Any day is a great time to give back...
Any day is a great time to give back...
Lift Every Voice... Don't Be Silenced
Lift Every Voice... Don't Be Silenced
JUNETEENTH, June 19 / FATHER’S DAY, June 21, 2020
"George Floyd": The Tipping Point of Centuries of Systemic Dehumanizing Racism
Dear friends,
Sunday, June 21, the Weekend of Juneteenth 2020, can't be another ordinary Sunday. Rev. Martin Luther King observed that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday. Let’s help change that. Let’s make a conscious effort to "crosspost/share" on all Social Media platforms: Visit our White and Black neighbours' SM pages and encourage them to Speak Up!
This is our Kairos moment; a rare moment for decisive action. Let’s speak up. Let’s join forces; extend a hand to all our neighbors. The groundswell of support and the empathy for the pain and suffering of Blacks and marginalized people all around the globe has reached a crescendo. There is palpable positive energy. Let’s do our bit to tip the scales and usher in a new era -- a more humane and loving earth.
Almost six decades ago MLK wrote from jail in Birmingham: “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the White moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the White moderate,...”
If this is true today, then it should be noted that we are all as much complicit in perpetuating this state of the struggle, as our “White moderate” compatriots. Most of us persistently see this struggle solely as a Black American struggle, rather than a struggle to save Humanity. Granted, some have received the worse end of the stick, but we don’t have the luxury of grading and ranking our individual traumas. The self inflicted grievous harm to White souls can not be overlooked: The guilt and shame of profiting from White Privilege; devouring the spoils of centuries of dehumanizing treatment of Black people. There is no virtue in demonstrating who has been harmed the most. Let’s reach out a hand to form alliances to overcome this common menace that is eating at the heart of humanity.
Let’s reach out to our “White moderate" brothers and sisters; who denounce the inhuman state of existence for Black people in this country. Let’s create a larger enough tent to jointly denounce the systems of injustice that continue the marginalization, intimidation, and degradation of Black Lives. Yes: Black Lives Matter!
We may get over the hump without the other, but together we will get there faster. Our gift to humanity is our heart of gold. Let’s make "all" part of the strive for transformative change, to perfect our Union. Let’s reach out a hand and together end our agony sooner than later.
Our individual endeavors may not be televised, but each one of us can Tweet, Share, Like and Follow using social media. We should let our voices be heard on all the social media platforms. ‘Tweet’ away! We shouldn't be silenced.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift ev'ry voice and sing'Til earth and heaven ringRing with the harmonies of LibertyLet our rejoicing riseHigh as the list'ning skiesLet it resound loud as the rolling seaSing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught usSing a song full of the hope that the present has brought usFacing the rising sun of our new day begunLet us march on 'til victory is wonStony the road we trodBitter the chastening rodFelt in the days when hope unborn had diedYet with a steady beatHave not our weary feetCome to the place for which our fathers sighed?We have come over a way that with tears has been wateredWe have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughteredOut from the gloomy past'Til now we stand at lastWhere the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary yearsGod of our silent tearsThou who has brought us thus far on the wayThou who has by Thy mightLed us into the lightKeep us forever in the path, we prayLest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met TheeLest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget TheeShadowed beneath Thy handMay we forever standTrue to our GodTrue to our native land
Source: LyricFindSongwriters: J. Rosamond Johnson / James Johnson