Reconciliation Blog

These Reconciliation Blogposts feature creative approaches to help bend the arc of the moral universe towards equal justice….

Facing History With Courage

Sharing a YouTube link to a visual representation of Maya Angelou's poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993). Her stanza, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again" is relevant to why so many Americans are unwilling to face so-called "Black History" with courage. Finding the courage to face the good, bad and ugly parts of our history is necessary to achieve genuine reconciliation and UNITY.🤜🏿🤝🏾🤛🏻

Just Imagine More IMAGINATION

In her 2008 commencement speech, J.K. Rowling urged Harvard grads to open their minds and hearts to understand and sympathize with the suffering of others and then utilize these encounters with darkness to imagine a better world and work to achieve it. It is worth asking whether unequal justice persists because of what we refuse to see, hear or read about the lives of others, and our failure to engage the power of our imaginations in developing solutions.

Cross-racial Collaborations

Regarding the number, sincerity and depth of cross-racial relationships and collaborations in America, let each examine her, their or himself to determine what action steps you have, could have or should have taken to achieve “equal justice” for which so many have bled and died, including the diverse trio of Mississippi Freedom Summer volunteers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner who worked together to register black voters and were murdered together in June 1964.

Reuniting America With Diverse Voices

Sharing a compilation of diverse voices to comfort victims of rampant gun violence, bigotry, famine and disease ....and to soothe our wounded national identity as a "melting pot". “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail 🤜🏿🤝🏾🤛🏻

Facilitating Improved Community Policing

Nine days before George Floyd died an agonizing death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer while others watched, law enforcement officials broke up what has been described as a massive block party in my Florida hometown of DeLand and the surrounding unincorporated Volusia County. Video footage of police shutting down a local store and chasing some in the crowd led many to accuse local authorities of engaging in another incident of racist law enforcement targeting African Americans. But what actually happened there is more complex than what was initially reported -- and this local example has lessons for all of us looking for ways to facilitate effective community policing of African American communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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