This is probably the most difficult Sunday morning that I’ve had to get up and write since I started this newsletter.
If I focus on racism or anti-racism, what am I going to say? Will it be enough, the “right” thing or am I too worried about watching my words so that something doesn’t get misconstrued?
If I don’t say anything about racism, is my silence speaking even louder? Should I stay in my lane or would staying in my lane make me a bigger part of the problem?
Three black men, a Muslim couple an Asian OBGYN and a Jew from Long Island walk into a restaurant in Houston, Texas. Sounds like the opening to a joke, right?
It was breakfast for me yesterday. That’s my normal. We didn’t talk at all about race. We talked about family, business, summer plans, workouts, shared pancakes. At the end we hugged and went about our day.
I took a walk on Friday morning with a white colleague and race is pretty much all we talked about. Perhaps that’s normal too.
Had a great conversation with my former college roommate and fraternity brother on Thursday; Mr. Kentay Garvin. It’d been a while and with all that’s going on I wanted to reach out and just tell him I love him. My fraternity had black men in it. We had all types of men. Yes, we chose to room together. It was great to catch up. It’s unfortunate it took something like this for us to reconnect. We talked about our kids. His moving from DC to Phoenix. His girls playing soccer, his career, wife. It was great.
I’m going to train in an hour with my track coach. My black track coach. It’s weird for me to type that. What does it matter what color he is? He’s a great track coach. Husband. Father. Human being.
It’s really complicated and yet at the same time, it seems really simple.
Be a good person.
Do the right thing.
Support, accept and prioritize the black community NOW.
Not sure how? Ask.
Don’t understand? Read. Communicate. Open your mind.
Talk to your kids. Let your kids talk to you.
Stand up for those who are unable to stand up for themselves.
Do not accept racism and discrimination of any kind.
Accept and support peaceful protests.
Hold accountable and punish those who murder and are out there breaking the law.
Register and vote out the bad politicians. Vote good ones in.
Fire bad police officers police chiefs who cannot manage their departments for the good of ALL citizens. Respect those who protect and serve and maintain their oath.
Here it is though.
It’s not going to be about what we do right now and over the next few weeks. It’s going to be about how we live every day about how we each lead by example in our homes, communities, businesses and lives for the long haul.
Real change will not come about by the things you say, post and write about today, but rather by how we consistently act, behave, speak, treat people, vote, conduct ourselves and hold those around us to a standard of conduct every damn day.
Lead by example.
Lead thru kindness, acceptance, courage and character.
Real change will come when we practice what we preach consistently. When it becomes more than just lip service, denial and temporary pacification of a permanent problem.
When we commit to working as hard every single day to end racism as we do in every of area of our lives where we seek improvement.
If we can do that and stick to that, then we will improve and I believe be able to make real progress.
Let’s show each other how important this is and how much Black Lives Matter by taking consistent, positive action steps every day. Year after year. Generation to generation.
G
