BOOKMARKS

As I've often said, I believe that words are powerful. Some of the most memorable points in history have often been accentuated by the words that accompanied them.

From Jesus’ "Sermon on the Mount" to Martin Luther King’s "I Have A Dream", we have often marked history by remembering what was spoken or written in those pivotal moments.

I want to be among those - historical bookmarkers - individuals whose words outlive them, but whose memory is forever attached to change.

PSA: Quoting MLK doesn't further the work he started. That only happens through action. You can start by using your own voice. Be someone worth quoting.

EXCERPT 5: Good-Normal

* Normal is being told that “opportunity” is working twice as hard for half as much.

* Normal is guilty until proven innocent.

Back to NORMAL?

You cannot return to that which you’ve never actually left.

This year, NORMAL has just been exposed for what it truly is. And good is definitely not the word I would use to describe it.

EXCERPT 4: Good-Normal

* Normal is assessing every situation or circumstance in advance, and making necessary adjustments based on the specific stereotypes I will need to manage in that moment.

* Normal is the constant reminder that a BIPOC who is well spoken is always the exception and never the rule.

* Normal is immediately defining any opinion I may have as a complaint, and to be outspoken is to be rebellious.

EXCERPT 3: Good-Normal

But for those of us who’ve been in the press of a punitive society for years and years, that’s not what NORMAL means to us. As a casualty of this press, here’s what “NORMAL” looks and feels like.

* Normal is knowing there is a specific amount of time before I have to intentionally change direction while walking behind someone in a store (or on the sidewalk, or at a school, park, gym, etc.), just to avoid that all too common “look back”.

EXCERPT 2: Good-Normal

All I kept thinking is that NORMAL being a good thing is completely subjective.

It must be nice to experience the luxury of a NORMAL that reflects an inherent national optimism, or an expectation that most people will treat you well and extend respect and common courtesy as a matter of course. It must be nice to be the recipient of a NORMAL that regularly regards you with support instead of suspicion.

It must be nice...

EXCERPT 1: Good-Normal

I saw a post a few days ago where someone said that they “will be so glad when things return to normal”. I mean, on the surface I understand that this statement was meant to imply that, with society in such a volatile state, and all of the many unsettling events over the last year, it’ll be nice to relegate those things to the past.

But for me, it hit different this time...

The past few months may have held silence, but I still have a lot to say. Unapologetic observations and declarations are on the way.

EXCERPT: Here we go again.

I feel like I'm so done with people and their stubbornness. But what benefit will I find in focusing on despair? People should stop for a moment and see themselves. See the patterns of piousness. Because the real tragedy of hypocrisy is not in the act itself, but refusing to acknowledge our hypocrisy when someone calls us out on it. You don't need to be perfect, just human... who sees other humans, and their inherent value as human beings. A life. Regardless of how they look or where they came from. Because if we don’t…

Here we’ll be

EXCERPT: Here we are again.

Triggers make the world go ‘round. Let’s make people angry. Let’s make people cry. Let’s make people afraid. Let’s make people… indifferent. CAUTION, LIVING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. But we patronize the offenders. Social peddlers of the world's worst characteristics. We buy into the notion that seeing someone else in misery will make us feel better. A lie. You don’t earn points for degrading other people. You don’t win a prize for being the most belligerent person in the room. You don’t change the world by pouring salt into wounds.

EXCERPT: Here we go again.

We spend time we don’t have trying to pick apart motives, associations, and history, swirled around in a stew of politics and prejudice. We feed this garbage dispenser with our constant attention. Looking at the abundance of web editorials, desperate for your clicks and your money. I mean, I know that journalists need to get paid, but when did the value of reporting become a measure of how many people you can provoke?

EXCERPT: Here we are again.

Another black man gets shot. Another white man shoots. Another diversion from our worries and wounds.

“I need to see the whole video!”

“He was a father, but... he was also a threat, right?!”

“I could tell by the way he walked… disrespectfully!”

“But I could be wrong… take him to the hospital.”

“He was a juvenile, but... he was also carrying a loaded weapon!”

“I couldn’t tell he was dangerous until he used that gun to murder two people!”

“But I could be wrong… so let him go home and sleep it off.”

EXCERPT: Here we are again.

Sifting through the garbage of questionable journalism that’s seems to be focused more on sensationalism than sincerity. There's no such thing as news when you’re being fed a steady diet of tragedy, misinformation, and outrage. Watching the world fragment around me as people try to take sides on a circle. No sides exist. Only the continuity of life. We've entered a vehicle already in motion. We get one chance to do something with the tools We’ve been given. We either build, or we tear down. So many willfully choose the path of destruction?

EXCERPT: HERE WE ARE. AGAIN.

Having conversations about things that should be understood, but are instead distorted. Conversations about perspectives and truth and evidence and emotions and me, me, me. Talking AT each other through the filter of our fears and frustration, without ever finding a place to rest our thoughts or console our broken hearts.

