{"id":2902,"date":"2016-07-06T18:14:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T22:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/?p=2902"},"modified":"2016-07-06T18:14:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T22:14:58","slug":"say-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/2016\/07\/06\/say-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Say Something"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"saysomething\"<\/a><\/p>\n

#AltonSterling<\/p>\n

I have spent the better part of this late afternoon listening to mothers go live with their raw emotion and fear imploring us to say something. Brandi Riley<\/a>, Amber Dorsey<\/a>, and A\u2019 Driane Nieves<\/a>; by mothers I mean black mothers, by us I mean white people. By say something I mean, they mean, what has been true for decades of change must be true now. Only when the people opposite of the oppressed speak up will anything change. It was true when men spoke out for women, it was true when straight people spoke out for gays it will be true when whites speak out on behalf of blacks.<\/p>\n

Had you thought the civil rights movement alleviated these issues you would be wrong. I learned much listening to these women bear their frustration and fear and anger and desperation and pain. Not so much for themselves but for their children.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a mother but I can recognize heartbreak when I see it. To applaud these women for breaking from the sending of prayers and clich\u00e9 comments and emoji and moving to the \u201cproverbial\u201d cyber streets is to applaud acts of desperation. There is something inherently wrong with them needing to do that. Why? Why? This is the question they ask over and over. Why is it necessary to take to the live tearing of one\u2019s clothes in agony? I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know what I don\u2019t know, I admit. I can only feel their pain by watching and bearing witness. By bearing witness I must say something.<\/p>\n

\"File<\/a><\/p>\n

They speak of white privilege, rightfully so. When my niece and nephew are with me I don\u2019t think about it. When they are with me, they are with me. I\u2019m not na\u00efve I know what that means, I know that guarantees a certain amount of security. When they are not with me and the news is teeming with one after another after another lost the fear rises in my throat.<\/p>\n

\"IMG-20121020-00132\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When my sister\u2019s God son is bullied and pushed around and harassed the fear rises in my throat. What do I do? I stay close, I listen, I do what I\u2019m asked; please share, take to the internet. When it\u2019s resolved what do I do? I remain mindful. I represent what I want all my people to be, kind, inclusive, loving.<\/p>\n

There is little bigotry spoken around me as I\u2019ve long ago made it clear that I can\u2019t listen to it. When it starts I remind people \u201cI\u2019m in the room\u2026\u201d and it stops\u2026in front of me\u2026but does it stop? Likely no. It\u2019s only a small thing I can do.<\/p>\n

This past Independence Day I reread Night in honor of Elie Wiesel. The New York Times said it was a slim volume of terrifying power, they were right. It was filled with grief and the reality of not intervening, bearing witness and the lament of so much still to be done. Listening to my heart break at the sound of these women I must do more. I don\u2019t know what I don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t do anything for Alton Sterling but I hope someone will trust that I will learn more and do more. Will you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#AltonSterling I have spent the better part of this late afternoon listening to mothers go live with their raw emotion and fear imploring us to say something. Brandi Riley, Amber Dorsey, and A\u2019 Driane Nieves; by mothers I mean black … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[755],"class_list":["post-2902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pause-points","tag-altonsterling-saysomething"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27hQ5-KO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2902"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions\/2907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}