What Can We Do To Honor George Floyd And Black Lives Matter?

That is an oversized question, will we be able to answer it?

When the protests end, what then? How will we show respect for his life and honor him?

Let’s face it; the protests will end. I wish they wouldn’t.

This is too important. I believe the death of George Floyd deserves better than what we have always done before, letting ourselves ease back into our customary lives. We voice our shock, our horror, our dismay, but it has always been too easy to walk away, at least for some of us.

Not this time. George Floyd’s death was too much. The hate was too much. It has always been too much, but on May 25, 2020, we all bore witness as we watched his life extinguished.

His life was taken and his death was documented so that no one could walk away and not react. It was shocking, vicious, and the hate we all saw hit us in the face, knocked us down, and made us weep — this time we understand.

This time it created a gathering of people and a swell of voices, so big and loud, that we cannot and will not walk away. No, not this time.

So let the protests continue. We should honor George Floyd.

How do we honor him? That is a question that been asked before for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Philando Castile, and so many others.

It is a question we have never answered.

“It’s in the mourning that we find hope.” — Reverend Barber

Do we find hope in the mourning? The emotions that surround all of us now are profound. In the coming days, they will start to ease, but those emotions should be what we use to lead us forward and to make a change. Hope is found in the emotions.

I see those emotions displayed on the faces of the protesters and the mourners.

If you believe in God, show it in your actions. Do not sit back and wait; God will not come down out of heaven and do it for you. God’s actions come from us.

When I was a child, my religion taught me that our actions, the way we lived our life, would be judged when we died and would determine our entry into heaven. If you believe that, prove it. Prove it by how you respond to the death of George Floyd. Show that you value life, all life.

A few times in my life, I have used the phrase “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” Maybe it would be better to say, “there, with the grace of God, go I.” Make your actions based on love and filled with grace.

I have always sat on the fence about God, never quite sure of his existence. There is too much hate, too much ugliness in the world; why would God allow that if he exists?

I have no answer for that.

The one thing I do know is that hate exists, and it is rampant in the world. Did we create hatred? Quite likely. Is it inside each of us? Yes, to some degree, that is probably true, but I hope not.

It is our actions, and how we react, that allow hate to exist.

White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, and all the intermingled shades of our world; all the shades of humanity. All of us have the right to lead a safe life, free from the fear of that hate chasing us down and sucking the life out of us.

If you are white, strive to think about what you would do, how you would react, in any given situation, based on the person’s color. Would you be more likely to help someone if they were also white?

Would the percentages of help you would give to someone in need go down based on color? What percentage would you give to Brown, Yellow, or Red? What about Black?

Think about it and ask yourself why. Are you scared? Ask yourself why. No matter the color of our skin, we are all human.

Have you watched the 1996 movie, A Time To Kill? There was a powerful moment near the end that asks, “Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she’s white.”

There were many more graphic details in the quote, but I have chosen not to include it because they are filled with examples of hate, so vile it should not exist. Yet it does.

Can you see George Floyd lying prone on the street with a police officer’s knee pressing on his neck for almost nine minutes? Now imagine he was white.

That is where we are in America, so how do we change?

The answer is inside each of us.

“Sometimes you can only find Heaven by slowly backing away from Hell.” — Carrie Fisher

We need to back away from the Hell of Racism. It will be a slow process; our demons are deeply ingrained, but I am eager for the change. I hope you are too.

Sure, I feel inadequate and overwhelmed. I am not qualified to solve this problem. You probably are feeling that way too. In reality, there is not one of us, by ourselves, that can eliminate racism and hate.

Remember the phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” When you apply that thinking to the problem of racism we all face now, it will take the nation, all of us, to change our beliefs, emotions, and mindsets.

It will take all of us.

We cannot turn away from our responsibility to right this wrong. We cannot believe in our hearts that someone else is going to fix it for us. We certainly cannot think that our government will fix it; not this President.

God is not going to fix this.

I wish I believed in God, but this is what I do believe. If God exists, he has placed this in our hands. He has given us the responsibility. If the interpretation of the Bible is correct, he did that when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden.

We do not have enough faith in ourselves. We wait for God to fix it for us, and we think and worry about race, but we do not act. We do not believe there is anything we can do as individuals, and therein lies the problem.

As I was listening to the news last night, I heard an uplifting story.

A black female flight attendant had a conversation with a white male passenger, which inspired them both. He had carried this book with him, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism,” by Robin DiAngelo; the book encouraged her to start a conversation. Both say it changed their life, and it has started many conversations.

You may have seen it already, but here is a link to the story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/06/01/american-airlines-ceo-southwest-flight-attendant-racism-george-floyd/5310339002/.

Each of us has to find our way and take that first step toward change and understanding. As the flight attendant indicated it was scary; it will be scary for each of us too.

Educate yourself first and then reflect on your feelings. Think about how it feels to be Black in America.

Do not take this for granted. Think about the sight of George Floyd dying in front of us and ask yourself if that is what you would want to happen to your son, your husband, or your friend. Feel the rage, the emotions, and the sadness.

Read a book, read several, to help bring understanding.

I have not viewed this TED talk yet, but it is on my list: https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_how_to_build_an_antiracist_world?fbclid=IwAR1sweGE1MoWQtvoqh9BOtKseigDrsqiw2O7VzgGG_r3GJLmR5uq594tPsY.

Seek to have conversations. Talk to your family and friends. Talk to your co-workers, talk to people you see in your everyday life. Start a conversation online. Put yourself out there and have a conversation with someone from a different race, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, or any of the beautiful intermingled shades of humanity.

Join a group, volunteer, and soak it all in. For God’s sake, breathe, relax, smile, and make some new friends. Ask how you can help.

We need to bring light and understanding into our world, one moment at a time.

Take a small step to help drive out the darkness of racism, and then do it again and again.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.