PSA: Disappointing this even needs to be said, but body shaming INCLUDES mocking or criticizing people who work out. ????? ? ????? #FitOver40 #FitDad #DadBod

EXCERPT: In some of my conversations, I’ve heard people say that education is not the solution. To a degree, I agree with that statement. We must understand that education was never meant to fix the problem of discrimination or systemic racism. But education provides the light that exposes an issue, so that we can fully understand and see clearly what it is that we’re attempting to fix. EDUCATION becomes the antidote to fear.

EXCERPT: Conditioned to FEAR. For too long our country has been living in denial of the underlying traditions of xenophobia that support our current racial divide. Until we acknowledge the truth of our own biases, we cannot effectively address the immeasurable damage of this “fear” that has rippled throughout history. How then do you retrain someone to no longer fear those of whom they’ve been repeatedly told to be deathly afraid?

EXCERPT: In the same way, the portrayal of African Americans in media has served to reinforce the stereotypical dangerous stranger. To look around is to understand that “Here are the many reasons you should be afraid of black people.” We are gang bangers who live to terrorize and kill indiscriminately. We sell drugs to support our own drug habits, and will kill anyone who interferes in this process. We steal women and dominate them in defiance of authority. We are lazy, seeking comfort and convenience, to the detriment of our futures or concern for anyone else. Another false narrative.

EXCERPT: White Americans (and Americans in general) have been conditioned to fear those different from them. I remember playing “Cowboys and Indians” as a child. And although no one sat me down and said, "cowboys are good and indians are bad", it was just understood that this was true because everything reinforced this. Toys, books, TV shows… kids were upset when they had to be the indian. Go back and watch old westerns rife with the indoctrination of Native American savagery. They steal, rape and kill with no concern for fairness or honor. A false narrative.

EXCERPT: In looking back over the events of the last few years, one of the recurring statements that often preceded a POC’s loss of life by an LEO was that the officer “feared for their safety”, or the safety of someone else… a neighbor, a store owner, a colleague. While we can endlessly debate the validity of that assertion, we can and should look at the part fear has played in the history of violence against people from different cultures. - The Fear Factor

EXCERPT: Because of their pervasiveness, I now know that it’s not enough to just AVOID them, we have to do the hard work and DISMANTLE them. I say WE because I’m convinced that we are far more likely to accomplish this united together than we ever could working alone. We start by having honest, uncomfortable, and sometimes difficult conversations with one another, so that we might understand the reality of the life we live, and how we affect each other. This is how we gain valuable perspective and hopefully, grace and empathy.

EXCERPT: Imagine starting every day with "Am I next?" overshadowing every thing you do… every conversation, every activity, every interaction. Maybe that will give people insight into what it feels like to be black in America. LAND MINES.

EXCERPT: I carry around with me the reality that there is no protected space. No guarantee of safety, even inside my home. When people asked about my experience, it was frustrating. Because they don't know how much of an impossible request this is. There is no equivalent to systemic racism. Nothing would come close to expressing the residual strife of a hostile environment built over hundreds of years. I can’t always articulate how I manage the haunting navigation of black life in America. I just say that my daily experience can be summed up in one tormenting question: AM I NEXT?

EXCERPT: I’ve learned how to circumvent these situations by treading cautiously through life. I’ve done my best to teach these avoidance strategies to my children. It kills me that this is even something that I have to do. My hope was that having these tools might LESSEN the chance of them being injured, abused, or murdered. I say lessen because while prevention would be the goal, there is no guarantee. When it comes to these land mines, prevention is not always possible. One false step and it detonates.

EXCERPT: In the past, I’ve been content to navigate life by trying my best to avoid instances of prejudice, discrimination and flat out bigotry. I call them racial land mines. Whether obvious or hidden, these land mines are a very real threat to me and others like me, in several aspects of daily life. It could be targeted discrimination on the job, excessive derision or bullying at school, false accusations by my neighbors, or undue scrutiny at the store. LAND MINES.

EXCERPT: "I’m not sure how much more my heart and mind can endure. I used to think that civil dialogue could help heal the wounds between us. But in this current civilization, civility is not always possible. I learned a long time ago that people motived by feelings, who take action before considering the consequences of those actions, are NOT interested in talking. They are only interested in purging their emotions by any means necessary. There is no reasoning with them."

EXCERPT: "A nation in which the pursuit of wealth comes at the cost of compassion. Teaching our children that it is socially acceptable to be selfish and obtain their definition of happiness by any means. And in so doing, we have developed a culture that prizes possessions over principle, money over morality, and status over solidarity. In a country whose very name embodies cohesion and promotes collaboration, United States, we now seem to encourage divisiveness and egocentric aspirations. We have been broken.
Broken promises.
Broken relationships.
Broken trust.
Brokenhearted

EXCERPT: "To say that we reside in a nation divided, would be an understatement. It hinges upon readily observed and documented injustice, along with perceived hopelessness, perpetuated by the repeated occurrences of mistrust, brutality, and discrimination that have come to define the character of our country, to its citizens and the rest of the world. Attributes affixed to the very nature of who we are, brought about by the actions of those who have been appointed, and thereby obligated, to be the benevolent and compassionate custodians of liberty, safety, and justice for all."