AGGRESSIVE KINDNESS X FEARLESS EMPATHY :: MY MESSAGE TO YOU
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This remix of my a capella singing of Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child by JOHNNY HOLLOW took my breath away. Considering the climate were in, none of us can be silent and hope that this will all blow over. Apathy is the enemy of change and we need change. When Elijah challenged the people to choose a side, God or Baal, he was speaking to a wishy-washy people who thought they could just coast along and worship whatever they wanted.
But God will not be mocked. The meek WILL inherit the earth. And how and IF we fight for THEM says everything about who we are as a society that is made up of individuals who have to choose for themselves how they want their period in history to be remembered: Are we going to be famous for doing nothing? Will our children wonder how we managed to be such a massive disappointment when all we had was the longest period of global peace in recorded history, enough food to feed the planet several times over, and technology that surpasses what anyone anywhere could have thought possible but we STILL managed to cannibalize ourselves because we thought somebody else would do the heavy lifting. Repeat after me: I. AM. THE. CHANGE. NOW. Say it like you mean it: I-AM-THE-CHANGE-NOW!
I will not be moved from my place in history as the one who stands up and fights for those amongst us who are generationally, systematically, and systemically oppressed by ANY hand, on ANY platform tasked with nurturing, protecting, or serving. I will call to justice the abusers, the enablers, the 'so-called' blind, deaf and dumb, and those profiting from the misery of others. I will consider myself COMPLICIT in the destruction of a populace if I *don't* use what I have IN MY HANDS right now to be an actual, functioning contributor to the situation WE. Are. IN right now. Using the weapons of my aggressive kindness, my fierce empathy, and the power of my own testimony. From a simple conversation with my children about fairness to marching with my brothers and sisters in solidarity, I will point my life in a direction that says, I didn't do NOTHING. I didn't think it would "just go away." I didn't consider it somebody else's problem. Whatever happens (or doesn't happen) after this life, I used what I had to elevate not destroy, to renew and not spew, to spread joy and not sow decent, to stand alone if I have to and, like the Apostle Paul, to truly live my life as if to die is gain. I'm not going to waste my blessing by not being one for someone else. #MyBlackLife