I don't typically get political on the internet. But it's nearly 1 AM and I can't sleep because there are just so many troubling thoughts running through my head. And what's bothering me most isn't really political, it's societal. I think that, as a white woman, I've been afraid to say anything about what's happening between police and, primarily, the African American community. I don't want to say the wrong thing, to trivialize anyone's point of view, or because of my own privilege (and it is privilege), make matters worse. But staying silent feels like saying what's happening is okay, and it's not.
This is a heated topic, and one that I don't really have answers to. But I just know that we have to do better calling this what it is, and working to somehow change it. We can't keep seeing the body count rise in the name of law enforcement. We have to ask ourselves what's at the root of this? Is it fear? Racism? Something else? I have heard all the arguments and I can see where both sides are coming from, I suppose, but can't we all agree this isn't what we want? Surely this isn't what we want. I just don't know.
But here's what I do know. When I see another hashtag trending, I don't just mourn for the families who have lost someone. I start seeing faces of young black men and women I have taught, and I pray that this isn't their story. I think of my cousin's husband, who I routinely cut up with at family functions, and of their children, specifically their son, a smart, athletic, handsome teen, and pray it's not their story. Because somehow, this is what it's come to. I have begun to pray that someone I love isn't going to die because of a broken taillight. There have been 559 deaths in the US in 2016 during police interactions. And if it's not your friend, your student, your relative, it's still someone's. And I just don't believe it has to be.
I'm turning off comments, because I simply won't argue on this one.
