Taking a Knee

It is time for us all to take a knee.  Some background:  I am a 49er fan and agreed wholeheartedly with Colin Kaepernick's 2016 silent protest of our racist criminal justice system.  It was simple, direct and repetitive to serve as a weekly reminder to us that a change was needed.  But maybe it was just too early.  America wasn't ready.  I also was a practicing Catholic for 40 years of my life.  I have no qualms with getting on my knees.  Now in 2020, we have seen how our police choose to get on their knees.  George Floyd died at the knee of Derek Chauvin and other videos have appeared with police officers restraining black men with a knee on their neck.  But we have also seen a myriad of people bowing down to racism, including some police officers.  While that is heartening, the road is long and we have a 400 year history to address.  I'm not sure where we go from here but we can start with Colin's kneel.  We take a knee to remind ourselves that, like Derek Chauvin, we have power over the vulnerable and helpless. Even when it is not intentional, we cause pain and suffering. We take a knee to remind ourselves that we live in a system where some of us are holding others down by the simple place of our birth into our privileged positions.  We continue racism through our ignorance and refusal to change what has always been.   We take a knee in an act of repentance. We apologize for the part we played in this systemic sin. Yes, it is time for us all to get down on our knees, to hold a mirror up to our lives and our society, and confess that we are participants in a structural racism that is as deadly as any virus we could ever encounter.