Let's Begin the Work

I am watching and participating in marches that claim Black Lives Matter and call for peace and for justice.  As lovely as it is to see, I'm sorry to say, America, this is not even the starting block.  You see, we have been here before on this very road.  We have marched arm in arm, we have sung the songs that called for peace and justice and thought that would do it.  That was a head change not one of the heart.  We thought everyone agreed with the simple truth that all are equal.  But the culture of hatred and the tight grasp of White power remained in place.  It took on a new look but if you were Black in America, you didn't notice a thing.  Until we can acknowledge that we have been complicit in systemic racism, nothing will change.  Until we can say mea culpa, I'm sorry, and mean it, nothing will change.  Until we can look in the mirror at our own power, advantages, and privileges and willingly give them away to those upon we have trodden, nothing will change.  March.  Sing.  Hold hands.  Continue to post videos of police harming instead of helping until everyone understands what we really mean when we say Black Lives Matter.  Then apologize.  Be political.  Open your heart and head to the idea of shared power and what that might look like in our hospital maternity wards, preschools, educational institutions, residential communities, and work places.