We must stop one way thinking. I have had enough of the division. I have had enough of the idea that believing in something means that you automatically oppose something else. We are all saying similar things from different perspectives! I am tired of the cookie cutter approach to our lives and our society. Human beings matter. We all matter! No one said that because we support the #blacklivesmatter movement that somehow we are saying that only black lives matter. The black lives matter movement exists because our system has made it so that the color of your skin makes your life more or less valuable. Shit, your gender makes you more or less valuable. Look at how women are treated in our world! Supporting #blacklivesmatter does not not mean we do not support police. It does not mean we are anti-white. It means we are aware that our culture, the system in which we created, needs to change! Let's start by refusing to believe that because I see things differently means I am somehow against you and what you believe. I am with you. I am your sister. I am human, just like you.
We must stop one way thinking. Law enforcement, please read this. Please be open to this. What people are asking is for you to begin to look at law enforcement culture. Please look at the system in which you operate. You, human beings within law enforcement are not the culture, nor are you the system. You uphold the system. You uphold the law. You run into danger when most people are running out. You save lives. Unfortunately, you also have the power to take lives. This does not make you bad or wrong or racist. However, if you refuse to look at the system in which your culture was built on because you feel it is somehow an attack on you, you are missing the point. You did not create the laws or the culture, so it is not your fault. Please, this is not anti-police or an attack on you. We love you. We are only asking for you to look within because the laws you are upholding were built in a system of inequality. This is why systemic racism is alive and well. You haven't heard us because each time this is brought up, somehow you take it as an attack on you. This is not an attack on you, it is a plea for your help. Protect us all by looking within, questioning the culture you operate in, the policies and laws you uphold, and checking in with your heart. Please, don't be defensive. Please listen. Please.
We must stop one way thinking. To be fearless, we must understand it is not a personality trait, it is a choice. Fearlessness is the art of being fearful and powerful at the same time. I hope to help other people to be fearless, because that is the only way that our society will change. It takes fearlessness to not take things personally and to seek to understand perspectives other than your own. It takes fearlessness to speak your truth. It takes fearlessness to protect the lives of others. It takes fearlessness to have compassion and kindness in a world of revenge and hate. It takes fearlessness to speak out and risk being criticized and ostracized. It takes fearlessness to listen. It takes fearlessness to love. I choose to be fearless, because I want everyone to have the opportunity to live in their personal freedom.
We must stop one way thinking. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Fearlessness is about bringing light and love in a world of darkness and hate. Stand up. Stand strong. Connect. Love. Let your soul shine. I love you all and I know that together, we can do anything.