A Time for Change

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”--- Dr. Martin Luther King

These are never easy posts for me as the executive director of a nonprofit…one that reaches out to those in an industry who are often treated differently by the general public—due to their job, due to their gender and sexual identity, due to their race, due to their status.

But it is a post that needs to happen.  We aren’t going to be judge and jury, as it appears some officers chose to do.   We will allow that process to happen.   But there is anger—because wrong is wrong. And it must be addressed.

We understand the anger.   We are angry.  Who wouldn’t be?   That is the shame of the situation.  Every person of every race and even many, many from the law enforcement community is angry.   But we need more than that.

And I’m all for protesting.  I’ve done it.  

But it is time to really make change.

The time for protest is over. The time for action and change has come.  

We’ve marched in the hopes of raising awareness.  But we are aware—we see the realities on our social media and in livestreams of a police officer refusing to hear the cries of a man who cannot breathe.  It is time for us to commit to change and commit to doing something.

It’s time to begin forming citizen committees (and serving on them) to oversee the training of our officers, and to provide stress releases for our officers, and counseling.   We need to be watching within the law enforcement institution, for those who see their badge as placing themselves above rules, above other people because of their race, their gender, where they work, where they sleep.

We need to begin to ask questions of those we vote into positions like sheriff and mayor—what training are you going to provide?  What are the standards going to be?  What solutions do you bring to the table?  We must quit giving away our votes to a party, and instead, vote for the right person with the right solutions.

We need to quit pouring tax money (our money) into an open fund for more officers, without pouring money into studies on how stop the use of excessive force.   We need to study what are the signs an officer may snap, and we need to pull officers off the streets who show those signs.   There are plenty of positions in the background to place these people in while they retrain.

“No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”— Dr. Martin Luther King

And we need to bring back the humanity to the badge.   Most officers are good people.  They will cross the blue line to do the right thing.  They have integrity.   But every profession has some bad, and when the bad apples have the ability to take our basic right to life—then we must ensure that the oversight of that profession is greater.   The expectations have to be greater.  The appreciation for humans as humans must be greater. 

What is your part? We can’t answer that for you…but if we each do what we can do, then we can and will make change. Talk is good, but we have talked too much without putting in the effort to create change in what has been. Dr. King was a great man, and he said many great things, but when he was willing to reach his hand out to those not like him, he made change. When he gathered supporters and trained them in non violence, he made change. When he taught the community, one on one sometimes, how to create opportunity for one another—he made change.

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

We have to start doing—wherever we are gifted. Because even one senseless death is not acceptable.  It’s not.   This is not who we choose to be. America is too great a country to be living as if any human being is worthless. 

At Xpose Hope, we say “You are valued, you are original, you are loved.”  We mean that.  And it is time that as a community, this become not just a saying, but our reality.   Every person valued—every person loved. Those who look and act like us, those who do not. Those who think like us, and those who do not.

We will choose to mourn with those who mourn, but more than that.   We will choose to stand up for those who are being wronged, injured, murdered by a broken system, and we will change that system.  Not just talk, but we will be engaging with our contacts to see how as an organization, we can create change through love and action.

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” —Dr Martin Luther King