It seems to me that lately we’ve been seeing our American flag flown at half-staff way too much. I say it’s too much not because it’s unjustified but because there have been so many heartbreaking events that have taken place here in the United States of America. My heart aches for our country and the tragedies we have recently seen.
Some may see me only as a white American female but I claim those words don’t define who I am. I am first a child of God. I am molded each day by my journey and am merely the sum of the life that I have lived and the choices I have made. Even though many have walked beside me, no one will ever see the world just as I do. Likewise, I will never understand what it’s like to be a police officer, a young black man or a Mexican immigrant because that isn’t my journey. Let me declare that we are all so much more than the uniforms and the skin we wear. We are all living breathing people. We are here to learn from each other and to help each other grow.
My goal isn’t to be political with my comments but merely an attempt to inspire reason, compassion and understanding among Americans. It seems that we have become more divided as a nation than we have ever been before. So much hatred is brewing among us.
God has put each of us here for a reason. We are all His children. We may come from different cultures, religions and races but we all matter profoundly. We are each here to change the world in remarkable ways by making a difference in the lives of those who cross our paths. It is our choice to make it a positive difference.
We are all imperfect, capable of good and bad. One good deed doesn’t make us perfect. One bad trait doesn’t ruin us. Just as not one corrupt person in a group causes the whole group to be evil. We are individuals and each of us makes choices along our journey. We don’t arrive at our final destination because of our color. We get there based on our choices.
Activism for the sake of activists is senseless. Elevating people who incite riots is movement in the wrong direction. All it accomplishes is making a few people exceedingly famous and wealthy. Anyone who inspires murder should be impeded, not elevated. Start looking at your neighbors through the eyes of God and see a human being. Stop killing each other because you feel angry or slighted.
We are all living, breathing people. Cultivating and provoking hate based on race, culture, religion or color is senseless. Instead, let us try respect. Let’s see where that takes us. I ask each of you, get down on your knees and pray for healing, peace, love and respect.
Let me quote some wise words from Martin Luther King Jr.:
- “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that.”
- “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
- “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
- “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”
- “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
- “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
- “I have decided to stick to love … Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
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