I can’t tell you how many times I have heard Maya Angelou’s quote reverberating in my head.
“When People Show You Who They Are, Believe Them”
This last week we heard a lot of politicians saying “this isn’t America.”
I’m going to offer that this is America.
Here’s the thing by saying ‘this isn’t America,’ we are divorcing ourselves from the responsibility of what happened. We are relieving ourselves of doing the work needed to make sure this never happens in America again.
We ALL have a responsibility to look at this ugly piece of history. Face it, this is the newest chapter in American History. We must accept this and do better. What we should be asking ourselves is how did America get here? How did this happen? What steps can we make to make sure it never happens again?
I’m calling on each of you to think. Have you been present when someone said something insensitive and by your silence, let them believe that statement was somehow appropriate? I know I have been guilty of this, thinking that it’s easier to let people just keep going rather than interrupting them and dealing with the uncomfortable part of doing the work and moving forward in this country.
What struck me is a friend of mine who works in the District (for those of you outside of the Beltway that’s DC proper). She commented on her way to work on Jan 6th “I wonder if this is what Venezuela feels like.” That statement instantly took me back to April in eighth grade when the Oklahoma City bombing took place. I walked into my social studies class and made the flippant statement upon seeing the TV 1“what Third World country is this?” . Only to discover it was Oklahoma. This was the very state I lived in. Less than 2 hours away I came to terms with a new phrase – domestic terrorisim. This is what domestic terror looks like. This is what domestic terrorism looks like. This is what our own home grown hate looks like.
We need to label it and accept what it is.
Without this acceptance, we cannot begin to do the work. This work is needed to change this horrid trajectory we are on.
This is something we learn in our basic psychology class. To change you must accept.
We must accept this is America. Don’t hide it or try to cover it up.
– Laurie
1(As an adult I now understand that was a poor choice of words. This is part of growing and exactly what America as a whole needs to be doing now, examining our choices and accepting when we did wrong and making a commitment to do better.)
