This Boston protest sign says it all: LOSERS IN 1865, LOSERS IN 1945, LOSERS IN 2017
Thank you for all your kind tweets, support and for your faith that we’re all going to be okay. That those of us who are good, and of sound mind have won in the past and will rise up victorious once again. My only fear is that we won’t ever fully rid the garden of the weeds of hatred. But I suppose I need to find comfort and joy in the fact that most of us are against all this madness than those who are for it. And that we have won in the past.
I want to point out that the math works out to: 80 years between the Civil War and World War II, and from then up to now is 72. It seems that hatred and racism can only be contained for a maximum of 72 years before it rears its ugly head once again.
Today Mikaela and I were driving running errands before we fly back to LA first thing tomorrow morning. While driving we saw a man walking along a beautiful street in Toronto dressed in army gear, with a military helmet on and was carrying a battering ram. For a moment I thought I didn’t see what I thought I saw. But when I glanced in my rear view mirror the guy was definitely decked out in army clothing and walking with a purpose. I questioned out loud to Mikaela as to whether or not I should make a phone call to 911. We mulled it over, we went back and forth, deciding that it’s better to call the police, have him pulled over and questioned then it would be to do done nothing, then read about some mad man dressed in army fatigues who went into the heart of the shopping district of Toronto and shot people. Or smashed store windows and shoppers with a battering ram. So I made the call.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was just some guy on his way to meet up with his friends to go play paint ball. I’d rather have made the call and have the guy be innocent, then to be silent and read all about it in the news later tonight, knowing that I could have put a stop to that.
And that’s when it hit me. If we all make the decision to speak up when we see, or hear something that isn’t “right” then eventually those who live and behave like that will know that it isn’t safe for them to be racist, or hateful. We need to speak up. We need to make the phone calls, either to our authorities when we see or hear something that doesn’t sit right with us, and we need to do this with our local politicians as well. We need to let it be known without a shadow of a doubt that the peacekeepers outnumber the terrorists and the haters. We cannot back down and we should not be silenced because the task seems too heavy a load to bear.
Thank you to everybody who took the time to remind me that people in Vancouver, Boston, Atlanta, along with the great people of Barcelona will not be silenced by fear and hatred. We must stick together, since everybody knows that there is strength and power in numbers. I appreciate you all helping to pull me up by my boot straps to remind me that we need to boldly continue moving forward and speaking loudly to ensure that we end up with the world we want, rather than settling for the world the hate filled, fearful people are trying to force upon us.
“We didn’t come this far, to only come this far.”
Amen to that my friends. Now off I go to whip up a going away, AKA 21st birthday taco night for my incredible youngest daughter. Who, I can confidently type, will be a change maker in this world, and I can’t wait to watch her have tremendous impact on the future of not only her own life, but all our lives.
Happy Sunday to you all.
xo SB
