Although we are a continent away, Liz and I have been grieved as we watch the news from our home country. Like many of you have experienced profound sadness and outrage. 

The murder of George Floyd. The videos out of NYC and Minneapolis of white individual threatening African-American men with the police.

If you imagine that these are just random events, they aren’t. Most of us just don’t have to see them on a regular basis.

This is an important moment.

And we need to listen.

We need to not offer platitudes.

We need to not share memes on social media.

We need to not deflect try to deflect blame from ourselves.

We need to not declare that we are uncomfortable with how others share their pain and outrage. (imagine someone close to you was murdered unjustly and then being told you must only express your pain in ways the rest of us approve of).

We need to listen. As uncomfortable as that may be. We need to listen. We need to listen to voices we haven’t listened to before.

And that is enough from me.

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Image by Lorie Shaull from St Paul, United States – A man leaves a photograph at a memorial for George Floyd on Wednesday afternoon, after the death of Floyd on Monday night in Minneapolis, Minnesota, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link