Black and Blue

America is bruised.  It is black and blue.

#blacklivesmatter #bluelivesmatter

But this is not a bruise that is going to be fixed with just some band-aids and antiseptic.  We need fundamental change - change in how our law enforcement should be trained that it is NOT okay to turn a blind eye on the behavior of the few bad apples. This “blue brothers wall” must come down. The wall that makes it seem okay for an otherwise good cop to stand there and watch as one of their own slowly murders a man - a restrained man - over an excruciating 9 minutes.  Silence is complacent and cannot be accepted any more.

Personally, I have never been profiled solely for the color of my skin.  I have never been accused of criminal behavior simply for jogging through my neighborhood.  And I thankfully don’t watch the horrible things that happened to George Floyd and others, and think that could have been my own children.

But that does not mean that I shouldn’t take a stand against injustice. I am not a politician, a religious figure, nor a social media icon.  I am not a CEO nor a person with a huge following.  But I have my own little voice - one which is not comfortable sitting by quietly watching racism trump equality; watching hate trump love; watching leaders’ rhetoric stoke flames instead of supporting dialogue and change.

Alone, I am a single voice and will not effect this fundamental change.  But let us all stand up - in unison - and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  Let’s create an environment where our brothers and sisters in blue feel the same injustice that most of us feel today - one empowering them to put a stop to such behavior, because I truly believe this is a result of a small percentage of law enforcement that are not utterly disgusted by what happened to George Floyd and others.

So please - let me know - what can we do to help fix this bruise?  I want my children and future generations to inherit a country and system where this behavior is not permissible.  A world where when some racist asshole (in law enforcement or not) acts on that hatred, they are immediately met with swift justice and not allowed to poison others’ views.