i am with you
❤️ Hey.
The whole world is watching you, America. This stuff in the news…it’s what I find myself discussing with every Egyptian, French, Mexican, Turkish, Emirati, and Lebanese friend I have (and I deeply ❤️ them all), and they want to know why America is “like this.” And I tell them, “y’all, it’s a long, awful story.”
But, be assured that each of them is standing in solidarity to end the brutality of racial injustice, in my country, if not in their own. Maybe bringing change to mine will make them want to change their own, too, one day. And believe me when I tell you, America’s fight is the world’s fight. (An innocent autistic man was killed this week in Palestine, for no reason, and that knee-to-the-neck trick, is used all over the world.)
I am helping, I promise you. We are ALL spreading information about this difficult conversation. Have you seen Instagram today? Wow. We are engaged. It has consumed us…and that’s good. Everyone (well, most everyone) wants to express their support, that has become undeniable. I will work, too, to make the systems better, when I can and in the ways I can. I promise to stay in this for the long haul. I’ve been in it a long time already. I’ve always done my best to do good and to be good, and to demand goodness in others, but this is not a new issue for any of us, and nobody deserves to be lectured for any of the ways in which they are trying to step up.
And I am not meaning to lecture, either. So I’m sorry if it feels like that. I just love some things I am seeing happen and want the movement towards equality (ALL equality) to continue to grow.
We are changing, as people… what is happening WILL last.
Each person who is moved by what they’ve seen is expressing themselves in the best way they know how. Please let them. Encourage. Encourage. Encourage. Say, yes, to their support in whatever way you see it coming…say “yes, I am glad you are with us” even if you have small (or profound) disagreements in philosophy or in method.
Bring people in. Enfold them in the good of the movement. Make them certain they have become part of something remarkable. You get more bees with honey than with vinegar, so the saying goes. Don’t deter, don’t belittle and don’t condescend. Show love, always.
That’s how Good wins over Evil.
I am with you, guys.
Dawn Quarles is a high school political science and American history teacher who moonlights as a blogger and writer. She lives on Pensacola Beach, Florida.
