There is unrest in my soul. And the soul of America. These actions are not based off of just one man who tragically lost his life. They are rising out of a deeper place of hurt and pain. George Floyd represents more than just himself as one man. The racial discrimination and suffering we are seeing is not a \u201crecent string of events\u201d. It is in our country\u2019s DNA and is the culmination of what has long been a disgraceful legacy of racial violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As rage rips through Minneapolis and so many other cities, as sorrow occupies the streets, as confusion pulsates through our minds and fear imposes its gleaming face across ours – eye to eye, as sheer anger builds and the cry of injustice grows louder – we must all be loud. Regardless of any single demographic \u201cbelonging\u201d we are associated with. We must be loud. When I think of being loud, when I think of standing for what is right – there is one man that comes to the forefront of my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. writes a letter from the Birmingham Jail. It\u2019s recipient? The silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a letter who\u2019s words represented the long road to freedom, and the movement around it. It was a response to eight white clergymen who had published an article in the newspaper completely decrying King and his fellow activists. King methodically picked them apart in his response with his rhetoric, undying passion, and will. His letter is full of truths and is one of the greater and more important pieces of Civil Rights history in my mind. What sticks out most to me of King\u2019s words and is most convicting of our nation is this – \u201cIt may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time\u201d. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. King believed that we are all responsible for justice across the nation \u2014and around the world. Justice isn’t defined or contained by mere laws. He belted out that we should resist injustice everywhere with non-violent disobedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t imagine the anger that Dr. King might have felt pint up inside him as he sat seemingly helpless in jail. He was caged like a felon for leading non-violent protests. His people and the children of Birmingham were pummeled with high pressure firehoses, clubbed by officers and had dogs sent to attack them. But he wasn\u2019t helpless. He had unwavering hope and had ignited that same hope to all who were yearning for freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember who taught me, but someone told me once when I was younger that silence means \u201cyes\u201d. If you\u2019re not willing to speak up, your silence implies you agree with what is happening or what is being said. You may disagree. But now is not the time to engage in social pleasantries and be agreeable for the sake of not causing ripples in the lake. We are to be the stones that drop in and disrupt what has become normal. We ourselves must change the waters calm agreeable surface that is racism. And we must not make agreements with ourselves to stay silent. We must be the ones that speak up and are loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m white. I could never pretend to understand what it would have meant to be African American in 1963 or in 2020. White or not, I would have to be a fool to not listen to the voices of what is right and stand with those who are for justice of the innocent. Being white is not an excuse to remain on the sidelines. Being white is not a pass to ignore the oppression of others. Being white is not an excuse to stay out of the fight for the innocent because you are afraid or it is \u201cnot your place\u201d. This is our fight and the same fight that Dr. King rallied and stood for. We are no where near the end. But we are no where near giving up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose this writing is not to anyone in particular. It is most specifically to those who are making agreements with themselves to remain silent. We were made to sing loudly of what is right and what is true and what is good. And we were made to stand with our brothers and sisters who face oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greatest sacrifice one can make is to lay down his life for his friends. MLK was willing to do this at any moment and exemplified it until he literally laid down his life. He was not afraid. Be not afraid of the consequences of standing up for what is right. For if we if play it safe, even if we live a long healthy life, we will look back on a life void of purpose and justice. To be silent is to be dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love is the final fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is unrest in my soul. And the soul of America. These actions are not based off of just one man who tragically lost his life. They are rising out of a deeper place of hurt and pain. George Floyd represents more than just himself as one man. The racial discrimination and suffering we are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":539,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}