SILENT: No More

…I feel the hot sting of tears stream down my face as I watch footage of the car plow into the crowd. I can’t get the images out of my head. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I keep hearing the wailing of the people in my mind over and over, I can’t get them to stop…
I do not write this under any guise of understanding what it means to be a person of color in this country. I was born into privilege, like every other white person on this rock. I write this because I can no longer watch my brothers and sisters being attacked and do nothing. Napoleon once wrote, “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.” I am no longer a good person who sits in silence. I no longer am willing to sit back and hope that things will get better or that someone else will fix it. The reality is, it’s not getting better. In fact things are getting worse, and at a very rapid pace. Fear is building and being capitalized on. And that is exactly what the other side wants.
Fear keeps us immobilized. It keeps us hidden behind screens and in our homes instead of showing up and using our actual voices. It give us the illusion that we are safe. It’s easy. We can say whatever, to whoever, whenever, with no accountability and when it all gets to be too much, with the press of a button, we can shut it off. Fear, however, does not negate the fact that the atrocities are still happening. And while we are “safely” tucked into our beds every night, our brothers and sisters are literally fighting for their lives, wondering if they are going to make it to see another day. I do not sit in fear anymore. Today, I choose my side. Today, I choose to fight.
“We can learn to see each other, and see ourselves in each other, and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.” ~Maya Angelou
We must not allow them to tear us apart. We are ONE people, and as ONE people we have ALL the power. We must move together as ONE united front for the greater good. We must put aside our differences, and find our similarities. It is within that place that we, as ONE people, while appreciating all that is different about one another, find strength and power to prevail; because at the root of understanding and appreciation for what is different, is Love.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
It is still the 1960’s out there. Blatant racism and inequality are in full swing. The shit that happened back then is still happening now. With more anger, more brutality and less give-a-fucks from the next generation KKK, aka the “ALT-Right”. When is enough, ENOUGH? “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~ Elie Wiesel. How many cars have to plow into how many crowds of people fighting for their basic human rights and decency before we, the collective, finally stop operating from a fear base and stand up and take a side. Whether we like it or not is a mute point, WE are in this together. The only way through this is: together. As ONE people, operating as ONE united front, we have ALL the power.
I leave you with one last quote…
“Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often.” ~Mark Twain
#ryantkelsey
