Connect

"When you connect to someone on a human level, and you get to know about them, you can begin to love the things that make them different. That's when fear dissipates, and that's when we can live the life that we're all supposed to be living."-Ruth Negga

We have more in common with each other than we have differences. It's always easier to identify what's different. We exist in a series of adjectives instead of nouns. We are all human. We all have blood flowing through our veins. We all need love. We are all the same when it counts. Our adjectives cease to matter when we choose to see how we connect. Tragedy connects us. Experiences connect us. Life connects us. 
 

Liberty

I dressed up as Frederick Douglass for a Black History Month celebration at Audubon Montessori Elementary School. I teased my hair and used chalk to create gray streaks all over my hair. I wore a black church suit and a white blouse. I was sharp. I memorized and delivered lines from Douglass' famous speech, "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July" with passion. I guess you can say I have always been a bit dramatic.

Here I was, this nine year old child in a room full of people who did not look me, spewing out lines about injustice, black oppression, and the hypocrisy of America. Douglass delivered his speech in 1852. This is before the Civil War was fought and won. This was before the Emancipation Proclamation. This was before our so-called "Liberty." Here we are in 2017 and unfortunately his words still ring true. We are slaves to poverty. We are slaves to an unjust legal system. We are slaves to a prison pipeline. We are slaves to capitalism. We are still slaves. 

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Freedom

Many things have been said about freedom, liberty, and justice for all. Freedom is a word that invokes passion and patriotism. It also incites painful memories for those who journey after this particular pursuit of happiness. Freedom isn't free. It is usually the bottom line cost of wars that politicians finance with our loved one's lives. Memorial Day is about remembering those who died while serving in the armed forces. There are so many people who died without any pomp and circumstance, or a 21 gun salute. Today, I salute all the unknown soldiers who gave their lives fighting for freedom they never experienced. Today, I salute all the slaves who picked up arms in hopes of not being enslaved. Today, I salute all the nameless heroes who sacrificed their lives, so that I might experience the freedoms I take for granted. Today, I salute all the soldiers that value freedom above their own existence. Thank you for sacrifice. Happy Memorial Day!