NO ONE'S COMING TO SAVE US

I was reading an opinion piece in the May 31, 2020 Sunday Review by Roxane Gay who reviewed all the bad things happening recently with many in our government continuing to not take responsibility for facing the truth of what is happening and then helping us to safely get through it. Ms. Gay then focused on racism and how the truth of institutional racism and exploitation is still frequently denied and yet many people of color still hope for a cure for racism. That is when Ms. Gay concluded that "no one's coming to save us." I then realized that "no one is coming to save any of us" and that we should be thankful. When anyone else "saves" me, you or anybody else, it never works out very well. We are the only one's who can save ourselves. 

So what is saving ourselves? Is it speaking our truth and being willing to stand by it and uphold it as we believe in it? What if no one else speaks their truth and thereby supports your efforts to remain true to your truth. Well then you will have to go it alone, believing that others will support you in tiime. Enough voices and actions can change things. Black lives do matter and it is wrong that our country has acted like they don't for hundreds of years. Before, if there was a recognition of the fact that black lives do matter, it was with a defensive position that all lives matter.  

What I believe is recognized now more than ever is that until black lives actually matter, no lives really matter.  We can only value our own lives if we value all others. This seems to be true. This reminds me of a political slogan about making America great again. That saddens me as it doesn't recognize that America has never been great because of our exploitation of African Americans and Native Americans. To go back would be to return to justify acting like black lives don't matter as exploitation would be continued. What encourages me is seeing the response by young people to the recent protests related to police violence towards African Americans. It seems like more and more Americans are actually choosing to believe and act like black lives matter. This gives me hope that America can be great [better] for the first time when we choose to act like, and live our lives like, all people actually matter.