up this morning and sat down to write with tears in
my eyes; how can life be so fickle? I spent the day with my son and daughter in
law, and a terrific friend and came home riding the high from my day; to hear a
verdict of not guilty in the Zimmerman/Martin case. My heart sunk, the outrage
took over and I felt myself feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Why? Because
I’m white, and for a moment I believed that this was about color, but this
morning, I realize it’s far deeper than that; it’s about the horrific flaws in
this system of “justice” that we have in this country. It’s not because he was
a young black man, because if that were the case, why did FLA let Casey Anthony
go after the world knew damn well she killed her children; they were all
white.
White parents, Mexican parents,
native parents, NO ONE is excluded in this ugliness of the world, we all lose!
And I know in my heart that across the U.S people of all colors were supporting
this young man and his family, we didn’t see color, we saw the loss of an
innocent life, period. I read things this morning about how this is the white
folks getting back at the blacks for the O.J case. I scratch my head and wonder
how feeding this line of thinking is going to get us anywhere good?
I responded to an online forum and was told
that because I was white I didn’t understand and never would. Really!?
Let me clarify something; I am a
MOTHER, that trumps your damn skin color bullshit, I’m tired of all
this bitching about race, stand up and DO something about all of the injustices
you feel instead of pointing fingers I know this world is biased in some ways,
but we are not ever going to invoke change by sitting on our hands and letting
it victimize us, stand up and be heard! DO something to bring about positive
change with all of that emotional energy! Russell Simmons said that last night,
“we must remain peaceful. No matter
what, remain peaceful. If you have anger this evening, put that energy into
challenging these horrible laws that allow overly-anxious neighborhood watchmen
to carry guns and shoot innocent people.”
A man and a woman lost a son, it doesn’t take being the same
race for anyone to understand that, it takes a heart, and human compassion; I
had just spent the day with my son, don’t think I didn’t sit here last night
imagining the horror of him being gone. We cannot let this become more unrest
amongst us, we cannot let the ugliness of the world win, we have to rise up and
come together and instead of people like Treyvon, MLK & so many others
dying in vain, we need to bring about unity and change!!!
Stop fighting one another, stop feeding it, and stop being
victimized by any of it, RISE UP AND UNITE in positive ways to change the world
we live in! I don’t have the answers or the blueprint, but I look around and I
listen, and I see and hear all of the ways we disrespect each other; men/women
against one another, black women against white women, and the list goes on and
on, its not stopping any of it, it is perpetuating it! Why don’t we recognize
that? We cannot stop hatred with more
hatred, we cannot stop racism with more racial tension, we cannot teach
non-violence when we are violent…Maybe this is a test to see how far we have
come as a people; maybe it has less to do with the dysfunctional justice system
and more to do with a Higher Power testing us to see if we will learn and this
time come together in peace and for peace, or whether we will let this
divide us even more than we already have. We can blame whoever we want day to
day for being treated less than by others, but each and every moment of every
day that we are given we wake up with the ability to freely choose how we feel
and WHO WE WILL BE that day. You can choose to be angry because the world is
unfair to you, you can blame it on your skin color, you can blame it on your
weight, but ultimately, we all have a choice to either stand for something
good, or fall for something less. I choose to love and to stand for my fellow
people, no matter their color, creed, etc…I CHOOSE to think good thoughts even
in the midst of pain and sorrow, because I know in my heart that good always
prevails over evil, in some way or another I know that it does.
George Zimmerman is not a free man today; he was dismissed
of charges yes, but for the rest of his life he will look over his shoulder and
not feel safe, he will fear for his family’s safety, he will never gain back
the life that he knew. He didn’t really win; it’s more a matter of where we
imprisoned him because he is behind bars no matter how you want to see it.
My heart hurts this morning, we are a society and a
government full of ills, and we just keep band aiding the issues instead of
actually getting in there and building something better, but I’m going to send
one more prayer up for all of us right now, I’m going to pray for guidance and
for love and patience and compassion because we all need it, and then I’m going
to dust myself off and go out into the world be the positive change I want to
see; one person, one step at a time, because it’s better than doing nothing but
crying in outrage w/no movement forward.
R.I P Treyvon, you are truly in such a better place than
this mess we are left with here…
Everyone needs to bow their heads and pray to whatever God
you pray to, and send something positive out for this family, for this world,
for yourself and for me; turn this into positive energy and watch change begin.
~Peace, Love & Light