Daymaker - a person who performs acts of kindness with the intention of making the world a better place.
~ David Wagner
, author of Life as a Daymaker; how to change the world by making someone's day ~

DayMaker - any thought, word, or deed that spreads happiness, compassion, or fruitful ideas.
~ Annis Cassells ~

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

What Matters



Stopping the violence matters. It’s what Black people have been saying for decades. It’s the message of Black Lives Matter: “Stop the police violence against Blacks. Stop killing us.”

Over the last few years, Black Lives Matter organizers and followers of all races who believe in equality and the humanity of all people turned out en mass in peaceful protest. By speaking out and demonstrating, they were labeled as divisive and instigators.

Some took it that “Black Lives Matter” meant “other” lives didn’t. Wrong. The statement is an affirmation: “Our lives are not throw-away lives. They mean something in this world. Too often our lives are deemed expendable.”

It was not a case of Black lives matter –- to declare others don’t matter, don’t mean anything. Or that Black lives are more than others. The emphasis is on the “matter.” Black lives matter, (too).

In the past two weeks, a couple of deranged Black individuals have taken it upon themselves to exact revenge upon police. Now the general public, police chiefs, local government officials, even governors and presidential candidates are saying, “Stop the violence.”

Stopping the violence matters for everyone –- every person, Black, White, or Blue. Every ethnicity, every culture, every age, every neighborhood. Each citizen wants to feel safe and to be safe. Each person wants to live, to belong, to be productive, to be free, and to have power over their own lives. Each yearns to be unafraid and to contribute to their communities. That includes Black people.

Everyone wants the violence to stop. And, everyone must take steps to ensure an end to the violence that has threatened, horrified, and killed far too many people.

When do we start taking care of what matters? It has to be now. It has to be before even more lives are snuffed out in rage and frustration or in misguided demonstrations of power. It has to be now to ensure our young people have a chance to grow up and all of us can live without fear, knowing WE matter.


~ xoA ~

Saturday, July 9, 2016

"I Will Never be Desensitized" by Guest Blogger Wanda Olugbala

“I Will Never Be Desensitized”

By Guest Blogger, Wanda Olugbala

Stunned, I watched the murder of Alton Sterling in a parking lot in Baton Rouge. I had no words. Just tears and heart-sickness and anger.

Ms. Wanda Olugbala
But my Detroit sister-friend Wanda Olugbala, mother of an eight-year-old son, had all of that AND the words. She captured the essence of the experience of women of color in her poem, “I Will Never Be Desensitized.” 


³ ³ ³
I
Will
Never be
Desensitized.
Do not show me videos of
My brother’s execution as though
His death is some staged movie scene where
Cut was called and he got up, brushed off and
Headed home to reheat Monday’s Barbque
His life is sacred to me
I have washed him in his infancy
Fought for him throughout his childhood
Prayed over him in my prayer closet
Fussed at him in open combat
I shielded his body from switches, and
Belts and open hand insults never once
Did I blink when it meant saving him over
Sacrificing me, he is me, I am him
His body is sacred to me
It is my responsibility to prepare him
On his final journey home, my tears
I gather to wash his wounds, my clothes
I rip to swaddle his now lifeless body
Leave me in my grief as I care for this body
I loved and nurtured and protected
Do not steal his dignity with his life
His is not martyr, his body another prop for
Your political defense, this is my brother
You
May
Use
Him
No
More

© 2016 Wanda Olugbala on FearFree Living at https://fearfreeliving.wordpress.com

And then, there was Philando Castile. And then, there was Dallas. We must not let ourselves become desensitized to violence and hate. We must think and feel and act to transform the injustice, violence, and racism that plague our country. We must recognize the humanness of each person, open our hearts, and spread love. Our survival as a people and nation depend on it.

~ xoA ~