Many peace vigils were held last night to continue the healing process so many months in the making. Questions remain about what next steps are necessary for justice to prevail. We grieve when we must, rest when we must, act when we must. We always stand on the side of love. Blessings, Bret.
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Reflection by Kathleen Rolenz
I am Michael Brown, young black and angry at always being seen as a threat;
and I am the store owner who watches a customer steal some cigars;
and who knows that every loss hurts his already fragile business;
I am the parents of Michael Brown, whose grief is unimaginable,
and I am the fatherless child of a police officer, slain by a bullet of a young man with a gun;
I am the shop keeper, whose life savings were tied up in that store
And I am the looter, whose blind rage launches the brick;
I am the black person who has been profiled and stopped more times than I can count;
And I am the white person who grew up believing that the police were there to help me;
I am the Unitarian Universalist minister who pounds out words and stands on the side of love;
And I am the Unitarian Universalist minister who abhors the posturing, the righteous rage, the
thousands of words spilled to no end.
How do we change the world?
By completely and utterly belonging to the world
Every part of it
The powerful and the powerless
The fearful, the racist, the white ally,
The raw anger and the carefully reasoned,
The self-righteous and the broken-hearted
The soldiers for justice,
The warriors for peace
The poets who find a way to refashion the world
One conversation at a time.
My only response to Ferguson has been praying without ceasing.
It’s what I can do right now.
When there is something I can do that might make a difference, I will.
But for now – I can pray – and call others together in prayer—
That may take us more deeply into the heart of what it means to be human;
because….
I am Darren Wilson.
I am Michael Brown.