Black lives matter.

Live by standing up for what you believe in and know that you can make a difference. Follow the example of the many political activists and other inspiring men and women who have through the years contributed to the wonderful advantages and freedoms we have today. Yes this is a day old. I was unable to post yesterday. Still, I will not live with regrets wishing I had said something, wishing I had been an advocate for something which matters to me. Equal rights regardless or race or gender. Particularly women’s rights, but inequality based upon race is still a serious issue today. People still miss out on opportunities and have disadvantages based on factors which should not be contributing. The Reality is that this immense inequality has existed throughout the time America has been around and it still exists. Perhaps not in that we practice slavery, but when that ended; we did not do all we should have to better integrate immigrant groups into America. Many Americans have views about race which remain distorted and twisted. This we can work on, but it won’t go away overnight. It remains to be a tall order. We may not be segregated anymore but these deep rooted problems still need work. Ideas regarding superiority and inferiority have become embedded in American History. after being freed slaves had few options and while they were no longer being enslaved many of these men and women had to go back and work for the very same people who had enslaved them. It was vicious. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for these men and women to finally be free yet still feel enslaved. To still feel as though life may remain unequal for them. Today there are still inequalities, but we continue to reshape America into a place which is more welcoming, loving, accepting and slowly more equal. God bless the America we have the potential to truly become. 

“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.