#BlackLivesMatter

I don’t have the words and anything I write will be inadequate. I’ve heard the advice to be silent so black voices are not drowned out, and I respect this guidance. I’ve also heard the requirement to advocate and to avoid being unintentionally complicit through silence, and I appreciate this recommendation. Surely it is a balance. I am an ally, and I am listening. I also want to support by articulating my views. I lack my own best words in order to communicate, so I have decided to borrow from others. What follows are statements which also speak for me.

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The video of George Floyd’s brutal death broke my heart. I have watched the protests and felt overwhelmed with solidarity.

We need peace and justice on both sides—we need unity.

We cannot allow systemic racism to go unnamed or unchallenged. We cannot turn away, and every American should treat racial justice as a shared responsibility. Even if we believe we don’t have psychological standing–the send that it’s legitimate for us to act–we cannot be complicit through silence.

We cannot excuse violence or rationalize it or participate in it.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” ~~Edmund Burke

Evil is perpetrated by the violence of bad people, but also exacerbated by the silence of good people. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Empathy by Morgan Harper Nichols
Let me hold the door for you. I may have never walked in your shoes, but I can see your soles are worn, your strength is torn under the weight of a story I have never lived before. Let me hold the door for you. After all you’ve walked through, it’s the least I can do.