While my guitar gently weeps

It was hard writing a blog today because there is so much I want to say and the words seem choked inside of me.  "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing " well I may be many things but I am never a do nothing woman.

I am raising boys, boys who are caucasian but who could very well marry or have children with lovely people (I hope they are wonderful partners to my sons) who are not caucasian.  I am raising the next generation who sees differences in people based on what their interests are but not in their race, religion, type of parents they have who love same sex or other or no longer the part of picture, who look like them and who look nothing like them.  They see people still for who they are -- people. Some are asses, most are fascinating, the vast majority are good and then there are the ones that they don't understand. How could they understand when I do not understand and I am an adult - how can they comprehend how someone could kill another living, breathing person because they find something they just simply can use to condone doing it?

It is hard writing a blog because we all may have healing words but have gotten better at using screaming hurts.   He did this to me - You are wrong - I know someone -- You don't see me - I can't breathe - officer down.  We hear these over and over and over.  Surrounded by a cloud of misinformation and memes that make it seem true when they are too often not.  Reporters don't report the news they make a story, one that draws us in, gets ratings because facts are no longer what we seek -- vengeance and justification is what we sells.   We have politicians who sole defense seems to be "well the other guy/lady did it too or did it worse".  If you did something wrong be held accountable as an elected official - I couldn't get out of ticket if my excuse was "well officer there was a guy last week who was driving way faster than me".

I have boys who could have children who look nothing like them, who look like the children that are getting killed for being people of color.  I have boys who could lose friends who choose to become police officers.  I have boys who have lived through the horror of Sandy Hook, Orlando shooting who do not know a world where 9/11 was just a date.   They live in a country that comes with a legacy of being an amazing melting pot of all the world has to offer, it's best and a place that carries the chains of wrongdoings that we need to acknowledge and move on from in a way that is not dismissive but like everything they have learned as children... you do something bad, own it and then learn from it so you do not keep doing it again and again.  Nationality means nothing more than being where you were born.  We should celebrate accomplishments not as that nationality but as humanity and condemn ills not because a certain belief drove it but because it is not acceptable to us.

I refuse to let this become a blog about all that is wrong with the world because there is much too much right with the world.  I have multiple comments from readers, both those I know and those I don't, from near my home to as far as Sri Lanka that agree with the fact that we need to take better care of our planet, that war and killing must stop, that they are us and we are them.  We are not different we are each novel.  We add to the mix not dilute it.   We can change but we must start conversations with our children who cannot keep being afraid of what they see, what they hear and of each other.  They need to teach us to listen to them - to their needs - to dispel the boogieman.  Our police officers are not bad but must hold accountable those among them who behave in a way that disgraces the uniform and brings harm to the communities they are there to protect and serve.  We all learned in "Shawshank Redemption" all men are innocent in jail, except they are not.  Our poor neighborhoods need to get support to break the cycle of poverty and not see the only options be those that put them in conflict with those very same officers.  There are poets, artists, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers in every neighborhood and they must be what we nurture.

It was hard to write a blog today but how could I stay silent ?  There are plenty of things that want to kill all of us - climate change, cancer, illness, accidents - we need to fight those things and those who want to teach us to hate not each other, not the "us" across the world who wants the best for our children.  The question is not who was wrong but who will lead us all to do right!